Wonder Gadget Wednesday - Meat thermometer

When I first got married, I wasn't a very good cook. I overcooked things. A lot. My poor husband  patiently and very sweetly ate a lot of rubbery chicken and pork chops back in those days! Poor guy! You see, I had this fear of undercooking things. Salmonella, trichinosis, and e.coli, oh my! I figured that I would rather serve my husband rubber chicken than give him salmonella poisoning so I always cooked things a little bit longer than necessary if I wasn't sure it was completely done. Enter the meat thermometer.

 Umm, how did I ever do without this little guy?! Now, I know that dinner is done and it's tender and juicy! They make a lot of fancy schmancy versions of this, but mine is just a simple one and it works great! It has been especially stress relieving to have this little gadget when I am cooking pork tenderloin for company!! Have you ever eaten an overcooked pork tenderloin? It does not taste good.

This is so helpful if you are on a diet and need to bake and grill a lot of your meats!

 If you're not sure what temperature you need to cook your meat to, check the back of one of your cookbooks, many of them will have a reference guide there. (and of course, there's always the world wide web! ;-)