Cookie Monster's Foodie Truck: Hot Cross Buns

[Xerus]

Cookie Monster's Foodie Truck: Hot Cross Buns

by Cullen Pittman

We see a food truck in the middle of Sesame Street. And inside were Cookie Monster and Gonger the Monster Chef singing their traditional foodie truck theme song. "Do you like food? Adoobee doo doo dooba! Me like food! Adeebee Deeba Deeba Deeba! Place your order if you're lucky. We make food in our Foodie Truckie, yeah!"

Just then, they heard their videophone beep, knowing it was a customer with a food order. And it turned out to be songwriter, Don Music.

"Oh, I'll never get it! NEVER NEVER!" shouted Don as he plopped his head on his piano.

"Mr. Music, you okay?" asked Cookie Monster as he and Gonger looked at Don concerned.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Don politely. "It's just I'm very frustrated. I was given a commission to write a song about hot cross buns. But I have no idea what a hot cross bun looks like nor tastes like. Can you help me please?"

"Why sure," said Cookie. For we are....

"MONSTER FOODIES!" said both Cookie Monster and Gonger together as the picture on the videophone faded out.

"Uh oh," said Cookie, "Me not know what a hot cross bun looks or tastes like either."

"No problem," said Gonger as he touched the videophone and a picture of a round bun covered with small spots, along with a cross of icing on top, appeared.

"Oooh, that looks pretty," said Cookie. "So how do we make them?"

"First, we need the ingredients," explained Gonger as he tapped the videophone again. "And this recipe takes lots of ingredients. Like flour, yeast, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, salt, cinnamon, allspice, dried currants, raisins, water, and icing."

"Wow," gasped Cookie. "That's like a whole city of ingredients." he said as he piled all the ingredients on the table.

"Wait," asked Gonger, "Where are the currants?"

"Um," said Cookie, "We are currently out of currants. Me not even know what currants are."

"I can't believe this!" growled Gonger as he was about to hit his head against his gong, but then stopped himself. "No, I mustn't get frustrated like Mr. Music did. We'll just drive out to the farm and get some currants."

So Cookie and Gonger got into the driver's part of the truck and drove off to a farm. There, Cookie learned that currants were small dried fruits on vines and they were allowed to pick as many as the want. Once they got enough currants, they drove back to Sesame Street while singing, "Currants! We currently got currants!"

"Okay," said Gonger, "Now that we got the currants, it's time to follow the recipe. Both Cookie and Gonger started to pour all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and Gonger started to mix it all together while making his traditional cartoon mixing cloud. Next, Cookie started to knead the dough, then they waited for the dough to rise, then they started to roll the dough into little ball shaped buns covered with raisin and currant spots, then they coated the tops with a mixture of water and egg whites, let them rise again, and then put the buns in the oven.

"Now what shall we do?" asked Cookie.

"Now we make the icing," said Gonger as he mixed some milk and confectioners' sugar in a small bowl to create a creamy icing, then told Cookie to pour it into an icing bag.

Soon, the buns came out of the oven all nice and hot and brown. "Okay, Cookie," said Gonger. "Go ahead an cross those buns."

"Crossing the buns!" sang Cookie as he squirted icing on the first bun, but ended up making an icing C instead.

"COOKIE!" demanded Gonger, "That's not a cross! That's a C!"

"But that's good enough for me," laughed Cookie, while Gonger looked at him annoyed. "Sorry, Gonger." said Cookie. "Me don't know how to make a cross, but me cover up this hot C bun with an X since me made mistake." Cookie squirted a huge icing X over the C.

"Very good, Cookie," said Gonger, "You made a cross."

"Really?" gasped Cookie, amazed as he saw the icing cross on the bun. "Who would've thought an X could fix a mistake?" Then Cookie started to ice crosses on all of the other buns making them hot cross buns.

"How pretty," said Cookie, "The buns are hot and they're crossed."

"They're also one more thing," said Gonger as he went over and gonged his nearby gong. "They're ready!"

Cookie replied by putting the buns in a delivery bag, then checked a map of Sesame Street, took out a red marker, and marked a certain area with a red X. "X marks the spot right here!" said Cookie as he put the bag on a small catapult and flung the bag of buns to the direction of Don Music's studio.

"Bye bye, hot cross buns!" called out Gonger.

"Make sure you look both ways before crossing!" shouted Cookie.

"Oh, Cookie Monster," smiled Gonger as he held up a plate with one hot cross bun on it, "I saved this nice for you."

"Aw, thank you!" smiled Cookie as he took the bun and ate it while going, "NOM-NOM-NOM-HOT-NOM-NOM-NOM-CURRANT-LY HOT!"

Then the videophone beeped again. Cookie answered it and they saw Don Music with a plate of buns on his piano and he had icing on his face. "Hello again, Cookie Monster and Gonger," said Don in a now cheerful voice, "I want to thank you for this special treat. And now that I know what a hot cross bun looks and tastes like. I can start writing my song. Here's what I got so far."

Don started playing his piano and started to sing, "Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns! One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns!" But then he stopped singing and playing, "No, that's not right! You can't buy anything these days with just one penny or even two! But I won't get cross, I'll just cross out those words instead." And Don took a pen and put a red X over the one a penny, two a penny lines on his song sheet.

Cookie Monster and Gonger laughed and started singing their Monster Foodie Truck closing song. "Happy healthy monsters to the rescue. We make yummy food just for you!"

THE END