Fearless Friday #22

Cut yourself some slack. You can only do so much.
Besides, it takes a little pressure off the rest of us for not being perfect either.

Have a great weekend!

I made lentils in the rice cooker today - they came out okay but not *quite* cooked all the way through. Next time I will add just a skosh more water and they will be fine. (I also commented this on the lentil pilaf post.)

At this moment I'm baking (roasting?) two giant meatloaves in the oven. This is a big Fearless Friday for me. Something other people take for granted, but for whatever reason intimidated me!
http://thegreenecastle.blogspot.com/2009/10/fearl...

Tomorrow: Cupcakes. Last year for Husband's birthday, I made my first-ever cake that both tasted good AND was presentable. This year I have a new pan that makes rose-shaped cupcakes, so I'm going to use the recipe from last year and use the pan for the first time... We shall see if they come out!

My only "new" thing this week was preparing a pork roast as a pot roast on top of the stove rather than roasting in the oven. I've only done pork in the oven, which came out dry, or the crockpot, which came out flavorless (except for the broth). So this was new, and I was hopeful. And........I made it up as I went along!!!

I used a bone-in pork shoulder roast, a big honkin' handful of fresh basil, still on the stems, two full branches of rosemary, bent in half to fid the pot, and a handful of fresh parsley. I left the herbs just as I picked them, save for pulling out dead basil leaves, put them in the pot with the roast and a couple inches of white wine (chablis), pepper and celtic sea salt. Cooked it on medium low heat JUST until it started to fall off the bone. This took longer than I thought it would, being my first time, so it wasn't served Friday night as I planned. (We had some canned chili instead.) Sunday, I warmed up chunks of pork roast on top of the stove, in some of the broth. Let me tell you, that pork roast was PHENOMENAL. Honestly, the best pork roast I've ever made. Moist, flavorful and so tender.

Okay, it's not really "fearless." But I tried making cupcakes for my son's birthday dinner (just us at home) from scratch. I've always been intimidated by the idea of making cakes, so I never do. Well, it turns out it's pretty easy. I found a simple recipe online and I thought it was very edible. Maybe not award winning, but certainly presentable. I also learned that there's a reason not to fill the cup so high that it rises above the level of the pan...hard to remove and hard to frost. So, I learned a handy skill, at least a little, and I'd feel just fine doing it again. Given that I am still kind of a new mom, I'm guessing it won't be the first opportunity to make cupcakes.