Pasta less-than-perfect

[Scene opens in a kitchen. A woman is cooking macaroni while watching the news on TV.]

[News announcer] "In the headlines tonight, there has been a rash of unexplained deaths today. All of the victims have been strangled, and all of them were in kitchens. Police are investigating."

[Woman starts draining macaroni, not noticing the long strands of spaghetti coming under the door.]

[Woman, calling to next room] "David, dinner in five minutes!"

[Man, from off-stage] "OK, honey!"

[In background, spaghetti rears, seeing the pasta draining.]

[Woman turns, sees spaghetti oozing over the floor towards her, begins yelling as spaghetti quickly swarms up her, leaving traces of tomato sauce.] "David! Help!"

[Spaghetti strangles woman, then oozes away under the door.]

[David enters.] "Jayne? Jayne!"

[News announcer] "In the latest information on the unexplained deaths, police have now confirmed that all victims were cooking or eating pasta. Police are still baffled by the motive for these crimes."

It's Murnkay's fault.

From the news

I still can't quite believe I live in a city where "300-lb gorilla on the loose" could be a real headline. It's just so like a line from a joke. One of the commentators I heard suggested that some of the gorilla's behaviour was due to adolescence. Never can tell what those adolescent males will do next...

In a discussion about some other news, one announcer referred to something as a topic one would (or wouldn't) say to one's "foursome". I assume he meant golf, but...

There's a new oral contraceptive for women, pills that allow only four periods a year. There are debates as to whether this is healthy or not, whether it's ethical or not, etc. I was wondering if that meant that a woman would have periods for that much longer, since ovulation was so many times fewer/year. That would mean women who wanted to delay having kids could take this as a way to push off the later ticking of the biological clock.

The obligatory Tuesday post, or, Veggies, week 17

This week I got:

• six green peppers
  
• two delicata squash
  
• a big bunch of edamame, still on the stalk
  
• six big carrots (two pounds or so)
  
• many tiny to small purple potatoes (three or four pounds, perhaps)
  
• a large head of green-leaf lettuce
  
• a bunch of dark green kale
  
• a bunch of pac choi (or is it tat soi?)
  
• six tomatoes
  
• many hot peppers (plus someone else's, who didn't want them)

With all these hot peppers, I think it's time to make hot-pepper jam. I'm thinking of using apple-juice concentrate as the base, since apple has lots of pectin. Though perhaps the juicing process takes some of that out? Not sure. Oh, and I have to get a box of the tiny jars; most people don't need much of it to get the flavor...

On a completely different note, I've been thinking about the lack of kosher options in sausage (all I can get are beef/veal ones that are either spicy or sweet). I keep hearing about friends getting all sorts of interesting permutations, and I started thinking about what I'd need to make my own, though I wonder if this starts to make me into a total food crank. To do it correctly, I'd need to get kosher casings (I suppose a kosher butcher might have some, or be able to order some), and a meat grinder. Everything else is pretty much meat and spices/other flavorings (from the few recipes I found). Has anyone done this and know how easy (or not) it is? Also, what are some favorite kinds of sausage?