Peggy Lampman's Tuesday dinnerFeed: Pork roast with rosemary and garlic

I'm turning my home into a Thanksgiving Week Recovery Center for burnt-out hosts. It's not exactly the Betty Ford Clinic, though the empty wine bottles in the recycle bin may give pause.

I'm taking a lot of deep breaths and chanting "Om's" to clear my mind from the frantic pace of house guests, "to-do-and-make" lists, silver polish, linen and refrigerator contents that resemble a pre-schooler's art supply box.

And I ask myself, how could I possibly be hungry again? But I am and so is my family. I want to make something really easy, budget-friendly and I want to be able to use the leftovers in a meal tomorrow. Would insisting this dinner taste delicious be pushing the envelope?

Not with this recipe, a favorite using center cut Pork Roast. Pork Roast regularly rotates amongst the ad items in local grocery periodicals throughout the winter. This week Meijer's is featuring boneless pork roast for $1.39 a pound. With ad item prices, often the item is packaged in family packs, perishables packed larger than you'd normally buy. I always have leftovers in mind when making these purchases.

I've also found this particular pork cut to be freezer-friendly. Since I am chopping rosemary and crushing garlic anyway, I coated an extra two pound piece with the fragrant combo combined with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, double- wrapped the seasoned pork in foil and placed it in a freezer bag.

It will be fine frozen for a couple of months, and a blessing when I'm in the New Year's recovery mode.

Baked sweet potatoes and steamed brocolli will be perfect accompaniments, both requiring minimal effort. While shopping at Meijers, I purchased shiitake mushrooms, fresh ginger and a Lo Mein "stir fry" pasta and veggie bag. I'll use those when concocting another simple-to-make dinnerFeed for tomorrow.

Yield: 6 servings
Active Time: 5 minutes
Roast Time: 45 minutes-1 hour
Cost: apx. $5.00

Ingredients

3 teaspoons minced garlic
3 teaspoons fresh chopped rosemary (or 1 teaspoon finely crushed rosemary)
1, 2-pound boneless pork loin roast

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400˚.
2. Season pork with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Combine garlic and rosemary and rub over pork. Place pork, fat side down, on a lightly greased broiler pan or roasting rack. Roast pork 25 minutes then turn and roast fat side up. Roast 25-35 minutes longer or until a thermometer inserted into the center of pork registers 155˚.
3. Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes. Cut pork into slices, let soak into pan juices and serve.