A Family Favorite...almost

Still under the weather. I made dinner for the girls (minus Ann who has returned to the permafrost of New Hampshire, until Christmas break in two short weeks!).

I wasn't in the mood for fancy still feeling like dreck so I went the easy route.

Main Course: sausage, onions and pepper over fusilli. 

I tried something different this time which reduced the cooking effort. First, I cut the sausage (sweet italian sausage) into pieces before I cooked it. The reason I did this was because I didn't do my normal cooking style, which involves putting whole links into a pan, covering them with water and boiling the mixture until there's no liquid left. When I do that, I end up cutting the sausage on a board and end up with grease and sausage everywhere. 

This time, I put some olive oil into a large pot and cooked the sausage over a medium fire for a good 25 minutes, being paranoid about undercooked sausage. When they were done, I pulled them out with a slotted spoon. I drained all but a tablespoon of oil in the pot. I then put three sweet onions which I cut stem to root and sofened them up for a good ten minutes, stirring frequently.

Once the onions were soft I push them aside and add a tablespoon or so of concentrated tomato paste out of a tube. (I use this stuff all the time. If I haven't already extolled its virtures, I will now. There's no waste. It is concentrated so one tablespoon equals two. When I put it into the pot I try to move it around, flip it over and actually cook it for two minutes before mixing it into the onions.

Right before I put the peppers in I throw in some garlic I've minced cooking it for thirty seconds before trying to mix it into the onions.

When I cut the red peppers, I typically cut off the crown as close to the top as I can. I pull out the seeds and use my hands to remove as much of the white ribs as possible. I then cut the bottom off so the pepper will stand on the cutting board. You can then slice off pieces pretty quickly. 

I added them to them to the onions and let them soften a fair amount...maybe 15 minutes. Then I threw the sausage back in, heated it up and its done.

Buddah and MD loved the dinner. Debby says "it isn't her favorite".

Salad: a wedge with diced carrots and red pepper. Debby's made some bleu cheese dressing that she likes but the girls feel is too cheesy. Buddah suggested that the diced carrots were too small to pick up with her fork and didn't add anything to the salad. 

And there you have it.

I didn't listen to any music. I was feeling like shite. Debby brought me up a bowl of pasta with butter for my dinner. 

That's all I got.