Chikkle-Chik-Chikkle


He figured he'd better keep this simple...

So when Cutty Mordaunt carried up all of the ingredients necessary for Sukiyaki he made sure to bring enough tools for cutting. That seemed to be the way with Japanese cooking. Preparation intensive, but simple to cook. He thought that would work well for Botty's latest assignment. That was...

Churkkle-Ch'ch'Chee-Chrik

IF he could get his packet of noodles to open. They made a soft, crinkly sound as he tried unsuccessfully to pry them open. It was as if they didn't want to be eaten, and thus Cutty Mordaunt resorted to using, "Flippnsnipwitit!" to trim away at the opening. He had a feeling it would've come to that, but incantation number one out of the way, Cutty had gotten more comfortable in the space provided for Ancient Runes started to hum as he cut up the Chinese cabbage, separating the leaves from the stalks and slicing the stalks into small, diagonal chips. He followed this same pattern for the negi or welsh onion as he continued to hum.

Cutty stuck the knife into the cutting board and let it wobble there for a minute as he plucked the stems from the shiitake mushrooms one by one. Then, with the back of his hand he swept them aside and went for his bag again, out of which he produced a very small and a number two sized cauldron. He placed them over the appropriated areas for fire casting and drew out his wand and his kenaz rune. Placing the rune on the wand he raised it up to have a look at it. Peculiarly, the boy pressed his finger into the rune and turned it a little to readjust it upon the wand. He ceased his humming in order to cast, but the crucial part was the part he disliked most. "Kenaz...". It was timely. He'd rather he didn't have to. "Kenaz, kenaz, ku, ka ki...". He didn't mind singing. "Ke, ko, kun, kan, kin, ken...", but there again singing was the result. "Kon. Ok, ek, ik, ak, uk...". He was thinking about quitting music lessons anyway. "Kaunnnnnnn...."

"Incendio!". A BRIGHT burst of flames flew at and under the smaller cauldron. This rather automatically meant high heat, which Cutty didn't care for. THe rune toppled from his wand quickly and he shrunk down the flame. It was work getting the kitchen house-elves to let him have sake. In the end, he was unsuccessful so he had only to work with the mirin, soy sauce and sugar. So, whatever...he wasn't going to let that stop him. He spooned and poured the ingredients into the smaller cauldron and gave it a stir. The intense heat from the exaggerated spell seemed to see it to a boil rather quickly.

Caleb wasn't much of a cook, but whatever. He could deal with it for points. As he walked in, he noticed that Cutty was the only one in there, and he gave him a grunt of acknowledgment. He was here on a mission - no time for chit chat between two dorm mates.

He was supposed to cook something - but WHAT exactly? He decided to go with something simple - a burger. A tasty, juicy hamburger, because it was easy and he couldn't really mess it up too bad.

Taking the patty he'd swiped from the grounds, he decided to trim off the fat before actually getting to work, because he didn't want all that nasty fat on his finish product! "Diffindo," he grumbled, turning his wand around the edge of the patty and cutting off all the nasty goo around the beef and then tossing it in a nearby rubbish bin.

He just wanted to make it a bit rounder...cleaning his hands, he took the patty and made it into a more perfect circle by poking and prodding the raw meat, making it perfect. No fat. Round circle. He was ready to go!

When Cris read what they were supposed to do for their Ancient Runes homework, the first thing he did was laugh. The Professor had to be very confident about their cooking skills to allow them to do so in his workshop. The second thing he did was scratch his head, and wonder what he was going to cook that wouldn't result in either him burning everything he cooked....or worse yet, burning down the workshop.

The third thing he did was find a recipe he would have no problem making. But which one? He only knew a few...or at least the ones, that the house elves had thought were safe enough to teach him.

After much thought, Cris decided that he would make a dessert that was a favorite of his. So here he was, carrying the ingredients, he had managed to coax the school's house elves into giving him, in a basket, along with some cups, bowls, cooking utensils, a medium sized saucepan, an oval plate, an ice cooler containing three small tubs of ice cream and a portable wood burning stove.

Placing everything on the table, Cris first prepared the batter. He pulled out a cup from the basket and pointed his wand inside it. Concentrating hard on keeping the temperature of the water very cold, he filled the cup with water using the water conjuring spell. When the cup was filled, he ended the spell.

Then he retrieved an empty bowl, another cup, a bag of flour and an egg from the basket. Cracking the egg against the side of the bowl, Cris broke it apart and emptied its contents into the bowl, before discarding the empty shells. Then he opened up the bag of flour and filled the empty cup with flour.

Now he was ready to make the batter. Pulling out a fork from the basket, Cris began beating the egg with it. As he did so, he poured the cold water into the bowl and began mixing it in with the beaten egg. Next was the flour, which he mixed in lightly with the egg and water mixture, stirring it lightly, until he had a thin mixture of batter in his bowl.

His batter was done...and he hadn't burned anything yet...which was a good sign. Now came the hardest part of the process. The actual frying. Everyone look out!

Grunt. Grunts were being exchanged and so the male acknowledgement exchange was underway as Cutty gave a grunt in return to his dormmate when Caleb Newell entered the workshop. Was that ...beef?

He wanted to talk to Caleb, but now was not the most opportune moment for it as he had to concentrate.

Cutty motioned his wand toward the flame he'd created then removed the cauldron full of the semi-sukiyaki sauce from the spot and replaced it with the other cauldron. He drew out his knife from the cutting board and started slicing the leaves of the Chinese cabbage along with the shungiku chrysanthemum greens. That only left the tofu which Cutty had seen cooked in the image of the dish he'd looked up from the library.

His adolescent-sized hands rummaged through the mushroom heads to turn up his rune. Once in hand he promptly attached it to his wand and shot a fire spell out for the second cauldron. "Incendio!" the flames were cast intense like before, but this time in more controlled fashion. They did, however still result in high heat beneath the cauldron. That was alright, though. Cutty was sort of counting on that as he threw in the hunk of firm tofu.

He watched it, the hunk of tofu as it drained...was that...water?...on the inside of the cauldron. One side of it was cooking quickly and giving it a browned look. Using the placement charm they'd learned in Charms of Magical Creatures, Cutty lifted and flipped the tofu onto it's opposite side and let it cook, or sear itself. Once it had been properly seared, he levitated it over to the cutting board and added thin slices of beef to the cooking cauldron. While it cooked, Cutty took the knife to the tofu, slicing it into thick bricks, then adding it along with the cabbage and some of the sauce.

Timing was probably a thing and so next, the mushrooms and the onion went in along with the chrysanthemum greens and the noodles, which he'd had to use magic to open. Cutty put the last remainder of the sauce in the cauldron before lidding it and turning down the heat a bit. The recipe was simple, cut everything up, throw it all in there beginning with the meat and the cabbage, cook, add everything else and then wait. It sounded not too unlike the potions they brewed. In fact, less complicated than most.

Cutty peered over to his dormmate. He couldn't really picture Caleb cooking but yet there he was. Makin' a pancake out of meat. Which Cutty had to admit was actually kind of brilliant. Of course, it was probably just genetic, considering who the boy's mother was. Why didn't Caleb have a girlfriend, again? Or maybe he did...like one...or several. Hehehe. Newell.

Cutty lifted the lid off of the cauldron and looked at the creation before giving it a whiff. It smelled more or less as intended and so the boy shut the fire off, performed cleansing spells on his tools and packed up. The last thing he did was reapply the lid to the cauldron as he carried out the soupy one-pot dish.

Leah was not a good chef. Walking into the workshop grumpily one morning, carrying the necessary ingredients to make a pancake, she placed everything onto a table and immediately started work. Yes, she was going for a simple pancake. How could she mess a pancake up? The Hufflepuff shuddered at the thought of burning down the workshop. Nope, that could not happen.

Taking milk, vinegar, and a bowl, she cleaned the bowl up before combining the two liquid inside it. According to the recipe she was supposed to leave it aside for a few minutes. Then taking a bigger bowl, the second year used 'scourgify' on it too. Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt. All into the clean big bowl. She stirred the mixture up thoroughly. Stirring was ALWAYS fun. Now back to the smaller bowl with 'soured' milk in it. Leah cracked an egg into the milk and added butter in too. She used a whisk and observed it for a while before whipping the mixture up. She had never done this before. The girl then poured the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisked until lumps are gone as instructed.

At first Adi was highly unsure about this homework. Cooking? Uh uh. That wasn't his thing. Besides, what in the world would he make? Could he just fry an egg and get it over with? But then he remembered how he was able to follow the recipe for making pizza in Muggle Studies class. Surely he could do that again. So after thinking long and hard about what he wanted to make, he sent a note to his mother asking her to send the recipe of his favourite dessert and the ingredients. The dessert he had decided on? Kheer or Rice Pudding, an Indian dessert.

Adi arrived at the Runes workshop with his book bag on his back. Only thing it didn't contain books but all the ingredients he would need plus the paper on which the recipe was written. In his left hand, he held a slightly smaller bag. It contained one of those small stoves, a small pot, a bow and a spoon for stirring. Poor Conrad the owl must have had quite a journey getting the stove to him. Adi doubted Benny would lend him his owl again.

The Hufflepuff found a workstation, set up the ingredients on it and then the stove. Time to get cracking! In the pot, he added two cups of coconut milk, two cups of ordinary milk and three tablespoons of white sugar. Now he had to let those boil. Reaching into his bag he pulled out the Kenaz Runestone. He held it on his wand as it was pointed to the stove. "kenaz kenaz kenaz ku ka ki ke ko kun kan kin ken kon ok ek ik ak uk kaunnnnnnnnn...Incendio!'' Flames erupted immediately. He stirred the three combined ingredients occasionally while he waited for it to come up to a boil.

When it finally did, the third year added half a cup of rice. He lowered the heat, just enough for the mixture to simmer. The next step was to wait for it all to thicken. This would take about 20 minutes.

Even though he loved cooking with a passion (and had earned the title "Chef" for it from Ethan), Simon wasn't going to go all out and choose a super elaborate food to cook with the rune kenaz for Ancient Runes homework. He had figured that it could either go really badly or really well. He assumed that if he did something complicated then it would go really, really badly. In this case, the more simple, the better. Simon opted to make crepes. Plain simple crêpes. He could add a nice raspberry drizzle sauce or something on top later. Plus, they would be yummy to eat.

After seeing Cutty already busy at work, Simon gave his friend a quick nod and wave. Then he went to an open working area and unpacked his books and ingredients: flour, olive oil, eggs, water, milk, salt, and butter. He also pulled out his handy-dandy measuring cups that he had gotten for Christmas last year. Then he pulled out the Kenaz runestone. He needed to have it out.

He washed his hands, dried them, and started his work. He pulled out a large bowl and made sure that it was clean. After pouring one cup of flour and cracking the two eggs into the bowl, he quickly whisked the mixture up. He made it light and fluffy. Next, he gradually added a half cup of milk as well as a half cup of water, mixing it together until the new mixture was combined. Simon added a quarter teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of butter. Then he beat the whole mixture together until it became smooth.

Once the mixture was smooth, he grabbed another plate out of his bag to put his creation on afterwards. He also readied a tea towel so that he could cover the crêpes after they had finished cooking. Next, he pulled out a frying pan. He added a drop of olive oil into the center of the pan and spread it around with a little bit of paper towel. He placed the pan on the stove. Pulling out his wand, he pointed it at the stove. "Incendio!" he said. The flames jumped to life and started to warm the pan. He poured out a quarter of a cup of the batter onto the pan. Then he tilted the pan, making sure that it became a smooth, even round circle.

Now he had to wait for about two minutes until it was cooked.

Leah took out the runestone of Kenaz from her runestone set. She placed the stone in her palm then grabbed her wand with that same hand, so that the runestone and the wand were in the same hand on top of each other. Did she need to chant the Galdr? Uh, nope. She placed a skillet on the stove and pointed her wand at it. "Incendio!" she said. A bright burst of flames shot out. The recipe had said medium heat, so Leah put the runestone down and adjusted the flame. Phew, at least nothing else caught fire.

She covered the skillet with cooking spray. Now came the real cooking part. The Hufflepuff poured some amount of batter onto the skillet. She was not sure how much was appropriate, but tried to make the pancake as big as possible, because she was hungry and probably her judge was too. Leah took a seat and fiddled around with her spatula until bubbles appeared on the surface. She flipped the nearly-done pancake with her spatula professionally. Aah, it was brown and looking tasty. Another waiting time, but she did not have to wait long before she flipped the pancake again. Her timing was just perfect. Both sides were brown and nice.

The girl took her pancake down onto a plate. Although the shape was not pretty at all, she was happy with her results. After cleaning up her work area and tools she replaced every tools back into her bag. Hmm, maybe she could use the batter again in the kitchen? Leah poured the batter into a container and the pancake into another. Then, with her bag heavy once more, the second year walked down to the kitchen for another cooking time.

Cris was now ready to start on the second portion of his cooking. But wait, he had forgotten to put on his apron. Cris knew that he should have done that even before he started his preparations. But better late than never, right.

Looking inside the basket, he searched among the bottles, utensils and ingredients until he found what he was looking for. Pulling it out, Cris slipped it up and over his head, tying the ribbons securely around his back. Looking down at his apron Cris chuckled. One thing was for sure, he would be no king in any kitchen.

Pulling the portable wood burning stove in front of him, Cris placed some wood chips into the stove burner. Placing the medium sauce pan onto the stove, he then opened up a bottle of vegetable oil and drizzled some of it into the saucepan, just enough for him to deep fry later.

Cris then began preparing the dish. Pulling out a semi-ripe banana from the basket, Cris placed it on the table top. Taking out his wand, he pointed it at the banana and in a downwards slashing motion, Cris said, "Diffindo" neatly slicing the banana in half lengthwise before ending the spell. Having prepared the bananas, Cris proceeded to begin lighting the stove.

Unholstering his wand, Cris dug inside his jean pocket for the runestone Kenaz. Holding the runestone in the palm of his hand, along with his wand and ensuring that both the stone and the wand were touching each other, Cris began chanting the galdr to the rune Kenaz, "kenaz kenaz kenaz ku ka ki ke ko kun kan kin ken kon ok ek ik ak uk kaunnnnnnnnn". When he was ready, he pointed his wand at the wood chips and saying, "Incendio" he watched as a flame shot out from his wand and lit the wood chips, starting a fire in the stove under the saucepan.

Cris watched in awe as the flame burned steadily and within seconds the vegetable oil began to simmer. He liked the fact that he didn't have to wait for the oil to heat up. Most of the time when that happened, he always ended up with hot oil that smoked which he knew wasn't good because it somehow affected the taste of the food. He realized that with the help of the rune stone, what used to take more than ten minutes to cook would now only take maybe a few minutes.

So yes, it was time for him to cook. He first lined a plate with a few layers of paper towels. Next, extracting a pair of tongs from the basket, Cris picked up one half and lightly dipped the half into a tempura batter. Then he slowly submerged the batter-covered banana half into the hot vegetable oil, deep frying it until it turned a nice golden brown. With the tongs, he scooped out the banana half and placed it on the plate lined with paper towels, allowing the oil to drain from it.

Cris repeated the same steps with the second half of the banana until he had both banana halves, golden brown and deep fried, draining on the plate. While he allowed the oil to drain, Cris dropped the runestone back into his pocket before pointing his wand at the stove and using the extinguishing spell to put out the flames from under the stove.

Now drained of oil, Cris used the tongs to place both banana halves along the edge of the oval plate, before turning to search in the basket for an ice cream scoop. "Ahh...there you are" Cris smiled as he pulled out the scooper from the basket.

Then he opened up the ice cooler and pulled out three tubs of ice cream. Opening the first tub containing vanilla ice cream, Cris scooped up one scoop and placed it in the center of the plate. Then he opened up the tub of chocolate ice cream and did the same, before moving on to the third container and scooping up the strawberry ice-cream. Once he had all three scoops of ice-cream sitting nice and pretty in between the two banana halves, Cris took out the sauce bottles.

Selecting the one containing the butterscotch sauce, he squeezed some of it over the vanilla ice cream, before exchanging the butterscotch one for the chocolate sauce.

Cris drizzled the chocolate sauce over the chocolate ice cream before putting that down and picking up the bottle containing the marshmallow sauce. He then drizzled the sauce over the strawberry ice cream. With all three ice cream scoops covered in delicious finger licking, lip smacking sauce, Cris replaced the bottles back into the basket.

He was almost done. All he had left to do was decorate the dish, and there can be no ice cream dessert without whipped cream.

Taking out the metal can, Cris shook it a couple of times, before pressing the nozzle, liberally spraying the whipped cream over the top of the scoops of ice cream. Next was the garnishing.

Opening up two small tupperware containers, one containing macadamia nut brittle and the other maraschino cherries, Cris dipped a clean spoon into the one containing the nuts, scooped out some of its contents and sprinkled some over the ice cream. Now for the final touch. Picking up three cherries by their stems, Cris placed one on each of the scoops of ice-cream. He covered the plate with a pre-frozen cover before delicately placing it into the ice cooler.

Now that the cooking was done, Cris began to clean up after himself.

He first magically cleaned the utensils he had used before placing them back into the basket. Next, he packed up whatever ingredients he hadn't used, back into their containers before adding them to the basket too. Pointing his wand inside the saucepan, Cris siphoned out the oil, saying "Tergeo" before magically cleaning the pan and stowing it back into the basket. Cris also magically cleaned the portable wood burning stove.

Lastly, he cleaned the workstation he had been working at. Pointing his wand at its surface, Cris said, "Scourgify" and when the table top was cleaned, he ended the spell. Balancing the basket and the portable stove in the other, Cris made his way out of the workshop and down to the kitchens.

While the rice pudding was simmering, Adi would occasionally give it a stir because he didn't want the rice to settle at the bottom of the pot and burn. It was coming along nicely and he was feeling quite pleased with himself. The aroma that was emitting was just awesome and it reminded him of being back home when his mom would make the dish for him. But cooking by himself wasn't so bad after all.

The twenty minutes were up and just as was expected, the rice pudding had thickened. Excellent! It was time to add the finishing touches. Adi threw in a quarter cup of raisins, half a teaspoon of ground cardamon and stirred some more for five minutes with the heat still on. When those five minutes were up, he turned off the fire.

Adi scooped out the pudding into two little bowls- one for him to taste later ad one for the other person who was going to try it, though he had no idea who that would be as yet. Now for the garnish. The Hufflepuff added some chopped, toasted almonds and pistachios in each of the two bowls. He snapped on their lids and placed them in a compartment separate from where the ingredients were kept. All done!

The only thing left to do now was to clean up. Using Scourgify, he did just that before repacked his bag with the ingredients. It was time to head to the Kitchen.

Despite dealing with an onslaught of sneezes ever since waking up, Damian was in very good spirit. Part of the good mood he owed to all the nice people he'd met during the SNAC meeting, and the other part to Ancient Runes' homework — homework which didn't feel like homework. Sweet, right? And so, humming a chirpy tune and with a skip to his step, Damian breezed into the workshop, carrying a basket laden with ingredients and tools in one hand, and a glittery notebook in another.

A small crowd had already amassed in the Ancient Runes workshop, and several dishes were underway. No thanks to a stuffy nose, it was rather sad that he could only imagine the delicious aromas emanating from everyone's preparations; his mouth watered all the same. The little snake spotted Cutty, Cris, and Leah working on their recipes, and greeted them as he walked over to his working station, blushing and smiling all the while.

Setting his basket and notebook on the counter top, Damian cracked his knuckles and set to work. So, what do we have here? A fairly simple recipe of Pizza Omelette. Cooking was something he and his father bonded over back at home. The Huxley men would wake up early on Sundays to whip up a scrumptious breakfast for the entire family, while destroying the kitchen in the process. Pizza Omelettes were a family favourite.

Standing on his tippy toes, Damian placed the ingredients on the counter top one by one: 3 eggs, half cup of milk, a block of mozzarella cheese, a hunk of beef, red chili powder, three green peppers, a couple of tomatoes, and salt and pepper. His notebook sat open on the counter, too, containing the instructions in case he forgot something. In a large mixing bowl, Damian cracked open the eggs, added a splash of milk, and lightly sprinkled the chili powder on top. As he couldn't get his hands on a cutting board, he ended up chopping the green pepper and tomatoes on the counter top.

What else, hmmmm. Face scrunched up in deep thought, a sliver of panic ran through him when he failed to find a whisk in his basket. Oh, poo. All he had was a large metal spatula for flipping the eggs, clearly way too big for whisking purposes. He could borrow a spoon from someone, but he didn't want to; they were either leaving, or had just cleaned their utensils. Argh! Tears had begun to flood his eyes already; he was trying his best to keep them from leaving his eyes. He spotted a tea towel in his basket, pulled it out, and dabbed at his eyes. Think, Damian, think.

An idea, a rather absurd idea, did come to him. He extracted his wand from his pocket, gave it a quick wipe with the tea towel, and as discreetly as possible, dunk the pointy end in the mixing bowl. Teary-eyed and cringing, Damian quickly whipped the egg and milk mixture until satisfied, then thoroughly cleaned his poor wand. Okay, just a little hiccup, that's all. Moving on, he placed a skillet on the small stove, and stepped back a few paces before taking out the Kenaz rune from his pocket.

Recalling Professor Botros instructions, he held the rune and wand in the same hand, and after ensuring that they were in contact, began to chant the Galdr, "Kenaz kenaz kenaz . . . ku ka ki ke ko . . . kun kan kin ken kon . . . ok ek ik ak uk . . . kaunnnnnnnnn." He recited, his eyes fixed on his notebook where he had scribbled down the galdr beforehand for ease. And then, drawing a breath, Damian said, "Incendio!" A happy giggle escaped him as flames, albeit not quite intense, blazed out and brought the stove to life. While the skillet heated up a little, Damian worked on the lump of meat, struggling to cut it into bite-size pieces.

Two minutes passed rather quickly and the crêpe was ready. Mmmm.. That smelt really good. He took a moment to appreciate the wondrous smells emitting from his pan and quickly flipped the crêpe onto the plate. He covered it in a tea towel and then went back to pour in a cup of batter into the pan. His blue eyes widened for a second! Merlin! He'd forgotten the most important step of all. He placed the pan back on the counter and picked up the kenaz runestone. He needed to chant. "kenaz kenaz kenaz ku ka ki ke ko kun kan kin ken kon ok ek ik ak uk kaunnnnnnnnn.....Incendio!" he said and the flame became stronger. Phew. That was much better. He placed the pan on the fire and waited for it to cook. He made another crêpe just in case.

Two rights got rid of a wrong, right? That's what he thought.

With his third crêpe completed, Simon moved onto the next step. He had to make sure that his crêpes were presented nicely. Presentation was key. Simon removed the tea towel from underneath the crêpes and searched in his backpack for the lemons that he'd brought. He pulled out a single lemon from his bag and squeezed it into a little glass bowl. Then he scooped up a little bit of white sugar from his container and sprinkled it lightly over the crêpes. Finally, he poured the freshly squeezed lemon juice onto the crêpes. Ah, now that looked good. And it smelt really good too.

Now he had to clean up everything. He cleaned his workstation by pointing his wand at the workstation area and said, "Scourgify". Now with the station cleaned, he packed up his supplies, and headed to the Kitchen to complete the next step.

Alright now Kace finally made it here. He was ready to cook. He thought of a recipe. Well the basic one of all time. The famous grilled cheese. He got his loaf of bread, butter, cheese slice and bacon bits. He love bacon in his. He got butter the bottom side of the bread pieces first. Then he had to lit the flame but he needed to use the spell the professor taught them. He went over to the burner and chanted with the rune in his hand "kenaz kenaz kenaz ku ka ki ke ko kun kan kin ken kon ok ek ik ak uk kaunnnnnnnnn.....Incendio!" Then the flame erupted and he felt the warmth blaze! He smiled and was glad it worked!

He put the pan first and cooked the bacon. He heard it sizzle and he smiled. He loved the smell. He waited for a few minutes till they turned brown. After it was done, it only took a few minutes. Wooaahh this flame was strong. He noticed it was getting weaker. He frowned and probably had to do the chant again. He drained the pieces of bacon in a paper towel. There they were done onto the next step! He cleaned the pan quickly with "Scourgify!" and then time to cook the bread pieces with the cheese in the middle.

He began to chant the spell again with the rune in his hand....."kenaz kenaz kenaz ku ka ki ke ko kun kan kin ken kon ok ek ik ak uk kaunnnnnnnnn.....Incendio!" and then the flame came back full force! He immediately put the pan on for the bread pieces to cook and then once they was done. It was the last step....

It was time for Lux to get started with her Ancient Runes homework, and of course she would be going with a classic: spaghetti and marinara sauce. It was simple, and it was delicious. Kace was sure to love it, since he was the one that would be trying her dishes.

Carrying all the needed ingredients in a bag, she headed into the workshop. She had never been in here before, but surely this would not be too difficult. Worst case scenario, she could ask Professor Botros for assistance. He was a very nice man, and one of her favourite teachers at Hogwarts; but then pretty well all of them besides Bellaire were among her favourites.

Taking a pot from the bag, she gave it a quick cleaning before filling it part of the way with water using aguamenti. Salt was added to the water and then it was time for her to light the burner so she could heat the food up. Holding the Rune in hand so that it touched her wand, she walked over to the burner and chanted, "kenaz kenaz kenaz ku ka ki ke ko kun kan kin ken kon ok ek ik ak uk kaunnnnnnnnn." After catching her breath, she added, "Incendio!" and watched as the flame appeared. Awesome. Time for her to start boiling the water. Placing the pot on the burner, she began taking the other things out of her bag so that she could make the sauce.

In another clean pot, she combined a can of diced tomato, a bit of chopped onion, some pressed garlic, oregano, paprika, basil, salt and pepper. This would be her marinara sauce, and hopefully Kace would like it. Stirring everything together, it sure smelled nice!

Time for the Ancient Runes homework! Arista was super excited about the homework normally not so much but she loved cooking it was one thing her mum and her had in common. Something that she actually enjoyed and that her mum approved of. And so Arista grabbed her apron and headed to the workshop, carrying a basket of ingredients and tools.

A small crowd had already begun on their own dishes inside the workshop. Looks like Arsita wasn't the only one with the idea to do the homework today. She took a sniff and smiled all the aromas of the various dishes smelled so wonderful! She recognized several, a few being pancakes and crepes. Yummy! Could she have one? As she walked past each of her fellow classmates she gave a smile and a wave.

Reaching a free work space, the Gryffindor set down her basket. Reaching into the basket she pulled out her apron and tied it around her neck and waist, no one wanted to get a mess on their clothes. And now for the recipe. Once again she reached inside the basket, this time she pulled out her recipe binder. Opening it up she flipped through she wanted a fun recipe, not something simple but not something too hard. After all her mum wasn't here to take on the hard parts.

She decided on caramel apples. She loved making those during Halloween of course she didn't make those with her mum, those were with her father. She got to make all the fun stuff with him.

Standing on her tippy toes, Arista placed the ingredients on the counter top one by one: three green apples, sugar, light corn syrup, cotton candy flavoring, white food coloring, soft pink gel coloring and lastly the candy apple sticks. She propped her binder open on the counter so she would be able to see it while making the apples just in case she needed it.

The first year once again stood on her tip toes as she grabbed a sauce pan and set it on the counter. Sometimes being short stunk. She took the sugar and measured out three cups and added them into the sauce pan. Next came the half cup light corn syrup and the two tablespoons of white food coloring and then the two teaspoons of the gel coloring. Now for the water, taking out her wand she said "Aguamenti!" she didn't say finite until she had measured out one cup of water. With that she added the water to the sauce pan.

Now time for the fun part, she reached inside the basket where her rune set was at, and pulled out the Kenaz rune. Recalling Professor Botros insturctions, she held the rune and her wand in the same hand and began to chant, "Kenaz kenaz kenaz...ku ka ki ke ko... kun kan kin ken kon... ok ek ik ak uk... kaunnnnnnnnn.....Incendio!' A delighted laugh escaped her lips as she saw the flames appear. She set the sauce pan on top of the stove and waited for the mixture to come to a boil

Ooo and her dad always put that thermometer in there didn't he. Reaching into her basket she hoped that she had gotten it. Thankfully it was there so she wouldn't have to guess she wanted this to come out well. She inserted it into the mixture but made sure that the end did not touch the bottom, remembering what her dad had said about it.

Okay so now time for the apples. She took each of her apples and pulled the stems out. Taking her wand once again she cast the water charm, "Aguamenti!" after giving each of the apples a good wash she said "Finite." Taking the cloth she had brought she dried the apples and set them down onto the work space. She grabbed one of the sticks and stabbed the apple through where the stem had been. After each one was done she grabbed her wax paper and laid it out, again she remembered a tip her dad had said give it a quick spray with non-stick spray she quickly sprayed it not a lot but it was there. She set the apples next to the paper and looked back at her mixture.

Few minutes now.

In a large plate sat cubed meat pieces, chopped tomatoes, and green pepper. Now all he had to do was grate the cheese block. First he cut the block of cheese into large but manageable slices, then began to rub the sliced pieces against the metal grater, collecting the fine shreds in a small bowl. Once the bowl was filled to the brim with freshly shredded mozzarella cheese — the more, the better — Damian greased the warm skillet with olive oil, and then poured the egg and milk mixture in the center of the skillet, grinning as it began to sizzle. WEEEE!!!

Grabbing the handle of the skillet, he swirled the concoction around to coat the skillet completely. He pulled open a ziplock bag containing salt and pepper, extracted a pinch of both, and sprinkled them on top of the eggs which were now almost set. Without wasting a moment, his eyes gleaming with concentration, Damian poked the edges of the eggs, and carefully lifting from one corner, he flipped it over.

Phew. The hard part was over; the omelette pizza was coming along great. On one half of the omelette, Damian spread a layer of shredded cheese, then in went the chopped vegetables, bite-sized meat pieces, and finally, he topped it off with another layer of yummy cheese. He may have sneaked in a handful of cheese in his mouth, too. Oh well.

The other half, the one free from toppings, needed to be folded onto the side covered with toppings, so that the omelette resembled a semi circle; Damian did exactly that, and it turned out perfectly. YAY! After flipping the omelette once more to ensure that it was properly cooked, he transferred his masterpiece to a clean white plate. He finished things off by drizzling tomato sauce over the omelette and some more cheese. He gave the dish a quick sniff, but alas, nose blocked. Grrr.

Back at home, he wouldn't have to worry about the aftermath of cooking; his mum'd mostly take care of the mess. The Slytherin sighed; he couldn't rely on his mom, now could he? Sadly, he didn't know any cleaning spells, so he simply crammed the dirty utensils in his basket along with his notebook, and using a tea towel, scrubbed the counter top vigorously. That'd have to do.

Finished!

After extinguishing the flames, Damian left for the kitchen to tackle the next part with a broad smile on his face.

Arista glanced over at the thermometer for the second time in thirty seconds, cooking took forever!!! Why couldn't it reach the temperature yet! 302° F was it that hard to become that hot! Goodness!! Nope still not there just at 280°. She let out a long sigh and sat back down....She needed to pass the time so she looked down at the ground, her father always said need to pass the time? Count the cracks. So that's what she was going to do now.

Getting bored after only counting fifty cracks, the young redhead glanced back up at the thermometer, 300° it was almost there! She stood up from the seat and grabbed her apples and the wax paper covered baking sheet and moved them closer to the sauce pan. "Come on reach 302°!!!" she whispered to the sauce pan. 301°.......302°!!! "YES!!!" The Gryffindor let out a cheer, quickly realizing that she wasn't alone she gave a smile and turned to her work.

She was just going to act like that didn't happen.

Immediately after the sauce pan reached the desired temperature she removed the pan from the heat and grabbed her pink rubber spatula and poured in two tablespoons of the cotton candy flavoring. She stirred it nice and slow remembering that the mixture was super hot! And she didn't want any accidents.

Once she thought she had mixed in the mixture enough she grabbed her first apple and dipped it into the mixture getting it nice and coated. Above the pan she gave it a spin by twisting the stick between her hands, after ten seconds had passed and all the excess coating had dripped off she set it onto the covered baking sheet. She repeated the coating and spinning process for the remaining two apples.

While the apples were hardening she decide it was time to clean up. Now what was that spell that the older girl had taught her. Oh right Scourgify! She giggled as she heard several of her fellow classmates using the spell. Taking her wand out she said "Scourgify."clean her sauce pan and rubber spatula, and then the rest of the tools she had used. Once those were all nice and cleaned she put them back into the basket along with all the left over ingredients.

Perfect!! Now for the workstation, she pointed her wand and repeated the incantation, "Scourgify." With a wave of her wand the workstation was as perfect as it was when the first year had entered the room. Now all she had to do was go cook up some more over at the Kitchen, shouldn't be hard.

Lucy was not bad to cook..She decided to cook her strong plate: French fries !!
She had brought a fry pan, olive oil, potatoes and a bit of salt..
Lucy peel the potatoes and cut the potatoes in several little pieces..She grabbed the kenaz rune.
Lucy held the rune and her wand in the right hand and she started to chant:"kenaz kenaz kenaz Ku Ka ki Ke ko..Kun Kan kin ken Kon.. ok ek ik ak uk..Kaunnnnnnnn.... Incendio!
She saw the flames and she began to wait the right time and started to see the oil starting to boil..

Ethan is not scared of the fire.

He is scared that he might start a fire and burn things up inside the workshop. The third year knew that Professor Botros will hate him for life if he puts his workshop in ashes. Well. The good thing is, he will be working with his Kenaz rune, which isn’t as wild as the Sowilo. See? He took note of that too during their…freezing lecture.

After getting help from the very helpful portraits to lead him to the workshop, the boy took a peek and was glad to see familiar faces. “Hello, fraaaaands.”

So onto cooking!

Ethan decided to go for the simplest one. A meal that he always eat during his summer stay at Mordred’s place: Bacon Sandwich. Anything with bacon is just…heaven! The third year pulled out the ingredients from his satchel, and laid it out carefully on his workstation to make sure that he’s got everything. But before he did his cooking, he got the old frying pan that the elves donated to him and went towards the area where Professor Botros kept a bunch of nails and hammers. He got himself a piece of the pointy stuff, and a small hammer and began to inscribe the Kenaz symbol on the side of the pan.

Clink. Clankclankclank. Clinkclinkclink.

Smiling at his progress, he returned the nail and hammer to its proper place and inspected his inscription. It’s a good thing that the Kenaz symbol was a simple one to do, so there wasn’t much fuzz. “Scourgify!” he said as he cleaned the frying pan before heading back towards his station. Now. Onto cooking!

Placing the frying pan on the stove, Ethan placed his Kenaz rune in his right hand and placed his wand on top of it and started to chant the Kenaz Galdr. “Kenaz kenaz kenaz...ku ka ki ke ko... kun kan kin ken kon... ok ek ik ak uk... kaunnnnnnnnn...” and as the rune started to glow, so is the inscription on his pan. Yes! “Incendio!” FIYAAAAAAAAH.

Now it was time to boiling..
Lucy grabbed the little pieces of potatoes and she throwed the potatoes in the frying pan..
A few minutes minutes later the potatoes was ready.
The potatoes were cooked well; they had a golden crust and a delicious smell!
Lucy took the plate. She covered the potatoes with the absorbent paper and started to dry the potatoes..
Then Lucy pointed her wand to her workstation and she cleaned all things with "Scourgify".
Lucy took her supplies and she went to the Kitchen to complete her homework..

Cooking was not her strong suit by far, and here she was expected to cook something. Maybe the whole getting to use magic thing would be helpful, but she wasn't so sure. AJ had put this off long enough, and it was time to get down to business. What was she going to make? AJ had thought long and hard about her which food to make and all she had decided on so far was that it had to be sweet. She plopped her bag down and flopped through some recipes that she found.

Finally deciding on stove top chocolate chip cookies, she flipped to the recipe that showed her how to properly make them. Considering that she wasn't sure what to make when she first got here, she had plenty of ingredients on hand. Rummaging in her bag once more she pulled out butter, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and semisweet chocolate chips. As much as she liked chocolate chip cookies she suddenly wondered if maybe she should have gone with an easier recipe for starters.

This was fine. She would breeze right through this. The only problem that she would have would be keeping herself out of the dough. Sometimes she thought that it tasted better than the actual cookies. Thinking back to what the professor told them to do she reached into her bag and pulled out kenaz rune. What was the chant? Oh yeah! "kenaz kenaz kenaz ku ka ki ke ko kun kan kin ken kon ok ek ik ak uk kaunnnnnnnnn. Slight pause. "Incendio." Woot! Victory was hers!

Sizzle…sizzle…sizzle.

Ethan wafted the vapour onto his face with his hand as he started to fry the strips of bacon on his frying pan. Sniff, sniff, sniff. With a smile on his face, he flipped each of the strips and continued to prepare to do the next steps. Once he was done with that, he again checked on his bacon, and was surprised to see that he hasn’t burned any strip yet. Could it be because of the Kenaz fire, what with it being a controlled flame? Ethan nodded to himself as he extinguished the flame and dried the bacon on a plate with layers of paper towels. It wouldn’t hurt if he took a small piece, no?

No. Chomp.

As he continued to chew, he made his own assessment inside his head and continued with the following steps to finish his first bacon sandwich. Oh boy. Simon’s going to love this! As soon as he was done, he cleaned up his station with a swish of his wand, and collected all of his things and dumped them inside his satchel, and made his way towards the kitchen while holding his plate of awesomeness.

Zander walked into the workshop with a little bit more than just a little terror in his eyes. Uh heeeellooo, hopeless third year coming through. How the heck was he supposed to cook something by himself!? The last time he had tried that was in Muggle Studies. And he had managed to throw the pizza unto the ceiling and then on his head. So yeah, you could say that cooking isn't really his thing.

And neither is runes.

So this task would prove to be way difficult for the Gryffindor. Now, where to begin? Looking around he pulled out the ingredients he kept in his bag for the homework. He decided to go with simple, but delicious: macaroni and cheese. Clearly the right choice. He only had two ingredients. How could he possibly screw this up!?

Zander grabbed a medium sized pot and "Scourgify"ed it. Culloden would be oh-so proud. But he was here for runes. Right runes. He had almost forgotten one of the most important things! Reaching into his bag he grabbed out the Kenaz rune! Right okay... Now what? Oh water! "Aguamenti!" He filled up the pot with just the right amount of water and then tipped in the macaroni shells. Perfect. Now for the fire. Ugh. This was the hard part.

Rune in one hand and wand in the other the boy began chanting just as he had in class. "Kenaz kenaz kenaz . . . ku ka ki ke ko . . . kun kan kin ken kon . . . ok ek ik ak uk . . . kaunnnnnnnnn." Right... It sounded like a bunch of gibberish to him... But if Botros wanted it that way then... By all means, bring on the house points! "Incendio!" He watched happily as a flame grew under his pot. Now he'd just have to wait for the water to boil? Right? That's how macaroni worked.... Hopefully.

Alright onto the last steps. He needed to cut the bacon bits. He watched while his grilled cheese was still cooking and he was cutting it up. He cut them fastly into little bits to put into the sandwich. Once that was done, he saw the grilled cheese had burned!

"AGH NO!!!" he said and then took the bread off the pan. He muttered a few words to himself and then disposed it into the garbage. He needed to do it again but at least his bacon bits didn't perish. He saw the flame was getting weaker and muttered the incantation with the rune in his hand. "Kenaz kenaz kenaz . . . ku ka ki ke ko . . . kun kan kin ken kon . . . ok ek ik ak uk . . . kaunnnnnnnnn....INCENDIO!" There now the fire was fine!

He got his two pieces of bread and buttered them and placed one the bread slices onto the pan. He saw it was cooking faster this time. He placed the cheese on the slice and then added the other piece of bread. Then it was time to sprinkle in the bacon bits. He sprinkled them on and then he smelt it and it smelled so good. He took it off the pan and then put it onto the plate. He smiled and was glad it worked. Now off to Lux to see if she could decipher which one was which. He put the grilled cheese in a plastic container to keep the heat in.