Darned Recipes. (standard:Inspirational stories, 807 words)
Author: Oscar A Rat	Added: Jul 21 2020	Views/Reads: 1184/800	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
It pays to go by the book.

“How does she do it?”  Sally asked her friend, Tammy. “Every year we
have that cooking contest at the county fair, and every year Joanna 
wins.” 

“She's a hard worker, honey.  One that doesn't cut corners like the rest
of you.” 

“I don't cut corners, I follow the recipe exactly.” 

“Yes, you do, Sally.  But Joanna not only follows the recipe, she also
uses an old cookbook that makes her do it from scratch.  For instance, 
she doesn't use canned tomato sauce, but boils her own fresh tomatoes 
and seasons them with herbs from her own garden.  And you can taste it 
in her submission. 

“Where can I get one of those books?” Sally asked, causing her friend to
shrug. 

“Guess any large book store would have them.  I never checked.” 

A few days later, Sally visited Joanna.  They sat around the kitchen
table, drinking a cup of tea and gossiping.  Sally could see a short 
stack of books and pamphlets lying over the refrigerator. 

“I have to make a phone call,” Joanna told her.  “Be back in a few
minutes.” 

After Joanna left, Sally checked in her purse and found a pen and
scratch-pad.  She hurried over and copied the titles and authors of all 
the cookbooks.   By the time Joanna came back to the kitchen, Sally was 
sitting again, an innocent look on her face. 

Sally left as soon as she could safely make an excuse.  She drove
directly to the largest book store in town. 

“I want to buy all these books,” Sally told the clerk, who looked over
the list then checked her store computer. 

“I stock these three,” she told Sally, “and can order four of the
others, but this last one, ‘Ye Olde Cookin' Leger', is long out of 
print.  It would be very hard to find.”  The clerk shrugged. “But we 
have others, if you want to look at them?” 

“Na, I want these.  Get me the ones you have and order the others.  I'll
pay whatever I need to for the last one.”  Sally was too lazy to look 
at the other volumes.  She figured it was a waste of time, since she 
knew Joanna used those particular books. 

“You're the boss.” The clerk did as ordered, but couldn't find the last
book anywhere. 

Sally was in a bind.  A few months later, when the date of the contest
was announced, she looked through all the cookbooks she had, including 
the new ones.  The required dish was a type that used tomato sauce.  
Figures, Sally thought, sighing, that it would.  A couple of the new 
books did contain recipes for making the sauce from scratch. 

“Damn, that's a lot of work,” Sally muttered, studying a recipe, "and I
forgot to plant those darned herbs.  With all the shit I got going on 
now, I clean forgot." 

She found a store that sold dried herbs, though.  The price of fresh
tomatoes was astronomical at the supermarket, so she settled on the 
cheapest hothouse ones.  At least they were fresh.  Sally picked up 
spices at the nearest discount store where the jars were four for a 
dollar, and saved a little money that way.  She didn't know, or care to 
find out, but they had been sold to the store because of setting in a 
storeroom somewhere for the last twenty years.  That was the reason 
they were so cheap. 

Thinking that a solution to her problem must be in that last, hopeless
to find, cookbook, she visited Joanna again.  When the other woman left 
the room for a few minutes, Sally looked up the pertinent recipes in 
the one book she didn't have, and tore out the page, right at the edges 
where it wouldn't be too obvious, she hoped.  Smiling, she returned to 


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