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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#270: The Perfect Recipe

Writing can often feel like trying to follow the perfect recipe: with the right inciting incident, you can push your character out of their status quo or comfort zone, and if you sprinkle some challenges in there, you get character development. Then, you turn the heat up until you reach a boiling point — maybe you even toss in a third-act crisis — and just before it spills over, you add the finishing touches and plate it up.

But sometimes, no matter how carefully you stick to a recipe, things don’t turn out as planned. That’s when, like any great chef, you realize it’s better to forgo exact steps and simply season to taste.

This week’s prompts take inspiration from the world of food, so grab your aprons and preheat your ovens — let’s get cooking!

This week's prompts

Write a story in the form of a recipe.

Short Story – 82 stories

Start or end your story with two people discussing an important matter over a meal.

Dramatic – 60 stories

Write a story inspired by the saying “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Angst – 59 stories

Set your story in a kitchen, either early in the day or late at night.

Short Story – 82 stories

Write a story about someone searching for a missing ingredient, literally or metaphorically.

Dramatic – 53 stories

Stories

“Big Sky ” by Jango MyHeart

Submitted to Contest #270

The light stream from the sun, filled with red and pink hues from the Ojai sunset, casts a warm glow over my body. Blinding me and my phone slightly, I respond to one of my client’s emails from the consultant firm who is panicking over my analysis of their set-aside money for potential loss. My mom is feverishly stirring and mixing her homemade marinara sauce with the corkscrew pasta filled up to the brim, and splattering the sauce everywhere as she is taste-testing. She throws in some rectangular pieces of black forest deli ham, sloppi...

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“Bait and Switch” by Lawrence Cromwell

Submitted to Contest #270

BAIT AND SWITCH Jessy was on pins and needles as she anticipated the arrival of her ex-best friend from high school, whom she hadn't seen in almost a dozen years. She still wondered whether this meeting was a good idea or not. She knew that it would be awkward to meet Anna after their abrupt parting following their unfortunate encounter on the night of the Senior Prom. For over three years, until that night, the two had been almost inseparable, BFFs. When they met in the ninth grade, they had each transferred into Grant High School from dif...

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“The Heart of the Matter” by Janet Lorimer

Submitted to Contest #270

THE HEART OF THE MATTERBy Janet Lorimer When I was a kid, I never wanted to learn how to cook. Not even when I hit my teens. In my town that was what girls and women did, but I was a bit of a tomboy and all I wanted to do was hang out with my cousins and go to the funerals. Funerals were a big deal in my town. There were more of them than holidays. Most of the funerals were held for our menfolk, but a lot of those were because o...

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“Recipe for a Good Night” by Rebecca K.

Submitted to Contest #270

Rachel had never been a good sleeper. Since early childhood she had been prone to insomnia, spending nights willing herself to fall asleep NOW, but eventually giving up and reading, watching TV, or prowling through the house. In recent years, these sleepless-night activities had mostly been replaced by scrolling on her phone. This was allegedly one of the worst things you could do for your “sleep hygiene”, but it was an easy option that generally didn’t disturb bedmates.As an adult, she timidly asked her doctor about sleeping pills and recei...

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“Split” by Trey Blevins

Submitted to Contest #270

"If you're not gonna take this seriously, I'm leaving. Tonight." Am I to let the fruit sog in melting Neapolitan? I bought this three blocks away and hurried through evening heat to store it in time that it wouldn't melt fully, and now it's freezer burnt on one end. I try to enjoy it finally, in the comfort of my own home on my own time, and I initially succeed in spite of its hardened crystals and wilting, leaky banana, and I am asked to ignore it at such a point? Ignore it now that anything short of reluctant haste would render it mush, if...

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“The Pantry Door” by Sophia Cook

Submitted to Contest #270

Mama always left the pantry light on, on account of the roaches. It didn’t help. When I wanted to make tuna salad for my little sister (with extra mayonnaise so there’d be enough for me too), I would open the pantry door and then cough a little bit before going in. I didn’t want to see the vermin scurrying across the tins of beans and boxes of biscuit mix. I’d grab a can of tuna fish from the mostly empty shelves and run out as quick as I could, slamming the louvered door behind as though it could keep the roaches in. If Mama had let the cat...

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“Man on fire” by Misty Dyan Batson

Submitted to Contest #270

It was still an hour before sunrise, the kitchen was dimly lit with an oil lamp sitting on the linoleum floor, lighting up the cupboard doors as if the rug was on fire. “Why do you use that thing?” William looked up at his wife standing in the doorway leaning on the frame. “We have electricity; you know” She said smiling. He was sitting on the linoleum next to the oil lamp that he bought a year earlier from ‘Your junk, my junk’, a thrift store at the edge of town that sold things that people didn’t want anymore. “I like it” William said...

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“Fly Away Kitchen ” by Noah Shackelford

Submitted to Contest #270

I opened my eyes to look at the sunlight streaming into the window of my apartment. In the rays of light dust particles floated and danced around. I sat up in my futon, and my entire head and shoulders became bathed in this light. I winced, as it was far too bright for my sensitive eyes to handle. I pushed the blankets off myself and stood up. But when I took my first step I almost tripped and hit my head on the counter, as my foot had gotten caught in the blanket. I shook it out viciously and attempted to start my morning routine in a...

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“What Happened to Lucas?” by Alchemical Attitudes

Submitted to Contest #270

“The world was nothing but a misty cavern, a dim bluish gray cloud is all that's left. The world is so empty now. But still I walk and I wander and I hope to find a memory somewhere in this place I now call home. How do you continue to wander for so long looking for something so useless. But what else is a dead guy supposed to do?” Lucas had long been stuck in this limbo. At first he would run to his memories then he would jog but now he just walks, He no longer minds talking to himself aloud as he knows well by now he will never be heard ag...

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“Cooking in Her Shadow” by Luna Lin

Submitted to Contest #270

I instinctively reached for the switch in the darkness and in an instant, bright fluorescent light flooded the small, 15 square-metre rectangular kitchen. I placed the blue plastic A4 folder on the countertop. For a moment I was worried that the loud glare would wake my family or the neighbours at two in the morning. But it was only the light. My mother loved this white brightness. She could see better. For years though, when I was still living in this house, I hated this fluorescence that made everything look stale and unpleasant. I could n...

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“Queen Agatha's Meal” by James Harris

Submitted to Contest #270

Gordan strutted into the lower kitchen, smelling like gold-plated perfume while the char-faced pimple-necked culinary aid bent over, struggling to stir a giant pot, his stomach slouching over the warm rim.“Dinner should be ready to serve by the witching hour, Bandit, that's thirty ticks,” Gordan said in his friendliest tone possible.Bandit looked to Gordan for a split-second, then silently continued, quickening his stirring speed. Gordan wandered over presumptuously with his chest puffed out and his hands behind his back, ready to lean over ...

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“Three Visitors' Night” by Neil Achary

Submitted to Contest #270

Saph stood in the kitchen, hands on her hips, biting her lip. Candles flickered as the walk-in pantry next to the hearth whispered that it was almost empty. She inspected all the pine wood shelves, and in an old, tired-looking barrel at the back, she found one small sack of wild rice. "Too little rice for a vegetable stew," she said aloud. She thought she could bake a flat loaf with the rest of the flour in the pantry, or some kind of cake with the eggs, milk and the honey. Maybe she would, just to be safe. Use everything, spare nothing. She...

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“The Midnight Cake” by Emma McGeorge-Hill

Submitted to Contest #270

“Let’s bake a cake.”My sister’s voice cut through the darkness of our shared room, and I blinked in sleepy confusion.“What? Let’s… what?”It was well after midnight, and our teenaged giggles and gossip had slowly given way to yawns. I had been happily drifting into slumberland, but her startling announcement pulled me back.“Let’s bake a cake!” Her voice rose with slowly building excitement.“Bake a… you mean now?”“Why not?” she trilled. “It’s mom’s birthday tomorrow—we could surprise her in the morning with fresh cake for breakfast!”“I dunno.”...

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“Kitchen Requiem” by G Holden

Submitted to Contest #270

Moonlight banked off the clouds, sending pearly shivers of light through the kitchen windows. It tousled the leaves of the wilted herbs, planted in rectangular pots along the windowsill, sending skeletal shadows across the linoleum floor. Andrea crept across the kitchen. She could smell mint in her quiet breaths that disturbed the silence of the kitchen; the sort of silence that tugged your ribs uncomfortably into your lungs. She moved slowly around the highchair, her feet cold despite her socks, trying dearly not to wake the others in...

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“24 Hours” by Valentina Castro

Submitted to Contest #270

The sound of rain against the pavement increased as the sky sobbed. An odd scent of coffee permeated through the smell of the rain in the thick humid afternoon air. The dark gray sky darkened with time, white drops of hail dropping without a warning as they hit the buildings, cars, and umbrellas. And there laid Andrea. Her body motionless on the zebra crosswalk, soaked from the rain as she blinked to process what had just happened. Struggling to get up, she spotted an elderly couple from afar running to her aid and helping her to her feet. A...

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$250

Prize money

336

Contest entries

133

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 04, 2024 EST

Won by Jay Wayne 🏆

Title: Add Vodka to Taste

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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