Here's how I made the best-tasting food I've eaten lately. Seeing as I tossed it together between driving one boy to a doctor's appointment and picking up the other one after soccer practice, you might call it a triumph of ingredients over planning.

Defrost 6 Harmony-grown pork chops (1/2-inch thick). Marinate them in a bath of olive oil, lemon juice, lime juice, salt, freshly ground black pepper (all randomly measured according to mood and availability), a coarsely chopped clove of garlic, and a handful of julienned fresh sage. I turned the chops often for the first 15 minutes and then forgot about them for an hour and a half. The method seemed to be effective.

Dry off the chops and brown them quickly in hot peanut oil. I used a cast-iron Dutch oven. Set chops aside as they are browned.

Discard the frying fat. Replace with 2 tablespoons of butter. Throw in a cup of chopped wild honey mushrooms, which I managed to scavenge from the forest before I had to once again drive a kid somewhere or other. (P.S. Poodles think that mushroom hunting makes for an incredibly boring walk in the woods.)

Over low heat toss the mushrooms in the butter until they have absorbed the fat and started to brown. Then scrape in whatever's left of the marinade and pour in 1/2 cup of vermouth. Turn the heat to high and, stirring often, let the marinade-wine boil down to a bubbly syrup. (Vermouth is my cooking wine of choice because I never drink it and thus accidentally run out of cooking wine.)

Return the chops to the Dutch oven, coating each with the buttery-vermouthy-citrusy-garlicy-sagey-mushroomy sauce. Put a lid on the pan and bake it in a 325-degree oven for about 40 minutes. At least once during the baking time, turn the chops in the sauce.

Throw in a handful of chopped fresh parsley. Serve the chops and their juices with rice, fresh garden greens, and either iced well water or whole milk, depending on your age and the bossiness of your parents. Follow with leftover pumpkin pie and a Star Trek episode. Avoid Nyquil, if possible.