#rivervale_lodge

"You won't die."

She glances over at the frozen meat issue. "Put the skillet on medium, and drop the block of meat in there. Keep turning it, and scrape off the stuff as it gets brown, put it on a plate. Keep scraping until the whole thing is cooked. Then it can go in the sauce after."

"Aye Aye, Cookie" She says

"Okay, that makes sense. Siv, that's your next job."

She knocks on her folks door. "I know, I know! I'm not coming in! But if you want any laundry done, just bundle it up and leave it outside the door. Do you need anything?"

Olgar says "I've got the meds she needs, I'll put out the clothes. Don't play music too loud.. she's gonna need quiet."

A third pot is filled with a few industrial cans of tomato sauce.

And a VERY generous helping of oregano.

"You sure that's not too much?" Siv asks between grilling" Not sure Kerri uses that much"

"Okay. Tell her I love her." Sylvi doesn't linger there, but gets the laundry started.

"Dagmar, put plenty of garlic in there. It's good for fighting colds." Sylvi suggests.

Tomato paste - two regular cans. "Well, I'm not Kerri." A splash of Worcestershire, a Tove trick. As are the little sprink of red chili flakes.

Next are the aromatics - she deftly peels the onions and gleefully SMASHES garlic cloves.

"Okay, I didn't realize cooking could be so destructive" Siv says

One onion is chopped up fast and first. "Throw this in with the beef, it will taste better if it cooks together."

"Oh yeah. I like chopping stuff best."

Siv nods and obeys "How's she doing back there, Sylvi? Or is it still you dad playing border guard?"

Onions, garlic, green and red bell peppers, aforementioned mushrooms... they also get dumped into the pot. She forgot that Tove usually sautes the veggies first...

Then...

"SHIT"

And she's fishing them out with a spoon.

A new pan, thank goodness it's a big range...

"Okay... what just....." Siv blinks

"I got it, I got it..."

Hot pan, cold oil, food won't stick!

"Guys! Shhhh!"

"Sorry.. the veggies are violating the Esscheat"

Hushing gestures as she comes back from the laundry room.

The veggies shouldn't e hurt too badly by being a bit saucy while sauteing.

"They're...what?"

"The cook's demesne is being violated"

"We got this!"

The mushrooms wind up a tad overcooked, but the onions do turn clear and soft so that's a win.

"Geez, Siv, are you trying to get her to come bolting out of the room?" A nervous glance back down the hallway.

NOW the veggies are scraped into the pot, which is covered and allowed to simmer. "Siv, how's the beef?"

"We got this." She repeats, a mantra.

"Looking good, It's sweating a bit, is that good?"

"Turn it over, is it browning on the bottom?"

"And sorry, Sylvi. I've never seen the lodge without a back up Hearth in place. It's weird"

"Little bit" She reports after turning it over

"We have one, but Sally Mae is gone too."

"Hasn't happened in years. Mom's gotta be feeling really crappy for Dad to be able to bully her into staying in bed."

She finds a loaf of bread and starts sawing it into thick slices.

"Scrape off the brown and put it aside. The underside will start to brown while you're doing that."

"And yeah, Mom says before I was born, she got sick for like two weeks, and nobody did any shopping. She got better just in time to keep the Chieftain from having Cheerios for dinner one night."

"Cheerios are a pretty good dinner."

"Wow, good thing she didn't, or your mom might have fallen on her rolling pin" Doing the meat as directed

With both Dagmar AND Sylvi here helping, Siv is more confident.

"At the Michaelson's, I wasn't allowed to use the stove but I could make myself cereal. Cheerios stick better than the sweet stuff."

"The michaelsons sound like jerks" Siv says