Category: Manliness

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Smokey Mountain Smoker and Me

My Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker
My Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker

Although it’s still half a month off, what a great birthday present! One of the things I missed about the south is the flavor of really smoked foods. Here in California, folks throw some wood on the coals and call that ‘smoking’…oh please!

Laura was horrified that I might convert an old water heater into a smoker, so I think she did the next best thing by finding a superb smoker for my cooking pleasures! Weber makes a wonderful smoker in two sizes that she bought through Sears on line that is wonderful.

The pictures above are of me opening my ‘surprise’ and my smoker going at 4:30 am this morning! I have been making my own corned beef these past weeks and smoking converts it to Pastrami… my wife’s favorite meat! Ah… I see there was method in her gift!…. smart girl.

There are many great recipes on line, so I would follow them or check on the ones at Morton.com. However, my basic corned beef spices:

1/2 tsp of each: red pepper flakes, Carraway and Coriander
crushed cinnamon stick
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp each of: mustard seed, ginger
1 tsp of black peppercorn
8 whole cloves
6 Juniper berries ( a strong taste)
12 allspice berries

6- 8 lb brisket

my brine mixture containing 5 cups water and 3 cups ( 2 bottles) Heineken beer ( in my daughter’s honor)

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Now to convert Corned Beef to Pastrami requires smoking for about 6 hours or so.

After washing and soaking I added the following seasonings prior to smoking: Pimenton ( Spanish smoked Paprika), salt, black pepper, garlic powder and a smattering of Pickling spices

Laura's Pastrami on a Quinoa onion Roll!
Laura's Pastrami on a Quinoa onion Roll!

Now to enjoy!

Roger

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more Gruel , please?

Delux Gruel
Delux Gruel

No one can read ‘Oliver Twist’ and not want to help the young urchin boy who asks, ‘more gruel, please.’ The word ‘Gruel’ ,and rhymes with cruel, has been used as a derogatory term — I have heard — one chef using to describe a competitor’s culinary efforts.

Be this as it may, a bowl of gruel has come to us down through history as a dish served during tough economic times and depravation. For most  recipes, gruel consists of a mixture of grain and water, but sometimes milk. Like ‘bread pudding’ it has been maligned and ignored , but it can be so much more.

If like my bride Laura and your tastes move away from hot breakfasts of oats, you may leave now.

It has been discovered that in the days of David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, Gruel consisted of three main ingredients: rolled oats, boiled milk and cooked onions. I am sure there was some salt as salt has been inexpensive throughout the ages. I find this an interesting base from which to develope a variety of recipes…. ranging from hearty stews to soups to a very pleasant breakfast. I’ll let you know how it finally turns out.

So next time someone asks you to try their recipe for Gruel… it just might surprise you!

Roger Freberg

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Heineken in Iraq and franchise available?

Going Dutch in Iraq!
Going Dutch in Iraq!

Remember when you heard about the ‘2 beers’ for our service people in Iraq watching the 2009 Superbowl? I thought it was very cool.

However, I did wonder what kind of beer they were drinking? Although my powers of observation are without question… this may be a single soldier with a single beer… so I expanded my search and found more pictures.

Heineken everywhere!
Heineken everywhere!

Although Heineken’s Superbowl ad was… let’s just say… a snoozer,  someone managed to get this great beer into Iraq and to our men and women serving there. Thanks.

Next time, make mine a Heineken!

Roger Freberg

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Thanksgiving after-glow

TurGOOSen: Chicken into a Goose into a Turkey for Thanksgiving
TurGOOSen: Chicken into a Goose into a Turkey for Thanksgiving

Part of what no one ever discusses is how good we all feel after Thanksgiving. It is certainly NOT because of the ‘Black Friday’ sales — which I believe is only a way to ‘prime the pump’ for the Christmas holiday sales.

finally, I get a chance to sit down and enjoy Thanksgiving!
finally, I get a chance to sit down and enjoy Thanksgiving!

There is something about getting folks together and enjoying a wonderful meal… and hopefully there is something left over!

In my previous posts, I have talked about making a bird-within-a-bird recipe. Probably the best way is to see it in cross section. I am glad I took this picture because in a few moments, it was gone! This is a really good way to see all the various layers… the white chicken meat at the bottom and the goose in the middle all surrounded by various stuffings!

I have always enjoyed cooking, first because it is a life skill that all too many folks have ignored but can be learned, second because it is one of the few things that rewards you instantly for your hard work and lastly, it provides a control junkie what they really want… something that please their own particular pallet.

For those who may not know it, from Halloween to New Years Day is considered the ‘baking season.’ This is a wonderful activity to complement having to stay indoors in much of the United States… so enjoy this time by finding wonderful foods to prepare… there’s an entire world out there!

Roger Freberg

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Wine making is a journey

a label for our first batch in October 2008

Kristin is coming to visit and we plan to put together a ‘historically’ accurate version of a berry wine. In areas of northern Europe and in the early American Colonies, berry wines were made where either grape wine making was impractical or grapes were unavailable.

a basic wine making kitIn talking to a home brewer named “David” ( the husband of Laura’s cousin Pam), I thought… ‘hey, I could do this and it might be fun.’ Kristin though it would be nice to make up a batch and open it up next year to celebrate.

Thanks to some entrepreneurial folks at  Mountain Home brew  in Kirkland , Washington I picked up ingredients and all the basics to make my own wine.

Now, I have some friends who started out this way and ended up with a vineyard! I don’t think so, that is far too much work for me. However, I do feel it would be fun to dabble a bit and maybe get to the point where I have an old oak cask hidden away somewhere.

So, in following my own advice: ” to understand something fully, one must see it through from start to finish” … I am taking my first step into fermenting something wonderful.

cheers!

Roger

oh yes, I plan to produce an estimated ‘nutritional label’ and balance it’s ‘medicinal use’ with my  Jenny Craig  life.