Sometimes, I go for comfort food.

Occasionally, when the women are at their respective schools and there’s a National Hockey League final game on (at 10:20 a.m here) I’ll indulge in a frozen meat pie – a staple in Australia.

It cost $0.75 because I always buy things on clearance.

And I always use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer because I don’t trust the instructions and I don’t trust my microwave.

In 2007, ConAgra pot pies – the equivalent of an Australian meat pie — sickened at least 272 people in 35 U.S. states.

The company was told to change the cooking instructions and recommend that consumers use thermometers to verify.

Maybe Australians haven’t heard about that one: sometimes the news takes awhile by steamship.

I followed the instructions in my man-cave this morning, and after resting, the temperature was 120F (49C) in the middle and 175F (79C) on the edges.

I heated some more.

Microwaves are good for reheating, terrible for uniform cooking.

And who knows if any verification has been done on these cooking instructions.