how to be a Gen Z, by Peter Parker

How to have a good valentines- fail at cooking

Warnings: non really. It's a pretty fluffy chapter.

Ships: wadeXpeter, too tired to actually think of ship name.

For anyone curious, the mushroom sauce recipe is this one, it's my go to when I make steak, pretty easy and really delicious. I'll put it in the comments as well. Also, surprise! three updates in one day after literal months none! I'm so tired rn.   https://www.recipetineats.com/mushroom-sauce/ 

I quickly finish grabbing all the ingredients from the shelves at the supermarket and start heading towards the self-checkout. I didn't end up needing to get too much, just two steaks, and a box of mushrooms. We already had everything else we needed at home. Now, you may be asking, what are you doing?  Good question!  I'm making this for valentines day! It's the second Valentine's Day with Wade and I dating, and I'm so happy, so I decided to make something special for dinner.

Now of course the issue here being that I'm not very good at cooking, so I decided to find some easy recipes that MJ and Ned directed me towards. I ended up choosing to make steak, mashed potatoes and an easy mushroom sauce that MJ assures me is easy to make.

I make it home and grab my computer, pulling up the recipes. Comparing the times it took told me that the mashed potatoes would take the longest, however most of that time seems to be boiling them, so then the mushroom sauce would require the most attention, with the steak only needing to be turned. I nod resolutely to myself, setting up the space. I quickly and easily peeled 6 chat potatoes, the only ones we had, and easily put them on to boil. I then started on the mushrooms. Around halfway through the mushroom sauce, where I was just adding the wine, I put on the steaks. They were a bit thinner than what I usually bought but they should hopefully be good for the usual time. The potatoes still needed a little bit of time to get soft, which is odd. I thought they should be good by now. I shrug it off and add the broth and the cream to my mushroom sauce. I stirred this for a minute before Draining the potatoes. They weren't completely soft yet, but if I didn't mash them now they wouldn't be ready. By this point the steaks were cooked and I took them off and wrapped them in tin foil, hoping that the gut feeling I got of increasing wrongness was wrong. I cursed as I turned back to the broth and saw it had curdled, the broth and cream not mixing together properly. I sighed, it would be fine to eat anyway, it was just annoying. I grab the cream and pour a small amount into the pan with the potatoes.

I froze as I caught a whiff of what the cream smelt like as I was closing the bottle. No. Way. I slowly looked down, turning the bottle of cream.

Best by: 23.03.2022

It was the 2 of the 4th. For crying out loud. I turned back to the stove top, where the mushroom sauce had curdled with the off cream and the potatoes lay in a pool of the same cream. That's fine. We can have steak and potatoes. I would just wash the potatoes. Scrap the sauce. Checking the clock I realised that Wade would probably be back in half an hour, I still had to set up the living room and I hadn't even finished cooking! I groaned, quickly turning back to the pan and grabbed the pan with the potatoes. The metal pan. With the metal handle. That I just took off the stove.

I cursed and dropped the pan. On to the bench top. Where the plates of steak sat. The off cream spilled over the steaks, luckily only going on top of the tinfoil. Around 1 whole potato had fallen on the ground, so I wiped up the bench top and rinsed the potatoes off, grabbing the milk instead. I mashed the potatoes, silently cursing as they refused to go creamy and instead only became finely cut up potatoes in a pool of milk. Okay, potatoes are a no go too. THat's fine. We have spinach in the fridge.

Barely holding back from crying I put down the pan and opened the fridge, pulling out the decidedly wrinkly spinach. I cursed loudly and threw the spinach back in the crisper. I threw the potatoes and the sauce in the bin and looked at the steaks. They had better have worked. I pulled out a knife and slowly peeled off the still-wet-from-cream tin foil. I cut the steaks open, levering open the cut, squinting suspiciously at the hopefully not actually that brown insides. I cut off a small bit of the steak and ate it, chewing slowly for a second.

I turned around and threw the knife at the wall, ignoring the perfect throw and instead cursing loudly.

"Woah, honey. What's wrong?" I turn and spot Wade in the doorway. I can barely see him through my blurry eyes.

"I just wanted to make you a nice dinner for valentine's day, and nothing is going right! I over cooked the steak, and the sauce curdled and the cream was off, and the potatoes wouldn't mash and-" By this point I was full on crying, overwhelmed both physically and emotionally. I felt wade wrap his arms around me soothingly, just holding me for a second.

"It's okay, babe. I appreciate the thought, and how about we look at what went wrong later, and for now just get some takeout?" I nodded against his shirt and took a few deep breaths, breathing in his scent, purposefully ignoring the undertone of blood. He patted me on the back and went to grab his phone.

"Want to get some Chinese?" I hum quietly and get to work cleaning up the kitchen while Wade orders our usual. We curl up on the couch and pull up a movie before Wade gets on his bike to go and get it. I sit on the couch, looking through twitter on my phone, until Wade gets back. By which point I pull out chopsticks and bowls and Wade grabs serving spoons.

We sit at the table and watch guardians of the galaxy while eating. I laugh at Wade's horrible attempt at using chopsticks, being just barely better myself. We completely finish all the food thanks to our combined metabolism, and I laugh as we play around with the chopsticks. We clear up the living room easily, me putting the items in the dishwasher and Wade tidying up the room. In less than a hour we're in bed, facing each other.

"Hey babe?" I hum slightly in acknowledgment, eyes already drifting close.

"This may not have been your plan for valentines, but you know what? I loved it. I loved it so much," I smile and snuggle closer to him, wrapping my arms around his torso and burrowing my face in the crook of his neck. I feel more then hear him chuckle as he wraps me in an embrace as well, and I fall asleep to the feeling of him kissing my forehead. What did I do to deserve him?