Hashing It Out

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I was multitasking this morning, letting some chicken sausage start to cook on the stove while I logged into a Zoom location for a weekly discussion group I'm part of. Within a minute, my laptop and monitor screens went black. A tap of the space bar brought everything back to life, but then it happened again. And again. Every time, it also kicked me out of the discussion that had started. I eventually determined that it was all caused by a Zoom update.

Then I remembered the sausage, which by now had burned on one side. Ugh!

I let the food cool while completing the meeting, then returned to find that the sausages were not overcooked. That's when creativity kicked in. I trimmed the burn off and diced the remains. Next, I cooked, skinned and cubed some red potato, which went into the freezer long enough to seal the edges for frying.

Diced red bell pepper and diced onion went into a pan with avocado oil atop medium high heat. Once softened, I added the diced potato with some butter, salt and pepper, tossing occasionally until the potatoes had a crunchy edge to them. Finally, the cooked and cubed chicken sausage went in. Two minutes later, with everything warmed and seasoned, I had a chicken sausage and red potato hash ready to feed to family with, with tangerine juice and a blend of ketchup and hot sauce on the side. Everyone complimented me on the dish, and the story of how it came to be was quietly left in the kitchen as another memory of creative cooking.