I received a pressure cooker for Christmas. Not the old-fashioned kind. This Instant Pot has 10 tools in 1. Amazing! It does anything you can imagine in the cooking world with the press of a button.

Despite years of teaching cooking classes, I steered clear of pressure cookers. Releasing a pot-full of extremely hot steam was not my idea of fun. Besides, I could make plenty of recipes by just being patient with long cooking times.

After days of watching youtube videos, I finally got the courage to test my Instant Pot. I threw caution to the wind and made a stew with the toughest cut of meat I could find. In 15 minutes, I had moist, tender, flavorful beef. Two minutes later I had completely cooked potatoes and carrots. Did I mention amazing?

I won’t belabor the fact that I was hesitant to push the release steam button and, instead, let it slowly release naturally so it actually took 3 hours to make my stew. But I learned my lesson. Once I got enough courage to press the button, it was no big deal. Throwing caution to the wind was exhilarating. I love my new cooker!

My pressure cooker experience made me think about one of my books that I’m preparing for a professional cover. I worked on Joyful Encounters through the fall, doing a close edit, rewriting the blurb, and looking for possible stock pictures for the designer. When she sent me an awesome design yesterday, I felt that sense of excitement tinged with worry. Should I tweak the blurb some more? Should I read the story again in case a pesky typo slipped in somewhere between the print and e-book? Is it ready for the unveiling?

Such pressure! (Get it?)

I suppose we’re all afraid of making mistakes, of putting ourselves in the public eye, of failing. But it’s time to throw caution to the wind. And, if anything, it will be a learning experience.

Bon appetit!