Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
Much happens around our house during the holidays… especially a lot of culinary magic! However, with all of our blessings we want to thank all of our men and women in service to our country… and those not able to leave the hospitals at this time. Our thoughts are with you all!
Lots of baking today…a time to spend with family and give thanks.
Enjoy the day!
When my daughters Kristin & Karen come home for Christmas, we all work on making some of the family things we all enjoy. A few days ago, I caught Kristin making one of our favorite ‘with coffee’ desserts… Biscotti! Making the dough isn’t difficult with a heavy duty mixer and a good dough hook… and the real trick is to slice the biscotti after coming from the oven the first time … using a good serrated bread knife.
Today is Christmas Eve… and we are making Tiramisu for tomorrow … not a real traditional Christmas dessert… but nice after a smoked spiral cut ham with my special Apricot and Pineapple glaze!
Bon appetite!
One of the nicest traditions I have observed is serving the person with a birthday the meal they most desire. It is nice to go out to dine, but something made at home has always been my favorite. Well, my birthday is coming up in a week or so, and since I could have anything I wanted, I wanted to make it myself. Some of you may not think that is a real good birthday present, but for me, preparing something special is fun…. even if it is on my birthday. Besides, much of what I am thinking about can be made the day before and so the actual preparation on the birthday is minimized.
So, I thought that I’d prepare some Scandinavian Meatballs, a nice salad and my Tiramisu for dessert. I am still thinking about the wine at this point.
I always enjoy the simple meal on my birthday, I hope yours is as pleasant.
Roger Freberg
It’s hard not to enjoy a good Tiramisu, but finding one that you really like always takes a bit of effort and experimentation. Believe it or not there are actually Tiramisu police that go around ranking every effort of this lady finger inspired dessert… but I am here to tell you now that lady fingers really don’t work too well.
Tiramisu police will tell that this dessert has certain qualities and it has the right to be boring.
I love the concept of soaking the fingers in various liquors: chocolate, honey and coffee. What I don’t love is a bunch of soggy mush, so I went out to design something that would hold together long enough to be placed in the container and be uniform in texture and consistency. Secondly, most recipes do not make a meringue properly and with insufficient egg whites to add some solidity to the dessert. I don’t want something hard, but runny is not acceptable.
Using the same number of egg whites as egg yolks not only simplifies the dessert, but it also aids in making a more solid dessert. My meringue recipe ( check my Key Lime or Lemon Meringue for hints) woks perfectly in this dessert.
Oh yes, I lost 2 more pounds on Jenny Craig… sooooo
enjoy!
Roger Freberg
Tiramisu is a nice, delicious and easy to make dessert that comes across very nicely on Valentine’s Day. Besides the eggs, cheese, sugar, chocolates and liquors… the other major ingredient is ladyfingers. You can buy ladyfingers almost anywhere, or you can make them yourself… or substitute a wide variety of prepared products… such as Pepperidge Farm’s Milano cookies.
Like many wonders of nature, some times things that look so imposing are actually quite simple.
Roger