Category: My Family

Without a family, one seldom thinks long term

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Fixing the Spa House Roof

the Pharaohs have returned!

About 15 years ago, I assembled a Philippine Mahogany Teahouse that arrived in a crate without instructions and only a small picture! I got a great deal on the house since it had been sitting in a warehouse for three years or more gathering dust! Then came the Laguna fire here in California and everyone wanted to buy it back! ha!

Although it is a wonderful teahouse, I knew that it would have problems down the road with our weather and our 40 mph plus afternoon breezes! Eventually the roof came tumbling down and I needed to fix it. It’s now a ‘work in progress’. I am no contractor, but engineer Kristin (my daughter) gave me some pointers and I was off and running.

I have added 3 skylights which will be wonderful at night with company and a little champagne.

a skylight makes all the difference

I still have a long long way to go… finishing the roof, painting, varnishing….

Roger Freberg

PS. I remember when I first put the spa together in the tea house… I was filling it with water and turned around to see my three little daughters in swim suits ready to dive in! It was cold… but they didn’t care!

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Summer Projects

Something to do every summer
It’s amazing to look around and see how many projects that just ‘appear’ when summer rolls around.

First project (under construction above) was to design and construct a new roof for our spa house… no simple task given maintaining the existing walls and creating a new internal ‘free standing’ structure. Thanks to Kristin’s input and design… it works.

Moms Favorite Table!
Mom loves this simple table that calls back to some remote beer garden somewhere. Part of the appeal is the heavy construction and ample seating for eight folks under this ‘double trussel’ table. Laura repainted it and it turned out great.

More projects to come!

Roger Freberg

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Happy 4th of July

Let us be thankful for men and women like these

Let us be thankful today for the food on our tables, the wonders of our country and the opportunity to choose our own destinies.

All would not be possible without the American Soldier.

Roger Freberg

The armed services of the United States represents what is best in America… a meritocracy where talent and commitment can rise to the top …

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Inescapable Nutritional Facts in Recipe Development

venturing into the jungle of nutritional data
Here I am beginning to venture into the the jungle of nutritional data and investigate the Myth that what tastes good has got to be bad for you.

It has always been a strong ‘belief’ of mine that what you really enjoy is probably really good for you… and the stuff you avoid… well… there are reasons for that too. Recently, facts are starting to support my observations and the real issue  associated with good food is the high quantity we all enjoy….not the taste or quality.
Laura's simply fabulous Stuffed Bell Pepper Recipe!Humans have existed in times of feast and famine with the obvious increasing and decreasing size of their waistline. So, it seems very natural for us to enlarge ourselves in times of plenty in order to ensure we make it trough the lean times. Modern times of plenty have produced the general obesity of our population.  I was once one of those.

What people need today is ‘portion control’… and delicious food. They do not have to be mutually exclusive.

I remember spending time in a test kitchen that had two major parameters for their recipes: cost per serving and time in preparation. Although many things can be made quickly and relatively inexpensively, if you forget about these two issues, you can make something that really impresses …. and since it is portioned controlled, it probably isn’t all that bad unless you are using ridiculously expensive ingredients like Beluga.

Anyway, here is a simple recipe of Laura’s that is roughly a little over 300 calories per serving and simply wonderful! A little rich for Jenny Craig… but ‘Oh Well!’

Laura’s Stuffed Bell Pepper Recipe!

Roger Freberg

BTW, California has had very strange weather this year… from 114 to 46 within weeks… so I put on an old school ‘camo’ coat that the Army doesn’t use any more since they went to a better design… works great.

As for recipes, we are revising some of our recipes with the concept of developing natural portion controls ( for example, a bell pepper is a natural constraint as you can only stuff it with so much). One of my favorites “Bobotie” is irresistible to me… so I am looking at this one especially.

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from crumbs… emerges a clock!

from a pile of crumbs and twisted wire... emerges a clock!

A while ago, I wrote about how my wife’s sister sent her a clock… a special clock that had huge family sentiment to Laura. When it arrived, we opened the box and found only crumbs and twisted wire … as you can observe in the picture on the far left above.

Laura was distraught and wanted to toss it all as it was too painful to see. This particular clock was something special to her, she would walk by it as a child, stare at for a few minutes and smile… so, OBVIOUSLY, I had to save it!

The largest piece was about 2 inches long and knowing where to begin was quite a challenge. I did not remember the clock myself so it was a bit of a puzzle. There was also another troubling issue… how do you repair stone? Although restoration experts might be shocked… I discovered  “Gorilla Glue”  and it held marble together wonderfully! It wasn’t without further challenges, but by sorting the many tiny pieces together first by thickness… then by fit … I finally got the idea of how it might have looked.

This experience brought me back. There was a time that archeology held my complete interest in college … so in a meaningful way … I felt I was putting together some Etruscan urn on a lost dig. The experience was very satisfying … and Laura is very pleased.

Roger Freberg

Note: the pendulum clock movement was by ‘Japy Freres’ a French (Beaucourt) clock maker until around 1910