Samantha's Bakery

Vanessa, noticed Samantha wince, but misinterpreted it.
Then, when Samantha spoke again, Vanessa became very confused.
Vanessa had thought that her question had bugged Samantha, and that she wouldn't answer it. But when Samantha did answer it, Vanessa wasn't quite so sure.
"You say that like its a bad thing, or as if we would judge you for it..." she says with a mild expression on her usually smiling face.

"Oh no..." the last thing she wanted to do was to offend the girl. "I just... banking's like a family business so... Well, you could say I don't have many options like the rest of the students here,' she finished, lowering her head and concentrating on the mixture. Realizing she had forgotten the vanilla essence, she reached for a jar of it and added the appropriate amount.

Vanessa nodded, not at all offended, and says, "Oh, its just you seemed like ...Nevermind."
Smiling she says, "So, you said it was a family business? Do you have any siblings?"
She was just curious, for she didn't have any.
Vanessa couldn't help but always feel a tiny bit envious of people with siblings they could play, talk, fight, and annoy their parents with. She couldn't help but feel like she was missing out on a lot, sometimes.

"No," the girl replied, making it clear she didn't want to talk on the subject. Concentrating on her mixing bowls, she started working on the cream and sugar the way her aunt had taught her. It took some doing because both ingredients had such contrasting textures but she knew with a little expert beating, they'd be indistinguishable from each other in no time.

Irene finished pressing the crust into the pan. "Okay," she said, "Samantha, do you have the filling ready?" She carefully picked up the spring-form pan and walked closer to Samantha, taking slow steps and praying she wouldn’t trip or otherwise embarrass herself. The room seemed rather tense and that made her feel a little nervous, what was Samantha not telling them?

"Oh. yeah, it's done. Though I added a little extra vanilla extract for flavoring, only enough to enhance the scent though," the girl replied, passing the mixture to the Gryffindor. She had to admit, baking with Irene was much better than doing it alone. The girl was fairly neat and lessened the load considerably. Samantha smiled gratefully at her.

"Extra vanilla!" Irene exclaimed, "I always add a touch more vanilla!" She had never met anybody else who went against the recipe in that way, her mother used to laugh at her but she'd always add a splash more vanilla into her baking. "Now," she expertly poured the filling on top of the crust, "we wait." She pulled the door of the oven open and slid the cheesecake in.

The girl was clearly delighted at the extra dash of vanilla and Samantha was really grateful to her. She wanted to do something in return for the Gryffindor who had helped her so much.

"You do it, right," the dark haired girl said quietly. "A tiny bit of extra always makes the room full of vanilla scent without altering the taste any." her aunt would have made her scrub the entire house with nothing but a rag for giving away kitchen secrets like that but she wasn't here now. And this was the only way Samantha could show her gratitude. "It works with almost every bakery item."

Vanessa, picking up on Samantha's hesitation, let the subject drop.
She hugged her diary close, and watched them as they did their thing.
She smiled as they worked. I was fascinating...
"Hey, I should probably go now. You guys don't seem to need much help, I'll just be a hinderance..."
With that said, she waves goodbye to the girls, gathers her things, and makes her way to the doorway.
"See you guys later" she says, making it sounds more like a question.

"Of course," Samantha answers Nessa. "We'll need some help polishing off this cheesecake when it's done," she winked at the girl to show it was okay for her to return to the bakery whenever she wanted.

"That is, of course, if you'd like to," she joked, already having picked up on the girl's fondness for food.

Vanessa grinned, she really liked this girl.
"Sure thing. I'll come back some time later. I'll probably get hungry and come to binge on sweets."
"I'll end up becoming the taste tester" she laughs.
Vanessa gives both Reine and Samantha a final smile and wave, before bounding out with a little skip.

Samantha had long since turned off the oven once the cheesecake was done and had sat with a book, waiting the customary few hours before taking it out. Just then, a timer nearby buzzed, making her look up.

Putting down her book, Samantha put on some mittens and walked towards the oven, opening the one she'd been using carefully and extracted the dessert. Walking carefully with it towards the larder, the girl placed it in the coolest place in the entire kitchen.

Walking back to the counter, she took off the mitts and took up her quill. She made her way to the door and carefully adjusted her list accordingly:

Samantha's Baking Projects:

• New York Style Cheesecake -- Done
  
• Quiche

Next up, a Quiche.

Irene checked the cheesecake, "looks good," she smiled. Sometimes the cheesecakes cracked in the middle, leaving a rift that was impossible to repair. "So, how do we make Quiche? I confess, I've never made that before." Irene was notorious for baking more than an army could eat, but she never really made anything other than various cookies and cakes.

"Well, there are many different types of Quiche to begin with," the slytherin started, glad that Irene wanted to stay and help with the second item on the list too. "But we'll be making the original Quiche Lorian with bacon, cheese and onions in addition to the cream and eggs,"

"This is a recipe my aunt taught me," she admitted quietly as she placed a bit of parchment on the counter for the girl to see.


Ingredients

* 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch single crust pie
* 12 slices bacon - make sure each slice is exactly the same size
* 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese - it better be fine enough to slip through your fingers
* 1/3 cup minced onion - rings of equal length, diameter
* 4 eggs, beaten
* 2 cups light cream
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon white sugar - never ever to be replaced with brown sugar, ever!
* 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

2. Place bacon in a large skillet, and fry over medium-high heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels, then chop evenly. Sprinkle bacon, cheese and onion into pastry shell.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, salt, sugar and cayenne pepper. Pour mixture into pastry shell.

4. Bake for 15 and a half minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce heat to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), and bake an additional 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted exactly 1 inch from edge comes out clean. Allow quiche to sit 10 and a half minutes minutes before cutting into wedges.

Indiana held the note that he had received from the owl while heading up to the Room of Requirement, wondering on what prompted Samantha to try making a New York Style Cheesecake. Last time he visited, the youth merely answered her question in regards to what pastries and cakes that he liked.

'Maybe she got curious enough to try making something she never heard of.' Indiana thought to himself as he reached the door before knocking.

"Okay," Irene washed her hands and began putting some of the clean dishes away, "what do you want me to do?" She was excited to be finally branching out and trying a new dish. Cooking with Samantha was fun, she was surprised because the girl had not acted in a way that would indicate that she was a Slytherin.

Hearing the knock on the door, the Slytherin turned towards it and said "enter". It had taken a lot of courage to send the note earlier and she hoped the boy wasn't offended in some way.

To Irene she said, let's put away the dishes first, it's time to see if our cheesecake tastes as good as it looks." Walking to the larder, she took out the cake and set it down on the counter.

Irene suddenly remembered the location of the bakery. With all of her concentration she thought, 'I wish all of the dishes would go back to where they're suppose to go'. When she opened her eyes, the dishes were gone. She wished that chores were that easy at home. With a renewed smile, she began the process of finding a cake-cutter and eating utensils. "How many?" She asked Samantha, referring to the number of place settings she needed to make.

"Three," the girl replied, smiling at who the Gryffindor took advantage of their location. Her aunt would have been supremely displeased had she used magic of any sort back home to clean up. And as a result, the girl herself had grown up firmly believing in the power of a little elbow grease.

Vanesa skips back up to Sam's Bakery. She had not had time earlier to come back to try to cheescake.
She stops right outside the doorframe and says very loudly, "I'm back! How did the cheesecake go? Is there still any left?"
She drops her bag on the wall next to floor, and skips onto a the same stool from last night.
"What are you guys working on now?"

After receiving the green light to enter, Indiana opened the door and emerged into the bakery. He caught of Samantha and a familiar girl with the Gryffindor crest. Jogging his memory, Indiana recognized her as one of the Gryffindors in his group for DADA that went by the name Irene Mitchell and the person that debated against Professor Hunt.

"Samantha, Irene. Good to see you both." Indiana greeted.

"Oh, Irene, make that four," Samantha corrected as Nessa entered the room behind the Hufflepuff.

"I hope you didn't find the note too presumptuous," she directed towards Indiana. "When you mentioned the desert that day, I was puzzled and decided to take on the challenge of baking something out of the box," she supplied.

Vanessa watched the exchanges from where she was sitting with polite interest.
She turns to the Hufflepuff boy she only recognized by face,and says with a bright smile, "Hello! Nice to meet you, I'm Vanessa....You could just call me Ness or Nessa.I like it better that way.- Do you like binging on snacks at random times of the day, too?"

"Oh I see." Indiana replied to Samantha. "It's alright. The message was simple and nothing of the sort. I was a bit curious that you made it and decided to see it for myself."

Indiana turned the unknown Gryffindor. "Likewise, nice to meet you too, Vanessa. I'm Indiana Lamperouge and no I don't tend to have snacks at random times."

He wondered on where that last question came from but the youth simply dismissed it.

Sensing the boy's confusion, Samantha clarified. "Nessa tends to do that, binge on snacks that is."

"Anyway," she continued, gesturing to the four slices of cheesecake which now lay ready for consumption. "Take a fork and try some. But I warn you, this is the first time I've made it. Though I did have expert help," she added, nodding to Irene.