Feeds three persons for one day, or one person for three days
Ingredients:
• One 15 ounce can of beans, variety and amount of existential dread may vary depending upon region
• One dash of rice, pour until the harsh clatter against the pan softens to the consistency of winter rain against the window
• One miserly cube of bouillon, from that package that got pushed to the back of the pantry and that you thought you’d only imagined buying, and are worried to use now because it might have gone bad, even though you don’t know if bouillon even goes bad, so you compromise now and use one miserly cube and toss the rest—you can get more next pay day
• One 1 pound package ground pork
Directions:
• Stand in your kitchen staring at your one large skillet, wondering if you have enough energy to cook
• Decide that you’ll just have to
• Wash your rice; you do have some standards
• Start your rice and beans and one miserly cube of bouillon on a low boil in a small, dented pot, yes, the one with the handle coming loose
• Get your ground pork out of the fridge and remember to thank your past self for remembering to put it down to thaw yesterday morning
• Cook it, just stir it as it gradually fractures and breaks into pieces, it takes care of itself really, you standing there stirring is just part of the ceaseless pantomime of life
• Once browned set aside to wait for the rice and beans to cook through—be patient, nobody likes crunchy rice
• Pick up your cat. Listen to her purr. Scrub your fingers through her fur and feel how soft it is
• Cry , but just a little bit; she doesn’t like getting wet and even though she loves you enough to come visit on bad days doesn’t mean you should annoy her. You wonder what it’s like where she goes when she picks her afterlife back up when she’s done visiting you. You wish she didn’t have to go, but you’ve been wishing the same thing since she died, and you’re grateful for her occasional extra-curricular visitations, you really are, you just . . . miss her when she’s gone
• Mix all ingredients together into the big skillet you cooked the meat in and make sure everything is warmed through and combined. Plate a serving and let the rest cool to pack up in your janky, mismatched Tupperware. It has to see you through the end of the week
C. S. Lytal is a librarian and social media coordinator for a midsize public library. They’ve done a lot of wild things in their life (literally less than five) and one of them was completing an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University. Their work has appeared in the online magazine All Worlds Wayfarer. You can find them doodling and daydreaming in North Carolina.
Published 10/31/24