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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!

🥇 Winner

“Add Vodka to Taste” by Jay Wayne

🏆 Winner of Contest #270

With the mission running long and no exfil in sight, there’s little for Valerian and Roman to do besides purchase too many groceries, hole up in the safehouse, and settle old bets. Val stands over the cracked electric stove, carefully stirring a pot of ukha. The delicate scent of herbs, spices, and freshwater fish spirals off the surface of the broth. It smells of home, and Val knows without looking that Roman is sprawled on the couch behind him. “Just be careful not to let the salmon overcook,” Roman calls out. What would be genuine advice ...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Single Serve Birthday Cake (Family Recipe)” by Elaine Guinto

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #270

INGREDIENTS2 parents (overbearing, preferably judgmental)1 partner, living with you, well and truly done with you17 days of poor communication5 weeks till the lease runs out1 desperate birthday party2 drunk texts from your ex (seen by partner)Between 3 and 7 shots of tequilaINSTRUCTIONSAt Thanksgiving dinner, sit silently as your parents (not for the first time) criticize your partner: their outfit, their career, their taste in music, and any of the other myriad things they’re sensitive about. Your family has always been good at that: hittin...

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“The Bargain” by Sharon Cabana

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #270

THE BARGAIN The old mahogany grandfather clock chimed exactly 4:30 pm on a slow creeping spring afternoon in the soul of the southland. “Well,” Betilda Swanson, known to her book club and church group as Tilly, said as she gazed into the eyes of the figure perched on the old pink Victorian sofa in her drawing room. “Will you do it?” The visitor looked back at her over the coffee table, his large form reclining awkwardly, as if the smooth fabric grated against his skin. On the yellow oak table, their cup of tea sat untouched on its saucer, th...

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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 – 60 stories

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

Short Story – 83 stories

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

Dramatic – 53 stories

Stories

“Add Vodka to Taste” by Jay Wayne

🏆 Winner of Contest #270

With the mission running long and no exfil in sight, there’s little for Valerian and Roman to do besides purchase too many groceries, hole up in the safehouse, and settle old bets. Val stands over the cracked electric stove, carefully stirring a pot of ukha. The delicate scent of herbs, spices, and freshwater fish spirals off the surface of the broth. It smells of home, and Val knows without looking that Roman is sprawled on the couch behind him. “Just be careful not to let the salmon overcook,” Roman calls out. What would be genuine advice ...

Read story

“Recipe for Disaster” by Harry Stuart

Submitted to Contest #270

Category: Main DishBest Paired with: strife, doubt, and heavy hors d'oeuvresPreheat: to an unbearable temperature; most likely to come to fruition during summerPrep time: a sad, exhausting spans of a lifetimeCook time: less than thirty secondsIngredients:-one failed marriage (optional: can include other failed marriages if available)-1/10 of your self-esteem (that’s all you have left)-ten heavily mixed drinks (stout, I mean, really stout)-a dash of stifling insecurity (dash = the whole salt shaker fell in)-two loathsome jobs (could any other...

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“The kid , gothel and the golden book of dreams” by Angela Zuluaga

Submitted to Contest #270

Dedicated to my brother Santi and to all adult kids who lost hope and left their dreams in the land of dreams.There was a land in Trickily Boom,A magical place where the brooms swept the gloom.No Hogwarts here, no enchanted wood,Just a cabin so plain, yet strangely good.Wool on the walls, the floors, and the air,Everything simple, yet full of care.No grand adventure, no mystical tool,Just the coziest spot, where normal is cool.A pure-hearted kid with dreams in his mind,He wanted to be great, leave the rest behind.Maybe Messi, Ronaldo, or Cli...

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“Witchetty Grub” by Derrick M Domican

Submitted to Contest #270

Recipe #666 / Variation 091Servings: 7 Preparation Time: Varies (based on resistance of ingredients)Ingredients:1 eye of newt1 toe of frog150 grams wool of bat1 tongue of dog10 scales of dragonA pinch of dead man’s bloodA drop of a virgin's tear1 swollen, pus-filled witchetty grub for flavourPreparation:A. Acquire pre-selected ingredients from their natural habitats. Successful extraction requires careful attention to prevent accidental damage.1. NewtNet the Newt in a crumbling inner-city neighbourhood. Still in his teens, the Newt is m...

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“3 am” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #270

3 am, the dead of night. My chest hurts.The familiar sounds barely register. The gentle hum of the ceiling fan. The more intrusive knocks and pings from the refrigerator, the measured flub when another minute is counted off by the old clock. The distorted whine from an eighteen-wheeler speeding down I-74, the futile protest from a dog awakened from its sleep, an owl calling for a mate. Then all is quiet again except for the muffled thumps from the washing machine.I am staring at several innocent looking items spread before me. The small...

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“We Could Tie a Rope Behind the Ship” by Daniel Rogers

Submitted to Contest #270

"We have to go to Izen!" Lady Nimmo pointed her roasted chicken leg at everyone around the campfire. "I agree Captain Wington is a little much, but who else do you know that has his own ship?" She said before taking a bite out of her chicken leg.Everyone reluctantly agreed, even though they knew they would be subjected to Captain Wington's weight-to-oar fixations."Will he?" Flimlet asked. He grabbed a potato off the pan and took a huge bite before thinking. His eyes jumped wide open. He didn't want to spit it out, so he attempted to cool the...

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“Avenging Amy” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #270

TW - Sex, Drugs, Violence, Suicide Amy Wells bounces as she’s plopped onto the bed. The motion causes the alcohol in her stomach to slosh and rise to the back of her throat. She’s dizzy and disoriented, not sure of where she is or how she got there. She never partied much in high school but decided to cut loose after being convinced by her roommate, Holly, that college was the time to do so. The Alpha Phi Kappa fraternity was hosting a party to kick off the school year, and where better to socialize and make some new friends. Amy was flatter...

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“The Dinner” by Stasia Komadinko

Submitted to Contest #270

The kitchen filled with the smell of cooking as the meatballs browned. I was very tired and not in the mood to cook. My feet and back hurt. The meatballs burnt. I didn't care.Would it bother him? Would he notice? Maybe he'd grumble about the burnt edges, but I wondered what would upset him more tonight: the overcooked meatballs or what was going on beneath the surface? I turned down the heat, trying to save the dish, though I knew it was too late.I sat down for what felt like the first time all day and took a moment to think about it. After ...

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“Dinosaur's Nest Fossils Found by the Ship Destiny's Dreams ” by Kristi Gott

Submitted to Contest #270

Seventy million years ago a 25 foot long dinosaur chewed, savoring a meal in the jagged mountains and valleys along the winding rivers of the southern tip of South America.It was a magaraptor dinosaur with sickle like claws.In the distance, a 10 foot tall, 7 foot long, bird like creature covered with feathers swallowed another bite of her dinner. Her eyes were on her baby dinosaur chicks climbing over the rocks and on the eggs that would hatch soon.Her mate nudged her and spoke with squawking trumpets of sound and gestures. She understood hi...

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“How to add spices to scrambled eggs” by Vsevo Polishchuk

Submitted to Contest #270

How to add spices to scrambled eggs (The story is based on real events, but some facts have been invented for dramatic effect) He walked into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes. After looking at the mirrored surface of the turquoise fridge, he tried to turn the porcupine on his head into a usual mop-top, but quickly gave up. His stomach was grumbling, demanding eggs with bacon and vegetables after last night's whisky, and as fat as possible. But his mind was elsewhere: he was trying not to forget the melody he had written in his sleep. This...

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“Every Type of Cabbage” by Martha Kowalski

Submitted to Contest #270

“They hate me, don’t they?” The burn of the kimchi jigae still coats my tongue in fire despite the ginseng tea I try to douse it with. I feel a similar burn in my cheeks as Minjun’s parents patter around in the kitchen but the tea doesn’t help much in extinguishing that. My Korean skills are minimal but even I pick up the occasional, “isanghan” – strange. As in, the isanghan blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl their son somehow, inexplicably fell in love with. As in, the isanghan way he lets her call him MJ instead of his full name. As i...

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“The Puppy Pokey” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #270

The Puppy Pokey“Life is unfair.” &nbsp...

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“The Sauce” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #270

Stare at the photo of your grandmother. Stare at it. Imagine her voice telling you that you will never make her sauce the way she did. Never. Hear her cackle. Remember the time you tried to rollerblade in her driveway and fell on your face. Remember the cackle. Steel yourself. You will make this sauce and it will be better than hers. Imagine her saying ‘If ghosts were real, I would come back and crack an egg on your head just for the hell of it.’ Tell yourself that you’re not really smelling her cigarette smoke. It’s all in your head.Look up...

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“Dancing with a Dandy” by Max Wightwick

Submitted to Contest #270

Dancing with a DandyWhat an age to be alive! A time when swains can sway with the ballad of transposing their daily life upon romance. Modernity, having invented commercialism, offers a variety of means for one to pluck and choose what lover seems most desirable to them. If pondered over, dating applications are akin to pottering through aisles in a supermarket. The discrepancy being that the purchase here is what divertissement is gained, fire is eroticised, or love is blossomed. The genius of it all is how, sans leaving home, one can twidd...

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“It Ain’t Just Potato Salad ” by Linda Kenah

Submitted to Contest #270

Arianna awoke about an hour before the alarm clock at her bedside had a chance to wail. She shut it off, no longer needing the buzzer. The dread that engulfed her the previous evening almost choked her now. She swallowed hard, and climbed out of bed. Moving robotically, she showered and dressed before heading down to the kitchen.It was impossible to avoid – the cause of all her angst. Still sitting on the table, the envelope addressed to her was disfigured with the words “FINAL NOTICE” in large red letters. She had i...

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$250

Prize money

338

Contest entries

134

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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