Here's the recipe. It's from Bon Apetit where recipes can sometimes be a little bit fussy or complicated. But this one is not! So easy...and super delicious!
I've made it several times and always with success. It is very forgiving, and with the hacks, it's really just a dump and simmer dish -- except for the time that it takes to cook the pork.
I made this for a grade school friend, Cilene, who visited us from Tennessee. When I think of how many friends I still have from grade school -- it's quite extraordinary. Robert and I went to a Catholic parish grade school when having 50 students in a class was the norm. I still can't believe how those teachers handled it all. We did have lots of nuns teaching us (St. Mary Magdelene, Sr. Alphonsus, Sr. Teresa, Sr. Ligouri, Sr. St. Anne) -- but we also had a fair amount of lay teachers, Ms, Mineo, Miss O'Donnell, Miss Royse, Mrs. Cardone, Mr. Harris. I remember them all very fondly. Really they were heroes -- teaching during the baby boom. And based on the outcome of my education, and Robert's they did a fine job.
But even though there were loads of kids in every classroom, there was a tight knit quality about the class, and the school, and I can still name every student in the 8th grade class photo. Thanks to the internet, some of us have reconnected, or can at least keep up with the lives of our fellow classmates.
Happy memories from our little school in North Hollywood. St. Patrick's. And thanks to all those who guided us along the way.