A minor cooking success

DISCLAIMER: This entry falls under the "my roommates are still not back from summer break and I have no one else to share this with that would care other than my mother ... and I already called her" category.

I recently had a small kitchen triumph. I cooked a pork chop for myself and didn't burn it, cook it until it was too tough, or over season it. This may not seem like a big deal but for someone who is not a master cook, it was a successful hunk of meat.

Mark Bittman is responsible for my almost perfect chop. I followed the New York Times' Minimalist columnist's recipe "Sauteed Pork Chops (with Vinegar)," which I found in my copy of "How to Cook Everything." I read Bittman's column and print out recipes pretty religiously even if I haven't made half of his dishes. He makes cooking seem simple and he emphasizes basic ingredients and none of that prepackaged stuff, which he says doesn't really save you that much time. He hasn't completely convinced me of the latter but I can follow his recipes. His cookbook is also written like he's standing over your shoulder giving you advice.

Back to the pork chop. All it took was a little dry white wine, red wine vinegar, olive oil, butter, salt and pepper and rereading the recipe five times while I was preparing the chop to make it come out nice and firm but not tough or dry. OK, I did manage to set off the fire alarm when I added the wine to the sizzling hot pan, creating a billow of smoke that hovered in my house for the next ten minutes. And the chop might have been just a tad too vinegary, but overall I gave myself a pat on the back.

I happily ate the pork chop with a oil/butter reduction and some vegetables while watching "So You Think You Can Dance." It was a gloriously content little moment. After all, it's the simple things that make me happy.