Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

Celandine chewed on her lip for a second more and then put on her HeadGirl!Face. Which was like a game face only not. Nobody needed to know that she was silently freaking out over all this. She straightened her back and moved into the room.

Slice and... dice? Cela looked around for Daniel and smiled nervously at the Gryffindor before shifting her attention back to the professor.

Knives? They made her think of her uncle. And of Kayla. And Robert. And of running away from bad people. And making a fire-escape fall...

She tentatively raised her hand after peeking at the knives. "Cutting bits of... things off? Prising things? Poking at things? Throwing?"

She put her hand down and chewed her lip some more, glancing around as people answered.

Her hand went up again.

"Some are just for eating." She gestured vaguely towards the four that were the same. She'd used those before. Except they were you know, proper silverware type stuffs. "And... slicing and dicing... carrots and celery..." She finished lamely, put her hand down and stared at the benchtop in front of her, not even checking to see who she was standing with.

Jake... had been avoiding this club. And from the second he peeked in just after Celandine because he'd been following her to pluck up the courage to talk about their discussion from last term he knew it was a mistake to show up.

He. Hated. Food.

Except sugar.

Standing awkwardly in the doorway, Jake bit his lip, trying to work out whether he wanted to go in... or just run. Meanwhile, he patted his pocket to make sure the chocolate bar was there.

It was.

Phew.

Alcemee said, "The talles one is for bread, the widest is for meat, and the second smallest ones are for steak. I don't know for sure about the rest."

Kay smiled at the Professor. She really liked Professor Lawson. He was always so nice to her. "It's good to see you to Prfoessor." She smiled.


Kay listened to him talking about the knifes. They were for different things? Kay had just thought knifes were...well knifes. Raising her hand she felt well...stupid. "Professor I didn't know the knifes were for different things. Knifes are just Knifes right?" She asked feeling bad. Sometimes be pure blood was harder then you'd think.

She said: "never mind". Gabrielle excided all necessary things and went to it together with another girls.

William hadn't know exactly what was going on, as he was too focused on the supplies around him. He had been in a kitchen before, but some of these things were different. Glancing at the stove he blinked; oh this was going to be fun he thought sighing as he looked at Katie. "As long as nothing has pineapple in it I'm fine. Speaking of which..." he paused, glacing over to professor Lawson. Putting up his hand he asked, "Um professor, is there pineapple around? If so then it needs to stay away from me. I just found out I'm highly allergic to it and don't need to visit the nurse." he explained rather shyly, as if admitting his one weakness.

Grinning a bit and bouncing on his heels, William listened as Lawson said they could look at everything around them and see what things were like. Well he already knew what kitchens looked like, he had one at home after all so he didn't pay much attention to what was going on around him, mainly glancing at Legend and eying the boy with a curious glance. He was strange, and yet Will liked him for some reason. Mat he didn't know all that well, having only seen him once or twice but he liked him all the same. He hadn't cursed him yet, so that was good.

Looking around at the other students he waved at a few he recognized, like Diggy, tossing the boy a grin before looking up when Lawson spoke again about cutting with knifes. Knifes? They'd be using those sharp deadly things in the class?!? That sounded like a recipe for disaster he thought, looking down at the set of knifes on the counter top. Lifting up his hand he pointed to a small black handled knife. "This is a paring knife; it's used mainly for peeling fruits or mincing vegetables. Mom uses it all the time at home. he replied picking up the knife in question.

Ellie was beginning to feel that she didn't belong here. She knew how to cook. She'd cooked many a time before at her muggle grandma's. But then again.... she couldn't say no to foooooood. So, she kept quiet and listened to the other kids answer the teachers questions.

Daniel nodded and walked towards the refrigerator and then took some carrots and celery and handed them to the students.

He then walked to the empty workstation and started to listen to the professor. As far as he is concerned he had read a lot of books regarding Muggle cooking and admire some muggle chefs, he also recognize some of the knives that is being shown.

yay Today I´m going to eat baklava! Kate thought, and with a big smile in her face she nodded to her professor and went to the nearest table.

Kate raised her hand and said "I think the small ones, not the smaller, but the others, are for cuting steak"

"Okay good job you pretty much know your knives." Lawson spotted a certain Huffie enter in just behind the Head Girl.

"Nice of you to come Jacob. Don't hide in the back, head over to a workstation."

"Thank you Daniel. Now I want you all to pick up the chef's knife. It's the one that looks like this." He held up the knife to show them which one it is.

"Now take your carrot or celery and place your hand (the one that's not holding the knife) on the vegetable. The blade of the knife should rest against your knuckles and your fingers should be tucked back towards the palm of your hand."

Lawson picked up his chef's knife and demonstrated the correct way it should done. "Just like this" he said. "And then you want the point of the knife resting against the chopping board and then you bring the knife down across your vegetable and then back up again, kind of like a rocking motion."

He proceeded to demonstrate what he was talking about by slicing his celery into even pieces. When that was done he looked up again and smiled encouragingly. "Okay now you lot give it ago but take it slowly. I don't want anyone chopping their fingers off."

"Jake!" she hissed/whispered at the Hufflepuff when Lawson pointed him out, and waved him over while patting the empty space at their station. Hehe. "Come work with us..." Yes, join the Slytherins! It'll be fun! They totally had extra space at their station too.

Picking up the knife Lawson had held up to show them, for a moment, she let it sit where the light would reflect off of it to make it all shiny looking before taking another peak at the certain Huffy. Definitely would be fun if he worked with them. Teehee!

Watching the Professor demonstrate how to cut a carrot, or celery, Evelyn had to hold in a sigh. Her uncle taught her this over the summer, especially the way to hold the food so you wouldn't cut your fingers off. Which she had almost done countless of times, but she had definitely improved. "Don't jinx it Professor." she mumbled, pulling a carrot towards her and adjusting her fingers on the knife.

Seriously, the healer might just have to be permanently down here. But it would be funny to count how many 'ow' noises there were in the club. Let the counting...Begin!! As well as chopping!

Aileen took the knife like the professor instructed. This won't be so difficult for her, because she was trying this at home with her mother. She took one carrot and started to cut it. When she finnished, she looked at her work. Well, the pieces weren't exactly the same, but she figured it suffice.

O____O

What was Evelyn thinking!? Destiny KNEW she was weird and all this term, but this was the weirdest she'd ever been. Inviting Jake..to sit with them!? If there weren't so many knives on the workstation, Destiny would have banged her head against it. Definitely.

After glaring a little hole through Evelyn, she turned her attention to Lawson who was cutting some kind of vegetable. Perhaps if he didn't have such GINORMOUS Giant hands, she would be able to make out what he was cutting. She watched closely as he chopped, and everytime the knife touched the vegetable she secretly hoped one of his fingers would be under that blade. Unfortunately, for her, his fingers were tucked and there would be no finger loss today. Unless..she caused a distraction. Mwaha!

By the time she thought about said distraction, Lawson was already done with his chopping. Pffft. She was just a little late. That didn't matter now, though, because it was HER turn to CHOP! Pulling a piece of celery closer to herself, because carrots reminded her of rabbits, and she had a VERY bad experience with one of those, she positioned her hand just the way the Professor demonstrated. She supposed it was better to have Giant hands..it would probably be easier to hold the blasted vegetable. After watching what Evelyn was doing for a few seconds, she picked up her chef's knife, *smirk*, and started chopping the celery.

Chooooooop, chop.

Selena prevented herself from rolling her eyes. She knew how to chop things up. That was what they did in potions. She placed the vegetable in one hand, the knife in the other. She set down the vegetable and sliced it neatly. 'Chop, chop, chop' Selena said with an oddly happy tune in her head. She was so weird at times. She was not going to chop off her fingers or hands. No matter what.

Amy began to chop up the vegtables, professor would you like to be cut into halfs or quaters?

Evan watched closely as the professor demonstrated. It was the same motion his mom did when they had Muggle guests--except, professor Lawson did it better. His mom was very amateur, and had cut her finger. Shuddering at the thought of cutting his finger, he paid extra attention to the position of knife and his other hand while he chopped a carrot. It was going slowly, but at least safely.

Alcemee started cutting some food the way that the teacher had showed them.

Ellie began to cut her carrot as the teacher said. She's cut veggie before, but never this way. This was weird. It made her feel professional, though. Like the people she saw on the muggle TV at her grandma's.

Kate loved cooking. And chopping was her specialty (and desserts, but that was not the matter) So she took the Chef´s knife and started to chop like this:



She was really enjoying this time.

Drumming her carrot and celery once the older boy gave them to her, she waited for Lawson to show them what to cut. Putting down the food, she scanned the knifes until she found the one that Lawson was holding. Leaning foward slightly, she watched him cut the celery.

Sir Lawson made cutting the celery look easy, too easy. She was hesitant to cut the vegetables, she didn't use real knives unless it was a butter knife, and even then the usage was sparse. Deciding that she valued her finger to much to place them beside the moving knife, she looked through her set of knives and picked up the fork and stuck it in the carrot to hold it in place. Then she picked up the knife she was to use and moved her head lower so the she was almost eye level with the carrot before sloooooowly cutting it into miniscule pieces.

What!?

Evelyn wanted Jake to come work with them? Did she hear her right? She had to be just messing with the boy. There was no way Evelyn could want to work with Jake. She looked over to Evelyn and whispered to her. "You don't really want him to work with us do you?" Not that she really minded if he did. Him working with them could totally be a way for her to annoy Lawson.

She watched as Lawson demonstrated how to hold the knife and chop the vegetables. Well that looked easy enough. Muggle cooking didn't look that hard so far. She picked up her knife and held it like Lawson was, then grabbed a piece of celery. She started chopping it in tiny pieces.

Chop
Chop
Chop Chop

After chopping one whole piece of celery... and not cutting a finger off... she put her knife down. This was definatly a boring task. She wanted to do something a little more fun. Like stomp on Lawson's foot

Mina watched the demonstration closely. It didn't appear to be all that difficult in her mind. She had seen and used knives before during her stays with her cousin, but never had she really used them like this. It was going to be a challenge for her, but looking over at how Evan was doing, she knew she'd be fine.

Carefully, she picked up the knife and held it as instructed. Taking care not to cut herself or get distracted, she started cutting her carrot into even slices.

Chop
Chop
Chop
Chop

Walking around the room, Lawson stopped at each workstation to watch the student's progress and he gave a nod of approval at how well they were all doing.

He knew that he had been taking a risk putting knives into their hands especially those who had probably never picked up one in their life before.

As he stopped by Amy's workstation, he gave the girl a smile. "We're just slicing them for now. I don't want to start off to early with anything too difficult."

Lawson moved onto the next workstation and his lips twitched ever so slightly as he watched Arya's attempt. He cleared his throat and moved a little closer to her. "Now Arya, that's cheating" he said with a small chuckle. "I assure you that if you hold your hand like I showed you, you will not cut your fingers off. And besides you have to keep stopping when you need to pull the fork out and move it down the vegetable."

He looked around at the rest of the students, "You are all doing a great job. Now I don't think I need to show you how to mix ingredients together so I want you all to take out your recipes now and we shall get started with cooking. You will find everything you need in the pantry at the back of the room and the refrigerators. I'm just going to help Arya out here a little more but if you need me then just yell out to me."

Selena sighed. Gosh. The classroom was going to blow up. Yet she still went to the back of the room to collect the necessary ingredients. Selena looked at the sheet in her hand.
Eh. No chocolate morsels, but there was a bag of chocolate chips, that'll do, right? They were both chocolate. Selena balanced everything carefully and placed in on her workstation.

Mina set the knife down as she heard Professor Lawson speak. She had all her carrots cut and they looked pretty uniform. Maybe she wasn't all that terrible with a knife after all. Setting the cut carrots to the side, she cleaned her area a little and reached for her recipe cards.

What was she in the mood to make today? Flipping through them, she pulled one out and smiled. Yes, this was just what she was looking for.

SPOILER!!: Recipe: Earl Grey Brownies With Lavender Honey Ganache

Earl Grey Brownies

•6 oz. bittersweet chocolate
•6 oz. unsalted butter (1.5 sticks, cut into quarters)
•6 oz. eggs (4 large)
•13.5 oz. granulated sugar (1.75 cups)
•1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
•3 Tbsp. looseleaf Earl Grey tea, ground in a coffee grinder
•5 oz. cake flour (1.25 cups)
•3/4 tsp. baking powder
•1/2 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray or butter pan.

2. Melt the chocolate with the butter over a double boiler.

3. While the chocolate is melting, whip the eggs and sugar in a large mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment for 10 minutes.

4. Combine Earl Grey powder, flour, baking powder and salt. Sift.

5. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla to the eggs. Stir by hand to blend completely. Fold in the flour, mixing until just combined.

6. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.

7. Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes, or until an inserted tester comes out with just a few crumbs attached.

8. Allow to cool, then add ganache and garnish with crystallized lavender (recipes below). Refrigerate.

---

Lavender Honey Ganache

•2 oz. semisweet chocolate
•2 oz. bittersweet chocolate
•6 oz heavy cream
•1/2 tsp. vanilla
•2 Tbsp. honey
•1 Tbsp. lavender

1. Finely chop the chocolate into 1/4-inch pieces.

2. Place the chocolate in a medium heat proof bowl.

3. Place lavender flowers in the cream and scald. Remove from the heat, cover, and let steep for 10 minutes. Strain and rewarm.

4. Immediately pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate. Using a rubber spatula, stir gently in a circular motion, starting from the center of the bowl and working out to the sides. Be careful not to add too much air to the ganache. Stir until all the chocolate is melted and completely emulsified.

5. Cool. Spread over brownies.

---

Crystallized Lavender

•1 egg white (pasteurized, if desired)
•1/4 cup lavender
•1/2 cup sugar
food coloring (optional)

1. Color sugar with food coloring, using fingers to spread color evenly. I divided the sugar and used both pink and lavender.

2. Spread lavender onto a sheet pan covered with aluminum foil. Using a pastry brush, coat dried lavender with egg white. Spread sugar over lavender, mixing with fingers to coat evenly. Allow the lavender to dry.

3. Stir lavender to remove clumps, and transfer to an airtight container.

Pulling out another piece of parchment and a quill, she jotted down all the things she needed.

Quote:

Brownies
•bittersweet chocolate
•unsalted butter
•eggs
•granulated sugar
•vanilla extract
•looseleaf Earl Grey tea
•cake flour
•baking powder
•salt
Ganache
•semisweet chocolate
•bittersweet chocolate
•heavy cream
•vanilla
•honey
•lavender
Crystallized Lavender
•egg white
•lavender
•sugar
•food coloring

It was a basic list, she just hoped she had everything she needed, ingredient and equipment-wise.