the art of Story↕Telling. (e.1, part 2 of 2.)

i was glad to be back in the fucking house, i tell ya: all the walking, all the lugging around, all the sweating; but, for my troubles, i got to save $3.50, and i was able to get some exercise, to boot.


i had a mission i [need]ed to accomplish, and was determined to git'r done™ as soon as possible.


i'm sure that The Woman had been trying her best when crafting This, these past few years but, no, her best has just simply not been good enough; it's sorta like, as time went on, Mother lost some of her heart for cooking [properly], if it's not to be for a Special Occasion.


all i've been wanting was a decent-damn Home↕Made Soup to nosh on: a soup that holds up no matter how many subsequent-times it gets reheated..
..a soup that tastes like someone gave A Fuck in making it, the first time.


yep.


if i want something done right, i'd obviously have to .. do It myself.

_\↕/_ _\↕/_

the fun thing is, i don't cook.


basically.


over the last 9 or so years, it's been canned-goods, frozen-goods, take-out. . .and cereals, if/when Mother didn't feel like throwing anything together for the four of us.


?


but now it was time for me to draw upon my memories. (eventually i will have to cook more things from scratch, so, i needed to see just how good my latent ability was ─ ´how much i have picked up, and retained, from previous Observings.)

[[ (ox/hare/dragon/dragon/bird/rat/bird/rooster/hare/dog/dragon/
horse/boar/tiger/rat) **Ninpou**: Let's Get It On-no jutsu!! ]]

with That, i would start getting set-up: for making a chunky-disposition soup, i'd chop up the carrots and celery into reasonable-sized pieces.. ..and, as was luckily-consistent with my objective, i would employ the fewest-slices possible across the onion to minimize my contact with It, to prevent The Funk from getting lodged under my nails, and what↕not:

• ´rinse ´em,



• ´throw ´em into The Big Pot filled with water,



• ´throw The Basic Seasonings in there...



• ...and discover that we didn't have no fuckin' Chicken Bouillon-cubes around, as i had originally presumed, after all.

/sigh


i had a feeling i shoulda picked some up while i was still at the store but, ´ch'know, That Occurance merely served me right for trying to be Optimistic for once in my life.

_\↕/_ _\↕/_

´hoping that, maybe, the chicken meat^(♫-1), its self, would eventually lend enough flavour to generate a decent-tasting broth^(♫-2), i just went on ahead and put That in there, to get things rolling; after a while, i was able to see that, no, That Strategy wasn't going to cut it: i needed those fucking Cubes.


´long story, shortened: about halfway through, i finally got my mom to drive me down to the store that was 9-blocks^(♫-3) away ─ she certainly made me wait for It, indeed she did: apparently she was so into her "Little Activity" in which she was engaged at the time that she even told me that instead of having us go out to store that was just a few minutes' drive away for the cubes that i should just settle for employing Corn↕Starch.


which would have defeated the entire point of me making The Soup in the first place, if you bear in mind Corn↕Starch is not a flavouring- but a thickening-agent.


?


(plus, almost all ingredients i was using were bought by me; on top of That, she should've figured, well, as long as i won't have to cook anything for The Boys for a couple of nights, i should just go on and spend the few minutes helping this muther↕fucker get his shit....)


i was serious when i told her i was gonna be in-and-out of the store as quickly as possible, it took me less than 5-minutes to complete my transaction: expedited thanks to the Self-Checkout Line; an over↕all total of 11-minutes was spent, coming & going.

~↕↕~

so.. ..the next thing i needed to tackle was Noodles.


it's been over 16-fucking_years, unbelievably, since i've last had linguine-chicken soup: made by Pop Pop, just once^(♫-4).
it was as good as fuck, i tell ya...
...and i wanted to recreate That for us to enjoy, if not at least one more time.


(i actually tried to get my mom to make That, once, some years back, but..
..i guess her imagination was just too limited to want to take me up on the challenge.)


maybe now you're able to bear winess, a glimpse of at least a bit of the signifigance This Mission has for me; i decided to use Fettucine for this particular go-around.


in the spirit of continuing to avoid those fatalities that has doomed most of Mother's Soups, i had already decided not to boil the pasta with the broth^(♫-5); to get a hopefully_better-tasting product, i would need to trade washing out two-additional pots after i was through with them: 1.98 lbs., total, of fettucine was getting used for this production.

*phew.*





meanwhile, the broth, its self, was tasting pretty nice, and was exhibiting the consistency i had desired:

A Watery One.

~↕↕~

...jumping ahead, a bit more, my little bros actually ate everything that i put in their bowls: i have not known for them to like vegetables, but, i guess for me. . . . .




. . . . .all-in-all, my soup was good.
it definitely held-up over the few days it was stored in the ´fridge, too..

..but, Mom, herself, didn't give me an opinion about it.. ..I don't even know what she did with the serving that I meted out for her consumption.


(maybe she was Jealous?

yes?

no?

maybe so?)


not-withstanding-That, i did make note of some things i must do differently, next time; for, if i meet those condition, it should be almost a shoe-in, that my soup can undoubtedly be considered ***da motha↕fuckin' bomb***:

• use less water: the broth was nice,──don't get me wrong: it was a product far superior to what Mom has been putting out,──but it was still rather dilute..
  ..´not as strong as it could have been



• use more chicken: i didn't know. sosumi. i did want the stew to be pretty dense with Meat.. ..and it might have been, if i had employed the 4th of 4 Breasts i bought



• use more vegetables: naw, i mean. you know. i'm a pretty-hard↕core guy^(♫-6). i was aiming for an Old School-feeling for this all the way. like This. no one who is in his right mind would ever complain about there being too many chunks of celery, carrots, or onion, b'sides.

i cannot wait to have another go at This, now that i have a better idea of how to approach the fucker; i think, for the next time, i'll use Shells.
(and i will definitely use less water, as i had discovered most of the Chunky Elements were hiding all the way at the bottom of the pot!)
when i tackle Ground Beef & T'mat`r Sauce, i will probably use Shells again...
...but i will also throw in some mozzerella cheese, to mix things up.



at the moment, i'm not interested in Exotic, but, rather, Basic Fare; the rest can fall into place, later.

---

(♫-1) (boneless, nearly-skinless, Breast)
(♫-2) (something that was critically-important for me, seeing as This was the area most-often fucked-over by Mother's last several attempts.)
(♫-3) (a trek i could have easily made, except, uh, i had just gotten back in from a long night of Work, and, even if not, she wasn't likely to watch my soup while i was away.)
(♫-4) (that I am aware of.)
(♫-5) (remember what Starch does?)
(♫-6) (l.o.l.)