Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
South African ‘Biltong’ is grand! However, this ol boy has enjoyed what we call “Jerky” since he was a mere sprout.
I had the opportunity to try some J.C. Rivers “Ostrich” Jerkey… teriyaki style… and frankly, I wanted to eat it all myself! Not only is this stuff good… but they discount shipments to military personnel… and my daughter told me they lived on this stuff when they were running convoys to and from Bagdad.
Love that Ostrich!
Roger Freberg
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!
Now, I don’t often get to do this when I am talking about wine… but it is fun to find a wine that few people know about… or have even tried.
However, there is a wine from Clairvaux that has an interesting history in the area of Robertson, South Africa.
My daughter Karen enjoyed her time working on her internship in Cape Town… and I casually asked her to keep an eye out for some interesting wines. Little did she know that her entire trip would be spent investigating certain aspects of my chosen avocation.
I tried not to abuse her good nature…too much. Poor, Karen.
Karen looked into some of the smaller… what we might call ’boutique’ wineries as well as the main stays… but in her travels and friendships, she found something very interesting… something very special.
It is always amusing how someone will pass up a 1955 Château La Tour to study in depth a new winery that they have never laid eyes on.
Clairvaux is just one of those occasions. While one of my ‘friends’ began studiously studying my latest acquisition… I nicely took it from his hands and said… oh, I think there is something more interesting for you to see over here. Of course, I now had him hooked. I shrugged and said that I didn’t think it was easily available in this country (partly true)… so I suggested he look at something else…. a common Margaux , perhaps.
There began the saga… the legend of Clairvaux.
Clairvaux can be found in the Robertson Area of South Africa… and if you get in the area… it is one place on my list to visit.
I’ve talked enough… you can’t get it easily anyway… Buah-ha-ha! ( I so wanted to say that)
Roger Freberg
Something special happens when you get a bunch of ‘foodies’ together… recipes and ideas just come out and an event gets planned!
Laura and Karen put their heads together and found a wonderful recipe for Carrot Cake utilizing two ingredients that were surprising: apricot and Amarula! Their recipe also contains pineapple but Laura has added that for thirty years, so no surprise. What was interesting was how the apricot and the Amarula added something very special.
Here’s Laura’s adaptation of her own recipe and as Laura is fond of saying, “Bake it for someone you love!”
Roger Freberg
Now all we need is the Ostruducken!
Part of what makes life interesting is all the changes we experience as time goes by. Some people lament that younger and older folks really have a hard time understanding our generation. There is some reason for this. We are forged by the events of importance in our lives… and to understand someone, we must first put them in context. Boomers can tell you exactly where they were when they heard that President Kennedy was assassinated, older still will recall vividly when they first heard that President Roosevelt passed away. Today’s generation “flash bulb” memory is 911.
So to supplement what my Professor bride discussed in her blog ( about what incoming college freshman know from their lives), here is a few other things that happened in their birth year (1989):
Cuban troops leave Angola
Soviet troops leave Afghanistan
Los Angeles City Council bans sales of automatic weapons
Iranian leader urges Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie for his writings, puts $3 million dollar reward… however, Iranian leader dies within year
Time Warner merge
2 asteroids come close to earth (Asceleptious & a thousand foot chunk)
First free elections, new Soviet parliament goes against Russian Communists
Dilbert is first syndicated… life in a cubical is exposed!
Nintendo begins selling game boy in Japan
Borders start coming down… Hungary with Austria
South Africa’s last election under apartheid
Disney’s “Little Mermaid” comes to theaters
Famous deaths: Konrad Lorenz, Salvador Dali, Jim Backus, Irving Berlin, Secretariat,
A lot of good things have happened since 1989, but we have many new challenges and no generation has it ‘easy.’
Good Luck to the Class of 2011… the world belongs to you!
Roger Freberg
PS. In 1989, Laura and I had been married for 17 years with three young children ( 10, 7 and 5 years of age)