Old Friends, New Recipes

This weekend my dear friend Jamie came to visit from Boston. Being one of my closest friends and an avid blog reader, Jamie was one of the first people I told about The Julie/Giada Project. I respect her opinion greatly but my favorite thing about Jamie is that you can always count on her to give you a perfectly positive view of things. Whenever I start to doubt myself or my decisions I know I can turn to Jamie to help me snort some sunshine up my nose like my very own happiness dealer.

Needless to say, she was totally down for cooking Saturday night. Since I completely fell in love with vegetarian sausage last week, I decided that we would make GDL’s Farfalle with Turkey (Tofurkey) Sausage, Peas and Mushrooms. After an afternoon of window-shopping and ogling travel magazines we hit the organic market for the night’s dish. The mission- peas, pasta, cremini mushrooms and Tofurkey sausage. The result- a giant bag of frozen peas, pasta, a small baguette for garlic bread and malt balls. A quick stop at Whole Foods got us the Tofurkey sausage and a lesson on various species of mushrooms.

Back at my apartment, we went to work with a full to the brim glass of wine. That’s how we roll. Jamie carefully wiped down the mushrooms and prepped the garlic bread while I boiled the pasta and then had an awkward moment with the sausage. You see, real sausage usually have casings but the last vegetarian sausage I used didn’t so I just threw the links in the pan of simmering oil. But they weren’t breaking up like the last soy-sage when I poked them with a wooden spoon. Shit! There are casings on them! I yanked them from the hot oil with my bare hands and placed a long slit down the side. After a full minute of tearing at the hot sausage, we realized I was pulling at absolutely nothing! No casings whatsoever! So back in the oil they went and the rest of the cooking went off without a hitch.

Jamie and I thoroughly enjoyed our Farfalle with Tofurkey Sausage, Peas and Mushrooms along with some potent garlic bread and more wine. Though the bars of SoNo beckoned our twenty-something selves, the rest of the night was spent in our pjs with malt balls and chick flicks and of course more laughs.