culinary_aphrodesia chef grendel there is some truth to the myth of Chinese food, but that's not i'm on about just now. I know know that she is at least peripherally aware of my attraction to her. there are days when i have been painfully obvious. so the other day i told her not to make any plans for luch at the office because i was going to do something interesting in my kitchen. "What will you be making?" she asked, having given me raves for something i prepared for an office luncheon just before summer began. "something Italian," i offered, being vague both to keep it a surprise and because i still was not totally certain. i left work early and went to the specialty grocer on north central, the first item on my list was Portobello mushrooms, of a certain size and shape, whole... None of them met my hopes so i switched to a lovely selection of bellpeppers in a their bin a few feet down. a trio of perfectly shaped red bells, one for me, one for her and of course i could not exclude my friend, the erstwhile matchmaker (she of the psychotic husband) fresh fennel fresh ground veal linguine pesto 2 japanese eggplants and other sundry odds and ends i took the first half of the following day off and spent the morning hours i would have normally spent looking over the flow of work in the kitchen. i used the fennel and a few other spices i had in the cabinet to turn the veal into a homemade italian sausage, and sauteed some onion, a green bell, some bits and pieces of a package of smaller mushrooms and mixed this together. a blend mozzarella and a mild jack to space the layers of the sausage/saute mix the end result was better than i had anticipated chilled pasta salad (linguine, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, a little lemon juice and red wine vinegar, the eggplants, sliced and also sauteed with some garlic and sage and fresh raw mushrooms) and of course the trio of red bells i arrived with a trio of black plates, my bowl of salad and the tray with the bells... and watching her enjoy it as we sat down to eat was reward in itself 001104 ... the way i see it BERRY fuck. all i got it a lousy bologna sandwich on moldy bread w/ tapwater to wash it down. 001104 what's it to you? who go blather from