Having a large collection of cookbooks, I now try to limit myself to no more than one new cookbook a year and this year I've added a beauty, Stèphane Reynaud's "Pork & Sons" published in padded pink gingham by Phaidon.

Reynaud and his family have been carrying on the traditions of butchering and sausage-making for generations in Saint-Agréve, in the Rhone-Alps of France and he tells their stories and offers recipes with full size photos on every facing page. It's food porn at it's best.

As it happened I had already planned on pork chops for dinner yesterday; two gorgeous 1 1/2 in. heirloom chops from Flying Pigs Farm (http://www.flyingpigsfarm.com/) up near Saratoga Springs. Thank you pig; I know you had a good life up there on the farm.