This meal brought to you by the letter P

I felt like cooking this evening–or more specifically like eating a hot, real meal this evening. And since my roommate (who doesn’t eat pork) is out of town, I made myself some pork.

I added a twice-baked potato that has been sitting in the freezer for a while–and some peas, which I absolutely love. Then the spirit struck me and I decided to whip up some instant pistachio pudding to go with it all.

It wasn’t until I’d finished reheating the potato and peas, whipping the pistachio pudding, and pan-frying the pork that I realized I was eating all p‘s. Pork. Potato. Peas. Pistachio Pudding.

Introducing, dinner. Brought to you by the letter P.

A quick note on pork: When I was young, I thought I didn’t like pork. After all, I was used to dry pork chops that required half a cup of applesauce per bite to make them palatable. (Not a bash on my mom’s cooking–she really is an excellent cook. It’s just the pork chops.) But then Mom started buying these picnic roasts–and I loved them. They were moist, tender, flavorful. They were great. Okay, so it wasn’t all pork that I disliked. Just chops. Then I discovered the quick read food thermometer. This is honestly the best kitchen tool since the electric carving knife (bread slicer, that is). I cook the meat to an internal temp of 155 F–and it’s moist and tender and has great flavor. Amazing, isn’t it? If you’ve never owned a kitchen thermometer, go get one. It’s pretty much the best thing you can do. Now you don’t have to burn your meat to a crisp to make sure that it’s done. Just check the internal temp real quick and pull it off the heat while it’s still good.

And just for the record, the internal temps for foods are as follows:

Roasts should remain at 145 for 4 minutes. All other items should remain at the appropriate temp for 15 seconds.