The Strain on the Brain

[plumtreeblossom]

First things first – who can tell me how best to cook Italian sausage? I’m making some for spaghetti night but I’ve never cooked it before (don’t eat it m’self). It looks too thick to throw in a pan and sear. Someone guide me.

I’ve been having short-term ADD for days, I swear. Absolutely nothing can be concentrated upon for longer than 30 seconds. I can’t even stay focused on writing this post draft. Bye. OK, I’m back and it’s 15 minutes later.

At work I start tasks and within the length of a TV commercial they have not only been cast off unfinished for some other unfinished task but have also been lost somewhere, as in left on top of the copy machine or inexplicably placed in the departmental “out” mail box. Elves of Chaos are moshing in my brain.

It was just as bad at rehearsal. Sure, I might have appeared I was leading the line memorization drill, but in actuality the two halves of my brain were bouncing between thoughts of these things:

1)Toast and strawberry jelly
2)Iceland
3)Wishing to know what one of my crushes looks like with his shirt off
4)Candy corn
5)The vacuuming that I didn’t do
6)Why the gum in my purse fell all out of its pack and what I’d do about it
7)Sex with above shirtless crush
8)Air-hotel packages to Venice soon, since it is sinking

I was briefly given Ritalin as a child, but it didn’t work. I think I’d like to be sporting and give the Rit one more chance...

Comments

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Mmm... shirtless fantasies... I can relate :-)

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

yeah, seriously. i've had a lot of those lately. and kissing fantasies.

mmm, kissing . . .

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I have a number of men whom I want to offer shirtless Halloween costume suggestions to. (Lord Pan comes to mind...) I just want to make sure I'm at the party. :-)

[desultor.livejournal.com]

all you want to offer them is costume suggestions?

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

Fantasies I can't help with so much, but at least I can offer suggestions for the sausage. :)

The way I cook sausage depends on whether I plan to use it primarily for flavor or if I'm going to offer it as a side dish to the pasta as you would meatballs. For flavor, I like to cut the casings open and cook the ground meat early in the sauce-making process, using some of the leftover fat to saute the rest of my vegetables. This only works if you want ground meat bits in your sauce, but pork fat adds a deep, rich note to a ragu.

If you want to serve the full links, brown the outsides a bit in a heavy pan, then add a cup of water and braise for a few minutes to get them slightly more cooked. (This has the added advantage of releasing some of the fat. ) Once the meat sets up a bit, you can drain the liquid off and brown them a little more. For disks, your best bet is to freeze the links and cut the disks while the sausage is still frozen. Try to cut them raw and you'll wind up with a lot of little casing rings and a bunch of ground pork. :)

Have fun.
=J

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thank you! Yes, I was planning to serve them on the side along with the meatballs, while leaving the sauce itself vegan. Good call on slicing them while still frozen -- I hadn't though of the squish factor otherwise. :-)

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

that's a good idea. i always slice after cooking, but i bet it cooks a lot faster if you do it before cooking.

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

Oh, and yes, go to Venice. Now. Today. It ranks high on my list of places I'd live if I didn't need some form of income, and a strong contender for most beautiful city in the world, period. It'll take hundreds of years to finish sinking, but it's a different city every time you visit in the best possible way and the quicker you go, the faster you'll be able to realize how beautiful it is both before and after.

[desultor.livejournal.com]

i continue to be amused by your sausage adventures.

"don’t eat it m’self", you say. it looks "too thick", you say. *snicker*

next thing you know, you'll be rear-ended by a....wait. never mind.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Heee!

[wellstar.livejournal.com]

next thing you know, you'll be rear-ended by a....

!!!

!

[muffyjo]

Venice has really been sinking for hundreds of years so I don't suspect that it will go anywhere far between now and when you get there. So you don't need to worry so much about that one. :)