Ugh. My shoulder is killing me today. I'm waiting for the Ibuprophen
to kick in (600 mg) and musing about professional backrubs. Tristan
talked about a Chiropractor in Bloomington that did wonders for his
shoulder. Since Tristan had the same shoulder surgery that I did, I'll
place some definite weight to his suggestion.

Last night was interesting. Mark, our next door neighbor, was working
opening night at the "Tin Shed" (I believe), a bar-grill in Savage, MN.
"The gang" was heading out in the ubervan to celebrate Mark's new job at
the new business. I would certainly like to make my way out there, but
not on a night when I can't bring Meghan along. ;-)

Gep and Liz had the same idea. Although I didn't get to see my
girlfriend, we did have a good time. I got a bit creative with dinner
and made spaghetti from scratch; completely from scratch. I had a
handful of tomatoes that I peeled (I should have blanched them), cut up,
and simmered in a white wine, water, salt and pepper.

Once they had reduced to a paste, I mashed them through a strainer into
another sauce pan, separating the fleshy portion of the tomatoes. I
really didn't have enough tomatoes, so I was originally going to add
canned tomato paste and sauce. Once I had the fresh sauce simmering, I
didn't want to ruin it, so I left it prestine and put the cans away.
We'd have to make due with what we had. I added spices and let it
simmer for a while. (Adding water when it got too pasty.)

An interesting thing about the wine. I could definitely smell the wine
for much of the reducing step. Once the alcohol had boiled off, the
sauce started to taste wonderful. The wine added the sweetness that I
would not otherwise add with sugar. I despise sugar in sauces.

A frozen chicken breast defrosted and pan-fried in olive oil was slated
for the meat portion of the sauce. I clarified onions with green
peppers in a shallow frying pan with a little olive oil. Once
clarified, I added them to the sauce, dumped in the chicken and simmered
for another 5 minutes.

WOW! My spaghetti had taken another great step forward. Canned
products can be used in a pinch, but if I've got the ingredients and
time, sauce from scratch is definitely the way to go!

After cleaning the kitchen, Gep and I role-played a bit of Forgotten
Realms a bit with the new AD&D 3rd Edition, pretty much winging it for
the first night. It was fun.

Anyway, time to get to work.

Later!

Chad

(I love you, Meghan!)