Sweet (Italian Sausage) Nothings. . . .

My boy who seems quiet and unflappable is also extremely passionate. His passion is for meat. For his birthday I got him the meat grinder and sausage stuffer attachments for the kitchenaid mixer (I swear he's only dating me because I have a kitchenaid mixer -- an item I have now come to associate with barbie -- it's expensive to buy in the first place and then it needs all these freakin' attachments that are far too expensive, the sausage stuffer retails for $12.99 and it's essentially a giant frosting tip!! but this far too long already parenthetical phrase is a post for another time).

So far he's just made breakfast sausage, but the sausage making kit I got for him had natural hog casings which means that the sausage is a little large for breakfast sausage. He's been discussing this problem with me at various times and went so far as to print a 50 page sausage supply catalog that he showed me. Today he even sent me this link "for the next time we make breakfast sausage." I pretend to be interested and supportive, because, as has been pointed out numerous times, I obsess about seemingly insane things as well.

We're having a "laid back bbq" on the fourth --as in I have enough things going on in my life, let's for once not over-do it and just have something basic and chill. Today he's sent me a number of links for things that would make "our" grilling (another obsession of his) life better. He's planning on grinding his own beef for the hamburgers and so he sent me a link for the Kitchenaid food tray attachment something that would make meat grinding go faster. Then he began toying with the idea of making his own hot dogs. We have the seasoning kit for it. He thinks that the casings I bought might be too large though. He has spent all afternoon researching alternative casings. First he worried about using natural casings, asking if I thought people would be bothered by it if we used natural casings. I pointed out that most people have a don't ask don't tell policy toward hot dogs in general so he'd probably be pretty safe as long as he didn't bring it up in the first place. Then he asked if I think 3/4 of an inch diameter sounds about right for hot dog casings. I said I thought that most hot dogs were at least an inch, but I didn't know. That's when he let me know he thought he was going to go with this:

Yes, those are the sweet little nothings my boy sends me; not roses or love notes, piles of guts. I am blessed :).