A/N This goes with Christmas Eve. It fills in a little. Hope you enjoy.
Wanda came into the kitchen fresh back from the last minute raid. They had been gone for only a day and night, so the tension hadn't grown too heavy in the raiders' absence.
Upon entering she placed a box on the counter next to Sunny.
"I got the things you asked for. I still have no idea what you are planning to do with these things. How is this going to be a special meal for Ian…and your Kyle?" Wanda asked.
She had, after all, gone to some trouble to obtain the contents of the grocery box. What she had didn't seem to go together to make a good meal. In fact she had doubts about oysters in general. The picture on the can didn't do wonders for promoting the idea of eating them either.
After a moment Sunny responded, "Tomorrow night I will show you. Just please keep it a secret! I want to surprise them both."
"Of course I will. I have some stuff to drop off with Mel. She too has sworn me to secrecy." Wanda rolled her eyes "It seems that holidays bring out all kinds of secrecy around here!"
"Thanks Wanda! I just know we can make them happy with this stuff. It will nice."
"Sure thing, just show me how this oyster stew goes together."
As Wanda retreated down the hallway Sunny let a single tear roll down her face. If only she could believe that He was Her Kyle!
The next day came and Jeb was leading some festivities in the games room. Everyone was excited about decorating the scraggliest pine tree ever. Aaron had found it some where, and since it was so twisted and wobbly he had to make a special stand for it.
Wanda, Ian, and Kyle had skipped the normal evening meal like Sunny had asked. OK, Kyle had snuck off with a sandwich and Ian had snitched a roll. But that was fairly common. Both of them did more then their fair share in the fields.
A little later in the evening Wanda came down to join Sunny in the kitchen.
"Here I am. Can you show me now how we are going to make a special meal for them?" Wanda looked over at Sunny and grinned. "You know Kyle will be testy missing supper if this isn't good!" The smile and small laugh let Sunny know that she was joking, but to her this was very important.
"I know Kyle will like this, Ian too." She said. "I can remember them talking about this… and Jodi has helped make it for them before." As Sunny explained a cloud of sadness briefly crossed her face.
Wanda could see that continuing down this line of conversation would make her friend unhappy so decided to lighten things up. "OK, OK. Sorry I doubted you! Will you please show me how this great dish is prepared?"
"Oyster stew is a traditional Christmas eve dish. Lots of people, not just Kyle and Ian's family did it. I think some Souls still do." Sunny picked up a medium sized stew pot and put it on the stove.
"Mrs. O'Shea usually used fresh oysters, but canned work too. Kyle actually likes canned oysters over fresh!" Sunny began finely chopping the 3 small green onions on the cutting board and scrapped them into the pot.
"Now we want to put a little butter in here with the onions to sauté them a little before we put in the oysters." Sunny stirred the onions until they were ready. "See? They change color and texture like this when they are ready." Sunny showed Wanda the contents of the pot.
"Now we drain the oysters putting the liquid from the can into the pot. It adds oyster flavor to the broth. Then we put the oysters into this bowl so we can look for shell pieces. See? There is one there. 3 cans of oysters should be plenty, even for the guys." Sunny quickly sorted through the oysters and put them in the pot.
"This part is easy; we just put in 2 quarts of milk, like these." Sunny opened and poured milk in to the pot. "She said we could make it with canned milk too, not the sweetened kind though. The evaporated kind, I think the condensed kind is sweetened. I get those mixed up."
"Is that all?" Asked Wanda, placing her sandwiches on a plater.
"Oh, no. The important part is still yet to come! See, I have taken this stick of butter and cut it into pieces. And…" She said with a flourish, "Into the pot it goes!" Sunny was smiling.
"We then put in the secret ingredient, Turn your head please!" Wanda dutifully turned her head. "And we are done! I'll just put out some pepper so that they can put that in to taste and the oyster crackers of course."
"Wow, you seemed to really get into that Sunny! I never knew you like to cook."
"I have always enjoyed meal preparation since I came to earth. I think…Yeah." A little cloud seamed to appear in her eyes again.
Not knowing what else to do, and wanting to cheer her up a little Wanda asked a question. "So…could I get you to tell me what the secret ingredient is? I didn't see anything else on the table."
"I suppose, since you are Ian's partner I can entrust Mrs. O'Shea's secret recipe with you. The secret ingredient is Love."
A short time later the boys were down in the kitchen enjoying the stew. As he took in a spoonful Ian proclaimed, "This is just as good as Moms!"
Sunny grinned and blushed when Kyle added "No, I think you are wrong, it's better!"
On his second helping Kyle stopped chewing and reached into his mouth. Sunny looked up very concerned. "Did I miss a shell, Kyle?"
He pulled his finger out and looked at what he had found. He then Looked up at Sunny and smiled. "Nope! It seems I have found a peal!"
Ok folks! Please read and review! Id anyone wants I can send the recipe for oyster stew and the sandwiches. They really are very yummy! Kat