Newfound Neighbors

by FrostTheWolf

11- Taco Tuesday Part 1

For as long as I can remember, my mother always does things spontaneously without giving much thought. I know that both my parents mean well when it comes to raising me. Though, there are times where my mom ends up looking like the personification of ‘Chaotic Good’ because of all the things she does. By that, I mean that she might have good intentions, but the methods that she uses in order to fulfil said intentions is seen as questionable to everyone around her… well, except for dad. He’s the only exception to that rule.

Case in point, the current situation. We had just come back from the Walmart that’s nearby our neighborhood, thankful after an incident with Gizmo had me worried that the manager was going to kick us out. After we finished bringing everything inside, Brisk asked if I would like to stay over for dinner. Yet, before I could even really give him an answer on that, my parents answered for me and just invited all of us over.

I could go on and mention that the whole situation felt ironic because of things that parents taught me while I was growing up, but I would be getting ahead of myself at that point. Besides, aside from my parents accepting an invitation that was only given for me, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Though, to be completely fair, we haven’t quite gone inside their house yet… and I’m pretty sure that both my parents haven’t seen the kind of changes that the two of them have done to the place.

As we all walked inside, I went with Gizmo into the kitchen to help cook. Despite Brisk’s insistence that I didn’t need to help out, I knew from experience that leaving a unicorn with not that much cooking experience alone in the kitchen was probably a bad idea. While it wasn’t pancakes, I didn’t want to roll the dice and assume that Gizmo could handle anything by herself. Besides, not helping out at all right around now would probably make an already bad situation even worse.

“So, what exactly were you and Brisk planning on making tonight? Do you have any ideas?”

“Well, actually, I don’t think we really had anything in particular in mind.”

… Okay, that was definitely concerning. Originally, I thought that there was something in particular that Brisk was going to make. Yet, right now, I was getting the impression that they were just going to simply wing it. Which wasn’t exactly a bad thing if it were just the three of us. Though, with my parents being around, that shit was not going to work.

“Alright then,” I sighed, before looking back at Gizmo, “Let’s take a look at what you have in the fridge. That should be an easy way to get started.”

In my head, I was already thinking of what to do. If I could look at what kind of food Brisk and Gizmo had in stock, then I could try to fashion up something simple that did not require too much effort in order to make. A simple plan, but it all depended on what exactly I had to work with. Though to be fair, our recent shopping trip had us pick up a lot of food for both of my neighbors, so I’m pretty sure that we’ll be okay as long as we don’t have any unexpected hiccups.

“Okay, let’s see here. We have lettuce, carrots, spinach, peppers, shredded cabbage, spring onions and some cheese. That’ll be enough to make a salad for everybody-”

Yet, it was as I was looking through the contents of the fridge that I noticed something. Outside of what we bought today and the ingredients for salad, there was a lot of baked goods in here. There were things like bread and such, but most of them were things you would get at a bakery like pastries and cakes. Not to mention that there was something else in here that… really didn’t sit right with the rest of the stuff in the fridge.

“Gizmo, why do you have a plate full of hay and dandelions in the fridge?”

“Oh, that’s just what Brisk and I happen to have sometimes for food and snacks,” the unicorn replied with a smile on her face, “Don’t humans eat them too?”

Almost on instinct, I shook my head. “N-no… we don’t eat anything like that. At all.”

“Really? I thought humans liked organic foods,” Gizmo tilted her head, “I mean, we got these dandelions by pulling them out of the backyard.”

Just hearing that comment alone was enough for me to almost feel like throwing up in the sink. “Y-yeah, h-how about we try using something else instead? Something that we both could possibly have if possible.”

“Well, we could try to use what we got at the store today,” the unicorn suggested, before her horn lit up as she picked up a rectangle shaped package that resembled the shape used to package ground beef and gave it to me, “I don’t really know what it is, but Brisk thinks we could give it a try and see if we like it or not.”

It was only as I turned it around did I see that what I was holding was a package of ‘impossible’ beef. Something that surprised me because, based on my experience with Gizmo and other Equestrians I’ve either seen or been with, most of them seemed to be strictly vegetarian with the exception of eggs and fish for griffons. Though, that did make me feel a bit relieved. For it meant that a lot of potential recipes that I wouldn’t have considered originally were now options for a main course.

“Huh. I think I might have an idea for what we can do for dinner now.”

“Really?” the unicorn next to me asked, eyes beaming, “What were you thinking?”

“Well, there’s one particular recipe that I think could work well with everything we have here” I pondered as I looked around the kitchen, only to find what looked to be a box of rice, “Though, to do that, I’m going to need to grab something from my place real quick.”

---

After about five minutes of looking around at my place, I found what I was looking for and brought it back over to Brisk and Gizmo’s kitchen. All I really needed was a small bag of tortillas and some seasoning for what I was going to make. It wasn’t exactly the ‘simplest’ of things to cook, but it was honestly the first thing that came to mind. That and I didn’t want to waste more time thinking of an alternative option while everyone else was wondering how long until dinner was ready.

Luckily, after a few moments, Brisk came to join the two of us. “Hey, Sam. How’s everything going?”

“It’s… going,” I told him, just as Gizmo showed me where I could get a bowl out for the salad, “Figured out what to make. However, it’ll take a bit of time to do so.”

At that, Brisk raised an eyebrow as he watched his marefriend pick up a bunch of the vegetables that we had already gotten out and brought them over to the small table inside the kitchen. “Really? It looks like you’re already doing pretty well-”

“The salad isn’t the main dish.”

“Oh,” the earth pony paused as I watched his gaze shift from the table towards where I was working, “Then what is the main dish?”

“Soft tacos,” I replied, before motioning over to the stove on the far side of the room and to the ‘workstation’ that I had set up with two different pans and a container for the rice to cook it in, “Though, to have everything we need, it has to be broken down into three parts. The first being cooking the peppers and the impossible beef, the second being making sure that the rice is ready and the last one is to heat the tortillas.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Maybe,” I shrugged, “Personally, I’m just wanting to make sure that nothing we do causes a mess-”

RIIIIPP!!!

Immediately, we both turned around to see Gizmo holding a torn open package with her magic and shredded cheese scattered everywhere. Some of it was even stuck on the walls and windows as she just looked back at us with a nervous glance. “Uh… Cheese for everypony!!”

… Mental note: Keep my mouth shut whenever Gizmo is in the kitchen. I’ll just end up jinxing myself every time.

“Hey, is everything okay in there?”

“Y-yeah, everything’s fine!” I impulsively replied back to my dad, “T-there will be a slight delay on dinner, but we should have some salad out soon.”

“Oh… okay then. Well, if you happen to find Brisk, have him come out here. Your mother wanted to ask some questions about the flowers in the backyard.”

“Flowers?” the earth pony looked back to me with a raised eyebrow, “What are they talking about? The only thing we have in the backyards are daffodils and dandelions for when we make sandwiches.”

… I’m sorry, you use them for what-?

---

Author's Note:

This was probably bound to come up at some point.

Also... cheese.

Comments

[Daemon Wolf 22]

For a super-nerd, Gizmo's adorkableness comes primarily from her being supernaturally clumsy more than being a fluent techobabbler or, really anything to do with her inventions. I don't mind, since silly ponies are cute ponies, but I think your dorky little unicorn here could use a bit more emphasis on her intelligent side sometime soon.

She is extremely huggable though...

[FrostTheWolf]

10918679
That is something I plan to do later on. Though, part of the story also involves Gizmo being forced to have to do things that are new and rather outside her comfort zone. Outside of some of her friends, Gizmo's been a bit of a recluse, so this is a effort to have her try new things.

[DiscoPanda84]

Dandelion leaves for salads isn't *that* unusual, apparenmtly they have lots of vitamins in them? And I hear that the tops can be turned into alcohol or something, too.

Also:

[FridayPie]

Heh, in many places those two flowers considered weed that should not be growing out there (the real reasons that they can provoke allergy and also have medical uses, the latter is being regulated)

[itsune9tl]

10918996
a weed is just a plant that is growing where you don't want it.

[FrostTheWolf]

10918956
So Dandelion wine? If that's the case, keep it away from Venti.

[FridayPie]

10919038
There is legal definition here and in some other countries of such as a plant that have to be exterminated because it is harmful, too dominating, etc, but different from controlled species. Dandelions here in that cathegory too, daffodils in a limited manner, only some wild species.

e.g. some species of heracleum, because it takes over land, hard to exterminate and touching it, or even breathing its smell is harmful or dangerous.

[Jphyper]

Fun fact: humans CAN eat dandelions. The entire plant is edible and they are commonly used in salads in many places. I've had dandelion flower jelly before and it is amazing.

[Dan]

I wonder if ponies like Kudzu.

Herds of goats are being increasingly deployed to combat those frankly terrifying vines.

[Gyro Pony]

10920523
Heh, me too.
The dandelion root is where most of the medicinal benefits lie, but the whole plant is good in home salads.

We’ve got several plants in our garden than are considered weeds simply because they often grow where people don’t want them, including one ground cover that has more omega 3 concentration than salmon. I see growers selling bags of it at the local market.