Beef Stew

Flash Fiction

Beef Stew

I bought a new pan at the store. I was buying groceries and there it was, on sale! Shiny, and a handle too!

We hadn’t been married long. My husband grew up in a house where everyone cooked. I, on the other hand, never cooked. My older sister loved to cook, I actually had more fun cleaning. Actually, had more fun cleaning, than cooking… I had zero inclinations to cook.

I didn’t mention this to John. When we dated it was usually going out. Going to his mother’s house, she cooked, at my parent’s house, Mom cooked.

Plus, John loved to cook, a guy that loved to cook!! He had other qualities too, but I certainly liked this one.

When I saw the pan, I remembered one stew my mother made that I loved. I got the recipe from Mom and went to it to surprise John.

There must be a trick as to how some things go together…I followed the recipe, sort of. I’d bought the stew clumps at the super market. I added all the spices, the chopped-up carrots and the potatoes. Apparently, I was supposed to cut up the potatoes too, I must have missed that line. I had plenty of time, stew cooks slowly, I guess. So, once I got it going, I started watching TV.

It was a good movie… I kind of forgot about the stew till John drove in. Still, he was wonderfully surprised! It smelled good! Not quite like stew though. John was delighted that I cooked! Then he went over to check it out.

The potatoes were still hard. I did chop the meat up, well… chopped, like I thought it was saying…

Eventually, we went out for dinner… I’ve never tried cooking since. We both love it!