The House of Humble

The day started as one of those "together" sort of days. I had a specific plan for dinner and all needed ingredients on hand. Since I've made this dish quite successfully before, dinner would be a piece of cake. I walked home from work with a slight skip in my step...knowing the man and I would be basking in the satisfaction of our full bellies in less than 2 hours.

Perhaps the husband's recent display of confidence at our cooking class was contagious, but I was quickly humbled. All I know is that I attempted to make pork chops solely from my own sweet memories of success, and not from the recipe HANGING ON OUR REFRIGERATOR FROM LAST TIME. It would have been far too much to glance at the piece of paper hanging 2 centimeters from my face. Why? Why do that when I can draw from my own inherent, God-given sense of flavor balance and proportion?

The recipe suggests browning the pork on either side for about 3 minutes,then add 1/2 cup of water and cover to steam the meat slowly. I skipped the second part. Below, I'll share the conversation that occurred between my cocky self, my humble self and...the husband.

Cocky self: I am SO all over this. I scoff at those small timers that use recipes.
Cocky self: I should just let this cook and go run around the block. Twice.
Husband: Hey, aren't you going to cover it like last time?
(Meat is now redefining the word "browned")
Humble self: (unpublishable expletives followed by tears of frustration)

As he always does, he ate it anyway. As I always do, I spent the entire dinner explaining to him how awesome it's going to be next time. I was so consumed with this particular explaining session, however, that I left my beloved (empty) Mario Batali cast iron pan on the piping hot burner with my favorite spatula sticking to it.


As the house filled with humble, black smoke, I turned the burner off, mourned my favorite spatula, and reached for what we really had for dinner.


My confidence "chipping" away, I filled my belly with store-bought salsa and retired to bed. But not before I recited my mantra to bring about success and remove obstacles. "Ommmmm....peace in thy self, kindness to others, ravioli in a can."