Sunny made a point of staying out of Emma’s way during the mealtime rushes (unless her help was requested for whatever reason), but aside from that she liked spending time in the kitchens. Cooking was one of the ways she stayed connected to home and family while she was away. In London it had been half necessity since she’d needed to cook for herself. Here at the Madonna it was more meditation and mental health exercise. She didn't need to cook to eat, but she needed to cook to keep the homesickness at bay.
And since she’d gotten her Easter egg, she could do this right. Inside had lay some tainted peppers (good for magical recipes) and several mundane spices that the Madonna's kitchen just didn't have. She’d need to talk to Regina about planting the seeds at some point, but for right now, she was busy making herself some
tainted pepper soup, a staple food as far as Leopard People were concerned. She was making it mild, though ‘mild’ for anything with tainted peppers was still pretty fiery (Sasha liked his hot because apparently he hated having taste buds, something even Chichi wasn’t stupid enough to agree with). Sugar Cream had taught her this recipe, and the act of cooking it always made Sunny think of her strict but loving mentor.
This was something she was going to do alone because the dish was rather demanding. Isong’s slim green book lay open on the counter, and her green knife beside, though she didn’t use it to chop. Still, this was a shared kitchen, between those who worked here regularly, those who came in to talk to them, and those who came in to make their own food.
“I wouldn’t touch that,” she said casually to the presence behind her. “That soup tends to explode if you’re sloppy with it.”