Category: Food & Wine

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30 years of Chocolate Chip Cookies

My Favorite Chocolate chip Cookie

Almost everyone I know still uses a chocolate chip recipe on the back of a bag of chocolate chips or in a cookie book. This is sad, when the best recipes are still out there… although somewhat forgotten and unused.

Back in the mid ’70’s, the humble chocolate chip cookie was about to get ‘customized!’ (then, nearly 80% of all cookies baked from scratch were chocolate chip cookies… surprised? I suspect that this hasn’t changed much)

As an ol’ chocolate salesman from that era, I remember Famous Amos and his wonderful fist size cookies. Don’t look for them today…. they are not what they once were. However, for us chocolate lovers, it gave us a chance to rush to our test kitchens and try our hand at making ours better.

So, I thought, what’s better than to add the three most popular ingredients in cookie making: chocolate chips, peanut butter and oatmeal?

So here’s our recipe!

You can still make cookies best from scratch!

Roger Freberg

Hey, today’s my birthday… Jenny Craig will just have to understand

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My Opinion : The Best Chef Knife

a really great kitchen knife!
I really don’t like a kitchen knife until I have used it for a number of years… but there is one that impressed me right from the start. From the ergonomically designed handle to the curved blades ( In use, I roll my blades) this is a great tool.

Kershaw’s Shun Chef Knife is perfect for big jobs, odd jobs and practically everything. On the Williams-Sonoma Site there is a great video of the Shun knives and an insight into their philosophy.

Although the old swords of the Samurai were made — legend says — of steel rolled hundreds of times, the Shun Chef’s knife was rolled 32 times… which ought to make it very durable!

If I had only one knife… this would be it.

Roger Freberg

PS. I have one for you,too, Kristin!

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What’s for Dinner? TurkOstruGoosEn!

Turkostrugoosen -- it's what's for dinner
It’s tough getting an entire Ostrich or even the leg… which is what you need for a great Ostruducken ( Ostrich, Turkey, Duck and Chicken!)… However, all is not lost!

Karla put me to the challenge to prepare her a special birthday meal for the end of May. My daughters love these Bird within a bird within a bird meals! She would like some Ostrich, Turkey, Goose, Chicken and Quail! Karla would like some rabbit sausage stuffing.

Which brings to mind the need to find the unique stuffing for each bird. Wild rice for one, cornbread for another, sour dough for a third… each with it’s characteristic composition and flavorings.

When you slice this meal for serving, it is like slicing through a millenium tree revealing each layer releasing the aroma and flavors… definitely many meals in one!
Next month… the recipe!

Roger Freberg

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the Art & Science of Cooking!

Cooking is FUNdamental

The debate rages as to whether we speak of the ‘culinary arts’ or bow to ‘food science’. I tend to believe it is a little bit of both.

The science of recipe development and preparation has taught us some wondrous things… but it is the chef as ‘artist’ that brings it all alive. It is the chef that widens our eyes and brings wonder to the senses. However, the chef now has help.
Science News has a new article on the laboratory technicians who have rediscovered what makes food savory and delicious. The prior dilemma was presented in the article thusly:

The relationship between scientists and chefs, or lack thereof, troubled the late physicist Nicholas Kurti. At a presentation for the Royal Society of London in 1969 he lamented, “I think it is a sad reflection on our civilization that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus, we do not know what goes on inside our soufflés.”

If I had any criticism of the scientists approach, it would be towards their goal… to make things simpler, easier … omitting what makes life wonderful, such as eggs and butter. Simpler isn’t always better.  Besides, years from now, we may learn that the true nutritional value of traditional ingredients was vastly underrated, while their poor substitutes were discovered to be either worthless or indeed harmful.

To me, cooking is still fun… it is still art… and unless science can help improve the taste or make the dining experience more enjoyable, then it’s value is diminished.

Roger Freberg

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the Mighty Meaty Noodles with Cheese Casserole

Thomas Frebergson the inventor of the Noodles With Cheese Casserole

When I think of distinctively American Foods, I always come back to the “Noodles with Cheese” Casserole! It’s hard to find a recipe book or a listing in a family’s epicurean collection of 3 by 5 cards that does not reference this dish!

History tells us that this bit of yummy Americana can be traced to before Thomas Jefferson’s time (circa 1800)… however, something always was missing in this dish for me… I always asked,”where’s the beef?” Somewhere in time, possibly to make it more appealing to young boys, chefs added a bit of hot dog or such to raise the male interest… which worked.

So, I decided to put a recipe together, that contained the traditional three ingredients: cheese, noodles and butter… but added some needed refinements: cream, various sausages, Mirepoix and complementary fresh herbs and spices. I think it turned out wonderfully.

So, here is my recipe for a “Mighty, Meaty Noodles with Cheese Casserole”.

Enjoy!

Roger Freberg