A Birth day

When the kids had ridden their rollercoaster, Marcus steered them to the restaurant where they joined Poppy and Aria at the table. Poppy and Daria got barbeque chicken but the boys and Marcus got ribs. Everyone seemed to be having different side dishes but that was just part of the fun.

Poppy didn't ask if there were still any real cowboys, but, actually, Ezra asked it.

"There are some, yes," Marcus said, "but there a bit limited. They're are the hired hands that work on cattle ranches in western states, like Oklahoma and Texas and some of those places."

"Do they go hunt bad guys like they used to?"

"Well, not so much anymore. They have a lot more police officers than they used to, so the cowboys don't need to go catch bad guys."

"So you're one of the modern day cowboys, in a way," Ezra said. "I mean, you're not a policeman, so, you must be a cowboy."

"I hadn't considered that, but I think you're right," he smiled.

"I like what you," Ezra told him. "You stop the bad guys, so that's a good thing."

"He doesn't catch bad guys, he protects the good guys," Kai said.

"Well? Its still a good thing," Ezra said.

"You're right. It's still a good thing," Zane said.

"Of course I'm on it," Angus said. "I've had too much training on boats to not see it." He was working on a design of a multiple level treehouse. His design had different levels that spiraled up the tree so that one level was never more than a few steps away from the next.

"They can be pretty curious about humans," Angus said. "The best thing is to not move very much, just let them do whaatever snooping around they want to do, and they'll move on. I've heard rumors that some wizards have managed to speak with dolphins and befriend some, but I'm not sure I'd encourage that simply because a dolphin would hve no way to distinguish between a wizard and a muggle. And we all know that not all muggles are the kindest souls to other living creatures. I think the dolphins are safer being wary of all of us."

He worked on his sketch for the next couple of hours, and then he got up.

"I think the storm will be on us within the next hour or so," he told her. "I think I'll go put on the risotto for supper and perhaps I'll grill some salmon with it. I think we can safely leave the windows open for a bit longer yet without a whole lot of risk, at least for now." He went inside, taking the sketchbook and the pencils and he laid them on the end of the kitchen counter, away from where he would be cooking. He started with the risotto, and while that was cooking, he got the prep work done on the salmon and got the grill pan ready to grill the salmon on the cooktop. He was also getting a salad prepared from not only some of the wild greens they'd found but also some salad greens and some vegetables that were stocked for them.

When the kids were finished with lunch, Marcus insisted they go wash up in the restrooms to get all the sticky saude off their hands. Once everyone was clean again, they set out for more rides. It was a full afternoon, and by suppertime, the kids were tired. With the time difference, suppertime in the US was bedtime for them back home. Marcus finally told them that he believed it was time to go for one day, and he was not entirely surprised when they didn't fight him much and went back to the campsite.

"I think I"ll put grill some burgers over the campfire if you can maybe put together some fried potatoes or a salad or something to go with it," Marcus said. "This bunch is dead on their feet. I think the best we can do is to fix a very quick meal for them so they can head to bed if they want. I think we should do the cooking tonight because I don't want exhausted kids tinkering with fire tonight."

Marcus didn't take long to build a fire in the fire ring and put a grill grate on top of it to heat, and then he made some burger patties and, following sdomething he had seen Angus do a few bezillion times, he added some grated onion and garlic to the burger patties, along with salt, pepper, smoked paprika and worchestershire sauce before he made them into patties. Then he took the burgers and the buns, and he put the patties on the grill grate to cook them over the open fire. When the burgers were nearly done, he put the buns on the grill grate too to toast them.

"It does smell good, doesn't it? I think you'll like it," Angus told Ruby. "It should be ready in just a few minutes." He had sort of rooted around in the pantry and he found a bottle of a French dressing. He had taken it and made a sauce with some of the dressing, some worchestershire, some butter, some garlic and onion and dill, and some muscovado sugar for a rich, dark sweetness. He mixed it together and used it as a basting sauce while the salmon was grilling. He gave the risotto a stir every now and then. He shaved the truffle paper thinly right into the risotto as it cooked, and he made the tossed salads. He chopped a little fresh parsley finely and stirred it into the risotto to add a little color and then he plated up the salads and the entrees. He set them on the table, opened a bottle of white wine, and poured it. "Come tuck in," he told her. "Edward would definitely be jealous if he knew what we were eating tonight. Salmon and risotto is one of his favorite entrees. And if he knew it had fresh truffles, he'd definitely have just invited himself to join us."

"Good idea," Marcus told her. "They smell great." He plated up the burgers on a platter and took them to the picnic table where Daria had set the table for them and had added one of the folding camp chairs at each end so that the table could accommodate all seven of them. Marcus knew that since the kids were smaller, they would fit easily on the benches of the picnic table, and that left the chairs that had been added at the ends for Aria and him.

"So, we have burgers, potatoes, and Kate sent along some of her cowboy cookies for us. I thought we could have those for dessert tonight. We'll do s'mores tomorrow night, if that's alright with you," Mracus told them.

"Perfect," Zane said, yawning.

"You guys had a very full day today," Marcus told them. "So feel free to turn in early if you want."

"We might just do that," Kai said. "Supper looks great. Good idea, Dad."

"Well tuck in, and help yourselves," Marcus told them. He waited until the kids had fixed their plates to fix his. He made sure everyone had cans of soda and were all set before he settled in with his own supper.

"I will have to take whatever we have left of the truffle home with us. I'm sure Edward and Simone will consider it a rare luxury," Angus said. "Maybe I'll redo this at home for them." He looked at the bottle of wine. "Ah yes. This is one of ours. It's a chardonnay. Of what they stockef for us, I liked this one the best. I like the fruitiness of it, but I also like that it's a dry wine. It's a good combination with fish and with the heaviness of the risotto. I honestly think Edward has the right philosophy about wine. He doesn't strive for big batches of wine. What he does strive for is to make sure that what he does produce is just a really high quality wine. Most of the batches they make sell out. And if it's a really particularly good batch, Edward will save a little out for family. From what Evan tells me, the winery has a steady customer base. They've talked about making the batches a little bigger, but neither Edward nor Evan want to do it unless they can be sure that they can maintain the quality. And I agree with them.

"Oh, that reminds me. Edward has put in a small wine cellar in his basement at the duplex but he's told me that you and I need to help ourselves to it. He didn't make it just for him and Simone. He made it for us too, so if there's any sort of wine you really like, we can put some down there," he said, hearing thunder now rumbling overhead. "I think the rain is finally maybe getting to us."

"Maybe just today," Marcus laughed, "but, overall? No. Give them food, and they get too busy to talk much."

"Can we shower in the morning just this once, Dad?" Ezra asked, trying to stifle a yawn as he ate.

"That's fine by me--just this once," Marcus said. "I know you guys are all really knackered."

"Somewhere beyond that," Daria said sleepily.

"But no giving me guff in the morning about showering them, deal?"

"Deal," the all agreed.

"So, are the cowboy cookies shaped like cowboys?" Ezra asked, curious.

"No," Marcus said. "She tells me that, on the covered wagon trails, they had one wagon that was just for cooking."

"The chuck wagon," Zane said.

"Right," Marcus said.

"And they had one bloke whose job it was to cook for everyone on the wagon train."

"You've been reading the wild west books I got you," Marcus said.

"Yeah. So, let me guess, then. The cookies are sort of an idea about what a chuck wagon cook might make from the ingredients he had stocked in the chuck wagon."

"Exactly right," Marcus said. "Well done. They're in the tin in the center of the table. Finish your burgers and potatoes, and then you can all have one or two."

"You making coffee for the cookies?" Zane asked.

"If we do, we'll make decaf. You lot do not need caffeine. You need sleep," Marcus said.

"No, Kai and I just like the taste of coffee," Zane told him.

"Well, fair enough, so do Aria and I. If you'd like some decaf, we can put a pot on the fire to brew." He looked at Aria. "Have you ever used one of these cowboy style coffee pots on an open fire?"

"It doesn't have a basket for the grounds," Kai said. "So how do you get the grounds out of the coffee, then?"

"As the coffee brews, the grounds get heavy and most of them sink to the bottom of the pot. You might find a couple grounds in your cup, but the only one who really has to look for them is the poor fellow who gets the last cup in the pot," Marcus said. "