Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
When the cold weather moves in, the wind howls and getting chilled to the bone is a possibility. This is when a bowl of seafood gumbo (crab, shrimp, lobster and clams) over curry rice hits the spot!
Here’s a link to My favorite cure to the cold weather blues!
http://www.frebergsports.com/GUMBO.htm
Laura always has certain fondness for cake and a few years back I made a Pumpkin Spice Cake with a buttery Amarula cream cheese frosting that became her new favorite!
This is one of those recipes that you need three bowls… one for the dry, one for the wet ingredients and one for the frosting.
Wet ingredients bowl:
1/2 cup Amarula Liquor
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup heavy cream
4 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 can 15 ounce solid pumpkin
4 teaspoons pumpkin spice blend
( my blend is 6 parts, cinnamon; 2 parts each of nutmeg, allspice and cloves; 1 part each of mace, cardamon and ginger)
Dry ingredients bowl:
2 – 2 1/4 cups bread flour ( start with 2 then check)
2 cups fine sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Basic process:
gradually blend the dry into the larger bowl with the wet ingredients
Baking:
350 degrees for around an hour
Frosting:
3 ounces cream cheese, 1 tablespoon butter, 2 cups powdered sugar. (Or as needed to be firm bu pourable)
ADD enough Amarula Liquor to make the frosting thick but pourable ( around 1/4 cup)
top off with sliced Almonds
RESULTS:
I made this for my wife’s 62nd birthday and all 130 pounds of her had three huge servings… And it’s gone!when she thought she’d just have a ‘taste.’
My family loves to ooh and this is no secret to those who know us well. The fact is that we even have pages where we share ideas and place our own recipes on for each to explore… the family that cooks together.. So a discussion came up on stews and the particular Swedish Lamb Stew that I have enjoyed and here is how I make it:
Vegetables are more than extenders… They add something wonderful to the party.
Basic Veggies
1 Red potato , 5 baby turnips (under 2″ in diameter), 2 bunches green onions, 2 largest sweet onions, 4 tablespoons crushed garlic, 1 bunch Kale, 1 leak, 1/2 cup Chives, 5 sliced carrots, 4 or 5 celery , 1 large Rudabaga and a very large Red potato. I will throw in about 1.4 cup of chopped parsley.
Seasonings
Salt, Black pepper, garlic powder, Thyme and Rosemary …. And towards the end, Fenugreek ( Spice of the Greeks).
Meat: 4 pounds of lamb in one to one and a half inch cubes
Thickening the sauce: various commercial powdered gravies will do
Liquids: 4-6 cups chicken broth and one bottle of Pinot Noir
The secret of life? Bacon!
In a very hot dry pan, sear the cubes of lamb and then crisp the bacon. Save some of the bacon fat to add to butter for sautéing the veggies.
Slow cooking is the secret of making a great stew. This results in all the veggies being tender (even the Rudabagas!) and the lamb chunks fall apart !
The Process:
I start off adding liquid the the crock pot and then the seared lamb!
In a large pan (17″), I sauté the onion then garlic and add the rest of the vegetables ( after microwaving them for about 10 minutes).
Add the Veggies to the crockpot and cook on high for 3 or more hours until everything is tender).
Add the diced potato in the last hour or so.
Thicken the sauce.
Bon Appetite!
It is not too often that I write a book review, especially on a book that I haven’t read yet… but I am curious to see how it plays out.
Here is how the book is being promoted:
“In the middle of the eighth century, the decaying city of Rome lies defenseless against the advance of the warmongering Lombards. The new Pope, Stephen II, appeals for help from the Eastern Emperor, but none arrives. In desperation, the Pope’s younger brother and an English nun conspire to change the course of history—at the risk of their own souls. Based on real people and actual events, this is a story of intrigue, passion, war, and the struggle for control of medieval Europe.”
A little bit about the author Simon LeVay:
“Simon LeVay is a British-born neuroscientist turned writer. He is best known for a 1991 study, published in Science, which reported on a difference in brain structure between gay and straight men. He has served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and the Salk Institute in San Diego, but he now lives in Los Angeles. Among his 12 published books are several on sex, including a college textbook titled Human Sexuality (now in its fourth edition), and Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation. His most recent book is a historical novel, The Donation of Constantine. Once a fanatical bicycle racer, LeVay continues to ride his bicycle, though at a more sober pace. He is intolerant of creationists, lactose, and staying indoors.
LeVay writes: “In the early 1960s, as a teenager, I was arrested and jailed briefly, along with the renowned 90-year-old philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell. (The occasion was an anti-war demonstration.) This lead to my reading Russell’s History of Western Philosophy. Only one paragraph in that long book stuck in my memory: it dealt with the mysterious 8th-century forgery known as the Donation of Constantine. Intrigue, papal politics, winter journeys, bloody battles — maybe even a hint of bodice-ripping! What a great topic for a novel, I thought. Fifty years later, I wrote it.””
Roger’s thoughts:
So now… I am going to Amazon.com to buy one for myself… I can never have too little ‘bodice ripping’ in my reading. 😉
LINK to AMAZON.COM (and book)
