The Secret Ingredient

By Aarna Shah

I couldn’t believe my luck. I had discovered Mrs. Claus’s secret recipe for cookies. When I was helping my mother clean the attic, I saw something bright red in a box. When I dug in more, I saw that it was Mrs. Claus’s secret recipe book. Its cover was bright red with a golden border and with ‘Mrs Claus’ written on it.

I tried all kinds of recipes in the book like the love cookie, bag cookie and tastiest cookie. The love cookie made a person who is angry with friends again when he eats it. The bag cookie could expand whenever you wanted just like a bag and you could keep your belongings in it. I noticed that the most important ingredient used in all recipes was love. I had an idea. I could use the recipe book for the cookery competition in school. I chose to make the tastiest cookie. As per the recipe they were supposed to be the tastiest cookies in the world. I checked the ingredients for it. They were – The horn of a unicorn, sprinkles, juice of a freshly plucked cherry, wheat flour, sugar, milk, salt and most importantly love. I could get all the ingredients but I wondered how to get love. Just then I remembered that I had clean the whole attic by the evening. So, I kept the book in my drawer and set to work. So, after I finished cleaning the attic I gathered all the ingredients (except love of course) and kept them safely in the cupboard.

I was then very tired and went to sleep. Something astonishing happened! Mrs. Claus came in my dream. She asked, “What is the difference between the food your maid cooks and the food your mother cooks?” “The difference is that the food that that my mother cooks is tastier.”, I replied. “Correct. That is because your mother adds love to it.”, she said. After saying these words she vanished and my dream broke. I woke up and quickly got ready. I went to my mother and asked her how she adds love to the food. She replied, “When I think that my family will eat the food that I make I try to make it extra tasty. So love gets added to it and the food tastes very delicious.” So, I understood how to add love and was very happy. Finally, the day of the cookery competition came. I gathered all the ingredients and went to the place where the competition was being held. I imagined that I was making the cookies for my family and they were going to eat it so, it had to be extra tasty. As my mother had predicted, love got added to it and it became tastier. When my teacher tasted the cookies she loved them the most. She handed me the first prize. I didn’t tell her that I had used the recipe book and took all the credit myself.

I learnt that not only cookies, but everything becomes tastier with love. I posted the recipe book back to Mrs. Claus so that it stays safe with her.

By Aarna Shah