packbat | Off Recipe game journal

The following bit of fiction is an in-character post-LARP report from a game of Off Recipe, a solo cooking LARP that was a part of the Solo But Not Alone solo-TTRPG charity bundle on itch.io that we just purchased.

8c15.2: The expedition continues as it has for the past ten months. Lately, as the seasons change on this demiplane, we've begun to make a habit of observing and reflecting on the beauty of this place, despite its deadliness.

It has been a few weeks since the last passing of the provisions-trader, and while we have links to several of the local denizens who have in the past been willing to provide a meal in exchange for some minor valuables, I felt uncomfortable with allowing too rapid a depletion of our hoard when we have our own food supplies in dry storage and cold storage. Despite the discovery of mold on the last three oranges this morning, I was confident I could still make something worthy with the goods here.

Of immediate attention to me was the bowl of dry cooked rice and the remaining leaves of kale from the provisioner's last visit - I found myself unexcited by the prospect of a fried rice, but with the addition of water, I believed it should be possible to return the rice to a sufficiently pleasant texture with the usual warming cantrips. The question of what to adorn the rice with, however, gave me difficulties until I looked through the iced storage.

These green and red bell peppers and these yellow onions were surely old, forgotten among the other supplies we and our companion kept safe here, but they appeared good and needed no chopping - this would be a meal of supplies half-prepared, and one I found myself excited by the prospect of.

As is usual with stir fry cooking, the process was conceptually straightforward: we thawed the peppers and onion and we cut the kale into small pieces, separating the hard stem for extra cooking with the other ingredients. In a simple cast-iron skillet over a conjured flame went a mixture of oils - olive, peanut, and sesame - and the first vegetables; into the bowl of rice was added water, and the cantrip of warming was cast twice upon it during the frying of the vegetables. Finally, with rice warm and soft and with vegetables nicely sauteed, I added a few shakes of powdered ginger and garlic (a combination we were taught by a mind-healer many years back) and a generous sprinkling of soy sauce, cooked the sauce down a trifle, and placed stir fry atop rice.

It is difficult, when supplies are so hard to obtain and even venturing out of our station requires a burden of protections not easily renewed, but I am glad of what wisdom we managed to bring with us, to be able to lay in sufficient materials to make an ordinary meal into a moment of pride and pleasure.