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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

“In the Kitchen in the Dark” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #270

It was very late at night, and the two of them were standing motionless in the kitchen. She stood in front of the stove, with her back to it. George was a few steps back, facing his wife Gwendolyn, and the stove behind her. It had long been their favourite place in the house, with so many good times there, and so many memories. They had once talked about having sex in the kitchen. A couple they knew had told them about their experience doing that on one occasion. But they had just laughed it off as a joke.&nbsp...

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“Adobo” by Vickie Riggan

Submitted to Contest #270

Adobo Vickie Riggan 1440 words &nbsp...

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“War and Prayer” by Paul Kelash

Submitted to Contest #270

War and Prayer The sound of the pumping plunger of the Coleman camp stove gas cannister invades my ears, familiar as the pulse of a pump pressurizing my Sting-Ray bicycle tires, a precursor to adventures to come. I sit at the picnic table holding a fly swatter, posed like a sentinel ready to attack any intruding winged insect that lands on our campground breakfast spot. Uncle Al pumps away on the plunger, then stops and screws it back into the stove’s distinctive red tank. The back of the stove blocks my view of his work, but I hear a ...

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“The Taste of Resilience” by Kashira Argento

Submitted to Contest #270

Pilar has been absent-mindedly mixing the paella, and the familiar motions are a small comfort in her current tumultuous life. Her friends loved her paella and made every excuse for her to cook it. Pilar, being a true Spaniard, of course, accommodated them, after the necessary pleading…. The recipe has been running in the family for generations, mouth to mouth, never written down, as if the secret needed to be safeguarded. Pilar had the recipe passed down by her grandmother, Dolores, who did not trust her own daughter's cooking skills and sk...

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“The Tree” by Ken Poirier

Submitted to Contest #270

The TreeBy Kenneth Poirier There was a man once, not so much a lonely man as his life was fairly fufilling. Just a man like any other man, honest, trustworthy and sincere. He wanted so badly to have a big, beautiful tree in his backyard like all his neighbors. He dreamed of a huge tree with majestic branches reaching high into the sky, and dazzling green foliage. He knew exactly what kind of tree he wanted. When he walked into the nursery to find the perfect tree he saw it right away. He knew almost instantly that this tree would be the per...

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“Recipe for Dissed Aster” by Judy Shank Cyg

Submitted to Contest #270

Recipe for handling a bully without retaliation. Guaranteed satisfaction. (Warning: ingredients and steps must be followed exactly, no substitutions.) · Prep time – 1 day· Total time – 2 days· Servings – 4 INGREDIENTS Herbs· 2 sprigs monkshood (for protection)· 1 stem (10 petals) dogtooth violet, may be dried (for dream magic)· 4 black alder leaves, 2 tablespoons of crushed bark (for spell)·&nbsp...

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“How To Tank a Job Interview: A Recipe” by Catalina Wichmann

Submitted to Contest #270

How To Tank A Job Interviews: A Recipe Hello readers! I bring you a perfect recipe to tank a job interview, in case you have ever wondered how to make a cake out of that. I created this recipe by myself, as it was not passed on to me by my mother or my grandmother, as none of the women in the previous generations of my family have had to get jobs outside the home. The men have, but as we all know, men do not pass on their Recipe’s for Professional Success and Failure to their daughters, so I had to come up with one with my own spin to it....

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“A Dish of Love, Lies, and Demons” by Lindsay Nicole

Submitted to Contest #270

Ingredients: · 1 young couple (one with intentions of proposing)· 1 remote cabin by a lake (secluded, with a dark history)· 1 diamond engagement ring (hopeful but doomed)· 1 cursed object (hidden in plain sight)· A handful of secrets (deeply buried, but ready to rise)· &...

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“Taking in the Laundry” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #270

Early one morning from her kitchen window, Grannie Annie studied the storm clouds speeding toward the village. Next door’s clothes danced, pegged out on the line strung over the new family’s back garden. She only had a nodding acquaintance with them so far, but they seemed nice enough. The little boy had not come to Storytime at the library yet on a Saturday morning, but she expected he would in time. She knew she would tell the right story for him when he did. After a moment’s consideration, she realised that nobody would be home in ...

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“Michelin” by WM .

Submitted to Contest #270

“Again?” Mia angrily asks, looking at her phone reading 21:12. Clenching her teeth and her clutch, sitting at the bar. “Your martini, madame.” The bartender announces, taking away her previous glass. “It’s Mademoiselle.” Mia corrects, proving a point. The bartender smiles, clocking me tipping a tenner into the jar. “Look, I don’t -” “Have an excuse for my tardiness.” Mia mimes, nailing my mannerisms, and exploring the bottom of her glass. I hide her gift underneath my pea-coat and head toward the maitre d. “Excuse me, reservation for two…Smi...

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“Moonbeam Hill....” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #270

Silvery moonbeams still shone benignly in tranquil translucence as Alex stormed away from the lounge room of the unrequited. He was in his default moody mode again, glowering into the evening air, sulking in his grey hood. Philly, the Fenian, shrugged, their evenings usually ended like this. She got ready for bed. Yes, her monthly stranger had arrived, all part of being a woman. She took care of that, sighing in the loo. It was only another unfilled egg follicle, vanishing into the sewerage system. Her dreams of cute blond haired, blue eyed...

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“Daddy's Favorite” by Elisa Welch

Submitted to Contest #270

Rachel stepped off the school bus warily, already listening for the angry bark of Daddy’s huge, black mutt, Peach. She walked up the driveway, walking as fast as she could, eyes wide and scanning the yard, so his daily lunge at her wouldn’t take her by surprise. Even with the rope that tethered him to the giant elm, and the fence that lined the driveway, the long walk from the road to the porch was a daily ordeal.But all was silent as she reached the front steps. She skipped the broken step, then crossed the grey wood porch, with its peeling...

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“Dinner with Dmitry Morozov ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #270

There are few secret agents who can compare to Dmitry Morozov, but he had called me to meet him at the Central Park Voorburg in the Hague, Holland. I wasn’t sure what he wanted to talk about, but since I was at a conference on International Law, I told him I would meet him as requested. I had known him when I was an CIA agent during President Kennedy’s failed attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro in Cuba. We met in Havana in September 1963, weeks before Kennedy’s own assassination.“What a knucklehead he and McCone were trying to inva...

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“Frosty Lasagna” by Lou Jayne

Submitted to Contest #270

(Contains mild sexual description of a fantasy base which may trigger some) Frosty LasagnaThe lasagne slowly slides down my fork onto the plate with a loud slap. Everyone is now looking at me with eager expectation in their eyes. What other answer could I possibly give but “yes, yes of course I’d be honoured to cater your wedding”Although I am mortified and broken over what I have recently discovered. I am also happy to have found my mystery customer khiadra.“Ah brilliant thankyou thankyou” shouts the blond waitress, as she practically runs ...

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“Our Last Night Together” by Ronald John MacLennan Jr

Submitted to Contest #270

I stepped into the restaurant as if I owned every breath of air around me. The click of my heels marked the rhythm of every gaze turning my way. I wore a black silk dress that curved around my body as if tailored by the gods themselves, hugging every slope and contour from the slight dip at my waist to the elegance of my shoulders.The soft candlelight from the restaurant’s lanterns highlighted my alabaster skin and the deep cascade of my dark hair that fell in waves, contrasted with my sharp green eyes.Across the table sat Julian, tousled da...

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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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