LONDON CALLING

Jess listened to Robert and nodded her head " of course I'll look into that imidiatly" she said standing a she kissed Jack hearing Michael sugestion of the desert she smield " that would be wonderful, I'll make sure the catering staff that remain know about it." she said Looking at Robert she ported back to st Mungos. Jack moved and ate his dinner Jessie looked out teh window.

"all right I got to go and wrangle a hippogriff" he said and stood up " Abby I'll look after the mice for you while you make your pie" he said smiling as he then walked out the door. Jack shok his hed as he spoke to Robert " hes doing well, I think hes making up for lost time and his actions, even though he dosn't" he said placing a fork of salad into his mouth. Ruby gathered everythign needed to make a fruit pie.


"okay so what fruit do you want to add as filing?" she asked Abby smiling as she looked up at Michael.

"Well, lets check with Angus, because you do realize, don't you, we'd be making pie for over 200 people, right? I'll walk over and go see Angus. Hold your thoughts til I get back," Michael said. "For now, if you lot can clean up the lunch leftovers and the dining room and the kitchen so we can start clean, that will be a big job out of the way."

Michael walked over to the duplex and then walked in. Angus and Andrew were finished, and Andrew was washing up the dishes from the tray. He tried to always send clean dishes back.

"Michael," Angus was surprised to see him, "what a surprise. What brings you over here?"

"This is the first time I've been in here. I really love this place," Michael said, looking around at all the southwestern decor. "It's great."

"Thank you."

"I could use your help. This morning there was fire in the kitchen at St. Mungos and the kitchen is out of commission until the repairs are done. The staff has made an improvised kitchen on the roof. Robert is going to ask Jonathan and Lizzie for some goodies for a goodie bag for the patients, but I would think, with our big commercial ovens, we ought to be able to come up with some sort of dessert to go with the supper for the patients tonight, couldn't we? Now, that is dessert for over 200 people. But you'd think we could manage it."

"Of course we could," Angus said. "In that kitchen? Absolutely. It has the equipment to do it. The ovens will hold full sized commercial sheet pans, so of course, we can."

"Abbey thinks we should do pie," Michael laughed.

"Well, she might be right," Angus said. "How about we make some half sheet pan sized slab pies. We can do four different varieties in one oven at a time. And, then we can do two half sheet pan sized cakes in the other oven. Would give us four different kinds of pie and two different flavors of cake. We've got enough berries to do a mixed berry pie, and, if I go just by what we routinely have in our supplies, we could do one that is a peach-plum pie, and maybe a banoffee, and a chocolate. That, I think, would appeal to most folks. For the cake, let's do a sticky toffee pudding, and maybe a lemon. What do you think?"

"I think it sounds very ambitious," Michael laughed, a little overwhelmed.

"I can bake, I'll be glad to help," Andrew said.

"And who else do you have in the kitchen?" Angus asked.

"You, me, Kate, Ruby, Simone. Oh, and Abbey wants to help," Michael said.

"Don't discount Abbey. She can be a huge help," Angus said. "She'll be more helpful than you think. We're good then. We have six bakers, a little sioux chef, and 6 different baked goods. We're good. I say we break up into teams of two. Each team can make two things. We'll get them kicked out in no time at all. Now--can you lot get me and my chair into the kitchen?"

"We got you in and out of a carriage, Hogwarts, the Tyler home, and the funeral home. We should be able to get your next door," Andrew laughed.

"No problem," Michael said. "Hang onto your chair, and we'll go." Angus took hold of his chair and Andrew and Michael apparated him to the kitchen. Angus took a moment and looked around. He hadn't been here for days.

"Angus," Kate was delighted. She came over and gave him a hug and kissed his cheek. "God, its good to have you back in the kitchen. Do you really think this is a do-able thing?"

"Absolutely. Here's my thought. There is a thing called a slab pie. They're bigger than a standard pie because its a pie baked in a rectangular sheet pan. Both of these ovens are commercial sized. They can take two full sized commercial sheet pans or 4 half sheets at one time. I think we should make 4 different half sheet slab pies in one oven and two half sheet cakes in the other. A full sheet pan will serve 70 people easily. So, if we do the 6 half sheets, that's the same as three full sheets, and that will feed 210 people If we want to be certain, we can add a third half sheet cake pan, and that will feed an additional 35, bringing us up to feeding almost 250 people. We can handle that in these ovens with no problem.

"So, if we divide us into 3 teams of two each team can make 2 items and we'll have it knocked out in a couple hours. We'll need an extra hour beyond that to let things cool, but the baking will be done. And, yes, Abbey, I want your help too," Angus said. Abbey bounced up and down with sheer delight that she could help Aggie. "I thought we could do a mixed berry slab pie, a peach-plum pie, a banoffee, and a chocolate cream. For the cakes, I thought we could do a lemon cake and a sticky toffee pudding. If we do a third cake, I probably would do a dark chocolate fudge cake. What do you all think?"

Ruby smiled seeing Angus back in his element again " I like that idea " she said and looked to Abby " you want to help with the mixed berry pie?" she asked glancing over at Angus as she snuck a look at him. Taking out the over sized sheet pan she began making alot of pastry to lint the pan with and blind bake it with a lot of bens to hold the parchment paper down. " okay while thats cooking we mix the fruits in this large bowl" she said and palced the fruit in front of Abby " go ahead por them all in." she said smiling.

Jess arived back at the hospital and walked over to Rowan who then took her to the kitchen " hum. okay those can go" she said pointing to some rather blackened walk in , we;ll wash and inspect those cookers if they fail crush them and we'll get new, Make a list and I'll get Robert to confirm instulation of new, but it need to be in for breakfast." she saw him nod.

"once its aproved I have men willing to stay over night to make this kitchen good as new" he said " including myself." he said smiling at her . Jess nodded and moved to the back of the kitchen.

"good, but this need re furbashing, some of the tiles are cracked from the heat" she ran her hands ove the tiles " I think there s spare in teh basment replace the cracked or discolored, Im going to my ofice , you have what I asked for?" Rowan dug into his poket and brought out a manilla envalope and handed it to her.

"my freind , did a special trick he knows on these." he told her " only becuse it was for Robert, he returned his little girl last spring to him so he feels he owes him." Rowan explained as Jess smiled.

"tell him he owes us nothing." she said as she moved to her office not far from Roberts.

Kate sat Abbey up at the counter on a kitchen stool, and set out for her a cutting board and her little pink plastic knife. Abbey stepped in without a moment's hesitation, and she could cut strawberries in half if someone cut the stems off. Simone watched Abbey for a moment, and she was amazed at the confidence that Abbey had with her little knife. Angus checked her work.

"Good job, Abs," he said in a quiet steady tone. "Just like I taught you. Now, when you get done with that, do you want to help me cut some bananas?" She nodded.

"I eats them naners," she cast him a bit of a mischievous grin.

"The first banana is yours," he told her, laughing.

"You makes naner pie?"

"Yes, the banana toffee pie you like? Yes. That's what we'll make."

"I wants some, Aggie."

"Well, maybe we might have to cut enough bananas to make us a couple pies for supper tonight. These big pies are going to the sick people at the hospital, okay?"

"Okay," she said in a sing songy tone that told him that she was okay with them getting the pies, but she was also a bit disappointed that they weren't getting a big pie here.

"I hear you. You sure you want banana and not berry?"

"Nah. Naner," she said.

"Okay, who are you and what did you do with my Abbey?" he teased. She giggled, and her laughter warmed his heart. He started to work on getting the rest of the ingredients for the banoffee pie. Andrew worked going to the pantry and the fridge for Angus and getting him anything he needed. Michael worked on the peach plum pie, and Kate worked on the lemon cake. Simone saw Ruby was managing her berry pie beautifully, so she set in to work on the sticky toffee pudding.

Ruby took out the blind baked pie base and emptied th beans out then added the filling she and Abby had prerpared then placing the first strip on she looked at Abby " you want to help with the top?" she asked " its a criss cross " she layed down teh second to show her then handed her a strip to place and smiled as she palced it right, they alternated and soon the top was done , brushign it with milky egg wash she sprinkled suger on top and then slipped it into the oven. " thats one on the go." she said and heard Angus with Abby and smiled knowing even now he would be great with their child.

" Simone do you want help?" she asked " my first pie is in the oven" she said washing her hands clean of beerry juice. Jack and Jessie walked the perimiter before Jessie went to Kates studio and set up an esel to begin painting , taking out a charcoal pencil he began to scketch out what he wanted to paint. Now focused he relaxed seeing Jack enter teh main house.

"wow its like a bakery in here." he said seeing every one cooking or kneeding or taking out pies  from the oven.

When Ruby had her pie in the oven, Andrew moved Abbey's stool over beside Angus, and she cut all the bananas for the banoffee slab pie. He had her cut an extra banana for herself too, and she seemed to be delighted to be in the kitchen. Angus double checked that Abbey still though they should have banoffee pie for dessert here tonight, and Abbey said she was sure. So, Andrew got more bananas, and Abbey kept cutting bananas.

Simone had just put her sticky toffee pudding in the oven, and Kate had her lemon cake ready to go into the oven, so Kate put them both in the oven and set the timer so they wouldn't forget.

Michael finished his peach plum slab pie and put it in the same oven as Ruby's berry pie.

"Sure. How many pies are you making, Ruby?" Simone asked. She knew that Angus was going to make some extra pies so that they had some for supper, and Michael seemed to be working now on something savory. After she watched him a minute, she guessed he was probably working on something for supper. Andrew stepped in to help Michael and Kate worked on a lemon icing for her cake and the toffee sauce for the sticky toffee pudding.

Ruby looked at Simone and chuckled " I don't know, I have the small one and then theres the larger one for the hospital guess I could make one more." she said and took out a blind baked base with coconut milk and severa other ingreidiants " any one making coconut cream pie?" shea sked " if not I'll make one for us and one for the hospital" she blended all the ingreidiants in a bowl then added it to a pan to slowly cook untill thick then she added it to the base and palced it in the fridge to set while she started on the whipped cream.

Jack smiled seing Abby cooking " quite the little chef" he said as he sood watching he cook. Jess ported back and smiled seeing all the activity in the kitchen.

"thought Abby could use this.." she said and took out a small apron with her name on it, slipping it over Abbys head she tied it behind her . " now you look the part" she said as Jack nodded his head.

"Sounds fine to me," Simone said, pitching in to help. She started with toasting enough coconut to do the job for the slab pie and the small pie.

Michael and Andrew made several honey garlic pork tenderloins, and roasted root vegetables--a pan full of vegetables like carrots, parsnips, beets, rutabagas, potatoes, and sweet potatoes--with some onions, garlic, and celery put in for aromatics. Michael believed that, with the ovens tied up, they could cook supper all on the grill in foil pans, if they watched the heat very carefully. While the pork and the vegetables were cooking, Michael was very gutsy, and he made a large pot of of cheesy polenta to serve with it and some Irish soda bread since it didn't need yeast to make it rise.

Angus was more than pleased with the slab pies and the cakes as they were finished. They were truly things of beauty. Angus told Kate about some very large pieces of cardboard that were sealed in plastic and were sitting at the back of the pantry. She went back and got seven of them, as Angus asked her to, and when he coached her through how to assemble one. it had formed a perfect, large sized, heavy duty box for holding a half sheet sized sheet pan. It took Kate no time at all to assembled all seven, and she and Angus started quality checking the pies and cakes and packing them up to send to St. Mungos.

Angus was elated with it all. They had made enough dessert to feed well over 250 people, and the desserts looked picture perfect. They looked good enough to serve at any ministry banquet. And it was great to get back into the kitchen again. It had given him purpose again for a few hours.

Abbey saw Jess come in, and when she gave her the kitchen apron, Abbey was excited.

"Tanks!" She told Jess. "Aggie, lookie! We both gots one now!"

"We do, and I like yours better than mine. Can I wear it?" he asked. She giggled.

"Silly Aggie," she said. "Its for girls. I real cook now!"

"Yes, you certainly are," Angus said. "So, what's the first thing you want to cook in your new apron?"

"Jam," she nodded.

"Jam? What kind of jam?" he asked her. She reached up into the fruit bowl and picked up a nectarine.

"This!"

"Do you know what that is?" he asked. She nodded.

"Peach."

"Well, you're very close. That's a nectarine, but good job. They look almost alike." He picked up a peach and showed her. "See? Almost alike, but peaches are fuzzy, and these don't have any fuzz." He picked up his knife and cut slices out of both and handed one to her. "That's a peach. Try that." She took a bite of the slice and nodded.

"Peach," she nodded.

"Yes. That's right. Now, this is different. Taste," he handed her the slice of nectarine, and she took a bite of that too. "Same?" he asked.

"Nuh uh," she shook her head. "Not same." She looked at the two fruits he had. "Peach," she pointed to the peach. "And nakey peach," she pointed to the nectarine.

"Good girl!" he laughed. "You're right. Different taste. Do you like it?" She nodded. "Good. Now which one do you want to make jam from?"

"Both!"

"We could do that," he said. "Maybe we can do that tomorrow if you want, and you can wear your new apron." She nodded.

Ruby finished the coconut cream pie and placed it too in the container to send to St Mungos but kept some peices back for supper. " ok do you think that should be whough?" she asked Angus and smiled as she watched him with Abby " awe there so cute" she said softly not knowing if Simone heard her. 

Jess smiled too as Abby put on the aperon and showed Angus " I saw it and thought it would be perfect for her, its washable so she can use it if she does arts and crafts too." she said and smiled as sAbby called a necturine a nakey peach " well thats a new one." she aid and chuckled as she too tok a slice of peach "yum I like peaches, so juicy" she said finishing it as Jack walked back to them all.

"I think they'll be fine," Angus said. "Hey, Jack, you're just in time. Do you think you can find Jessie and run an errand of mercy for us, please? We've had the kitchen in high gear because of the fire at St. Mungo's, and we've got pies and cakes for dessert for the patients and employees tonight. We have 5 half sheet slab pies and three half sheet cakes. That's the equivalent of three full sheet desserts and should be enough dessert to feed over 250 people. It's going to be pretty heavy, and very awkward to transport. I had heavier corregated cardboard sheet cake boxes, so that will help but we can't toss them all around during the apparating. If you each were to stack 4 half sheets, or get 2 more and each of the four of you carry 2 half sheets, could you get them to Robert's secretary, please? They do not know that they're coming, but I think we'll have them to them in plenty of time. Make sure you specify to Robert's secretary who made them, or tell Jess. One or the other. And then, if you want whatever the heck Michael and Andrew are cooking outside for supper, I suggest you come back relatively quickly because it smells phenomenal. Either that or I'm hungry."

"I'll send a supper box for whichever of them stays tonight," Kate told Jack. "I know that Jess and Robert were both thinking of staying, but I know Robert offered to stay so Jess didn't have to. So for whoever stays, we'll send supper in to them."

At St. Mungo's, Jonathan Belby had responded with exceptional generosity, and he had made up treat bags for every patient and employee that had some assortment of 5 or 6 different candies, some Bertie Botts beans, and some of his delectable fudge. With them already packaged, all the volunteers would need to do is to add them to some bigger goodie bags with the pasties or biscuits.

And Lizzie and Grace had turned out enough pumpkin pasties and some cut out sugar cookies that every patient and employee could have both a pasty and a cookie. Lizzie hade sent a big box of brown paper treat bags that were large enough to hold the pasties, the cookies and Jonathan's candies. One of Sparks' customers had chipped in and had donated some small toys so that each of the hospitalized children would get a little toy. There were enough small paperback puzzle books so that every man or woman would get a puzzle book to occupy their time as well. Lizzie and Grace had slipped away long enough to take the donations to Robert's secretary.