Sometimes it’s best to judge success in tiny, tiny increments. Joining a hat in knitting without somehow, despite your most careful efforts, finding it twisted when you’re halfway done. Making it through an entire commute without a single eye roll. Passing on the donuts, going back to look at the donuts, passing on the donuts again, then actually leaving the store without a donut. Everyone has their small victories worth a happy dance and maybe a cookie. As you probably guessed I had one this week.

I really, really suck at cooking meat. Veggies? No problem. Sauces? Bring it on, I can kill a sauce. People have actually eaten seconds of my mushroom risotto. I can even make a mean steak. But the rest of the meats? Elusive. Which in my world means dry, tough, etc. Now I realize that many will say ‘you can cook steak? What exactly is the problem again?’ I see your point, but while a diet entirely of red meat, potatoes, and veggies is probably as amazing as it sounds, I’d prefer to not send my doctor’s family to Disneyworld if I can help it.

After purchasing enough pork to feed myself until sometime early next year, I asked people how to cook it. I got a multitude of recipes, all of which recommended low and slow in the crockpot or oven. Since I am rather zealous about my crockpot, I enthusiastically dumped the unfortunate meat into the machine and left, happy in the knowledge I was going to come home to a tasty dinner I didn’t have to pay someone to make for me. The smell was delicious. The taste was… a lesson in not confusing pork loin with pork tenderloin (stop laughing, I only missed one word).

Desperate to save the other half of the rations and making sure I was looking for recipes for the right thing, I stumbled across a crockpot recipe that was so simple even I couldn’t mess it up. I hoped. The time was shorter and the sauce covered the pork, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Victory. At last. I even saved the leftovers.