Category: Dear Dad

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Laura’s Amarula Carrot Cake!

Laura's Wonderful Carrot Cake!

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!

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What College freshman Know?

wine, Laura and Song make a great life

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)

 

 

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Only YOU can invest in YOUR future!

What, me worry?

Here is my daughter  Karen  relaxing at our home in San Luis Obispo. My girls often take over my favorite spots when they come home… and that’s fine with me. They work hard, play hard and from time to time they let me spoil them…. they make me proud.

On Saturday, I am fixing a South African ‘Welcome Home & Happy ‘SC Graduation’ Celebration… a little respite from Jenny Craig… a ‘planned’ excursion into gastronomical delights! Oh yes,  Kristin  gets the same treatment when she comes home in December: Dad’s pancakes, Turducken, barbecued ribs & specialty baked beans.  They tell me, these are the ‘smells and sounds of home that they love.

I believe that parents are the ‘pit crew’ for the ‘next …  greatest generation.’ As I have often said to young people,” if you are standing on the podium having a gold medal put around your neck… then someone was successful in seeing that you got your chance… but it was your hard work that got you there.”

Fight On!

Roger Freberg

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Save the World! …. Eat Ostrich!

hmmmm.... you'd make a fine

My daughter Karen is back from South Africa & with Kristin coming to see us in a few months, I wanted to start preparing some of the South African dishes I have heard so much about. One is called “Ostruducken.” We visited a nearby  Ostrich ranch in Watsonville, California  … and started to look eye-to-eye with possible dinner candidates.  Karen had her own take  on the day at the farm. Jose’ showed us his home made (the best kind) smokers he has for his personal use… fantastic!

I am a fan of these multiple bird within a bird meals, especially  our family favorite “Turducken”  ( a chicken within a duck within a turkey and all with their own stuffing!). The “Ostriducken” sounds like a true feast! Here is a little history of the multiple bird meal:

“The largest recorded nested bird roast is 17 birds, attributed to a royal feast in France in the 19th century: a bustergophechiduckneaealcockidgeoverwingailusharkolanbler (originally called a Rôti Sans Pareil, or “Roast without equal”)…”

As far as the accompanying wine goes, thanks to  Peter May of Pinotage Fame, I am beginning to learn about some of the wonderful wines of South Africa… and “Pinotage” in particular. Some I have bought on-line, some are on order, and some have already been… er… “sampled”.

The male Ostrich in the picture is not tiny, I am 6’4″ (1.93 m) tall… so my Ostrich friend is none too small…. but looks delicious although a bit of a challenge for my barbecue.

However, where there is a will, there is a way.

 

Roger Freberg

PS. Yep, eating Ostrich also reduces ‘global warming’, “saves whales” and “promotes world peace’…well… it couldn’t hurt.

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Do something different, just for fun!

Laura's fun timeI am reminded about an old Star Trek that stated “the more complex the mind, the more the necessity for the simplicity of play.”

For folks whose work is less active, they might find more pleasure if their hobbies and fun activities contain an largely physical role.

Some of my more intelligent and sedentary relatives would spend their non working hours rebuilding their home, painting and gardening… 

As for me, I have always enjoyed doing things very different that my true vocation. Investing my time exploring new aspects of our world has always had an interest.

By the way, speaking of fun, although I am not at all a soccer fan… I congratulate all of Iraq over their recent victory!

On a related note….

“The most spiritual men, as the strongest, find their happiness where others would find their destruction: in the labyrinth, in hardness against themselves and others, in experiments. Their joy is self-conquest. Difficult tasks are a privilege to them, to play with burdens that crush others, a recreation. They are the most venerable kind of man: that does not preclude their being the most cheerful and the kindliest.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche   

 

Roger Freberg

PS. My wife just finished painting the kitchen…. she had fun doing it… but the important thing was that … I didn’t have to do it!