Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Sauce
Jul/090
Yesterday I was watching the Food Network and Bobby Flay mentioned an Italian sauce that is made by roasting red peppers and garlic as the base. That sounded like an interesting idea to me so I decided to make my own sauce with the same basic concept. I’ve made many variations on ragù in the past and while this is similar is is much more sauce like (though still quite chunky). The most interesting characteristic of this recipe is the spiciness. It really has a nice kick that hides the fact that I hardly added any salt to it.
Ingredients
1 package hot sausage
3/4 cup basil leaves
1 medium white onion
1 large green pepper
2 large red peppers
1/2 cup red wine (Shiraz)
1/8 cup red pepper flakes
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup Italian hard cheese
12 medium stem tomatoes
8 ounces sliced white mushrooms
Directions
Slice the red peppers and place them on a baking pan. Peal the garlic and place that on the pan. Liberally coat everything in olive oil and bake at 350° for 25 minutes. In the meantime, saute the sausage. Drain the meat once cooked thoroughly. Slice the green pepper and onions. Add them to the meat over medium-low heat. Add the wine. Blend 10 of the tomatoes with 1/2 cup of basil, 1/8 cup of olive oil and the cheese until liquefied. Add this to the pan. When the red peppers and garlic are done throw them in the blender and liquefy. Add this to the pan. Slice the remaining 2 tomatoes into petite chunks and add. Add the red pepper flakes. Simmer the whole thing for about an hour. Towards the end of the simmer add the other 1/4 cup of basil. Serve over pasta and season with salt/grated cheese to taste.
2009 Beach Blast Soccer Tournament
Jul/090
This past weekend I went down to Wildwood, NJ to take part in the 2009 Beach Blast soccer tournament. This was my first trip ever to the Jersey shore. It was definitely an experience that text won’t do justice. It really was a blast. The weather was amazing. The people were fun. The soccer was exciting. The ocean was fun. Camping on the beach was cool even though you got sand in everything. Even if I didn’t get invited back next year, I’d seriously consider putting together a team as the experience was great.
I suppose I should explain what the whole deal was. So, the coed team I’m on split into a male and female team (along with a few additional folks). The format was a fairly short field with smaller goals and 4 field players plus a keeper. We played 3 games to try and qualify for the finals. I believe our scores were 8-3, 6-4 and 6-3. We made it into the finals but unfortunately lost 4-3 in a great match-up against some guys that supposedly went to Drexel. We definitely had a talented squad and I did my part (plenty of ESPN highlights). Being on sand was challenging though it made being a keeper even more fun as I could dive to my hearts content with little pain. The ladies team won their division for the 3rd straight year.
I’m not too disappointed that my parents never took me to the beach/shore as a child as it is crazy place.
View on Current Events
Jun/093
- Cheating in any scenario is a pretty terrible thing, especially when married, but I’m less concerned when it happens and the couple has no children. The thing about the Mark Sanford situation that really gets me is how he’s got all of these children and he pretty much shows complete ignorance to them by letting this happen. I’m sorry, but if you produce children I don’t care how much you hate your spouse or how much in love you fall with someone else, game over, too late, suck it up and realize your days of lustful romance are over. You’ve got a family and the only excitement you should be pursuing is the excitement you get from raising your kids. I’m not in Mark Sanford’s shoes and I never hope to even be confronted with such a situation but I am quite positive that he is a little weak bitch.
- I think I read somewhere that Farrah Fawcett did something with Charlies Angels. That’s all I know. I’m sorry she passed away and that her last days were a painful battle, but I don’t really know anything about her so the event means very little to me. While I hope ABC plans a 1 hour special when I die so my story can be told one more time, I’ll understand when there is some blogger out there that doesn’t care that I died because I’m just another human.
- I think I could honestly see North Korea trying to launch one of their dinky missiles at us. That part doesn’t worry me. It is the retaliation that scares the hell out of me. I would hope that we use conventional weapons and not even whisper the N word. Or even better, just use some high tech crazy satellite technology and vaporize Kim Jong-il once and for all.
- I think the analogy from either the Daily Show or The Colbert Report on Iran’s future was well said. They will either become North Korea or China. We don’t care for either country, but I’d rather take a structured state and productive member of the global society rather than a rogue nation trying to launch pathetic dinky missiles at Hawaii.
- Did that guy who didn’t win the Iran election really have a chance? Seriously. I appreciate the effort of the protesters, but going and pissing off the government isn’t really helping to change your country. I’ve got nothing against Iran and I actually like trying to say the name Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It has a pretty sweet ring to it. It is a dangerous state that is a risk to the well-being of the US, but I’m sort of happy that Obama hasn’t gone all crazy and made some sort of bold claim like Iran has some WMD’s and we should remove them. I imagine they actually do have WMD’s, but we should be trying to steer that country in a direction that does not involve violence to solve problems. I think this is possible.
- As for the “King of Pop” I was a little shocked by the whole thing. He made some music. He did some really weird stuff. South Park made fun of him a bunch. Again, he was just another human being and while I understand all the hype around the situation, I also find it a little bit stupid. However, that is how our society works when someone famous passes on and I don’t think that will ever change. What did he mean by “ABC, it’s easy as 1,2,3″? I think that perhaps Nate might be the only one that understands this but didn’t the good doctor Ben teach us something about ABC?
Getting Back
Jun/090
I came up with this weird scenario today involving citizenship, Canada and borders.
So, I was thinking about what I’d do if I gave up my American citizenship, moved to Canada and then wanted to come back to the States during some sort of global disaster where all of the US borders would be closed down. It was weird to picture what it would feel like to not be able to ever visit the places where I grew up. I started to think about how I’d get back into the US. Along the Great Lakes area I think you’d run into a bunch of issues getting back because of the obvious challening bodies of water. If you look closely you’ll see that 40%+ of our Canada border is a lake and/or river (if anyone can find documentation on that percentage please share).
You’d need to head west and probably wander through the forest and try to get deep enough into the interior that no one would question you. I do wonder if we are sophisticated enough to keep a really close eye on these areas. Part of me would like to think we’ve got that technology but that is also a lot of land area to be monitoring and the payoff probably isn’t really worth it. I guess that is part of the reason we need to have a good relationship with Canada so they can keep people out of their country that we wouldn’t want wandering into ours. Thanks Canada.
In any case, this made me feel happy to be an American.
John & Sarah’s Wedding
Jun/092
It’s official!
There is no doubt that the wedding was a great success. The formula for a good wedding is quite simple. You need good people and, well, I think that is all you really need to be honest. Wait, an open bar doesn’t hurt. Anyway, I think everyone had a great time throughout the weekend and I’m very happy for Sarah and John and the next chapter in their lives.
- Erin accompanied me on this trip and drove us up to SC. To be honest, you have to be careful of those female drivers out there. However, I felt incredibly comfortable with her as the driver. I’ve done that drive quite a few times on my own and it was both great to have company but also to be the passenger so that I could enjoy the view.
- Friday night I met up with my brother and his girlfriend for dinner. It was nice to give Erin the opportunity to meet part of my family. It was great to see them.
- We met up with various folks at Zeno’s for some amazing craft beer. I had a brief philosophical moment where I asked everyone to ponder over whether we were directly over the center of the earth or not.
- The wedding was in a very nice church on College Ave. The service was to the point though I really do not enjoy the reading from Genesis where God takes a rib from Adam and makes Eve out of it. Seriously.
- The reception was nice. It did take us all a little while to get warmed up and start dancing but eventually it got really good. Props to Jamie, Duane and Erin for busting some serious moves. Cheers to me for forgetting how white I am and glistening excessively. Cheers to John and Sarah for extending the reception for an extra hour.
- Sobe Life water is awesome, especially Fuji Apple Pear.
- Taco Bell sucks for being closed at 1am.
- Eating ice cream on Sunday morning for breakfast was pretty fun.
- Common phrases from this trip were “Ladies, you want meat” and “…Ala mode” and “alalalalalalalalalal” and “Focus!” and probably a couple other ones.
- Derrick invented a new dance on Saturday night know as “The Waffle” and it is on par with the “Jolly Rancher” and “Peanut Butter Cup.”
- It was kind of fun showing someone new to SC/Penn State the lay of the land. I tried to keep a neutral approach to my tour and not talk too much about how awesome Penn State is because I imagine that would be pretty annoying. Though we all know how awesome PSU is.
- Having Nate and Brandy in attendance was great. I’m very pleased that Nate has become a core player in the crew and also that he is included his wife in the festivities. They make a damn good team.
- It was great seeing the various players and tailgating crew including Murphy, Kirsty, Tim, his girlfriend Teresa (who I had heard of so many times but never me), Duane, Jamie, Adam-the-tree-guy, Vern, his girlfriend Kate, Karen & Steph, the Trumps, the Weisers, the Windish’s, Sarah’s family and probably a bunch of other people I’ve forgotten.
- Thanks again to John and Sarah for another good excuse to get back Happy Valley.
Allagash
Jun/099
I think that approximately 37% of my readers like when I post cat pictures so I’m going to do this for them.
That whore of a cat spends more time on Derrick than appropriate.
My older brother thinks her ears are too big for her body.
Beer + biting the cat’s head = funny
Wilco
Jun/092
I am extremely excited. Back in 2003 I saw the band Wilco play on the HUB lawn at Penn State. At the time I sort of liked them but since then they’ve grown to be what I’d venture to say is my favorite band, if I had to pick just one. Since then I’ve wanted to see them again but managed to look a bit too late for tickets.
This morning I made my usual stop to Dunkin Donuts on Naamans road. I’m surprised they don’t know me by name yet as I’m probably in there 2-3 times a week. Anyway, as I was getting close I heard the beginning of a song on the radio. There was a particular feel/sound to the song that was very familiar and in my head I said “this sound like Wilco” but I was assuming it was some crappy annoying indie band that I really wouldn’t enjoy. It also sort of reminded me of The Airborn Toxic Event which is a fairly newcomer to semi-obscure popular music, though I don’t really like them at all and I was hoping it wasn’t them. Then Jeff Tweedy’s voice appeared and I was thrilled. New Wilco song; awesome.
Tonight I was downloading some indie music samplers to try and put together a mix CD for the drive up to State College for John and Sarah’s wedding. It occurred to me that I might want to grab the new Wilco song. I decided to check their website first to see if they had it up there for free. Nope. However, I checked their concert schedule and it just so happened that there was an event in my area that was not sold out. Excellent! Not only that, but the accompanying artist is also on my top 10 favorites: Conor Oberst.
So, now I own 4 tickets to the show on July 10 and I am very excited.
My Terms
Jun/092
I find it very amusing how stubborn and control-dependent I am. Yes, I admit it. If it isn’t my idea or I don’t get a controlling position in the endeavor then don’t count on me enjoying it. I’ve been this way my entire life and can remember back to 5 years old or perhaps younger for examples.
Sometimes I do make exceptions and go with the flow and end up having a great time. However, I don’t learn very well from these times and try to change my attitude. This may turn out to bite me in the ass as it has many times prior, but I guess that is just how my life is played. So far.
This whole concept might seem counter intuitive to some folks because I do receive feedback about how I seem like such a relaxed and go with the flow type of person. While true, I enjoy going with the flow but I prefer to secretly have my hands on the rudder.
One positive step in my quest for constant self-improvement is the fact that in this relationship with Erin so far I haven’t really felt myself letting this controlling tendency affect my participation or enthusiasm in activities. I’d say that so far it has been a pretty equal balance in terms of the activity planning. Speaking of planning, I’m actually not sure how I feel about the concept of planning but I will contemplate that and write about it on another day.
The latest set of activities were varied, fun, interesting and balanced in terms of spontaneity and ownership. Friday night I went to watch her play ultimate frisbee in west Fairmount Park. After the game there was this big cookout thing for all of the teams in the league and it was pretty neat and there was good beer on tap. On Saturday we went to the Phillies game against Boston and I road the subway (first non-Broadstreet Race use of the system). On Sunday we watched various world news programs and then went for a walk through the neighborhoods of the Art Museum/Fairmount district and had an enjoyable lunch at the Belgian Cafe (I had a Chouffe Houblon and she had a beer mimosa made with Avery’s White Rascal and orange juice). If you hear me complain about anything, slap me in the face and tell me to read this and remember how good I have it.
I feel like my previous terms are becoming somewhat irrelavant as I’m more interested in just getting out and doing things versus controlling them. Perhaps my terms are taking on a new definition. It is no longer about control of situations but rather the simple satisfaction of taking advantage of opportunities that keeps me satisfied. I’m curious how this will work over time and I invite the casual observer to keep me posted on alternative perspectives of my attitude towards doing things.
I want to visit the wilderness
Jun/097
- Prime rib is the worst form of beef
- You’ve got to give it to Stephen Colbert for doing his show in Iraq
- Rum is a pointless form of alcohol with the exception of its use in the mojito
- In three weeks I’ll be taking my first trip ever to the Jersey shore though the purpose of the trip is camp on the beach and play in a soccer tournament
- While the movie Into the Wild was interesting, I couldn’t help but be irritated by the main character’s poor attitude about his family
- All “crotch rocket” style motorcycles should be banned and/or you should be allowed to bump them off the road
- I wish I could go camping with a tent and wilderness in the very near future
- I’m perfectly fine with government recognizing the union between two members of the same gender and giving them every single right that married people have but I actually don’t particularly agree with these folks being officially able to be known as “married” because that results in a change in the definition of the tradition known as marriage which is not necessary or appropriate.
I think that the obtaining of equal legal rights but agreeing to let marriage be the traditional definition is an incredibly fair trade and I’d take it if that’s the way I swung. Why not create a brand new term for this type of union (I’ve got some serious and not so serious suggestions).
- Why aren’t there more companies like GE and if there are, why don’t I know about them?