Food of the Gods (Basic cooking, self modded)

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

Early Autumn, Era 12 PF
Paradigm: Some people hear things

'Hmmmm...' The kitchens bustled with activity, as was always the case a few candlemarks before pracenda. The stocky Kemite sampled what looked to be broth with a wooden ladle, her expert eyes watching over several concurrent operations as she did so. Satisfied with the broth for the time being, Nei hung the ladle on the appropriate hook, a row of which had been conveniently nailed to the wall in front of her. 'I see. So you're seventeen but you've never really cooked before. You're a late starter, child.' she said, not turning to face the brunette standing by the doorway, one shoulder leaning lightly against the door frame in a relaxed stance. Amelia felt safe here, and the habit of standing by doorways, she had picked up from Shiandi herself, who seemed to do so often when she instructed her.

"Yes, that's true" the girl nodded, her lips curling in a smile Nei could not see. "Except that I'm actually aged thirty patterns. The book says that means seventeen patterns for a full Human." And she was going to believe the book unconditionally till evidence was brought to the contrary, for books made her head hurt. Even more so when they came down crashing on it; but keeping one open for a while usually did the trick. "It makes me even more of a late starter, doesn't it?" Her slow aging had confused everyone back at the village, where she had been pretty much the only mixed blood they had had in some time. Seeing children outgrow her had been quite the bewildering experience.

'It's never too late to learn it, though' Nei commented, leaving the bubbling broth momentarily to busy herself with a big fish Amelia could not identify aside from determining that it was a big fish indeed. 'This is the one skill yer going to need no matter if you end up a spinster or with a family of twelve.' "Hopefully something in between, Nei!" the Half-elf replied, smiling as she pictured herself swarmed by crying toddlers. No, she was never meant to be a baby factory - her hips were a little too narrow for that.

'Good. If you're serious about learnin', I'll let you help me fer a while. Gods know this place gets lonely at times, all you have to talk with is a few slabs of meat and the odd chicken.' Nei picked up a short, curved knife unlike those used for eating and began fileting the fish with no apparent effort. She discarded the head, tail and innards in a waste basket lying nearby. Fishes looked funny, the girl decided. Fish also helped her memory and concentration, which while showing great improvement over the past few months, had not completely recovered yet from the shock of the murder, branding and a pattern of aimless wandering.

"Thank you, Nei. Can... can we start even now?" She said eagerly. It sounded too good to be true, spending time away from the world that the eye could not see to dedicate it to the world that the tongue can taste. For the first time, Nei looked over her shoulder and met her smiling eyes. She had changed since the first time she'd seen her, the Kemite thought. She no longer avoided eye contact with people, and felt much more comfortable talking. However, it was still there. Behind those eyes, it was still there. A feeling that the woman could not pinpoint, nor did she want to. Those were the eyes of one who had seen too much, and was resigned to see much more.

The cook gave her an encouraging grin. 'Come over here and let's see what I can teach you.'

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

Nei did not have to repeat herself, her pupil abandoning the doorway in a flutter of skirts to join the older woman tending her culinary creations. The first thing the Kemite did was hand Amelia an apron for her to wear. This was clearly not one of Nei's own and it had to be one of those Shiandi used when she seized the kitchens to cook Ambrosia. The difference in height between the two females became apparent as they stood so close to each other, and the girl felt somewhat embarrassed by her having to look down in order to meet Nei's gaze. The child of Keme did not seem to mind, though, probably because she was used to looking up at people from below.

"Put this on" she said "The kitchen is jus' like a battlefield, tends to get messy fast." The half-Vagar appreciated the protection offered, dramatically self-conscious as she was about her appearance, but Nei's next warning was delivered with a much more serious expression. "And jus' like a battlefield, child, this place can get one killed. Take a look around - there's hot things, hard things, sharp things and slippery things." In truth, she had noticed a certain tendency for Amelia to get distracted or even space out for a while every now and then, and wished to make it clear that absent-minded cooks were dangerous to themselves and others.

"Never allow yerself to be distracted while you cook. Never. Respect this place and it'll respect you in turn. Hmm?" The younger woman nodded firmly - how long had it been since someone had been worried about her? Nei certainly made a much better motherly figure than Shiandi possibly could. "I'll be very careful, Nei. I promise." she said.

With the preliminary warnings dealt with, there was one more detail to be addressed before they could truly get to work, and Nei simply stated it in two words. "Yer hair."

Such a statement was met with a rather puzzled expression on the girl's part. Her hair? What was wrong with it? She had washed and brushed it carefully earlier that morning. Chestnut strands fell delicately on her shoulders, the longest locks reaching down to her shoulderblades. Except that on a closer inspection, there were lighter-colored streaks that were easily lost on the eye because of lighting and reflections. "My hair? Well, it was supposed to be blond, as both my parents were. It seems that most females on Father's side had pitch black hair, though." Amelia wondered how that could be related to her apprenticeship as a cook.

"No, no, it's not the color, child. But it's long and loose, and you don't want that when you are cooking. You need to keep it tied, or you're going to shed some right on your dishes." Nei explained. "Oh." The prospect did not find the young witch too enthusiastic; if there was one thing Midsummer had taught her, it was that trying to restrain her hair in any form of manner was generally a bad idea. She'd seen plenty of omens supporting this theory.

"Well, if there is no choice..." she sighed, untying the strip of cloth that she used as a headband to cover the brand on her forehead. It was hardly needed with her long bangs performing the same function, but with the loss of her dagger it was her only remaining link to her father. She reached behind her head and used the cloth to tie her hair in an improvised ponytail of sorts. It looked terrible in her opinion, but she guessed no-one but Nei would see her in such a pitiful state.

The Kemite nodded. "Good. Now let's get down to business - yer going to learn how to use this while I look after the broth." She handed Amelia a long and razor-sharp knife, holding the blade with two fingers. "When you give someone a knife, you always let them take it by the handle." The girl, who had many a bad experience with blades, hesitated for an instant and then accepted the tool in her grasp.

"Good gods, child, this is a kitchen knife, not a dagger!" Nei smiled, shaking her head slightly. She would have to explain everything down to the very basics, it seemed.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

"Getting the movement right will keep you from slicing yerself." Nei's eyes darted towards the pan where the broth was still bubbling, making sure nothing funny was about to happen. Then, she opened a large drawer and pulled out a rectangular wooden board with a handle. "Chopping board" she said "Used for cuttin' things on. Now, let's slice something easy - zucchini, for example." Nei grabbed a specimen of such vegetables and put it on the chopping board. Then, she picked up a second knife and showed Amelia the right way to hold the instrument.

"Look, it's like this. You grasp the handle with three fingers, and then put your thumb and forefinger on the opposite sides of the blade. See? No, not like that, child. Yer still looking like you just stabbed someone. Hold, but don't clutch." The blade trembled in the girl's hands, and Nei would probably never get the reason why. It was the same reason why she had always ended up hacking up any food she had had to slice when cooking her Ambrosia. With a blade in her grasp, thinking became difficult and her hand would not stop shaking. A concentrated frown broke through her pale features. Her lips parted slightly, but she did not speak.

Blood trickling from the blade, a dark shade of violet in the moonlight. White sheets turned crimson, eyes staring blankly, lips mouthing a final, silent curse. Then a goat, spilling its life out on the floor, slowly. Slowly. Could her hands do anything other than take lives?

"Like this" Nei placed her hand on Amelia's. It was a hard, calloused hand, lacking conventional beauty next to that of the slender apprentice. Yet it was also warm and reassuring, and her arm stopped shaking almost immediately in response. "You keep the tip of the knife on the board, and move the blade up and down, up and down, in a rocking motion. That's all the knife does; you feed the item toward the blade with yer other hand. Careful there, you don't want ter cut any fingers, eh? So curl'em in."

Nei drove the Half-elf's hand up and down a few times with deliberate slowness, and then stepped back to let Amelia slice the zucchini on her own. To her surprise, her hand now obeyed her orders without a problem. "Done..." she murmured, a hint of surprise about her voice as she stared at the reflection of her eyes in the steel. "See? Twasn't hard, was it? This is the basic slicing motion. There are other ways of cutting food up, though."

The Outlaw nodded slowly, still watching her own hand and mimicking the rocking motion of slicing to impress it into her mind. She could hardly believe that one gentle touch had turned what had seemed nearly impossible into a trivial task. "You can make a number of cuts using the same knife" Nei explained, unsure of what was going on inside the blue-eyed girl's head "Slicing is an average cut as far as the size of the pieces goes. Change the speed of yer hands and the direction of the cuts and you'll get different sizes. Chopping makes the biggest pieces which don't need to be uniform, same as slicing on a bigger scale. Dicing is slicing food into panels and then slicing those sideways. Mincing makes very small pieces, and it's a bit different."

Nei reached out and took an onion from a wooden basket. "You'll want to dip this in fresh water before you cut it up. Saves you a few tears in the process." Amelia smiled in return as the Kemite turned the advice into action; it wasn't as though she needed onions to trigger a good, cathartic cry. Nei used her own blade to push the zucchini slices aside and onto a dish for later use. "Mincing an onion... First, you cut it in half, like this. Then, you peel it and start cutting vertically. Don't cut through the root, though, it's what holds the onion together. Then you cut it again this way." Here Nei performed a second series of cuts, these were horizontal and created a grid of sorts. "A few more slicing cuts from a different angle and you get your minced onion, child."

Nei left her momentarily to check the broth, and when she returned, the other half of the onion had been minced in a decent way. Amelia could not help but marvel at how easy handling a blade had become once she stripped it of its previous meaning. That brightening, for the first time, she realized that attaching meaning to things that were only supposed to have a name was, at times, a mistake.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

"This will do" Nei nodded "Remember to keep your knives well sharpened and make sure they don't rust. They are the tool you're going to use the most, so they need to be cared after. To keep them sharp, you'll have to stroke the blade against a sharpening stone or steel, like this." Nei took another tool which had the same handle as the knife, but had no blade to speak of. Instead, it looked like a large screwdriver of sorts. "Twenty strokes after each use, child, on either side of the blade." She demonstrated how to sharpen the knife by performing the maneuver herself, stroking the blade against the sharpening steel at a twenty degree angle, and had the apprentice copy the motions afterwards.

"Let's cook your pracenda now, shall we?" The Kemite was one who rarely grinned, so when she did, Amelia knew she had something in mind. "My pracenda? I thought... the fish, and the broth..."

"Listen, child, I'm going ter teach you the first rule of cooking" the older woman explained "And that rule says - eat what you cook. From now on, and until I say otherwise, you'll be cookin' your own food. That is the only way you can improve at it. And, if I'm not satisfied with your cooking, I'll have you repeat the same recipe until I am. That means you'll be eating here in the servants' quarters with me, the way cooks do."

Eating what she cooked? The girl had a bad feeling about this, and somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that her tastebuds would be in for a streak of less than pleasant experiences, though she admitted that Nei's reasoning was flawless; the fact she would be eating the product of her cooking would make the best incentive to improve at it. "Very well, Nei." the maiden agreed, regaining a little enthusiasm "You are right, there's no way you can cook for others if you can't cook for yourself. I'd like to begin with a nice, fresh salad."

"No." Nei merely replied "One of the most important things to keep in mind when you make food for someone, is the balance. Do you know the old saying, 'we are what we eat'? It's very, very true. A good cook is not only one who can prepare food, but one who knows what food they should be preparing. Remember the balance of the body, child. Your body just can't work properly if all you have is salads and other bird food. We need to give a little more color to those cheeks of yours. You're going to have steak tonight."

Needless to say, Amelia was less than pleased with the Kemite's decision. "Steak? But..." she began, but Nei could not be moved from her choice. Steak it was and steak it would be, no matter how badly she disliked the thing. She still believed that eating animals was a gross habit, because her Elven side did, nor did she particularly see the need to put on more flesh, truth be told. But if Nei thought she needed it... oh, well. "Hmm, you should consider yourself lucky for getting to eat meat on a regular basis." the woman explained "Many people would think of it as a luxury. Come on now, I'll show you how stoves work."

"I know you'll find this boring, but you may want to know this is Kemite design. Our people were among the first to realize that a fire pit isn't always the most practical thing to cook food on. Stoves are more expensive though, so the average kitchen might not have one. Then, you'll have to cook on the hearth, or go out and buy your food at some eatery. But that kinda defeats the purpose of learnin' how to cook in the first place, doesn't it?" The girl nodded, she could not remember stoves where she had grown up. But then, Vagaran villages were not known for their technology. Nei gave Amelia some time to familiarize with the stove; essentially a raised box, with openings for putting wood into and circular metal plaques on top of it which quickly heated up when the fire was lit. The stove was built into the wall so that the smoke from the fire could be channeled into the main chimney - clearly such gadgets were further proof of the wealth of House Abluto.

"I'll tell you what to do, but don't expect me to step in to help you" her new teacher warned. It was just the two of them, the half-breed and the slab of meat from which she would have to make her next meal. As she picked up the knife and carefully cleaned it, Amelia knew this was going to be a tough duel indeed.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

"Two inches thick at most." Nei ordered "By the way, can you recognize what cut this is? Hmmm, judging by the way you're starin' at it, it's safe to assume you can't. Listen to me, child, this is somewhat advanced, but you need to know it anyways. The meat from a cow, or other kinds of cattle, varies greatly depending on what part of the body, or cut, it comes from. There are basically five cut types - chuck, brisket, rib, loin, and round. Chuck cuts come from the front quarter of the animal, a part used for walking which contains less fat and more muscle and tends to be harder than the rest. Brisket is basically the cow's breast muscles, and is good for stews and the likes. Rib cuts are the softest and most moist you will find, but also the fattest. Loin cuts come in quite a few flavors, the front part of it can have some fat around the edges. Round cuts are from the hind quarters and are generally the most expensive and nutrient, though they too are used for walking."

"Amelia?" Nei said, finally calling the girl by her name.

"Umm, yes?" She had been given the big picture, but of course the notions alone did not help her any when it came to making steak out of that particular cut. "This is a loin cut" the Kemite pointed at the meat "and it is called porterhouse. It is a good, healthy cut you can find at the beginning of the rear part of the loin, or sirloin. You are going to prepare porterhouse steak tonight, and this cut is often best cooked by grilling. Since that means cooking over an open flame, it is something we usually want to do in the hearth, though, so the stoves will have to wait a little longer. Come on now, cut the meat!"

The girl did as instructed and sliced her pracenda from the bigger piece of meat. Nei's eyes narrowed slightly as she performed the operation - too thin, but she said nothing to the Half-elf. It was a mistake the apprentice cook would see for herself and learn how to avoid in the future. "Done, Nei!" "Now you need to give a few additional cuts to shape the meat better around the edges, here and here. You may also want to slit an opening here, through the sirloin." On the bright side, Amelia had learnt to cut with reasonable accuracy and these strokes came easily to her.

"Good, the next step depends on how you wish to cook your steak. There are countless recipes for it, and many regional versions. For example, you may want to season your steak with a sauce of some kind before you grill it. Tonight though, we'll be making the most basic version of it. Can you please start the fire? The wood's already there. I'm going to get the fish done in the meanwhile, can't let the Lady Christienne have overcooked food now can we?" The two women smiled simultaneously, and Amelia set herself to the task of lighting the fire. After a while, flames picked up in the fireplace and the girl lost herself in their dancing tips until Nei scolded her. "What did I just say? No distractions while you cook!" The apprentice apologized profusely, and Nei was apparently satisfied with it. "Hmmmm. Now take the grill in that corner and oil it carefully if you don't want your steak to get stuck."

The tool was a rectangular grid of metal used for grilling. The puppy Adjurator retrieved a bottle of oil from one of the shelves and helping herself with a spoon and her fingers, greased the thing as requested. "Now wear those kitchen gloves over there and slide the grill over the fire. There is a special slot built into the hearth for that purpose. It's metal, so it will get hot very, very fast."

Once again, the girl obeyed Nei's orders and placed the grilling tool over the open fire. "Good, now you just put the meat on the grill and let the fire do the rest. Never touch it with your hands! Use this instead." She handed Amelia a long, pointy fork and the younger cook stabbed the meat, depositing in on the grill.

"It's working!" was the girl's rather naive reaction to the smoke and smell of cooked meat. "Did you have any doubts? Now remember to turn it around, depending on how rare you want it to be you'll leave it on the fire for different times. Don't overcook this one, child. Trust me, no more than 3 minutes each side." It was going to be hard nevertheless, but if she overcooked it, then it would become like a brick. After three minutes or so, the brunette turned it over and let it cook, wiping with oil and some butter as Nei instructed her to. In the end, she collected the result of her meddling in a dish, and it admittedly smelled good. By that time, Nei had finished cooking pracenda for the Abluto's, and servants were coming and going with trays to transport the various servings to the dining room.

"Get yerself a seat over there, child, and have a taste of your own cooking!" Nei ordered. "I'll join you in a minute."

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

Amelia's eyes narrowed as she stared at the food deposited on the dish. It was the kind of gaze usually reserved for strange, exotic animals - when you haven't decided yet whether such an animal can be dangerous. Despite her protests, she had had grilled steak many times before, and this, well, looked a little different. Darker, harder. "Oh, well..." she sighed, and picked up her cutlery. One swift motion of her slender forearm and she sliced the meat... not.

"Oh..." The realization was slowly creeping into her being. This particular steak was going to take much more effort in the eating than in the cooking. Grilled steak from Aeternia. At first, she tried to be ladylike about it, applying elegant cuts which yielded no result at all. Slowly, her motions lost all femininity as she put more and more strength into the operation, hacking and hacking and hacking at the thing. Nei watched in silence as Amelia fought her personal one-girl battle against her meal. At last, after much flashing of steel, she managed to separate a bit of steak from the rest.

Nei sat in front of the girl with a bowl of rice in her hands. To the Half-elf's great surprise, she used no cutlery to eat, instead picking it up with wooden sticks. It was her first time paying attention to someone eating with chopsticks. Meanwhile, she had begun to chew on the piece of meat she had managed to cut off. 'Hard as leather, hmm?' Nei shrugged, the chopsticks dancing skilfully as they opened and closed together under the command of her fingers. 'It probably tastes like leather, too.'

Chew. Chew. Chew. "It tastes good!" Amelia said out of pride, not wanting to concede the point that easily. Chew. Chew. Chew. "If it tastes that good, then why isn't it going down?" Chew. Chew. Chew. "I'm... taking it slow!" In truth, she was on the verge of tears. Chew. Chew. Chew. Finally, it went down, not without some effort.

Water!

Amelia poured herself a glass and drank from it as if she'd just returned from the Arakmatan deserts. "Ah!" she sighed in relief afterwards; a short relief, seeing as 95 percent of the meal remained untouched on the plate. "I think we can call it a brightenin', child." Nei remarked. She wasn't so cruel as to force that trash on a poor girl, all things considered, and she had seen it coming. Suddenly a second bowl of rice was produced, together with a pair of chopsticks. "This tastes a lot better, but you'll have to learn how to use these."

The Outlaw merely looked at the cook, gratitude obvious in her blue eyes. In truth she wanted nothing more than to hug Nei, but her smile accomplished pretty much the same. "Thanks!" She picked up the chopsticks, dug them in the rice... and collected nothing. "It's going ter take some practice, hold them like this." She showed Amelia the right position, one between thumb and forefinger, one between index and middle finger. "I don't understand why people insist in putting iron in their mouths." the Kemite shook her head as the teenager slowly fetched small amounts of rice with clumsy motions and mouthed them as best she could. She liked it though, much better than her so-called cooking at any rate. "You failed the test. Next time don't overcook it, hmmm?"

"Tomorrow you'll be learning the basics of stewing," Nei announced "think of it as a retake. And tomorrow there will be no fallback bowl of rice if you mess it up again."

Amelia nodded shyly, twice, holding on her precious bowl and eyeing the outcome of her failed test with no small amount of worry. Was she really going to fail at everything she tried?

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

The following brightening, Amelia mustered all of her good will and positive attitude as she prepared for her test. The memories of the pitiful excuse for a meal that she'd cooked had haunted her throughout the darkening - she'd made a point of learning how to cook no matter what. She had to prove to herself that she could do other things than dealing with dead people. That she still possessed the gift of life on her pale hands.

"You ready child? Today's topic is stewing," Nei said, "stewing is a way of preparing meat or vegetables by simmering them in liquid. You generally dice the ingredients beforehand, and then put them on a stove top or in the oven for cooking. If you choose the stoves, you'll be using a pot, but the one you put in the oven is called a casserole."

Nei produced the tool called casserole. It was a lot like a frying pan, except for its rounded rectangular shape and the fact that it had small twin handles instead of the long appendix that frying pans usually had. The casserole also had a matching cover, and was made of good grade earthenware. "Better than metal, it warms up more slowly but gets the flavors to blend better. Still, you'll never handle a hot casserole without kitchen gloves! Never ever unless you think blisters would look cute on you."

Amelia nodded slowly and listened as Nei explained how to cook by stewing. "One of the main advantages of stewing is that it softens the harder - and cheaper - meat cuts. This is a cooking technique which is very popular with the lower classes, but the nobles don't despise it either. Well then, child, you're going to make beef stew tonight. I'm going to be pretty busy myself with Lady Christianne's favourite cream dessert, so I've left you a recipe for it. It's essential for you to learn how to cook from a recipe book - it's not as easy as it sounds."

The girl blinked twice, receiving the parchment from Nei's hands. "Remember that the steps are not necessarily taken in that order. Try to look ahead and see if there are things you can do beforehand, because you'll always find yerself short on time later. Well, good luck then. Don't burn the place down!" And with that, she started busying herself with her other dishes, looking unwilling to answer any further questions.

1. Cut the beef into chunks about 1" in diameter.
2. Coat the chunks of beef with flour.
3. Put oil into a wide casserole and heat it.
4. In several batches, brown the beef in the casserole pot with the oil.
5. Put beef, spices and concentrated broth in the casserole.
6. Cover the casserole, then simmer for at least an hour to soften the beef. Stir the stew every few minutes to prevent the beef from burning on the bottom.
7. Peel carrots, cut them into pieces about the same size as the beef, add them to the stew, and simmer a bit more. (stirring every few minutes)
8. Cut the other vegetables likewise, and simmer a bit more. (stirring every few minutes)
9. When all the vegetables are soft but not yet falling apart, it is time to serve the stew.

When Amelia's eyes rose from the parchment, she really wanted to cry. What kind of retake was this? She had failed a much simpler recipe than this one, and with assistance from Nei! She looked at the Kemite's back for a long moment, but she knew that she wouldn't offer her any more help now.

Unbeknownst to the Outlaw, Nei was grinning to herself. She had pinned exactly what the problem was with Amelia - her lack of concentration tended to lead her towards half-hearted attempts if she let her attention slip.

Yes, Miss Lynsdaughter was the typical person who could only give her best under pressure, with no room for hiding or running away. Alone with herself and her enemy, that was when she had the opportunity to show her true worth.

"I can do this," she whispered under her breath to give herself strength, and then she was off to turn words into facts.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

Crystalline blue eyes flashed furiously left and right, committing each step of the recipe for beef stew to memory. Every now and then, those innocent eyes would make a detour around the kitchen, registering the locations of the various ingredients required. Nei kept on going about her own business, preparing meals out of her experienced hands with practiced ease. Amelia, on the other hand, had realized the importance of planning ahead. What Nei managed to do out of instinct and habit, she had to think about carefully.

First thing first, she needed to gather all the ingredients in one place. Having them scattered all over the kitchen would be suicidal in the long run. The first few minutes were dedicated to this marching to and fro, collecting the ingredients together. While Nei pretended she wasn't paying attention, Amelia fetched oil and vegetables on the nearest table, next to the ubiquitous kitchen knife and chopping board. Then she retrieved the beef and lifted the cover on one of the pots resting on a stove top, revealing that it already contained the required broth. The pleasant warmth emanating from the oven indicated that everything was ready down there, as well.

A slight, concentrated smile graced her features. So Nei believed that she could pass this test, and had arranged these little hints beforehand. The more she thought about it, the more she convinced herself that she could indeed do it. The trick to success was about breaking the big tasks into smaller tasks, and carrying them out in sequence. Step 1 involved chopping the beef into chunks - she knew how to do that! Placing the meat on the chopping board, she sharpened her knife and then cut through the beef with even movements of her arm. Then, rotating the board by about ninety degrees, she cut it into rough chunks of the desired size.

Now, the flour coating. Borrowing a raised dish, she poured flour in it and dipped the beef chunks in it, one by one, laying the white-coated meat on a different dish. So far, so good. With the casserole on the table next to her, she put olive oil from a jar into it, enough to get the bottom completely wet and slippery but not overdoing it. She inserted the casserole into the oven with kitchen gloves on - the purpose of this, in her mind, was to keep the beef from getting stuck to the casserole. Nodding to herself, she waited for the casserole to warm up... not.

No. Nei had said it once before - never waste any time when you are cooking. Look ahead and do what you can, when you can. Right now, steps 4 through 6 required the casserole to finish step 3, but step 7 was fair game. Picking up a smaller knife, Amelia began to peel the carrots, using the same principles that she'd learnt when Nei had peeled the onion. With an eye constantly on the oven, she eventually decided it was time to put the beef in it.

The girl carefully removed the tool and gently lay the chunks of coated beef on the bottom of the casserole. Helping herself with a fork, she flipped them to brown them with the oil, just like the recipe said. In doing so, a pleasant smell was liberated in the air - surprisingly appealing to one who loved meat as much as she loved broken nails.

The next step, step 5, had her add the previously prepared spices as well as concentrated broth from the pot with a ladle. Finally, she put the cover on the casserole, and wearing her gloves she inserted it through the opening in the oven. Fire was no longer burning there, but the heat was still intense and Amelia found herself untying the strip of cloth that guarded the brand on her forehead to wipe the sweat away. She hardly needed it with her fancy bangs anyways, it mostly served as the last remaining link to her father.

Fine. She had to stir the stew every few minutes. Meanwhile, she resumed work on the carrots and then the other vegetables, which she chopped and diced the way she had been instructed to. All the while she was keeping track of time and pulling the casserole into and out of the oven for stirring. Something strange happened when she turned her back for an instant and when she was facing the table again, a hourglass had appeared which had not been there before, with Nei walking off at a steady pace.

A five-minute hourglass, Amelia would bet everything on that. She turned it upside down and used it to better keep track of time. After a full candlemark, she added carrots and other vegetables to the stew and let it simmer for a while longer, testing them for softness every time she stirred the food.

Eventually, she felt her stew was ready for serving, and lifted the casserole to the stove top. "I think I'm finished here, Nei..." she said softly, speaking for the first time since she'd started work on the recipe.

"I guess I'll have some also, if it's half decent that is!" the Kemite replied as she gave some finishing touches to the veal she'd be serving the Ablutos. A few scant minutes later, they were sitting at the same table as the first brightening. Amelia's fork sank into a chunk of beef effortlessly, and she smelled it thoroughly before her lips slowly parted to eat it. "It's not bad..." she said, half-shocked by the realization. Nei hmmmm'ed her agreement and added: "There are a few flaws in the presentation, so it's not something I'd put on Lord Agamon's plate, and the coating is a little uneven here and there. You were a little shy on the spices which could have made it a little more savory, but all in all I can see a lot of improvement from yesterday."

Nei ate a couple more mouthfuls of beef and excused herself as she had to take care of a few details that the kitchen boys could not deal with themselves. Amelia was left alone at the table, but did not mind it in the least. If anything, that spared her the embarrassment of Nei seeing her sniff and cry like a small child for no apparent reason. She cried in front of the meal she'd prepared, releasing the pent-up stress and frustration as tears of joy and relief.

"Pracenda for the living," she murmured "there's plenty of time to be dead." And to her great surprise, she enjoyed the meal much more than she had anticipated.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

The following brightening, Nei said that the staff had finished up Amelia's stew, and no-one had complained about it. "Which is a good start, but still only a start," the stocky woman warned, waving a wooden spoon in the process "Yesterday's task may have seemed difficult to you, child, but it was only a one on a scale from one to five, so it was actually very easy. You also have to remember that a cook usually needs to work on multiple courses at the same time - which is what you're going to do tonight. Oh yes," there was a slight grin on Nei's lips now "you're making pracenda for most of the staff tonight - pracenda for ten people!"

The dreamy smile of victory on Amelia's fair visage faded away instantly as it dawned on her that Nei was raising the difficulty bar at a tremendous rate. But Materna, she could cook stew and grilled steak! She could practically conquer the world now! Blue eyes narrowed a little in concentration as she put on her apron, tied her hair in a ponytail and pushed back her fears. Other people were counting on her to have a happy meal and she wasn't going to let them down. "So, what's on tonight's menu, Nei?" she asked with a smile dancing on her lips.

"A few things actually," the cook replied, "and I'll be stepping in to give you a hand every now and then - no choice there, can't risk having ten hungry people yelling at me in the kitchens. Generally the servants' meals are not as elaborate as those of the masters. Often the richest courses are the leftovers from the master's table as the allowance for buying our food is limited. I've asked Lady Shiandi to make an exception for us, tonight. That's why everyone's looking forward to it, and we can't let them down. In addition to making soup, we're going to roast a suckling pig, with baked potatoes on the side and a dessert."

"That sounds like a meal fit for a king!" Amelia agreed, knowing that it must have been easy for Nei to obtain Shiandi's permission. The girl could never forget that this was all part of her training as a witch, as much as she wanted to cook for herself and, hopefully, her loved ones some day.

"It may be," Nei said, "and it's quite a lot of work, but a cook of some experience can prepare it without any help." She pointed at the various tables in the kitchen, where most of the raw materials had already been selected by Nei's skilled hand. The item that stood out the most was, of course, the whole carcass of a young pig, probably no older than six cycles. Amelia felt her heart become uneasy for an instant at the sight, but repressed the feeling. The piglet's death would sustain someone else's life in the natural cycle of things.

"Now, the secret to cooking several dishes at the same time lies in making the most of the time you have," Nei explained patiently "you only have two hands, but most food isn't going to require your full attention all the time. You just have to keep in mind when the next break is going to be, so you can switch to the next task. This requires a lot of experience to do properly, but just knowing it will save you a lot of time and mistakes. So, first thing first, we choose the task that will take the longest time." She paused then, waiting for Amelia to tell her which.

"If you've already lit the fireplace, then the soup will take longer as we need to heat water." the Half-elf replied thoughtfully "Besides, pork is an entree and will be eaten after the soup. Probably most of the work on the pig will be about stuffing it and getting it ready for roasting."

"Fair enough," Nei said "let's get some work started on the soup before we tackle the rest, then." and with that, she fed more wood into the oven - the same heat that powered the oven also made the metal stoves burning hot.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

"Soup, now soup is a very broad word," Nei stated, lifting a metal saucepan with one hand. The woman was strong, her stocky figure hiding the true nature of her muscles, and even though Amelia was regularly given chores to exercise with, there was too much Elven blood in her to retain a great deal of strength.

"Chicken soup is excellent for a beginner like you, easy to prepare, everyone can have it, most people like it as well. Chop two chickens into smaller pieces and put it in the saucepan with the vegetables." Nei gave the order, and the girl complied. Cleaning and chopping up the chicken wasn't entirely easy since for the first time her blade met some added resistance and she had to reiterate the blows. Then there was the matter of the guts - but Amelia had seen enough roosters being sacrificed to Jalat to know exactly what those looked like, and not be impressed past the basic 'ewwww' level.

After the chopping stage, she carefully lay the pieces on the bottom of the saucepan, and after those came the water from a clean bucket. Then she added celery leaves, keeping the stalks for later as Nei told her to, as well as a chopped onion. Then, she covered the saucepan and placed it on the stove top. "Good," Nei commented "now we'd wait fer it to boil, but since it's going to take a while, we can do something else in the meantime. You can start by washing those potatoes over there," she pointed at a basket full of, well, large potatoes.

"I don't have to peel them?" Amelia was somewhat surprised, she expected the peeling of potatoes to pop up at some point in her adventure as a beginner cook. "These are baked potatoes. If I'd wanted you to peel them, I'd have told you so," Nei sighed, "One potato per person, they need to keep the skin on them until the end, when you just pop them open. Just wash them."

The girl nodded and set herself to work, washing the potatoes in water from yet another bucket and then laying them on a platter. "Done? Good, you're just on time, the water is starting to boil! Quick! Come here!" Nei had a urgent tone about her voice now, and the Half-Vagaran just rushed by her side, abandoning the potatoes. "Lift the cover every now and then to let the steam out - even so, the broth will tend to brim over sometimes as the fat gets out of the chicken and floats 'cause it's lighter. Then you have to remove it with this," she indicated a flat ladle with holes all over its surface. Amelia nodded and did as instructed. "We keep doing this for one and a half candlemarks, the chicken will be tender by then."

With the broth under control, the Kemite almost took the apprentice by her hand and led her gently to where the young carcass of the piglet was. "As you said, we're going to stuff this beauty here," the woman announced, knives firmly in her hands "but I guess the cleaning part will be up to me this time. You'd turn it into a bloody mess if you tried to do it without seeing me first. Just stand back and watch."

What Amelia saw next left her both nervous and greatly impressed with Nei's skills. She possessed strength in those arms to match most men, and then some. The way she opened the pig's belly with a few perfect blows and then cleaned it of its innards had her trying to close her eyes - but she forced herself to watch. Surely her craft would put them through much worse things than this. No reason to back away from this.

"Ordinarily, I'd save the innards for some other use," Nei said "but tonight is a special one, so these go straight into the waste basket." She lay her now wet and dirty knifes on the table and continued. "Now we grind some spices and salt together with a fine knife, and rub that mixture into the cavity of the pig. We'll also be adding three sprigs of rosemary and a few bay leaves inside."

It took Amelia more than a few minutes to comply, also because she still had to check on the broth every now and then. The mix of herbs, spices and salt sent off a powerful, but pleasant sylvan smell on the chopping table. The girl put the mixture on her fingers and rubbed it into the now empty cavity of the animal, adding rosemary and bay leaves as Nei had said.

Next, the Kemite offered her a length of string. "Here, tie the suckling back together so it doesn't fall apart later." The apprentice nodded and tied it around the beast's belly several times. "Good, we can let it rest for a while now."

"Time to come up with an idea for a good dessert - any suggestions? Keep in mind that we only have so much time to spend on it. When you're cooking, time should always be your first and foremost concern aside from your own safety. Well then, any ideas?"

The girl giggled her answer right away. "Candied almonds?"