Page 73 of Forgotten Arcane

“I think that’s everything for now,” Van answers, and I nod in agreement.

“Excellent,” Eamon says as he stands up. “You kids have fun learning to cook. No need to be nervous, there is just a whole compound worth of people waiting to try your food, who have all been told that you’re cooking it.”

“Oh wow. No pressure,” River grimaces.

Eamon chuckles as he leaves the room, clearly proud of his joke, and making me smile.

Calia waves her hand dismissively in the air as she gets up as well, “Ah, don’t listen to him. Come on.”

We all get up and follow her out of the room and back through the vast house to the kitchen.

“So not everyone knows that we’re helping you cook today?” Reed asks, looking relieved.

“Oh no, they all know,” Calia replies with a twinkle in her eye, and I chuckle.

When we get into the kitchen, it’s to find that she’s already set everything up to make it as easy for us as possible. The kitchen is massive, and she’s split it up into different sections, with chopping boards, and the things that we need to chop, and all sorts of other things. There are enough individual areas for all of us.

“Wow, Mom, this looks great,” Van compliments.

She smiles proudly, “Thank you. Okay, so, first things first, these are all the recipes I’ve put together for you.”

She lifts up a big binder that is full of recipes, and I try not to smile. The guy’s prediction was dead on, and I love her for that.

“Thanks, Mom,” Evander says as he takes it from her. “This is great.” His eyebrows rise as he flicks through it, “You’ve put shopping lists for each recipe in here as well.”

Calia nods, “Yes, well, I figured that would help as well. The recipe measurements don’t really tell you how much of one thing that you actually need to buy, and it can get a little bit confusing to work out. So I thought it would make it easier.”

“That’s great, thank you,” Griff grins.

“No problem,” she replies. “Okay, so these dishes have quite a lot of prep work, mostly because we’re making such big quantities. I’ve printed out the recipe for each of you, and I will be helping you every step of the way. We’re making three dishes.”

I smile nervously. I really hope that I’m not going to burn something.

“Is anyone else nervous?” River asks out of the side of his mouth.

I burst out laughing.

“There’s no need to be nervous,” Calia grins. “I have picked simple recipes that we can do on a massive scale. We’ve got creamy peppercorn chicken with rice, roasted veg, and pulled pork sliders.”

My mouth waters. They all sound delicious, but I can’t really believe that I’m going to be able to make them that successfully. I can cook, but it’s not really anything made from scratch. It’s more about reading the back of the packet and throwing it in the microwave or oven.

A gourmet cook, I am not.

Hell, I’m not even a competent cook.

She sets us all up, and I find myself really enjoying it, and it’s not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. None of us has burned anything yet, which is a good sign. It turns out that Coen was being modest when he said he was an okay cook. He’s really good. So good in fact, that Calia quickly let him be in charge of the chicken dish, and Coen even tweaked the recipe and put his own twist on it, we were all really impressed.

Because Coen had one of the dishes handled, Calia decided that we should make another one so the rest of us could get some practice in, which is why I ended up making something called Mediterranean chicken. It smells absolutely delicious, and I can’t wait until I can try it.

Eventually, we’re done, and just in time as everyone begins to arrive together. I grin at the sheer chaos of it all as kids run around greeting each other, and people start placing the dishes they’ve brought on the table. When I was younger, I used to worry that we would run out of food for everyone, but that didn’t happen once. In fact, people would always leave with leftovers.

I have no idea how we never run out, but I would have to guess that it’s thanks to Calia’s planning. We have made huge portions of what she taught us to make, and when Doc asked her how many potions it was, she said that there should be enough for everyone to have seconds if they wanted.

That’s five hundred people.

That’s an insane amount of food, and the sheer amount of prep work makes a lot of sense now.

They use magic to make sure that everything stays warm, and it’s the best.

---