By JANET K. KEELER, St. Petersburg Times

To cook pork well -- and that means to not overcook it -- you need a meat thermometer. Pork is done at 145 degrees. Any higher and it will be dry. Invest in an instant-read thermometer if you don't already have one. The old-school thermometer is good for roasts and birds, but thinner pieces of meat can be tested better with an instant read. Serve these chops with mashed potatoes.

It seems like just yesterday that I was tearing into the envelopes of reader recipes for our first Christmas-cookie issue. But it wasn't yesterday at all, not even the day before. It was early fall 2002.

We've rounded up readers' favorite Christmas-cookie recipes from years past. And we threw in a few of ours, too. After all, Santa won't stop unless he gets a batch of Peppermint Wands.

BRICKLE (2002)

Makes at least 3 dozen pieces

60 or more saltine crackers

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 (12-ounce) package chocolate chips

"Hosting a party costs too much money."

That's the first excuse you need to get over.

"My place isn't big enough to have a party."

And that's the second.

BARCELONA, Spain - So eccentric is the work of Spanish master architect Antoni Gaudi that it makes a 21st-century traveler wish she could share some late-night tapas and sangria-fueled conversation with him.

SHE: So, tell me, Antoni, where did you get the idea for these crazy, colorful chimneys on the Casa Batllo?

The Norman Rockwell family gathering is a notion we hold dear. Problem is, when the whole clan gets together, it's often more of a Norman Bates affair. No one dies, but there are some looks that could kill.

Still, we hope that we can all get along, at least for a few hours.

Visions of a broken ankle galloped through my head recently when I was slip-sliding on ancient walkways around the Parthenon in Greece. I thought, "How the heck would they get an ambulance up here?" Or would two hunky Adonises have to carry me down the Acropolis?

Good things come in small packages, an especially entertaining notion on Thanksgiving. On the day of excess, the word "small" fits about as well as the belt around your middle.

In a few days, many of you likely will be staring at a mountain of Halloween candy gathered by your trick-or-treating witches and pirates.

Perhaps you are the type of person who conquers, divides and hides the sack of goodies. Maybe you take some to work or filch a few candies when Dorothy of Oz isn't looking. A bagful stowed in the freezer provides lunch-box treats for weeks.

September always brings talk of back-to-school lunches for the kids. But what about us working adults? We're also away from home at the noon hour and need sustenance to get through the day. And turkey on wheat bores us, too, day after day.