Little Victories!

I'm very pleased to report that all plans I've had for the last 24 hours have actually worked out! (I figure if you go day by day, if not hour for hour, you can find such victories in planning!) It did, indeed, rain this morning. In fact, it was raining for the exact window I would have been running, so deciding it was a Rest Day today totally worked out.

Last night's dinner also worked out! Here is a really terrible picture sample:

It was out of focus, lighting all weird and really didn't show off much of anything except for the cute puppy in the background being oh-so-hopeful. But, it is proof for myself later that I really did cook that ol' pork loin, and it was a success!

I really like stuff the blogger who created this recipe posts (www.briana-thomas.com) because she's real about what she thinks or, even, what her readers might think. In this case, she was really open about always having trouble cooking pork loin because it turned out too dry. This recipe is the one she's used that has given her the most success in terms of moisture. She even provided a gravy recipe to accompany this, but I admit I blew it off because I don't like gravy. Anyway, given her honesty, I was prepared when the middle of the meat was a bit dry, but we poured the juices in which it cooked over it as well as let juices sit in the plate, and it was really good! Pit Crew #4 voiced a desire for some barbecue sauce for the future, and he was right on. It could use just a little something to give it a boost of juiciness, but it tasted delicious. And, that's good because we have the other half of it in the freezer to cook another day!

Kitchen victories are pretty huge for me especially having come from a home where both of my parents were excellent cooks, and all of our meals through the weeks had a wide variety of proteins, veggies and starches. I never aspired to be as good at it as they were, but I've wanted to somehow strike a balance between their 'homemade gourmet' and my 'Ugh! Gotta make dinner!" attitude! Slowly but surely, it's coming together!

So, while dinner certainly worked for us, I'm not so sure breakfast this morning really worked well for these two bozos:

I'd say Lizzy really has some guts getting that close and just waiting to try and get a piece of dog food, but Elly let's her. *sigh* And, if that's not bad enough, we have to watch like a hawk because, of course, Lizzy also vomits dog food. It's great.

There's lots to do with the day, so it's time to get back to it! Celebrate whatever victory you create today, and I'll check in after the morning run!