15 Sep 2020, 13:59
It's Tarta de Coco, Sir
Yo Creek town, Belize
11 August
11 August
Elisabeth was enjoying the sleepover at her paternal grandparents' house with her brother and her cousins when the owl post came one fine morning.
"An owl at this hour!" cried Natanael in surprise, and the other kids turned their heads as well. None of them had ever seen an owl in nature before, and they all got very curious. Of course Elisabeth's brother Atticus had, but like many other children, he liked to try doing whatever the others were doing. And this time, it meant looking at the owl.
"It's an owl! It's an owl! And at this hour, too!"
"It has a letter for me!" Elisabeth exclaimed in surprise. Of course the girl could not read to whom the letter was really addressed to, but between her, her eight-year-old brother, and her Muggle cousins, it was very likely that the letter was intended for her.
The grandmother suddenly appeared and pulled back Silvia and Enrico. "Now!" she said sternly, in Spanish, "If Elsa says the owl is delivering a letter for her, don't you scare it away! Stay quiet and let it do its job."
Elisabeth thanked her abuelita just as the owl dropped the letter in her hand. She had expected it to be an announcement of the administrative process regarding her recent acceptance at Hogwarts, but instead...
Elisabeth frowned.
The letter was from Hogwarts. But it did not mention anything about administrative procedure, or school supplies, or even information regarding the features of the wizarding school (Muggle schools like to emphasise that in their advertisements). Instead, the letter was from a Hogwarts staff asking for desserts.
What does this mean? she wondered. Would her new school ask the students to bake desserts by themselves? But what if they refused to do so, such as because they were too tired to bake after classes? Would they receive any punishment?
But the girl read the whole letter again, and finally she understood that this was just a personal request from the writer. OK, can they not bake by themselves? Do wizards not have magic that would make baking quicker than the Muggle way?
She shrugged. Maybe wizards had to know how to bake certain desserts before using magic for it. So... if the writer of the letter had no idea how to make a tasty Belizean treat, he certainly would not be able to use his magic in order to make and taste one.
"Abuelita!" Elisabeth called her grandmother. "Tengo una carta de mi escuela... un profesor me pide que hornee un postre! Dice que pagará -" *)
At this point, her three cousins giggled. "That's funny," Silvia said between her giggles. "I don't remember your papá told me about that tradition when he was accepted to Ilvermony." Elisabeth and Atticus' papá was the only wizard in his family before he married and had children, so Silvia and the other two only had their uncle to tell them about magic (secretly).
"Pues... creo que (well... I believe that) they may want to taste our dessert...?" asked Elisabeth, unsure with her own answer, before giggling with her cousins. Atticus might not one-hundred percent understand what was going on, but he liked seeing them like this and thus laughed as well.
"Then we'll just give them something authentic of our land, shall we?" said the grandmother. Elisabeth followed the lady to the kitchen, watching in awe as her wrinkled hand still swiftly opened one cabinet and then another before reaching the refrigerator. Before any of the five kids could say "Jack Robinson", before their very eyes laid grated coconut, milk, grated nutmeg seed, sugar, lemon extract, flour, shortening, and water.
The owl, meanwhile, had made itself at home by perching by the window and falling asleep. It was saving its energy for the long trip back to Scotland, but ready to go whenever the dessert was done and put in a box tied to its leg.
Abuelita did not even glance at it, or her grandchildren, as she preheat the oven to 400 degrees. "Wash your hands and mix the shortening and the flour," she said simply. "And add little water until the dough is soft enough."
Elisabeth and the others were too excited and surprised that they did nothing but obeying. As they made the dough and prepared it into crusts, each the size of a ping-pong ball, into the tart pan, Abuelita made the filling. She mixed all of the other ingredients in a bowl. At last, the filling was ready, and the five kids took turn spooning it into the dough crusts, making sure that it reached just below the top edge of each crust.
At last, everything was ready to bake.
As they waited for the crusts' tops to be golden brown, Elisabeth wrote a note for the school staff, to explain a little about the dessert they had just baked. "Abuelita, qué tengo que escribir para el profesor?" ^)
"Es tarta de coco," smiled Abuelita proudly, putting one hand on her younger granddaughter's shoulder. "Belizean coconut tart."
"An owl at this hour!" cried Natanael in surprise, and the other kids turned their heads as well. None of them had ever seen an owl in nature before, and they all got very curious. Of course Elisabeth's brother Atticus had, but like many other children, he liked to try doing whatever the others were doing. And this time, it meant looking at the owl.
"It's an owl! It's an owl! And at this hour, too!"
"It has a letter for me!" Elisabeth exclaimed in surprise. Of course the girl could not read to whom the letter was really addressed to, but between her, her eight-year-old brother, and her Muggle cousins, it was very likely that the letter was intended for her.
The grandmother suddenly appeared and pulled back Silvia and Enrico. "Now!" she said sternly, in Spanish, "If Elsa says the owl is delivering a letter for her, don't you scare it away! Stay quiet and let it do its job."
Elisabeth thanked her abuelita just as the owl dropped the letter in her hand. She had expected it to be an announcement of the administrative process regarding her recent acceptance at Hogwarts, but instead...
Elisabeth frowned.
The letter was from Hogwarts. But it did not mention anything about administrative procedure, or school supplies, or even information regarding the features of the wizarding school (Muggle schools like to emphasise that in their advertisements). Instead, the letter was from a Hogwarts staff asking for desserts.
What does this mean? she wondered. Would her new school ask the students to bake desserts by themselves? But what if they refused to do so, such as because they were too tired to bake after classes? Would they receive any punishment?
But the girl read the whole letter again, and finally she understood that this was just a personal request from the writer. OK, can they not bake by themselves? Do wizards not have magic that would make baking quicker than the Muggle way?
She shrugged. Maybe wizards had to know how to bake certain desserts before using magic for it. So... if the writer of the letter had no idea how to make a tasty Belizean treat, he certainly would not be able to use his magic in order to make and taste one.
"Abuelita!" Elisabeth called her grandmother. "Tengo una carta de mi escuela... un profesor me pide que hornee un postre! Dice que pagará -" *)
At this point, her three cousins giggled. "That's funny," Silvia said between her giggles. "I don't remember your papá told me about that tradition when he was accepted to Ilvermony." Elisabeth and Atticus' papá was the only wizard in his family before he married and had children, so Silvia and the other two only had their uncle to tell them about magic (secretly).
"Pues... creo que (well... I believe that) they may want to taste our dessert...?" asked Elisabeth, unsure with her own answer, before giggling with her cousins. Atticus might not one-hundred percent understand what was going on, but he liked seeing them like this and thus laughed as well.
"Then we'll just give them something authentic of our land, shall we?" said the grandmother. Elisabeth followed the lady to the kitchen, watching in awe as her wrinkled hand still swiftly opened one cabinet and then another before reaching the refrigerator. Before any of the five kids could say "Jack Robinson", before their very eyes laid grated coconut, milk, grated nutmeg seed, sugar, lemon extract, flour, shortening, and water.
The owl, meanwhile, had made itself at home by perching by the window and falling asleep. It was saving its energy for the long trip back to Scotland, but ready to go whenever the dessert was done and put in a box tied to its leg.
Abuelita did not even glance at it, or her grandchildren, as she preheat the oven to 400 degrees. "Wash your hands and mix the shortening and the flour," she said simply. "And add little water until the dough is soft enough."
Elisabeth and the others were too excited and surprised that they did nothing but obeying. As they made the dough and prepared it into crusts, each the size of a ping-pong ball, into the tart pan, Abuelita made the filling. She mixed all of the other ingredients in a bowl. At last, the filling was ready, and the five kids took turn spooning it into the dough crusts, making sure that it reached just below the top edge of each crust.
At last, everything was ready to bake.
As they waited for the crusts' tops to be golden brown, Elisabeth wrote a note for the school staff, to explain a little about the dessert they had just baked. "Abuelita, qué tengo que escribir para el profesor?" ^)
"Es tarta de coco," smiled Abuelita proudly, putting one hand on her younger granddaughter's shoulder. "Belizean coconut tart."
Reducio
*) I have a letter from my school... a professor asks me to bake a dessert! He says he'll pay (Spanish)
^) What do I have to write to the professor? (Spanish)
^) What do I have to write to the professor? (Spanish)
Word Count: 837