Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
I had originally planned to have an “Osturducken” this year, but somehow the Ostrich meat never arrived…. hmmmm … must be a plot!
Anyway, with my girls all ‘hell and gone from Cartagena!” … it was just Mom, me , Karla and Grandma June. However, the Turducken this year was de-licious!
Happy Thanksgiving to our American Soldiers Everywhere… and to our Trojans…
Roger Freberg
Thanksgiving around our house is always Turducken … and if my adult children had their way… well, Mom and I would spend all our time preparing it! I really can’t blame them… it is wonderful… the spices! the Andouille sausage! and our stuffing!
This year was particularly challenging… without all the hungry appetites, we opted for a ‘smaller 13lb. turkey.’ I know… some folks feel that this is the ‘normal’ size… but to me Thanksgiving is best symbolized by the largest Turkey you can buy… we once fixed a 44 lb turkey that barely fit in the stove! The solution? Buy a bigger stove!
My concern this year was a practical one… would a smaller turkey handle the larger number of ingredients including the duck and the chicken? Fortunately, the turkey ‘stretched’! So tomorrow, I think we’ll have a smaller but gentler… wonderful Thanksgiving!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving… and especially those in Basra and elsewhere who have touched this site.
Roger Freberg
By the way, I didn’t use the bones for stock this year… but they were definitely enjoyed by the local ‘turkey buzzards.’
Every week we fancy something special on the weekend. This weekend we rediscovered “Chicken Tetrazinni”… and the woman Louisa Tettrazinni for which the dish was named.
I was very surprised at how many recipes exist for what is a rather simple dish of mushrooms, pasta and chicken in a lovely cream sauce. Most of the recipes are ‘short cuts’ of the original… but with a little exploration , it is easy to see how it should be made.
Our Chicken Tetrazinni uses the famous trinity of French cooking (onions, celery & carrots), along with the love of the wonderful style of New Orleans and garlic of California.
We hope you enjoy our Chicken Tetrazinni as much as we did!
Roger Freberg
Did I splash a little Armagnac in the chicken ? I will never tell!
Now, I have sat in enough test kitchens to say that I am not the person to squeeze the last calorie out of a recipe… because, taste & the experience of the food has always been my primary interest.
However, thanks to this site which allows you to evaluate your recipe… I find that our do-it-yourself special occasion meals are really not all that bad… if you watch the portions.
So let’s compare our latest dish to the best of the diet foods and see how we do?
Jenny Craig has a few dishes that weigh in at 8.5oz. Let’s compare our cheesey dish to their Meatloaf. We have a lot more calories (392 vs. 300), more fat (13 g to 7g), the same cholesterol (45 mg). However, we have lower sodium (444 to 460 mg), more dietary fiber(5g to 3 g) and less sugar (5g to 8g) and the same protein (21 g).
So, although our Chicken Tetrazinni doesn’t qualify as a ‘diet food’… in fairness — it never really tried to be… we just wanted it to be as delicious as it could be and in the process we discovered… great tasting food is often good for you too!
Enjoy this our Chicken Tetrazinni without guilt! (recipe to follow soon)
Roger Freberg
What’s fun about cooking is lively discussions about what constitutes the foundation of any style of food.
In French cuisine they refer to the ‘food holy trinity’ of carrots, onions and celery.
In New Olreans, the common combo is somethng slightly different: onions, bell pepper and celery…. and nowhere else is this so clearly evident than in the making of GUMBO… one of God’s greatest creations.
However, sometimes more is better… I would add garlic to the list. One can not really have too much garlic, if properly prepared.
I have noticed that many ‘short cut’ recipes remove one trinity or another… and that is to bad. Even simple “Tetrazinni” deserves some onion, carott and celery.
Food is such fun, isn’t it?
Roger Freberg
About 8 years ago, I posted my Seafood gumbo recipe… share it with someone you love.