Jeremy: "Alright, guys, stop what you’re doing—food’s here!"
He gestured toward the buffet table. "We’ve got it set up buffet style. First, we’ve got Skyline Chili with cheese conies and chili 3-way—just grab a plate or a bowl. Then, Lewie’s Coney Island with regular coney dogs and bakes—those are hamburger patties shaped like hot dogs, served in hot dog buns with chili, mustard, and onions. We’ve also got Ray’s Drive-In breaded tenderloin sandwiches, and Ardie’s breaded tenderloin too. Plus, Montgomery Inn barbecue ribs."
Jeremy smiled as he looked over the spread. "Dig in, and if you leave here hungry, it’s your own fault."
He added with a grin, "Oh, and one more thing—Alsasser’s Farm pitched in 10 whole fried chickens, plus sides."
The group excitedly gathered plates. Rose loaded up with a breaded tenderloin, some French fries, and a few sides from the farm.
Jeremy: "Grandpa, would you say grace?"
Everyone joined hands and hooves.
Jeremy’s Grandpa: "Heavenly Father, we are thankful to celebrate what Thanksgiving is all about, and Christmas too. May we reflect your light and love to a world that doesn’t know you. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Here’s the updated scene:
Applejack: "Is that baked apples?"
Jeremy: "Yep, they’re one of the farm’s signature dishes. Before the pandemic, known as COVID-19, we used to go to the farm for a talent show night where we had fried chicken, baked apples, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, noodles, and yellow cake for dessert. Unlike most people who serve baked apples as a dessert, it’s a southern tradition to eat baked apples with pork because they help cut the grease."
Applejack: "Wow, that’s interesting. And what are these?"
Jeremy: "Crap, I forgot about the cupcakes from Cakes by George."
He waved to get everyone’s attention. "Hey guys, there are cupcakes from our local Greek bakery, Cakes by George. He makes his cupcakes with mousse, which makes them richer, thicker, and creamier."
Jeremy then sat down to eat, with a side of baked apples and an Ardie’s tenderloin sandwich with pickles, lettuce, and ketchup.
Twilight Sparkle, diving into a chili 3-way, looked up. "What is this starchy flavor? Is it some kind of bean?"
Jeremy: "Those are refried beans, also called frijoles."
Rarity: "Why does one coney place make theirs with cheese and another make theirs without? Actually, I could take or leave the cheese, it’s just unusual."
Jeremy: "Those with the cheese are called Cincinnati-style coney dogs. And I don’t get it either. I also don’t care for shredded cheese on my chili. If I’m going to eat chili, it’s how Grandma raised me—with a side of mamaliga."
Jeremy's grandmother laughed. "Yep, that’s right, bud."
Everyone laughed.
Jeremy: "Oh, Rarity, I see you don't have a drink. Rose, you don't have a drink either."
Rose: "You don't have any coffee, do you?"
Jeremy: "Nope! We have red pop, tea, Coke, Sprite, water, Sundrop."
Rose: "Is Sundrop lemon-lime?"
Jeremy: "Yeah."
Rose: "I will have Sundrop, please."
Jeremy handed Rose a bottle of Sundrop.
Rarity: "I’ll try one of those too, please?"
Jeremy: "Okay."
Jeremy: "How is everything, everyone?"
Applebloom: "Man, this barbecue stuff is good! I never heard of somethin’ so good!"
Jeremy: "Yeah, these are specially made barbecue from Montgomery Inn. They use their own brand of sauce. They make ribs, chicken, and other stuff."
Jeremy grabbed a chicken leg off the buffet, ate it, and placed his fork and spoon over his plate in an X shape.
Grandma: "Bud, where did you learn that?"
Jeremy: "That’s a good way to say 'no more,' by placing your silverware in an X."
Rainbow Dash: "Uh, I’m full."
Jeremy: "If that’s so, go chill out and look around the house."
Rainbow Dash did, but Jeremy called after her.
Jeremy: "Oh, no flying in the house, please?"
Rainbow Dash: "DANGIT!"
Jeremy chuckled.
Jeremy: "Ha ha!"
Rainbow Dash, curious, started sniffing around and came across a box of purple pills.
Rainbow Dash: "What's this box of purple stuff?"
Jeremy: "My medicine. That’s a water pill, and that’s a thyroid pill. The white one is for my cortisol. I don't produce enough of those bodily fluids naturally, so I have to take meds."
Rainbow Dash smelled the box, then made a face.
Rainbow Dash: "Yuck!"
Jeremy: "I told you. I bet you thought, because they were bright-colored, they were candy."
Rainbow Dash sheepishly grinned.
Rainbow Dash: "Yeah..."
Jeremy: "If you want candy, the replicators are set up to make about 50 different candies from Earth. You might want to try something called a Cow Tail. It’s caramel and cream. They have a sliced variant, and they’re called Bulls Eyes. They’re also good. Or if you’re in the mood for chocolate, there’s Nonpareils, chocolate stars, or Junior Mints."
Jeremy flipped a switch, pulled out a remote, and changed the colors of the lights in the dining room.
Grandma: "Oh, bud, that’s cool."
Mom: "Bud, could you please stop that while I’m eating? It’s affecting my nausea."
Jeremy: "Sorry."
Jeremy changed the lights back to a warm white and plugged in his phone to charge.
Jeremy: "Does anyone else need anything to drink? Red pop, Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Sundrop, tea, water?"
Rose: "I fixed you some instant coffee."
Jeremy: "Oh, thank ya, darlin’. I’ll go outside and smoke."
Jeremy: "Okay, cool."
Jeremy flipped another switch.
Jeremy: "It’s gonna be too late for everyone to go back home by the time we’re all done cleaning."
With that, Jeremy flipped a switch again, and the large metal wall that used to be a portion of the room sprang outward, creating 40 rooms.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡugA8NfT5KD
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBgyaozEQYw
Rainbow Dash: "How tha... what tha... I’m sure those rooms weren’t there a moment ago."
Jeremy: "Yes and no. Yes, they were, and no, they were compressed into a smaller form factor."
Pinkie Pie: "That’s cool!" She started flipping the switch rapidly.
Jeremy: "Pinkie, stop that! You’re going to confuse the system."
Pinkie Pie: "Oops..."
Jeremy: "Okay, just go to the room with your name on it. It's designed with each of your personalities in mind. Go ahead and find your room, and then we can start doing the dishes."
The group found their rooms and loved the decor, which matched their personalities perfectly. Afterward, they took turns cleaning the table and doing the dishes.
Jeremy helped his grandma make a bunch of massive sticky buns. The next morning, everyone woke up to the scent of the sticky buns cooking, and Jeremy checked the Instapots to make sure everything was well.
Jeremy: Unplugging the pots and plating the food. "Okay, all done."
Grandma: "Bud, you made Italian beef, barbecued little smokies, and Swedish meatballs. Wow, very good!"
A few people had gotten up early and made breakfast for everyone else. Jeremy pressed the "all call" on the computer console in the kitchen.
Jeremy: "Breakfast, everyone! Eggs don’t wait."
Everyone came in like a ravenous plague of locusts.
Jeremy: "Dang, look at them all. They’re hungry again. You’d think we forgot to feed them last night."
Twilight Sparkle: Sniffing the air. "What is that awesome sweet smell?"
Jeremy: "My grandma’s homemade sticky buns. Oh, and we also have eggs, bacon, sautéed green tomatoes, bagels, and cream cheese."
Everyone sat down, eagerly enjoying the breakfast spread.
Jeremy: "Since we let everyone sleep in, we’ll have the Thanksgiving meal at 1 instead of noon."
Jeremy programmed the computer to take his grandma’s cookbook, scan each page carefully, transcribe the cursive into print, and create an obsidian vault for his grandma’s recipes.
Grandma: "Bud, what’s this?"
Jeremy: "Well, look at that! All my recipes digitized and categorized—appetizers, salads, soups, entrees, desserts, etc."
Grandma: Tears in her eyes. "Honey, this is great."
Jeremy: "Grandma, click on the icon that says 'chart.'"
Grandma: "Okay." She clicked, and the screen produced a chart of all the foods by category and ingredients.
Grandma: "Oh bud, look at this! Why are some of the balls bigger than others?"
Jeremy: "Because they have more recipes listed in them, or they have more recipes that require that ingredient."26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLwjqhgE9Mh
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM4p7KLMnIx
Jeremy then showed his grandma the same chart, this time using Excalibrain and Excalidraw.
Grandma: "Now, what’s the difference between this and the other chart view?"
Jeremy: "This one’s easier to read. Go ahead and click on 'tomato.'"
Grandma: "Okay." She clicked on 'tomato,' and it showed every dish in her arsenal that used tomatoes.
Grandma: "Would you look at that! All linked together. A place for everything, and everything in its place."
Jeremy: "Yeah, this is why I like Obsidian Notes."
Grandma: "In all my cookbooks, I have about 5,000 recipes. That’s not gonna take up all the hard drive space on your computer back at the Bell home, is it?"
Jeremy: "Nah, not by a long shot. Your whole recipe list is only 2 gigabytes in size out of my massive 2.72 terabyte drive."
Grandma: "That’s... well, manageable, bud. I thought it would be a whole lot more than that."
Jeremy: "Nah, not at all. I fed it into a large language model I made using HuggingFace. It’s a private version of an AI I created called Crockery AI. Just tell it what you want to make, like soup, salad, entree, what ingredients you have, and it will search your entire recipe database here and give you a list of dishes you can make."
Grandma: "Bud, this... this is cool."
Jeremy: "I added text-to-speech and speech-to-text, so you can talk to it. Just say, 'Hey, Crockery.'"
Grandma: "Hey, Crockery." A small jingle sound was heard to let her know the AI had heard its name.
Crockery: "Hello! What can I help you with today?"
Grandma: "What can I make with tomato, celery, and onion, in a soup, for summertime?"
Crockery: "You could make gazpacho. Here's the recipe…" It displayed the recipe for gazpacho.
Grandma: "Wow, this is incredible!"
Grandma: "Hey, Ron, get in here!"
Jeremy’s grandpa came in.
Grandpa: "Yeah, honey?" He kissed her on the cheek.
Grandma: "Look at this! This is an AI assistant Jeremy made with all my cookbook recipes, and online recipes—even the recipes that were in cursive!"
Grandpa: "Wow, that’s cool. Bud, you did a good job with this."
Jeremy’s mom, who was grabbing things out of the fridge to let warm up a smidge, said,
Mom: "Bud, that’s pretty cool."
Jeremy showed everyone how to use Crockery, and everyone was impressed.
Zack’s sister, Gretchen, tried it, and it showed her how to can beef.
Zack: "Okay, that’s pretty cool."
Rose: "Yeah, it is."
Zack: "Shut up, Rose. You can’t even boil water. You burn it."
Grandma: "Hey, no harassing each other! We’re trying to show our culture—the good side of it. I know you’re just teasing, but save that for later."
Zack: "Yes ma’am."
Jeremy then showed his grandma the same chart, this time using Excalibrain and Excalidraw.
Grandma: "Now, what’s the difference between this and the other chart view?"
Jeremy: "This one’s easier to read. Go ahead and click on 'tomato.'"
Grandma: "Okay." She clicked on 'tomato,' and it showed every dish in her arsenal that used tomatoes.
Grandma: "Would you look at that! All linked together. A place for everything, and everything in its place."
Jeremy: "Yeah, this is why I like Obsidian Notes."
Grandma: "In all my cookbooks, I have about 5,000 recipes. That’s not gonna take up all the hard drive space on your computer back at the Bell home, is it?"
Jeremy: "Nah, not by a long shot. Your whole recipe list is only 2 gigabytes in size out of my massive 2.72 terabyte drive."
Grandma: "That’s... well, manageable, bud. I thought it would be a whole lot more than that."
Jeremy: "Nah, not at all. I fed it into a large language model I made using HuggingFace. It’s a private version of an AI I created called Crockery AI. Just tell it what you want to make, like soup, salad, entree, what ingredients you have, and it will search your entire recipe database here and give you a list of dishes you can make."
Grandma: "Bud, this... this is cool."
Jeremy: "I added text-to-speech and speech-to-text, so you can talk to it. Just say, 'Hey, Crockery.'"
Grandma: "Hey, Crockery." A small jingle sound was heard to let her know the AI had heard its name.
Crockery: "Hello! What can I help you with today?"
Grandma: "What can I make with tomato, celery, and onion, in a soup, for summertime?"
Crockery: "You could make gazpacho. Here's the recipe…" It displayed the recipe for gazpacho.
Grandma: "Wow, this is incredible!"
Grandma: "Hey, Ron, get in here!"
Jeremy’s grandpa came in.
Grandpa: "Yeah, honey?" He kissed her on the cheek.
Grandma: "Look at this! This is an AI assistant Jeremy made with all my cookbook recipes, and online recipes—even the recipes that were in cursive!"
Grandpa: "Wow, that’s cool. Bud, you did a good job with this."
Jeremy’s mom, who was grabbing things out of the fridge to let warm up a smidge, said,
Mom: "Bud, that’s pretty cool."
Jeremy showed everyone how to use Crockery, and everyone was impressed.
Zack’s sister, Gretchen, tried it, and it showed her how to can beef.
Zack: "Okay, that’s pretty cool."
Rose: "Yeah, it is."
Zack: "Shut up, Rose. You can’t even boil water. You burn it."
Grandma: "Hey, no harassing each other! We’re trying to show our culture—the good side of it. I know you’re just teasing, but save that for later."
Zack: "Yes ma’am."
