A Birth day

Ruby chuckled and picked one up placing it in her mouth she hummed at the taste " you should do these for next years halloween" she said " they would go down a blast , they taste good too" she said with a smile as she watched the plate float over to the main house.

Aria chuckled and nodded then heard him mention what Michael was cooking " oh, hes not, Sparks sent over food, should be over at the duplex as we speack" she said to him " they thought we could use a break from cooking and they would help out, even a little" she said taking hism hand in her own " shall we see what was sent over?" she asked him still chukaling it was now she saw the covered plat float into the back door of the main hosue " ah I see foods here someone sent over a plate" she said motioning to it as it entered the building.

"I'm glad you like them," Angus smiled. "I expect the ones I send to Suzanne to go out in the trash there, honestly. Too bad, too. I rather like the caramel and the creme brulee cream."

Nigel was heading into the house to just take a few minutes to sit in a comfortable chair in the living room. He'd been at this for over 24 hours, and he needed a break. At that moment, Robert saw the plate floating through the living room, and he motioned it over to him with one finger. The plate floated over, and Robert read the note. He recognized Angus's handwriting, and he took the foil cover off the plate and saw the flobberworm candies. He started to laugh like a schoolboy, utterly delighted that Angus had seen the humor in it.

"What have you got there?" Nigel asked.

"Flobberworm," Robert said, deliberately not telling Nigel they were candy. Robert picked up one of the disgusting ones, popped it in his mouth and ate it. Robert was delighted. They were wonderful.

"Ewww," Nigel appeared sufficiently grossed out.

"They're not real. They're candies. Angus made them. Here. Try one of the attractive ones. He handed one to Nigel, who tasted it.

"God, those are fabulous," Nigel said. "Angus made them? Himself? By hand?"

"Yes," Robert said.

"Why? Of all the magical creatures on this planet, would he ever make candy flobberworms?" Nigel asked.

"Well, there's a story to that," Robert said as Nigel sat down.

"I'm all ears. Tell me," Nigel said.

"Lunch from Sparks? I'm in. Let's go because I'm starving," Marcus said. They went to the main house and went inside and the first thing Marcus saw on the table were plates full of flobberworms. "Hmm," Marcus said frowning.

Aria smiled when Marcus said for them to grab some food entering she saw the worms and chuckled " I think this is Angus's doing, and I hope there not real" she said as she retold what had happened to Suzzane. " they look real?" she said walking over just as Ruby walked over and looked at her .

"there not, there candies Angus made and wow are they delish" she said popping one in her mouth. " try one" she said holding up a plate to them.

Marcus took one and ate it.

"Oh, yeah. Those are good. Can we make the next batch look maybe like grasshoppers or crickets or something less slimy, though?"

"Absolutely," Angus laughed. "I'm sending the nasty looking ones to Suzanne as a little get well gift. For now, though, let's eat lunch."

At that moment, Edward came in without Caprice.

"You're missing a baby," Simone frowned at him, almost angry. "What'd you do with her?"

"Her Uncle Evan has her for a little. He told me he gets equal time with his niece and he swiped her from me," Edward said. "He has her sitting on his lap, and he was giving her a little bite of a peach slice. He tried to give her a slice of banana...."

"Oh, no. That'll go sideways for him," Angus said.

"It did. She hurled it back at him," Edward laughed.

"The child just does not like bananas in any way, shape or form," Angus laughed. "So far, she likes most other fruits we've given her."

"She's allowed to not like one. Besides, I'm with her. Bananas smell like dirty socks."

"No they dont'. They smell like bananas."

"How very descriptive of you, Angus. A banana smells like a banana. That certainly would explain it for someone who'd never smelled one. It sounds like she gets her dislike of bananas from her grandpa," Marcus laughed.

"I don't mind them. I just think they stink," Edward said, picking up one of the ugly candies and eating it. "Oh, those are nice. Very nice. Well done, Lad."

"Come eat. We're doing a lunch tasting for Lizzie for her holiday specials. Come sit down, take a tasting sheet and a pencil and then feel free to tuck in. I'm betting it's all pretty tasty," Angus said, sitting down at the table.

Aria took one and ate it expecting an awful taste but was very pleased to have a nice taste "Wow these are nice but I do agree with Marcus crickets, bugs what about a long snake too that you can share?" she suggested as she picked up a second, hearing Angus talk of taste testing for sparks she chuckled "I'm for that" she said looking at the food on the table with the worms.

Ruby looked up as Edward entered and almost gasped at seeing no Caprice with him, when he explained she relaxed and chuckled "Yeah she's not keen on those, I think it's the texture, and she gets it from me, I don't like them" she said "I don't mind the cooked or part of a meal but on their own, nope no way." she shook her head and chuckled "He's right though it has been a while since he saw her, so just fair he too should get a chance with her." she glanced at the time and chuckled " besides I think she'll be getting tired soon and you all know how cranky she gets" she said smirking.

"I'm glad you like the taste. I can make them look different, of course," Angus smiled, knowing that the flobberworms were not the most appetizing appearance, but that had been the whole point. "Come eat," he told them all. He picked up a pencil and opened up the containers to see several salad and side dish options in the first container, entree samples in the second container, and desserts in the third. He closed the second and third containers and tucked into the first container. The first salad he tried was a salad of assorted roasted root vegetables that had some fresh, crisp greens, some feta cheese, and a lovely balsamic vinaigrette.

"I could be a real fan of this roasted root vegetable salad," he said. "Its colorful, the roasted vegetables are sweet, and the feta and the vinaigrette give it a nice tangy finish. I think that should sell really well. And according to the note that was in the bag with the food containers, the creamy dressing on the second salad is actually a creamy maple pumpkin salad dressing. I don't think I've had a salad dressing that was made with pumpkin. That's really creative. I'm looking forward to trying that."

"I actually started with that one," Edward said. "You might have to figure out how to make that dressing. I quite like it. So, Angus, are you delivering your candies yourself to Tom's place in Paris?"

"I thought I would," Angus said.

"Are you leaving your torch behind?" Marcus teased.

"For now," Angus laughed. "If I torch the house, my candies would melt, and they would entirely lose their desired effect." That made Marcus and Edward laugh.

"Well, let us know if you want company to drop it off," Edward replied.

"Well, I'm not planning on staying, but if someone wants to get out of the house, they certainly can come with. I don't expect to be gone more than about two minutes tops," Angus replied.

Aria and Ruby both looked at the salads ruby took some of the veg salad while Aria took some of the feta salad and began making notes. Ruby heard Angus and smiled " I'll come with you to visit my mother" she said smiling to him. "It's been a while since I visited." she knew she never wanted to but this was something she knew she would enjoy emensly. Ruby took a bite of her salad and smiled "This is great" she said and jotted down her thoughts and remarks on the salad.

Aria finished her salad and looked at Marcus as she finished puting her sugestions on the shet they had been given " so whats next?" she asked hoping for some sort of meat dish or pasta dish they could try.

Jessie finished up out side and headed to the cabin where he found Yu making dinner for them since Chris was still over at the cabin they took this time to relax and clean them selves up, saving water by showering together. Jessie sat down and tucked into the food happy to be able to sit down after the long day and running around fetching things

"Maybe she'll be civil," Marcus said.

"Or not," Angus laughed, opening his main course box. Inside he saw a small cup that had a separate lit. "Ah. The soup is a creamy chestnut soup. The pasta you have is made with roasted chestnuts that were ground really finely and used as the flour to make the pasta itself, and the sauce over the pasta is a brown butter sauce with fresh sage and wild mushrooms. The meat entree is a chicken wellington that's stuffed with the traditional mushroom filling but she's added some fresh truffles, some sweet onion, some toasted pecans, and a few other things. I'm betting it's all lovely."

Aria chuckled "Never had anything this fancy before," she said as she took some soup and the beef she tried it and ate the lot . " wow that's amazing the chef at Sparks must be a wizard in the kitchen," she said as she tucked into the beef wellington that almost fell apart as she broke the pastry with her fork and ate some the mushrooms giving an earthy flavour to the meat.

Ruby chuckled at Angus and nodded "Oh I agree, she is never civil" she said as she too tucked into the food and smiled "My, Sparks has out do them selves again, it is delicious, really should give the chef a raise" she said and chuckled again as she continued to eat " I do hope Evan dosen't keep Caprice out there too long." she said noticing that the clouds were turning from white to grey rather quickly.

"Lizzie is a true gem," Angus told Aria. "She's been the chef at Sparks right from the very beginning. Khaat and I did the first menus for Sparks, but Lizzie has really grown in her self confidence. She does the menus herself now, but she send her new dishes to me to try before she adds them to the menu."

"Do you outrank her in culinary training?" Edward asked Angus.

"Well, technically, yes," Angus said. "I have training as an Executive level chef, meaning I am trained to operate several restaurants or facilities at the same time. She is trained as a Chef De Cuisine, meaning she has the training to be the head chef in a restaurant. If i were actually working as an Executive Chef, she would have more hands-on food preparation than I would. I might be creating dishes, managing several restaurants, that sort of thing, but she would be doing the actual cooking. She does see it as my outranking her, but all I've ever really thought about it is that we collaborate. I treat her like an equal because that's how I see her."

"I have never really known of you to treat a subordinate in any other way than a colleague unless they were being inappropriate and you had to pull rank on them," Marcus said.

"Because I believe in treating people the way I would hope to be treated..." Angus replied. He was interrupted by the sound of something banging on the kitchen window and also the sound of screeching. He saw Archangel at the window, and he flicked his fingers to open the window. Archangel came over, landed on Angus's shoulder, dropped an envelope in his chestnut soup and proceeded to screech very loudly in Angus's ear.

"Rude," Angus frowned at the bird. Edward accio'd the jar of owl treats over to the table, and Archangel proceeded to peck loudly and forcefully on the lid of the jar. "Didn't anybody feed you today?" Angus frowned. He picked the envelope, now covered with soup, out of the soup cup and gave Archangel a couple of owl treats. Then he opened up the envelope, pulled out a piece of paper and saw it was a news clipping from the French wizarding newspaper, and there was a note on it from Michael. The note said that the Ministry was going to be releasing almost the exact same story in the evening edition of the Daily Prophet. Angus moved Michael's note and looked at the article and burst out laughing.

"Poor Tom," Angus said, with mock pity. "There is a banner headline in Paris in the wizarding newspaper that someone was making illegal copies of stolen potions from St. Mungo's and that the potions from St. Mungo's had a tamper proof charm on them. And it describes with the flobberworm tattoos with amazing accuracy. It is encouraging any wizard in Paris to immediately alert authorities if they see anyone with magical flobberworm tattoos." Edward and Marcus laughed.

"I'd say that Robert's reputation will remain very much intact, despite Suzanne's best efforts to the contrary," Marcus laughed.