Category: San Luis Obispo

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An American Carol : an inconvenient truth

an American Carol is an Inconvenient Truth

I had the opportunity to see “An American Carol” and laughed my a** off! Congratulations to the brave men and women of “an American Carol” who may never work in Hollywood again.

In any movie there are those wonderful back stories about how no one would syndicate this movie until someone from France stepped in! France, I do understand this, after all, didn’t they have those ‘immigrant riots’? Anyway, a lot of the movie was ‘reductum ad absurdum’ (to reduce to absurdity)… to make their point by showing truly funny examples of what hasn’t happened. They traveled back in time to show Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito all singing ‘kumbaya’ together to the very naive British Prime Minister, a couple of suicide bomber nuns and a skit of college professors indoctrinating students.

If you were taken to see a Michael Moore flick… take them to see this… but see it anyway and don’t feel bad about laughing out loud.

Roger Freberg

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Happy Birthday, Karen

karen freberg

Happy Birthday, Karen. Yesterday was Kristin’s Birthday and today is Karen’s. Along with our wedding anniversary and Laura’s birthday last month makes for a busy 31 days!

Karen has been a great partner on  Jenny Craig  with Mom and me, and inspired us to join her on  Facebook  with Kristin. Being of an older generation, we have had to ‘invite’ folks to join us. Karen is at the University of Tennessee working on her Ph.D.
The devilish horns of hair seem somewhat appropriate. 🙂
Dad

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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.

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Save money and have fun by Learning to Cook

shredding the beef

There’s a local restaurant supply company called ‘Smart & Final’ in our area that I frequent for a few items. This isn’t unusual, many people who cook go to a lot of sources for what they need. However, I ran into a couple of Cal Poly students obviously lost in a sea of questions and doubts. They were sent to find some ‘seasonings’ for a barbecue and had no idea where to start. Oh, where to begin. After asking a few questions, it was apparent that they had been asked to get more than seasonings… but after a few suggestions on my part they were off and running.

However, it made me wonder: does anyone know how to cook anymore?  And no Melissa, you don’t put beef through a shredder to ‘shred it’… was she kidding?

Actually shredding beef is rather simple and it is necessary to make my Grandmother Mimi’s ‘Barbecued beef sandwiches’ which are legendary in our family… as is her sauce which I will never put on line. To shred beef, it must first be cooked very slowly. A crock pot serves this purpose. Some folks like to emerse the meat in stock and seasonings, others like to cook the meat slowly in it’s own juices. I prefer the former as the latter tends to overly toughen the exterior of the meat. The cooking has a remarkable side benefit, it leans out the meat by reducing ( cooking) out the fat.
The seasonings one can use in the slow cooking process are many: onions, garlic, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, tarragon, lemon peel, cilantro, thyme, oregano, ginger. I have even seen recipes that call for allspice ( called Paprika in Jamaica – confusingly enough – I am told) , lime juice, various fruits, cinnamon, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and dill. Of course, everyone says “salt and black pepper to taste.”

So what will I be making with five pounds of shredded beef? Quite a lot actually, I’ll whip up some Chimichangas and Philly Cheese steak Pirogies for starters. This can be made  Jenny Craig compliant  and portion controlled … or be that once a week extravagance.
Learn to cook, it will open a new world to you. Besides, you’ll save money and have fun too.

Roger Freberg

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a boomer discovers Facebook!

Crust for Apple Pie with a ting of mace

Laura and I have always prided ourselves in embracing new technologies. I mean, we remember that an ‘upgrade’ to our first Apple computer meant finding the soldering iron! Even today, Laura finds herself having to buy various things on-line when her Cal Poly computer store carries only 5.0 and she already has the 10.0 version.

Naturally, when our daughters introduced us to the social networking sites, we found ourselves intrigued. Although we are not out there to meet new friends, per se, what we have enjoyed is the way you can communicate better even within the family. I liked the advent of email all those years ago, it allowed you to talk to people at your own time and answer them when it was best for you. Now sites, like Facebook, have expanded that connectivity more easily buy allowing access anywhere and at anytime, including their own version of Instant messaging. In addition, your ‘page’ is very much like your own web page ( we’ve enjoyed our web pages) but with the ability of selected others to ‘post’ on it.

I particularly enjoy torturing my daughters by posting on their pages recipes and pictures of culinary delights that drive them insane. We are foodies through and through. I am impressed with some of their friends that have connectivity with literally thousands of people, whereas others have more modest numbers… very modest numbers like me. I find that you have to invite boomers on board  Facebook, whereas around college age are already there!

There is a disadvantage for college age folks to ‘invite’ their parents… the risk of ‘parental’ comments is always there… but then – in this ‘public’ domain – everyone would be well advised to be a little careful as some employer may see some thing you didn’t mean for them to see… on your social Networking site. Remember , the INTERNET is forever.
Karen blogged about one crazy guy.

So what are you waiting for?… find a social networking site, join and bring on your friends and family. Your kids might just understand… or not… but it aint all about them is it?

Roger