I Love Cookies

Song of the Day: “Push” by Matchbox 20

Cookies are like crack to me, I love them so much. I can easily hose an entire sleeve of cookies, no problem. Chocolate chip is definitely my favorite, there is no equal to a well made chocolate chip cookie. I do have a soft spot for shortbread cookies too; they are definitely a close second. I’d have to say that one of the best advantages to having little girls as relatives is that they sell girl scout cookies. Currently I have 10 boxes of girl scout cookies in my apartment and I could not be happier. I know cookies are bad for me and if I eat them too much I’ll get fat, but I don’t care they are so damned good.

Contrary to the current trend in my life, a lot has happened in the past week. First off, I had a very successful cooking experiment. Well, I guess it wasn’t too much of an experiment because what I made is based off a tried and true formula, but nonetheless I just winged it with my ingredients and technique and it turned out great. I made a sausage ragu which I have transcribed to the best of my knowledge (I was drinking wine that night, so give me a break). The sausage I used was a smoky andouillie (sp?), which is why I used the cumin and crushed red pepper. I just love that smoky, slightly spicy flavor. If you are using a different type of sausage, adjust which spices you use accordingly.

In a small pot, heat 2 tbps of butter with 2 tbps of olive oil. Once heated, add 1/2 medium-size sweet onion, 2 carrots, and 1 green pepper (all diced). Add a couple dashes of cumin and crushed red pepper. With these spices don’t be afraid to be generous with the cumin, I just love that smokey flavor and it goes right along with the sausage. Be careful how much red pepper you use, it has a very strong, very spicy flavor that can overpower the other flavors. Cover and cook over low heat until vegetables are softened (about 10 to 15 minutes).

While the vegetables are cooking, take 1/2 lb of sausage (usually just two links) a sear the outside on a grill or in a saucepan for about 3 minutes, turning occasionally. Remove the sausage and slice them in half length-wise, then slice it cross-wise at about 1/4″ intervals. At this point the sausage will probably start to fall apart because there is no casing to hold it together, that’s okay, it will fall apart in the sauce anyway.

A few minutes before the vegetables are done, add the sausage. Once the sausage is cooked through, add 3 tbps of tomato paste and 1/2 cup of water. Stir until everything is mixed together, and let simmer for a few minutes uncovered until the sauce thickens. Once it is at the consistency you desire, throw over pasta and enjoy! Oh, and don’t forget to season with salt and pepper to taste (duh).

So that’s that. It was a very successful recipe that I definitely plan on revisiting with other types of sausages and spices to see what kind of flavor combinations I can get.

Thursday my friend Christian had an extra ticket to a band called Cold War Kids. At this point I’ll take any excuse to get out of my apartment and socialize, so I jumped at the offer. Their music turned out to be pretty enjoyable, and there was a bar inside to boot. So overall it was a successful endeavor. Friday was the second to last night of a play directed by one of Christian’s friends, so I went to that. The play is called “The Faculty Room”. It takes place in the faculty room (shocking, I know) of a backwater high school where the teachers are doing drugs and having sex with the students. It has huge religious undertones and social commentary on the failure of the public school systems. All in all a very enjoyable play. We ended the night by having a few beers with the director and creative director of the theatre company, which was interesting to say the least.

Yesterday I started a new exercise program provided to me by Taylor, my neighbor back home. He told me that this program is the most effective he’s ever done, so I figured I’d give it a try. Well it’s only been two days and I am already a believer. I spent a mere 45 minutes in the gym on Friday and I am still hurting from it. I did sprints today and at the end of it I thought I was going to die, it only lasted 25 minutes and it was that intense. This program has two parts: all-body weight training and high intensity aerobic exercises. The weight training is very short, but very intense. All of the exercises use multiple muscle groups and rely on your stabilizer muscles. This is the key to the program, because you are constantly using these muscles to keep your balance under a lot of weight, they are worked really hard. You end up working pretty much every muscle in your body and damn does it hurt afterwards.

The aerobic exercises simply intervals of low intensity and high intensity work. I chose to do sprints but you can really do any kind if you want. You sprint for a short period, then jog, then back to sprinting, then jog. The purpose is to train your metabolism to react quickly with explosive energy. Plus after doing 7 sprints for 30 seconds each (which, unfortunately for me, is the shortest sprint time) my legs were totally dead. A great workout for the lower body.

Sabres are up 8-0 right now, which is awesome. Tomorrow I will go to the gym, watch football, and (hopefully) finish one of my final projects. All in all, a great week.