A Birth day

Jack hears Even and nodded " oh she does" he saimply said and chuckled " oh that stew was great " he said in reply to the sugestion Angus make some " please make more this year." he almost pleaded " I might be a werewolf but I love pumpkin stew." As Even walked up to him he waved bye and walked over to where the grounds men were working with Anise.

Jessie smiled and nodded " that would be perfect nine is his bed time, so hes good till then, thanks guys" he said as Yu and Jessie both gave Chris a hug and told him they would see him later and to have fun with Abby and Caprice. Ruby smiled seing them leave and pored some more tea.

"Fresh pot if any one wants some" she said but sent a cup over to Angus and Edward. She made a cup for herself and sat next to Abby as she played.

"No problem. You know we always have an overabundance of pumpkins, so I'm sure I'll be making pumpkin stew, pumpkin bread, pumpkin praline waffles, pumpkin pie---you know..." Angus laughed.

"Wait, what was that?" Evan asked. "Pumpkin praline waffles? You've never done that before."

"You mean I've never done it for you," Angus said.

"Well, what is it?"

"I make praline candy the night before, and then for breakfast I make pumpkin waffles with chopped candied pecans in the batter. And I also make a praline syrup. Then, to serve, I put the syrup over the waffles, with more chopped candied pecans on top, the praline syrup, and I make a whipped cheesecake ricotta cheese to add just a little more garnish on the top," Angus said.

"Lordy. That must have 1200 calories per waffle," Evan said. "So you're making it tomorrow morning, right?"

Maybe for supper. I have to go see Madame Maxine tomorrow morning, remember? I'm probably getting up at the crack of moonlight to make a batch of cinnamon rolls so I can take some to her tomorrow," Angus said. "Alright. I need to crack on with the pumpkin stew. Ru, while I work on cleaning and roasting pumpkins, can you get the rest of the ingredients for me? I need potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, onion, carrots, and some of the large containers of beef stock from the freezer. Oh, and at least three pounds of the lean beef cubes from the freezer--the ones I use for beef stew. Please?"

Ruby stood listening to the abundance of items he was going to make " oh those sound heavenly" she said smiling " especialy the waffles" she chuckled as he explained then he asked her to fetch ingridiants for the stew she nodded and fetched the potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, onion, carrots, and some large containers of beef stock from the freezer and about three pounds of the lean beef cubes, placing them all down she began cleaning and peeling the veg ready to be diced and placed in the stew pots. As each veg ws done she looked at Angus to make sure she ws doing it right while he cooked away beside her . She loved cooking with him. Soon she was on to the potatoes , she scrubbed them clean then peeled them and then diced them placing them with the carrots before cutting the tomatoes and onions.


Aria sat with Khaat in her office as Jess walked in with her report her heels clicking as she walked over to the desk " alls good the werewolves are responding wel to treatment the ..others are gone, collected by Aurors and the cabonet is still sat behind the boiler , some guards tried to brake the charm but failed " she added placing dow  a manilla envalope on the desk for Khaat to read over.

"You're doing just fine," he told her. "Perfect size for stew. Good job." He cleaned, cut, and seeded three sugar pumpkins. Then he cut them into generous slices and laid the slices on a couple sheet pans, added olive oil, salt, and fresh cracked pepper and put them in the oven to roast. While that was roasting, he sautéed the onion and garlic in some oil with salt and pepper and when the onion was translucent, he added the carrots. Then, he added the beef cubes and sauteed them with the vegetables before adding the tomatoes and letting them cook down a bit. Then he added the stock and the potatoes and some herbs and spices, including some pumpkin pie spice to add some warmth.

With the stew finally on, he made some Irish soda bread so there would be some good crusty bread with the meal and also a very quick batch of shortbread for dessert. He was planning on dipping the shortbread in chocolate ganache when they finished cooking.

"Thank goodness," Khaat sighed. "Maybe we won't have to have staff continuing to do double shifts to keep us covered. If you don't need them, please return them to regular hours, and let them know their overtime hours will be paid at a double rate, not time and a half, please. I appreciate everyone's hard work, so I want to be sure they know it. You and I should be able to leave on time tonight for a change, shouldn't we?"

Ruby smiled as Angus said she was doing a great job " I've never made a stew before" she admitted " but it smells wonderful" she added as she watched him place everything into the pot and add herbs and spices each giving it a more fragrant smell to waft around the kitchen and house. She watched as he made a batch of shortbread dipped in chocolate ganache for desert.

Jess nodded to Khaat " definatly you will and I'll let them know they will be over joyed, and yes we can everything is back to normal, but I'll leave some extra security around for a few days , just incase his pack decide on ther eown to retaliate" she added then chuckled " if they can manage a braincell between them all." Jess smiled andnsighed " Im looking foward to a hot home cooked meal tonight, wonder what's on the menu" she asked.

"You make great soups, so you can do stews too. They're not that different," he told her. "The biggest difference is that you leave your meat and vegetables in bigger pieces, and you need to thicken up the broth so that its much more like a gravy than just a stock. Personally, I prefer to take cornflour, put a couple generous spoonfuls in a coffee mug, add water, stir it to make a slurry, and then I add it to my broth to thicken it. It's important to add just a little at a time and then you have to bring your broth to a full boil. Cornflour never ever reaches its fullest thickening power until you bring it to a full boil first. So bring it to a full boil, and then you can reduce the heat a bit. If it isn't thick enough, add more of the cornflour slurry, bring it to a boil, and reduce again to see how thick it is. If you add too much right at the start, you risk it getting glue-y and tasting a lot like eating paste. Not good."

"I don't think our place is cooking yet, so I hope Angus is making enough to go around for all of us," Khaat said. "If not, I'll have to order out for us from Sparks. It'll be tasty, but there's something to be said for a home cooked meal. Aria, I think we can head home in the next 30 to 45 minutes. As soon as I finish signing these paychecks."

Ruby listened to him and nodded " oh right" she said as she listened more to him smiling as he explained how to mix the cornflour in to the stew to make it thicker. she watched as he explained about putting it in too quick " hum sounds like something I would not want to eat" she said pulling a face to the idea of eating paste. She heard Caprice clap her hands and shout paste as loud as she could several times making her chuckle and continue to watch as Angus made the stew.

Aria looked up at Jess and Khaat and nodded to her " Im in no rush " she said finishing her round of solitare on the coffee table with a smile as Jess moved to the main doors " see you later Jess" Aria said and Jess nodded.

"yep" she said and left the room. Aria sat back on the couch and thought about how Marcus had looked when he left she knew there might be a possibility he had a goose egg sised lump on the back of his head to tebd to when she got home but she would deal with that when she returned unless some one had already iced it for him.

"You definitely wouldn't want to eat it," Angus laughed. "Buggaring up the cornflour is one of the biggest mistakes that a new line cook makes because they don't know how to use it properly." He knew he could smell his shortbread cookies, so he took them out of the oven to cool. He took a bag of chocolate wafers, put them in a bowl, and then flicked his fingers at them to melt them. He flicked his fingers at the shortbread to cool it just a bit. "Do you have time to dip those shortbread cookies in the chocolate? There are some autumn sprinkles in the upper cabinet right in front of you if you want to dress them up at all. They're maple leaf shaped. I got them as a freebie from one of our suppliers for all the business we do. Might be a good place to use them, and it might bring a smile to some of the people who haven't been feeling so well."

"I think I'm ready to go home," Khaat told Aria, sighing. She took her files and locked them in a safe in the back room and then came out. She looked out the window. "And it's pouring down rain here. You know, though, the estate is quite a long distance from London, so it might not be raining at all there." I've got a trench coat and a shorter rain jacket in the back room, if you'd like to wear one. I can get them for us if you want."

Ruby chuckled and nodded at his words hearing about the cookies she nodded " of course" she said then moved to retreve the sprinckles " oh these will chere up even some one whose not been ill" she sid smiling seeing the small maple leaf shaped srinkles once she had dipped the shortbreads she placed several sprinkles over the still taky chocolate and smiled seeing how each looked.

Aria loked up at Khaat and smiled " I'll take the short one and leave the long one for you" she said accioug the rain coat and slipping it on. Once Khaat was ready she walked with her back out of St Mungos to the ally way they had arrived in passing several workers on their way home oo. Each thanked Khaat and bid her good night. Aria walked beside her to the ally locking doors as they went so nobody could follow them. Once in the ally she took hold of Khaat and ported them to the yard back home. " at least its dry here" she said shaking the water from out of her hair.

"Sounds fine to me," Khaat said. "So, you've had a little taste over the last couple days of what Marcus has had to contend with on a daily basis. One thing about James, he is a stubborn cuss, that's for sure. Not very bright, not all that sweet smelling, but relentless. And, believe me, I am very grateful for the help. I don't want to have to live in a box. Nor do I want Abbey to have to live in one either.

"Back before I was born," Khaat told her, "Remus was decades away from meeting Tonks, and one of the biggest fears he had on those days was that his werewolf curse would bring some harm to me. So, Remus apparently managed to get Nicolas Flamel to make a special necklace for me because he did not want me to ever have to deal with being a werewolf. So the night I was born, he put this necklace around my neck and he put an enchantment on it that he was the only one who could take it off. He never envisioned that he wouldn't live to see me reach adulthood. The necklace screams like a banshee if a dark werewolf gets too close. And it can shoot out some sort of blinding green light. What we think we know is that it keeps me from being changed to a werewolf even if I am bitten. And that light and the screaming does do some warding away, but, so far as we know, the only way for me to take it off is if I'm beheaded. And I'm not looking to do that any time soon. My father has a theory that it would also prevent any werewolf from actually being able to kill me, but I don't want to put it to any sort of a test. So, if you ever see this thing going nuts, you'll know why. James is probably nearby. Anyway, I know you're tired and hungry and so am I. Thank you so much for doing such a good job over the last couple days. Maybe you'll get a very well deserved day off tomorrow."

"Ru, I think the stew might be ready," Angus said, tasting it. He added just one more pinch of salt. "Come taste it and see if it'll do? If it will, let's get half of this sent over to the main house, with half the bread and half the cookies."

At that moment, the kids all came home from work.

"I dont know what you're making but we're starved," Victor said.

"It's almost ready," Angus said. "As soon as Ruby tells me whether it tastes alright or not."