Spicy Sausage Pasta

Ask Sean what he wants to eat on any given day and it will be one of the following things:

• Pizza with sausage
• Hamburgers
• Spaghetti with meat sauce

That's basically it. So when he asked, for the umpteenth time, for spaghetti with meat sauce, I was desperate to find some different spin on that already-tired dish. (Seriously, I've eaten it more with him than I did in my entire childhood.) This time, we would have something with a little kick.

I started out by peeling away the sausage casing, which is gross, but oddly satisfying the better you get at it.

Mmmm. Browning meat.

Then I added onions and garlic, as per usual.

And a can of crushed tomatoes with a tablespoon of chili powder, which made it spicy delicious.

And served on top of penne with crusty bread. It was good and spicy and that chili powder really gave it some necessary kick. A word of advice, though: If you happen to see a loaf of "Roasted garlic bread" at The Fresh Market, THEY ARE NOT KIDDING. The loaf had entire roasted cloves, which is maybe a bit much for the average person. Had I been a vampire on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," I would have died just from slicing this bread. Consider yourself warned, vampire readers.