Oh man…I cooked up something really good for tonight’s dinner. I took a recipe that I have talked about before and added a few things to it. The results were delicious.

The basic recipe is to get some water started in a pan to cook up some bowtie pasta. Brown some chicken Italian sausage over medium heat in a large skillet or a Dutch oven in some olive oil. As it browns add some garlic and some sliced pepperoncini. Stir as it cooks through. I add these about halfway through browning to keep a little crunch in the pepperoncini and to not burn the garlic.

Cook the pasta to just short of al dente – you will finish the pasta up in the sausage pan. Toss in with the sausage and add a little bit of the pasta water (trust me). Stir over medium heat until pasta is done. Plate it up!

A few tips:

Many chefs call pasta water “liquid gold”. It makes a huge difference in the dish. The starches in the water from cooking the pasta will thicken your sauces up nicely and can give it a silky texture, especially with a little butter added. I strain my pasta just shy of al dente right out of the water with a spider and into the other pot it goes to finish it. I add the pasta water slowly a little at a time.

Never add oil to cook your pasta. Never rinse your pasta either; both of these things make your pasta slippery and sauce won’t stick.

I have had a difficult time finding chicken Italian sausage around here so I have devised a workaround that is actually probably healthier anyhoo: I buy ground chicken and use it instead. As it cooks (in a little basil olive oil and sun-dried tomato olive oil) I add Italian spices, some roasted garlic and pepperoncini. This method definitely feels lighter on the palate and tastes very fresh. I always use bowtie pasta for this dish – it carries the sauce pretty nicely.

So, today I did that but I added a few extra things – about 10 rinsed capers, some diced green pepper, some red pepper flakes, Italian soffrito seasoning from Trader Joe’s, a small squeeze of anchovy paste and calabrian pepper/roasted garlic/parmesan seasoning from Costco (this stuff rocks). The bowties went in, and some pasta water was slowly added (don’t add too much to start).

It was pretty damn tasty and I got four decent (meaning not huge) portions out of the recipe. The sauce thickened up nicely and the consistency reminded me of those chicken noodle side dishes that come in a pouch. Again, I think this is probably healthy; the one thing to watch is the olive oil. It’s a good fat, but it is still a fat. I probably used about 3-4 tablespoons in the recipe so about one tablespoon per serving. That’s pretty good.

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Yesterday’s adventure got me wound up and itching to go somewhere. But, unless I dry camp, I can’t go anywhere until I get the water system opened.

Today I got the water system filled up and it will be sanitizing overnight. It’s not a difficult process to do; I open up the water filter and add chlorine bleach to it. As water goes through the filter the bleach is pushed through the hose and into the tank where it’s diluted. (As a bonus, doing it this way also sanitizes your filter and hoses.). I fill the water tank then add a little more bleach to sanitize the city water part of the system. I shock it overnight but I think it can be done in a day as long as it sits for a few hours. I prefer to let it sit overnight so there are no possibilities for problems.

I still cannot believe there are people who won’t drink water from the onboard tank in their RV. What a pain in the ass. As long as you do the little work involved in sanitizing it at the start of the season, use treated water sources, and sanitize every few months afterwards it’s just as safe (maybe even safer) than some public water systems.

The weather is gonna be chilly a few nights coming up but I’ll leave the furnace on 45ºF and the tank heaters on to keep things from freezing. I hope to flush it tomorrow and it’ll be ready to fill and hit the road for the season.

I’m still getting used to some aspects of the new trailer. My old Scotty was based on the original version model from the 60s/70s but with very few updates, like electric lights instead of propane and a real fridge.

Winterizing and reopening the water system is a little different because of the ability to use the pump to suck RV antifreeze into the system. That means the plumbing is just a little different than the Scotty in how you do things. I got it figured out and made a diagram in the water heater manual for future reference.

I’m glad to have that much done now. Flushing the system wastes a lot of water but it has to be done. At least it’s clean water and will drain onto the ground to soak in. I have to drain and fill the tank, run faucets until no chlorine smell, then drain the tank again to rinse it out. After that, it’s ready.

I need to get in town to look around IKEA for a few trailer storage ideas. I need a couple of bins still and I saw some on their website that just might work. Walking around looking can give you some new ideas. I need to grab another package or two of rechargeable batteries. Maybe a few food items too.

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That’s all for now.

Shawn