As I prepare to undertake my Thanksgiving sous-chef responsibilities, I am checking in here to wish you all a cheerful and temperate holiday weekend. I have no idea what I'll be chopping and slicing, but I'm sure my mother-in-law has something outstanding planned. In the meantime, I'll leave you with yesterday's romantic pork chop dinner for two, prepared while the teenager was eating a Subway sandwich and rehearsing carols with the select choir.

At about 3 p.m., I rubbed two pork chops with a mixture of salt, black pepper, and cayenne and let them sit in that mixture for a couple of hours. When I was ready to cook, I preheated the oven to 325 degrees, dried off the chops on paper towels, and browned them in hot grapeseed oil. Removing them from the pan, I poured out the fat and replaced it with garlic butter (left over from yesterday's garlic-bread project). Once the foam began subsiding, I added about a half cup of vermouth, turned the heat to high, and let it boil off. Then I returned the heat to low, added the chops, turned them over a few times, covered the skillet, and put it into the oven. I let the chops cook for about 40 minutes, turning them over once. Meanwhile, I made quinoa (which proportion- and time-wise cooks more or less like basmati rice) and a salad of baby mixed greens, minced raw carrot, and an olive-oil-balsamic-vinegar dressing. When the chops were done, I mixed a dollop of cilantro into the quinoa (along with salt and pepper), laid out a flattened spoonful on each dinner plate, topped it with a chop, and poured on the pan juices. I arranged the salad along the edges of the plate and added a side of home-pickled red and green hot peppers. Then I lit the candles, and voila--