Kitchen: Sausage Pasta

Sausage Pasta: quick and easy

This is one of my recipes that I make that is part comfort food, and part "heat and eat".  
It is exquisitely easy and can be varied to suit your lifestyle.


Generally, I serve this with ditalini pasta, but in this case I happened to use orecchiette. 
I also like to grate a little medium cheddar and throw a few sliced olives on top.  

This is not a good recipe if someone can't tolerate whole seeds due to dental issues.  Using ground spices doesn't work well with this recipe.

I started making this in the early 1980's.  


Sausage Pasta

Start heating the water for the pasta.  (Follow the directions on the package for the amount of water and the time to cook)

Sauce:

1 pkg of Hillshire Farms Beef Smoked Sausage, sliced
brown the slices, and if you want to reduce calories (and unfortunately--the taste) remove the fat from the pan...otherwise, leave the fat in for more flavor.

Add:
2 TB dried minced onion 
(you can use 1 small to medium fresh onion if you want, but that would take more time and the flavor isn't as good, in this case.)
1 TB whole yellow mustard seed  (ground mustard really doesn't work here)
1/2 tsp whole celery seed (don't substitute celery salt, it will be too salty and taste too much like celery)  The idea is that you want the whole seeds flavor to "pop"...but not cover the other flavors.
2-3 15 oz.cans plain tomato sauce (OR puree OR crushed)  or a combination of them.


That's it...just allow the dried onions and the seeds to absorb the liquid from the tomatoes on low heat for about 20 minutes.  You are only trying to soften the seeds and allow the flavors to meld.  


(Optionally...you may wish to add a tsp of sugar (to cut the acidity)  and a bit of EVOO just prior to serving.  Serve over the drained cooked pasta and top with grated medium cheddar cheese and black olives.)

Substitutions:
Use the Chicken or Turkey versions of the sausage, or leave out the meat if you are so inclined...use any type of pasta, whether whole wheat, rice, corn, or quinoa.  You might like to try it over the strands of Vegetable Spaghetti squash.

Usually it takes about 30 minutes to prepare start to finish.  Add a green garden salad to complete the meal.

Home: Is Honesty Always the Best Policy?

I am the type of person who will check out my receipts, no matter where I am shopping.  If I find a mistake (whether to my favor or not) I stand in line (isn't there always a line??) at customer service and right the situation.

Who would think this would be the center of my dilema?

Here is a case in point.  I was shopping at a local thrift store when I stumbled upon several items I was very thrilled to find.  One happened to be a plastic bag stuffed with figural glass ornaments from West Germany in shapes I had not come across before.  They were in the bag with some regular nondescript glass balls...and several of the figural balls were already broken.  I was trying to get them to the front without any more damage when I stumbled upon an item of cookware I was very interested in.  It happened to be a Le Creuset dutch oven in light blue AND it was in decent condition.  Upon checking the price I found the lid  priced at $2 and the pot itself had a price tag reading $7.  I scarfed that off the shelf in a hurry!! I didn't have a cart or a basket and I still had the ornaments and a few other items in my arms, but I wasn't done shopping.  I headed to the cashier deciding I would pay for the items I had found already, take them to the car, and return to my shopping.  I knew that the cashiers often were not careful with ornaments and I was concentrating on trying to keep them out of her reach, but she grabbed the bag and another one of the good ones broke...grrrrrrr!  (It was still a great deal even if only one survived.)  I really wasn't paying attention to the total  since I was consumed with protecting the ornaments.   When I looked at the receipt there was an item listed for what I thought was the pot...but, as it turned out--the cashiers are urged to subtotal frequently so buyers won't be surprised at the final total.  It was not the item, it was a SUBTOTAL.   I realized that I hadn't been charged for the pot, after all, but the lid only.  

Here is where I was wondering what I should do.  I knew I had done nothing wrong, but how does one prove that.  I also knew that the store had plenty of surveillance cameras, but no sound.  I wasn't sure if the tape would make it look like I was trying to distract the cashier away from the pot and that they might feel that I had tried to get away with something and then felt guilty about it.  I went back to the store, trying to catch one of the managers I had dealt with in the past who sort of knew me.  I missed him three times.  Finally, I was able to track him down and explained that I had purchased something, but had not been charged the correct price, and that I was more than willing to pay the full amount.  

He immediately asked my permission to take the receipt and check the video from that transaction.  I told him I had no problem whatsoever with that.  (But secretly, I did have a little problem...I was seemingly overly concerned about the ornaments and that could be misconstrued as distracting the cashier.)  

I had a sudden wash of fear come over me...thinking that the manager might call the police in on this.  He was gone a long time, and I was really beginning to doubt whether I had made the right decision.  When he returned he stated that it didn't appear to him that I had done anything wrong, and that the cashier was new and did not know that some pots and lids are priced separately and some are priced together.  He told me I was fine to leave if I wanted to.  He thanked me for my honesty, told me I had renewed his faith in mankind and that I should consider the error a Christmas present.  I still felt like he was trying to entrap me...so I insisted on paying the money I owed. 

Instead of feeling good about it, I felt like I had opened myself for ridicule.  I knew, though, that every time I wanted to make a nice soup or stew in my fabulous light blue dutch oven, I would feel like I had stolen it--even if it is was not my intention and not my fault.

 
Most people I have related this story to have said that I shouldn't have bothered with it at all, and others have said when it was offered for me not to pay the full amount, they would have taken that deal and left.  How would you have handled it??

Recognizing the Problem Really is the First Step!

I am not so much interested in sweeping changes and "resolutions" as I am in making things better and less time consuming.  I am looking around me and finding that I spend way too much time looking for things...so my organizational skills for "stuff" needs help.  

I remember reading in one of the Little House on the Prairie series (perhaps it was the The Long Winter) about the snow that would fall through the roof and onto their beds during the winter...and wondering WHY? they didn't seem to try to repair the roof when the weather got better.  It was almost as if this problem was something that they must live with in perpetuity!  It seems that I have glazed over many of my problem areas--they are much like McGee's closet...my kitchen and pantry areas...open a cupboard door and stuff comes spilling out all over the place!!  

It is one of my husband's pet peeves...(although he can see it in me...he is "blind" to his own, similar situations in the sheds!!)  

With limited storage areas and a propensity towards acquiring cooking and baking utensils--things I do actually use--when I can get to them or find them--it becomes increasingly difficult to make my kitchen area "tidy" and "useful".

I seem to get "used to" these situations, instead of trying to accommodate for them.  

Case in point--my husband went to the cupboard to get a plate--with limited storage area, I stacked some bowls on top of the plates--making it difficult, though not impossible, to get the plate.  He had "strong words" for me.  I had just ignored the inconvenience, while my husband thought malicious thoughts every time he had to endure opening the cupboard.

A trip to the store and I secured a simple wire rack that would make another level on the shelf...it was a very simple "fix".  Somehow, I had blinded myself to the idea that there could and should be a "fix" out there.  (My "fix" was always...someday I will have the kitchen I want and need...but someday is sooo far away.)  

Dr. Phil (and others) tout "...you can't fix what you don't acknowledge"...and so I am acknowledging that I will be able to see what the problems are and find ways to improve or solve the situation.  

"Stuff" should never have that much control over us...and one easy way to see all the faults that you are missing is to take a camera to it...still or video.  Somehow, looking at things through a camera lens can make you keenly aware of visual problems.  It doesn't take care of things like needless extra steps you take.  

A place for everything and everything in it's place...that is on my "To Do" list, but I refuse to make it a resolution, for that would probably be the kiss of death for accomplishment for me.