"Ewwww." Clara voices in disgust.
"Cut the crap." Gertrud tells in an unusual hasrh tone. "You pay attention and learn how to cook vegetables. If you don't like that, you can feed on raw carrots, until all those carrots are gone, before you see another sausage."
After staring Clara down some more time to ensure there will be no sassy comeback Gertrud turns to the other kids again.
"Where were we? Ah, yes, fire."
"You can't do without for cooking. But first some basics. What you want to accomplish with cooking stuff is to make it tasty and more palatable. There are even things, you shouldn't eat at all without cooking."
"For how to cook, you could cook it in water, steam it, fry or deep fry it, or roast. And maybe others. For the good taste you start with things that taste good, or you add things that taste good for an exchange of favors. For example if you cook meat with water it tends to taste bland. You get a strong soup though if you don't overdo it with the water. What happens if you do it to vegetables we have seen. But if you take your vegetables and put a fatty piece on meat on top, put a cover over it and simmer it for two or three hours, you get something wonderful. The meat keeps most of it's flavor and takes on some of the vegetables and the herbs you add. And the vegetables soak up the fat melted out of the meat adding the meat flavor to the veggies."
Gertrud stares into the distance for a while. "Now I go tan appetite for that. Well, it takes at least three hours to prepare, so we can start right now. And once we got that in the oven, we can practice the different ways to cook carrots. But first we need some vegetables peeled and cut. Carrots, potatoes and some of the parsnips if you have some left."
Clara looks abashed after the scolding. But the idea of making vegetables taste like meat her eyes start glowing again.
Jewel listens as Mrs. Johnson explains about cooking. She tries to imagine cooking like it is magic, turning the raw things into a good meal.... Unlike what they had just eaten!
"Fat makes the meat better? But the fat tastes.... bad!"
"I tried to only pull the parsnips that we needed for one meal. But there are plenty more. I can run and pull a few more, carefully so the littler ones can continue growing!"
"The texture of fat usually isn't very appealing. But all the good taste is in it. You just need to get the taste to the parts you actually want to eat. You ever tried lard? With roasted onions on fresh baked bread?" Gertrud objects.
"Get some parsnips, and an onion or two. Tarjun, get a sack potatoes. We start big. We're preparing a feast and the grown ups will be the judges of the meal. I'll get the invitations out while you fetch ingredients."
"Clara, you get some butter, and the neck of of that boar fromthe cooling. I'll bring some sharp knives so you got the right tools."
"See you." Gertrud leaves to invite the Branstons.
"We have no sacks, we use this basket." Clara tells and pulls an empty wicker basket, almost as tall as Clara from under the countertop.
Then Clara too leaves to search for that specific piece of meat in the cooler.
Jewel frowns at Clara's words, then shrugs. "OK. So we need to dig up potatoes, then a few parsnips and two onions. Good thing you're strong. I'll help with the digging and picking out the plants. I'll try to help with dragging the basket back...."
Clara comes back with a piece of meat that is almost her size with a big grin. "Can someone help me to get it on the counter?"
Gertrud informs Shelly and Will about the plans for dinner, so they know why the kids are harvesting in the fields.
She stays there a while for a talk, and observes the kids work through the window. When she sees Tarjun and Jewel are done she tells Will and Shelly goodbye and joins the kids.
She releases Clara of her meaty burden and hands out knives. "Those are sharp. Be careful. You hold them this way, so your fingertips are out of the danger zome." she tells while showing how the side of the knife should be supported with the knuckles of the holding hand. "You slowly move your hand back and cut the vegetables, following with the knife. A quick tak, tak, tak, ... later the carrot she uses to show is cut in slices. [b]"Start slow. You will miss your fingers a lot, when they are cut off. So be careful."
Clara takes the knife that's as big as her lower arm and starts murdering vegetables.
With the last cut she drives the knife into a crack in the cutting board and doesn't get it out any more.
Jewel picks a knife that feels OK in her hands. She watches Mrs. Johnson and carefully imitates the movements.
Gertrud peels some potatoes while the kids cut vegetables. As they are all done and no one is bleeding, the ingredients are put together on a large metal plate. First the potatoes, then the carrots, parsnips and onions, and last the meat. Formed into a ring, and sewed together at the ends with twine.
"Last we need to add some salt, and maybe some herbs. But the herbs are for you to choose. There are those herbs, where you just add the fresh leaves. Like rosemary, thyme, dill, parsley and such. Or dried fruits like junipers, pepper, nutmeg. Chili, pepperoni, garlic. The options are endless. If you can grow those, or can afford buying them. I have some of those. Try them and tell me your choice for this meal."
"You can check on the cook book if you need soem examples. But this meal isn't in there."
Clara rips off a leaf of parsley and puts it in her mouth. Her face contorts as the crinkly thing scratches her tongue. She sticks her tongue out and pulls it back through her closed lips repeatedly, trying to get rid of it. With the next herbs she is more careful.
"That one!" she tells holding up a garlic bulb.
Jewel laughs at Clara's reaction to parsley. "Maybe it tastes better when it is added to other flavors, in small quantities." She glances at the available spices, noticing Tarjun lightly adding pepper.
"Where is the cook book? Maybe there are recipes that have similar foods and we could see what is recommended for them? I'm not really familiar with some of the names, for example.... What types of food would Rosemary be best on? Meats? Vegetables? Potatoes? I'm sure everyone has an opinion. But starting with accepted ideas might be safer!"
The cookbook is an old notebook, that's barely held together. A handwritten trasure handed down in the family, that has seen heavy use.
Jewel carefully pages through the book, looking for a recipe for inspiration on what they are cooking. A couple of pages catch her interest. Scanning them she closes the book and returns her attention to the meal. "Clara, If you want garlic you'll need to pull off a clove from the bulb, peel it and chop it very fine. Or crush it, but not the whole bulb." She looks again at what is available, selecting chili (dried flakes or powder?) and sage. Mixing the two she lightly sprinkles the meat, then rubs the spices in. "And some slices of onion to sit on top of the meat. That should be good!"
Gertrud checks what is chosen and nods. "A good choice. Interesting combination, but that will taste good." She watches the whole process and once Jewel is done, she puts the brass bell over it and puts it into the oven besides the fire. "Now you need to watch over it, to make sure it isn't burnt. But also you can't lift the bell every few minutes to check. You have to roughly know how long it will take and then use your nose and your ears to recognize when it needs to get out of the oven."
"But it's at least an hour. So you can prepare the dinner table. And put on the white table cloths."
Quite happy to receive praise for her choices, Jewel listens carefully to the further instructions. Knowing that they have an hour does little to help her worries about burning the meal, and when they go to set the table she hurries to finish, then returns to the fire.
Clara looks really careful that nothing burns here. It will not be her fault this time! And as she paid attention during the cooking she also learned quite a bit about it.
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Tarjun goes get some pieces of wood from his backpack to carve while they are waiting for the meal to cook. He gets so absorbed in his task that, if it weren't for the girls, the meat would have been reduced to a piece of charcoal by the time he'd actually remember to take a look...
On the other hand, there's now a perfectly shaped wooden cat in his hand.
The meal looks very delicious and the smell emphesizes the impression. The guest arrive and take a seat at the solemnly adorned table. With all present, Gertrud cuts the meat into slices and hands out the servings.
"Thank you for the invitation." Mary says with a nod to the kids. "Two festive meals on consecutive days - you are spoiling us." she jokes.
"They completed their initial training for the proper preparation of a meal. And successfully I want to add. I'm really proud of you."
Clara listens to the praise with her mouth full and chewing. Standing in the kitchen for hours with the tasty food and no chance to snatch something has made her really hungry.
"Wonderful. Do you like cooking?" Mary asks.
Jewel considers the question while she chews. The flavors are curiously good, or maybe she's just hungry. She swallows before replying and waits her turn. "Well, I'm not sure it's a matter of liking it or not. As Erastil's Guardians I think it's important to know how to do a lot of things. But it is really nice when it works out right!"
"But I think I prefer working outside with the crops or animals. Especially working with the animals since I can understand them and they can tell me if they need, or want my help."
"When Dawnbreeze told us to become guardians, it was just a game with a magic stick. Now we get all kinds of worked piled on that!" Clara complains.
"Awe Clara..... But that's part of growing up. We'll learn more, and get more powerful. Maybe I'll learn better how to use the other scepter. You know it doesn't talk to you like Caspar so we have to really learn how to activate it correctly. And we'll learn new powers so we wouldn't need to use the treasures that we found in that magical cache."
"You know, we need another safe place for that stuff. Maybe it should be in the crypt area by the shrine, behind the locked door. Some of that stuff is powerful magic so it shouldn't be, like in somebody's sock drawer!"
"Growing up sucks."
Jewel glances over to the adults/parents and tries desperately to contain the smile from her face...
"Welcome to the club." Will replies, which earns him an elbow to the ribs from Shelly.
"If being an adult sucks, you made some bad decisions in life. I have fun being a grown up." Gertrud mocks Will.
Jewel openly giggles at the responses, then turns to Clara with a smile, "And in ten years or more, once we're grown up, we can have our own children and teach them to be the new Guardians! Won't that be fun!"
She glances over to Gertrud before Clara can reply and asks, "How's your bear doing? I don't remember seeing him in a day or so. Should we have made some dinner for him? Oh, and what's his name? I forgot to ask him!"
"Bear is in the cage outside next to Wookie. You can't have either of them around when cooking or eating."
"So far I haven't thought about a name. I don't need one to call him, he knows when I want him close. But before he shares the fate of Weasel, you can ask him. But I don't think bears have names in 'bear' you can properly pronounce. How about Paddington." Gertrud suggests.
Jewel thinks for a minute, and repeats, "Paddington. Paddington.... I'll ask him what he thinks, or if he cares. He was really easy to chat with, once we gave him some food. Good point on not having him around when we are preparing or eating food!"
"How would I know? The gods planted a thought in my mind?" Gertrud jokes.
Once Clara is full, she declares "I'm going outside feeding Wookie and Paddington." She takes her plate with the remains of the huge serving she took with her.
"Yes, go already." Shelly replies.
Seeing Clara headed for the door with her plate, and Tarjun asking to go Jewel glances around the room. "We'll come back and clean up once we get done with Wookie and Paddington!" She scampers after the others.
"Talk for yourself, I'm gone for good!" Clara calls back while heading to wards the kennels.
She throws the meat into the two cages. "Hey Wookie, here for you. And Paddington, you get some too. You know, you're Paddington now."
Jewel ignores Clara's outburst. As they get to the kennels she looks around to see if either animal needs water or anything. She activates her Feral Speech hex, choosing to speak with the bear. "Hi bear. I hope the cooked meat from Clara is OK. She's trying to tell you that we'd like to call you Paddington. Is that alright with you? And just between us, do you have a name in your language?"