Karen enjoying the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam
My daughters are at the stage in their lives when they have seen a bit of the world and continue to enjoy visiting new places and making new friends. However, there is a problem… they enjoy sending me little pictures of some of the delicious things they have experienced. I call this ‘foodie torture!’
If the truth be known, some of the things they have found fall in the category of ‘I bet you won’t eat this.’ Kristin’s ‘fruit bat pie’ in Palau falls into this category, however, most of what they send is scrumptious!
Karen went today to ‘the Heineken Experience’ in Amsterdam and although this picture wasn’t exactly about food…. it still was torture! Thanks Karen.
Depending on who you talk to, Laura and Karen obviously both had a wonderful adventure this past weekend at the 2009 Association for Psychological Science convention in San Francisco. Who had a better time, made better connections and saw more things is open to debate.
Our daughter Karenhas always enjoyed the internet beginning with her first ‘Val Kilmer’ fan site in the 7th grade. Soon, her siteevolved to a discussion platform for her track and field friends along with publishing a popular web based newsletter. During this time, she encountered many of the troubling issues that face athletes, celebrities and almost everyone who frequents the internet. The same questions came up over and over: how do I make a good reputation? How do I prevent a bad one from developing? And How do I get old stuff ‘off’ that continues to cause problems .
Today, Karen gave a lecture on the impact of social media on reputation management to a Psychology class at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and hoped to answer some of these questions for students. By ‘iclicker’ , she discovered that virtually all of the students were on social media! Consequently, many students find themselves haunted by embarrassing pictures of themselves on the internet and some deeds … well, that they wished others didn’t know about. By example, Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps learned this the hard way. I am told, Karen offered helpful advice.
It was something to think about…
Roger Freberg
(too bad Cal Poly administrators weren’t around to listen)
Every mother deserves some special treatment on this special day! Laura wanted a very simple luncheon of artichoke, my spicy and cheesy bread sticks and a nice dessert. The only challenge for me was that our Marinara sauce takes hours and hours, so it was a pedal to the metal to get this simple meal ready! Laura loved it and that’s all that matters.
Once you have taken the time to make your own pastrami and tweak it to your particular taste, it’s hard to buy anything else! Some folks cure their brisket for hours, others — like me — for weeks. Some like a standard sort of brine mixture… others ( again, like me) enjoy a mixture with beer, juniper and allspice berries. The beauty of making anything for yourself is that you can find the style that suits you best. So it wouldn’t surprise you if I said that I like my recipebest.
I can see why most folks don’t realize that Pastrami and Corned Beef are very similar although the final product seems very different. Pastrami starts off with a finished corned beef then goes through a small seasoning process and finally smoked. Most corned beef is served boiled and this allows the fat to disappear and leave a leaner product with the characteristic meaty ‘strings.’ Pastrami however is almost never boiled — at least I don’t — and the final product appears with thin ribbons of fat… which is why — I think — it is almost always served hot.
My great Uncle Karl was an interesting man, a shorter and chubbier version of myself that made his living as a butcher and also had a preference for Pastrami. I was fond of him (Karla is named after him) and talking with him about food was always a treat.
Roger
PS. By the way, Pastrami is one of Laura’s favorite dishes … hmmm … it continually amazes me how she gets me to make these things while allowing me to think it is my idea.
