It had been a few days since Beca had got the new key for her apartment and she hadn't lost it... yet. She had also had two spare keys made. She had put one in the pot plant beside her door and had given one to Chloe as her last resort.
Currently, Beca was cooking. She had asked Chloe to come over for dinner so takeaway wasn't an option. She was actually, really going to do some cooking. She had looked online and found a recipe for 'Roasted Cauliflower Burrito Bowls'. It sounded okay and looked simple.
Beca had successfully completed step one, she had cooked the rice. That in itself was something she had considered a small miracle. She was now doing step two and things were not going according to plan.
"Shit, shit, shit."
Beca had left the cauliflower in the oven too long and had forgotten to toss it halfway through. It was now looking quite black and sticking to the tray. Beca opened the oven and took out the tray, forgetting that the oven was 425 degrees.
"Shit." she muttered, dropping the tray on the bench and turning on the tap.
After half a minute of running her hand under the cold water, Beca remembered the oven was still open and turned the tap off and shut the oven. Her hand was throbbing, the tray had been very hot and she already had previous blisters on her hand. Beca dashed to the bathroom where she put on antiseptic (unsure what it did but thought it looked important), moisturizer (which helped calm the pain a bit), and ten big band-aids (one for each burnt finger). Once she'd composed herself, she headed back to the kitchen and attempted to continue cooking.
The burnt cauliflower needed to be dealt with. After all, it was in the title of the dish. Beca got out a metal egg flip and started to scrape the charred cauliflower. It looked like it would still be usable, the burnt bits just needed to be scraped off. The recipe was meant to make enough for 4-6 portions. Surely there would be enough unburnt stuff for 2?
Once the cauliflower was sorted, Beca put it aside in a bowl for use later. Time for step 3!
Beca got out a saucepan and put in the black beans, taco seasoning and water. She turned the stove on and stirred the beans around, wondering if anything was meant to happen. The next sentence read 'Bring to a low simmer.' What the hell is a 'simmer'? Beca decided to just skip that bit and continue on, how important could one sentence be? Beca mashed the beans until they looked like sludge. It was meant to be 'thick and creamy' but it still looked okay.
Step 4 was to toss the rest of the ingredients together. Beca did this without fail, except for a few pieces of onion that had ended up on the floor.
Suddenly the lock clicked and the door swung open, Chloe bounding in and making her way to the kitchen to give Beca an awkward hug from behind.
"Hey Chlo, just give me 30 seconds and dinner will be ready."
"Sure, I'll just get myself some water if that's okay."
"Of course, you know where everything is."
"Thanks."
Chloe got her water and sat down, watching Beca make up the two bowls. She put in the salad in first, then the bean sludge and topped it with cauliflower and red sauce. It looked really good.
Beca got some cutlery and placed one bowl in front of Chloe and sat beside her with her own bowl. "So what's the latest on the competition."
"Well, in 2 weeks we're all expected to be at Barden for the start of everything. We'll be staying in some of the unused dorms. There are going to be at least 70 Bellas so far! That means roughly 7 teams."
