302 7.30 A Heartier Breakfast Than Usual. (2/2)

”Oh... I've noticed them yesterday but they're kids, right? I saw their silhouettes last night from afar and can't distinguish any of them.”

”Yeah... You can call them kids... They're the ones we got the shards of the gems from. Without them, no one could survive going down into the dark and airless mine shaft for many hours while they mine 7 pieces of each 4 gems per person.”

”So far we had collected about 343 pieces for the whole week from them. I hadn't had the time to fuse them but would be doing them pretty soon once I had made the roof for the hearth.”

.......

”Hey, Robin...Good morning JL. You should have woken me up just now so we could help you make breakfast. Scoot over... Let me make some tea first.”

Matilda reached for the pot and prepared some tea with sugar to compliment the morning breakfast. She peered into the pot and saw the green bean soup simmering in a dark base and the smell was wonderful when I stirred it and the scent wafted to her nostrils.

”What's the occasion today? This looks and smells fitting for a King's meal...!”

”Ah... I'm just practising my cooking skills. It had been like 6 or 7 months I had someone to prepare for us 6 meals daily.”

”6 meals? I would be happy to have a single meal each day... Why did they prepare so much for you?”

”Actually not just for me, it's for 5500+ people with a number of 72 cooks, for breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper.”

”As I said, you must be born in a royal kitchen and 5500+ people are the royal subjects I reckon...”

”Hahahaha... Your grilled bread is almost complete, you may set it on the table there. Matilda, help me stir this while I drop in these bananas first. It's semi-ripe but it tastes best when prepared in this green soup. Continue to stir slowly and I'm going to drop these glutinous rice balls a bit at a time and prevent it from sticking together.”

I dropped in the whole pieces of bananas that had been removed from its thin skin. The small glutinous balls were dropped in gradually and I kept adding wood to the fire to bring it up to heat and prevents the glutinous balls from sticking with one another.

Jean Lethal helped to fan the fire ablaze and the flames somehow maintained the green soup to be at a constant temperature. When I had completed dropping those glutinous balls, I took over the stirring and discovered that only a few balls stuck with each other and on the bottom of the pot.

Everything was simmering and I pushed the woods aside and only left the embers. I took a rag and held the handle of the pot and brought it down to the embers before I pour the whole pint of cow's milk. I instructed Matilda to stir from the bottom and once it simmered, I told her that it's done after I threw in a few pinches of salt without tasting them.

I threw the cover of the pot on top and placed it firmly and let it cook by itself while waiting for the guests to arrive.

Matilda opened the cover and stirred the content before she placed a ball of the glutinous ball into a spoon and transferred it to her mouth. ”Hmmmmmm... Sarap Sarap masmasarap... Oishi-nee... Hii... Hii... Hii...”

The look of satisfaction with her tongue sticking out calls for the complete success of this meal. ”Terrific... Breakfast is served and here come our guests...”