Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
My daughter Karla wanted to do somethng ‘special’ while her mother was in Tennessee with her sister Karen. I asked Karla to make a list… and not too surprisingly, she came up with a list of dining experiences.
One of these experiences included the “Cracked Crab” in Pismo Beach. Here Karla is showing off some of her “Alaskan King Crab”. They brought a bucket of seafood and Karla enjoyed it all.
As for me, I am on Jenny Craig… I just sat there and watched!
Roger Freberg
I am always fascinated by the world wide appeal of my wife Laura’s Psychology Blog. The pictures show her blog’s following around the world. Tahiti… Check… Siberia.. Check.. the world… check!
Part of the interest is no doubt the popularity, relevance and personal interest in Psychology. But I think she is far too modest… Laura’s blog is — excuse the expression — educational, current as well as uniquely personal.
I am impressed… but then I am biased.
Roger Freberg
It’s tough living within a family of ‘super tasters’… everyone wants something new and interesting… I guess years of ‘Turduckens’ weren’t tasty enough? Now , the crowd is demanding a South African-style “Ostruducken.” I ‘assumed’ that an Ostruducken was put together much like any other bird within a bird recipe… you know… a chicken within a duck within a turkey … all stuffed into an Ostrich… however, it doesn’t work that way, since the Ostrich has very little breast meat…. but their legs are the size of a Buick! I went on the internet and found little help… Hormel is usually good… but not this time:
Similar to a turducken, this food is a combination of four meats, ostrich, turkey duck, and chicken that are layered together and rolled into a poultry roast. With the exception of the ostrich meat, turducken and osturducken are prepared in the same manner, starting by spreading a spicy seasoning over the meat, then placing a cornbread and sausage stuffing over the meat as they are layered together, and rolling the layers into the shape of a roast. Typically, the skin of each bird is kept on the meat if this is hand made, in order to add moisture and flavor to the combination of meats. Commercially produced osturducken often removes the skin and layers only the meats together.
So, have you ever cooked anything more than an Ostrich steak or burger? Frankly, I haven’t … and I was ready to build a giant smoker to handle this latest holiday challenge… but it isn’t imperative anymore…. Thanks to ‘Roger’ and the good folks at Blackwing Quality Meats … I have ordered what should be the right about of meat to cover my Turducken to transform it into an “Ostruducken.”
I still have a few loose ends… finding the right stuffing mixture to place between the Ostrich and the Turkey…. the right wine(s)…. but this is all the fun part.
I’ll post the final recipe after we do a little testing and let you know how it turned out!
Roger Freberg
Well… the “platform bed” project is finished… all but the final lacquer and whatever else I am tasked to do.
I did place our “Latex” mattress on it last night and it was blissful! Why is it that sleeping on Latex mattresses is sooo wonderful, but moving them is a real pain? I have moved both mine and Kristin’s latex Kings and barely survived (We took Kristin’s up three flights of stairs). Karen has a queen and her movers had very few nice or polite words about moving it. These mattresses are heavy, awkward and tough to grab.
When we traveled to Tennessee a month ago with Karen’s stuff, her apartment wasn’t quite ready yet. So, we stored her belongings in her garage and arranged for movers to haul it from the garage into her apartment when she arrived. Laura warned them that I had packed it for my needs… she gave the example of ‘a garment box full of National Geographics.’ I guess they didn’t believe her and struggled all day.
Anyway, I love sleeping on a latex bed… My feelings about moving them is another question entirely.
Roger Freberg
Latex Mattresses are rather expensive ($2000 top end)… but then, what is your sleep worth?
Have you ever started a series of new recipes? Have you wondered whether they would be a hit… or a colossal flop? Well, the sure fire way to see if something new works is to do a small trial run… we did… fantastic!
Karen had returned home from her internship in South Africa with Total Media and has just ‘graduated” with her Masters in Public Relations from one of my alma maters… the University of Southern California! With all these excuses to celebrate, we couldn’t resist… besides, if the menu flops it is better to have small, manageable group mad at you than a large crowd looking for a rope!
Karen wrote up the Braii …. and I am sure she’ll have a post to follow! Now, we can work up to the big event!
Roger Freberg
PS… the wine of South Africa was exquisite… and yes, there was much Pinotage!