Logan took a steadying breath as she looked about her workstation. I can do this, the young blonde told herself before remembering that she wasn’t young – not really. Some of her opponents weren’t yet seventeen.

Okay, so she was nervous…and really, really wanted to do well. The should-have-been-hufflepuff wanted nothing more than to simply congratulate everyone on entering into the competition…and, well, she really wanted to ask everyone what they loved so much about cooking…for her, it was how everything combined. The sheer act of creating art that people could eat and enjoy. I wonder if my friends came to watch? She thought for a second before glancing back down at her station and starting to clean all of her tools.

We don't have time to think about the audience, or that there is an audience. She told herself before taking another steadying breath.

Logan looked around at the crowd for a moment as she thought about the competition…and then she heard it the announcement to start cooking – what was she going to make? Something to pay homage to her durmstrang roots…something, something inspired by the wolverine life?

Green…maybe? Or did she want it to be something to pay homage to Marus? Looking at the tools and ingredients around her she finally settled on making something to pay homage to her truest friends – both Marus and Altair they had been there for her and really it might have been more for Mar than anyone.

Perfect. Taking a dragon fruit from the bin of exotic fruits she cut it in half and then sliced off a small circular section for a garnish. Taking the rest of the fruit she carved away the peel and placed it into the blender before halving and scooping out the center of a kiwi and adding it into the blender and pulsing it – once – twice – three times before adding in more ingredients. The juice of a lime that she squeezed into the blender, ice cubes, coconut milk and powder from a dried crushed raspberry.

The mixture looked like a slushed up smoothie for the moment. It wasn’t ready yet with its bits and chunks in it. Taking a bit of cheesecloth and spreading it over a large bowl she began pouring the liquid mess over the cloth. With it solidly on the center of the cloth, she began grabbing up the edges until it was a large ball and squeezed until the juice and color simply filled the bowl.

Taking her time she moved the concoction into a pitcher before dolling it out into the little cups so that the audience could taste it. Using her wand she duplicated the dragonfruit piece she had cut before and added it as a little decoration to each of the small cups.

She even named it for Marus, Beach please...because she loved her truly.

Lo had already come up with a name for her dish. It was one she had practiced and practiced in these past few weeks because, well, she wanted it to be just magical and delicious. Not like those overly sweet magically delicious cereals her classmates at school sometimes ate but like the pure untapped potential of raw magic. Pulling the list of ingredients she needed out of her pocket she began collecting them from her pantry.

Taking a Pullman bread pan out of the pantry area she began setting everything up. Taking her measuring tools and her scales she measured out exactly 5.5 grams of yeast, 362 grams of warm water, 25 of sugar, 548 of locally sourced bread flour, 33 of lard and about one and one quarter teaspoons of salt. With everything measured out she moved on to setting the temperature of her oven to 176.67 degrees Celsius.

She needed to mix everything as well – but still, the most important thing was using the proper spell for instap-proofing the yeast in her dough. Adding yeast to the bowl she put in the warm water over it and a table spoon of the sugar to feed it. Yeast, was alive after all. She allowed it to sit for a moment before casting a blooming charm over the mixture which simply made the water foam as bloomed yeasty water tends to do. She then moved on to mixing the remaining water, and sugar with the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl (this of course, included the flour).

Oven heated, check.

She waved her wand over the mixture as she cast a kneading charm over the dough. When the dough was ready to be proofed she simply waved her wand over it again before saying an almost impossible to hear ”fermentum excitant” which caused the dough to RISE and rise until it had reached the potential it would have reached had it been allowed to rise properly. It was nearly double the size it had been.

Bettering and greasing her pan she put the dough inside and let it heat for a half hour while she prepared the other ingredients of her dish. Taking out the figs she had collected earlier before starting on the bread Lo simply divided them into the different parts of her recipe.

With the first part she decided to work on the fig and olive tapenade she took a large assortment of the figs and chopped them portioning off half of those for another part of her dish. Now with a wave of her wand again she dried what had to be a cup of figs.

Moving on she combined the died figs with a half cup of water and set the heat to medium. When it finally came to a boil she waited, watched and made sure the figs had become tender and the water had reduced down to nearly nothing at all. Removing it from the heat she added in olive oil, balsamic vinager, rosemary, thyme, and cayenne pepper flakes into the mixture. Then with a tough she realized she needed to add in the already chopped Kalamata olives and her minced the plethora of minced glaric into the mixture. Seasoning it with salt and pepper she cast a quick time charm on the dish which simply made it settle until the flavors had melded together. Putting it into a small bowl she cleaned out the saucepan and moved on to the next step…this, was tiring.

Glancing at the oven she looked and noticed her bread – it was ready. Taking it out she cast a quick cooling charm on it before setting it on her workstation. Now, next what was next? Next…what was next?

Taking her wand she cut her Pullman loaf into sandwich slices before doing the same with a block of spicy jalapeño cheddar cheese and some white cheddar as well. Spreading a bit of garlic butter onto a frying pan she let it come to temperature. Spreading a thin layer of jalapeño aioli on the outside edges of the bread she added another spread of the freshly made fig and olive tapenade on what was clearly going to be a grilled sandwich. Adding in the sliced fig halves, freshly cut jalapeños, and the mixture of cheeses she simply closed the sandwich. Placing the sandwich onto the pan she watched, smelled, and listened as it browned and crisped. When it was about halfway done she added a bit more cheese to the outside pieces of bread for extra crispiness.

There, there. It should work, everything about it should work. She thought as she grinned at the jar of fresh magically marinated figs she had used in the fish. Using her spatula she took the sandwich off of the griddle before cutting it in half before cutting it in half and putting sandwich halves on the plates provided for the audience.

”Hello everyone, this is what I call a Spicy Metamorfig[/b] Grilled Cheese sandwich – now it might look like an ordinary Jalepeño and fig grilled cheese…its not,”[/b] she smiled softly, ”these figs have been preserved in a spelled potion – crafted in a silver cauldron…as we all know Silver Cauldrons absorb magic and this magic, the magic I used with this potion gives the user or the eater the temporary ability to change their appearance.” she smiled softly at everyone and glanced at the crowd, ”please, please do enjoy the Spicy Metamorfig Grilled cheese, and if you don’t like spicy ones I’m currently mixing up a jalapeño free version right now” she smiled as she took a bite of the sandwich she had just made for herself.

Ugh.

Yum.

Spicy, salty, zesty…but most of all it was crispy and warm and the center was gooey and the cheese, it pulled like nothing else. For effort and well, to show the magic in progress Logan thought about making her hair black and for a moment the blonde woman looked nothing like herself, instead, she looked like her own sister Angela.