Half past noon and the kitchen was bustling. Pots and pans whizzed through the air, bubbles foamed high in one of the corners by one what could only assume was an industrial dishwasher on steroids. Actually it was a magical dishwasher, or something of the sorts. House elves used a mix of muggle labor and magical assistance to get the Great Hall spick and span after each meal. He admired their busy body attitudes, like little worker bees.
As the man got lost in his head on the other side of the kitchen, he would get side eyed. Of course, it wasn't every day you saw a professor in a
pink apron with oven mitts that went up to his elbows. Now what was his reason for being in the kitchen? Well, perhaps there were several. To avoid grading his class' homework, but to also satisfy his craving for a sweet tooth as Easter, and the two week break, came slowly into view over the horizon of school work. Speaking of the horizon. A waft of smoke began to plume, filling the one corner of the kitchen he had to squabble with the house elves over to conduct this project.
And just like that, his third attempt at making caramel would be scraped into the trashcan once more. Jon was making more dishes than the house elves could clean at this rate, and he was pretty sure he was going to be kicked out soon. But as horribly unlucky and awful as he was at baking, or trying anything new for that matter, Jon refused to give up. A successful effort meant candy for him, and an ounce of pride in a newfound skill. But deep down, it was his students who he wanted to impress. Taking exams was no easy feat, and he knew the students who enrolled in Muggle Studies thought it would be an easy class. It wasn't his goal to make their lives more difficult, but rather to educate. Heck, if he did really good on the caramels he could invite the class to come make them with him using only muggle tools rather than being stuck inside his stuffy classroom for a few hours.
Wafting away the excess smoke and his lingering thoughts, he'd roll up his sticky sleeves and toss butter into the pan, watching it thin out and expand as it mixed with the heat. Sugar was next, both brown and white sugar, and corn syrup to bind the ingredients together. Little ingredients meant an easy recipe, but when fire gets added, it makes things a whole lot worse. Sounds like potions huh? Don't tell Lesmana that. So now, it was a waiting game. A little too soon and it would be clumpy, a little too late and it would burn. It was like a weighted scale, and required a lot of attention to detail and patience. After this was all said and done, he would not have a sweet tooth for months.
"Moderately easy candy to make my ass.."
