Meal No. 4036: Roasted Salmon on Caesar'd Power Greens

February 3rd was supposed to be a work day in Virginia, and while I’d told that school division we were unlikely to be able to proceed after all the snow days, it was a belated cancellation. And it cost me a night's charge in the hotel. But was I glad for extra time at home? Of course, and I celebrated with salmon Caesars for three of us at dinner. Served atop power greens, with some roasted sunflower seeds, and adorned with homemade creamy Caesar dressing, the salmon was tender and tasty, roasted to a perfect temp and adorned with its spice coating.

That Tuesday was almost pleasant, with better sunshine than predicted and temps approaching the mid-40s. I was back at it on the parking area, trying to clear away more of the dual winter storms' ice and snow pack.

The ice sheet from the January 25th sleet storm was still present but much more manageable. Don't misunderstand: easier, but still labor intensive. Each piece, slab, portion, chunk, or sliver: I was chipping away with a flatblade shovel or scooping with the well-worn snow shovel and walking the debris to the various piles either along the driveway or down on the street.

[Editor's Note: We managed to get another light snow covering overnight and through the morning on Thursday of last week, which diminished some of my progress on the parking lot, at least until the temps moderated.]

It's certainly no small compensation when the sun shines warmly and the precious pooch Sumner is willing to hang out with me when I take a break on the pavement.

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Based on "Easy Lemon Caesar Salad Dressing," by Kim Hardesty of lowcarbmaven.com.

Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie

Monday a week ago was a welcome return to the simple and delicious chai-spiced snickerdoodle skillet cookie, as a stand-in for dessert that night. I'd spent so much time out on the driveway shoveling that I took the easy way out, not only with the dinner plan but also for the sweet treat to follow. This dependable recipe comes out terrific every time and the slices of cookie generally receive rave reviews from guests.

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"Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie," from Heather Baird of SprinkleBakes.com. [Published 06 July 2020]

Meal No. 4035: Cuban Pork Sheet Pan Nachos

Hemmed in as we were by the back-to-back winter weather events, I went into the foodstuff reserves in order to make dinner for three of us on Monday evening of last week. That made me glad for some stored-away Cuban pulled pork that served as the heart of a large sheet pan of nachos. Oh, of course there was onion and black beans, a fair amount of corn, and an abundance of Mexican cheese atop the bed of tortilla chips. A fresh batch of well-garlicked lime crema was a figurative cherry on top.

Each day of that first full week of February involved some measure of time tackling the driveway. I'd only cleared the ice pack partially, and then we got two-thirds of a foot of marvelous snow the next weekend. I had plenty to do out there.

You know: like make a path across the driveway to get to the less treacherous strip of yard along the south property line, where the pooches take care of all of their needs.

As I'd mentioned, Scarlett is well-suited to the snow cover. She loves being out in it, sniffing here and there, lying flat upon the snow and/or ice pack, ready to flick and fling icy chunks and snowy splinters whilst she leaps and yaps and nudges Sumner to play along. But let's also all celebrate how marvelous they are about getting out there and doing their business promptly and in designated locations and, at least for Scarlett, on an incredibly regular schedule.

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Sheet Pan Nachos based on "Loaded Sweet Pork Sheet Pan Nachos," from Elyse of Six Sisters Stuff. [Published 14 March 2018 / Updated 20 September 2024]

"Easy Lime Crema," from Lisa Bryan of DownShiftology.com. [Published 22 April 2020 / Updated 07 May 2020]

Old-Fashioned Peach Cobbler in a Cast Iron Skillet

Sunday a week ago found a city much quieted by the previous day's remarkable snow storm, but it was still a good night for a gathering of three of us here in the Holly Avenue Neighborhood to enjoy supper and hang time. I'd churned a batch of sweet milk vanilla ice cream that morning and thought a cast iron skillet of old-fashioned peach cobbler might be just the thing to serve it with. I used a recipe that had only shown up here once before, back in August 2023, and I'm glad I found my way back to it. Warm cobbler, a scoop or so of delicious ice cream, and good company: that was a smart way to bring February online.

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"Old-Fashioned Peach Cobbler in an Iron Skillet," from Laura Scalone, who blogs at Elle Jay at Home. [Published 04 May 2020]

Meal No. 4034: Chicken with Coronation Sauce

Last Sunday was a happy supper for three, and for the first time in almost a year I served up one of our easy house favorites: chicken with coronation sauce. With its unique mix of complementary flavors, hints of curry balanced with a bit of sweetness, a hidden measure of light heat, and a full creaminess to ooze all over the bed of rice...I'm glad I had no idea this wasn't supposed to be served warm over those steamed long grains.

The first day of February rolled in overnight, with the unkindness of 12 degrees when I awoke, and yet we felt beautified by a gorgeous overlay of an abundant fluffy snowfall from the previous day. The sunshine cast about brilliantly but with a wintered impotence, and the cold weather and wind chill warnings delayed my enthusiastic snow removal until late morning. I'm glad I'd gotten a decent start on it the evening before, but more snow still fell and the winds also did their work to toss around that unusually light and fluffy adornment. I needed to be ready to get the car out, because at that point I was expecting to have to drive to Virginia on Monday.

A well-blanketed car belonging to a new neighbor from across the street showed some of what the snow coverage looked like:

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"Coronation Sauce for Chicken," from 400 Sauces, by Catherine Atkinson, Christine France, and Maggie Mayhew. Hermes House (2006, 2008), p. 155. Recipe is a variation on "Coronation Chicken," created by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume for the 1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

The January 31st Snowstorm

A short six days after our massive sleet storm, we found ourselves in winter's crosshairs again. That's how the final day of January played out, with another deep plunge into arctic temps that occurred in symphony with a massive system of moisture coming up from the southwest and giving North Carolina its first full coverage—from one end to the other—of snow in almost 50 years.

Sumner does not love the snow as much as Scarlett does, but they were both pretty cute getting out into it. We still had accumulation yet to occur when I caught Sumner pausing on the covered parking lot (above).

I mean: 17°F at around 3 pm in the afternoon? That doesn't seem much like what I'm supposed to endure as a resident of this southern state. The polar vortex, made weaker and less organized by the warmer waters in the arctic region, keeps spilling its cruel contents in a huge splash down across many lines of latitude unused to this sort of nonsense.

But maybe it was cold enough that the pooches' return to the back door was more than their usual scurry and race:

Perhaps the husky and shepherd within Scarlett helps explain how naturally she takes to the snowpack.

It's a moment like this one that earned her a fresh nickname: Cold Belly Jones.

When the snowstorm was tapering off Saturday night, very gradually, I brought out my trusty Raleigh Paint & Wallpaper yardstick and found we were almost up to 8 inches of pure fluffy light dry snow.

The accumulation looked dramatic with the almost-totally-hidden legs of the deck furniture up on the second story porch:

And bright and early that Saturday morning, there was the team from Budd Services ready to go. I do not know if they had again spent the night up there but I've no doubt about their diligence.

The Saturday evening supper was simple: sous vide herbed chicken breast on spring mix with the last of my latest batch of Thousand Island-style dressing. This was Meal No. 4033, as the ongoing count continues for all meals made since the new kitchen was completed in 2009.

The first day of February followed, and that Sunday dawned bright and sunny but brutally cold. (That's when I took the photo at the top of this blog post.) The official measure out at the airport was 13°F (check out that RealFeel of -2°F!!) but my home monitor was a nudge colder: 12°F.

February 1st was also the occasion of the full "Snow" moon, and we were certainly prepared to celebrate it in proper fashion. I always enjoy the beauty of the rising full moon over the city:

Key Lime Pie Bars

It’s been on my radar for a while to produce a pan of key lime pie bars. Well: lime pie bars, at least, styled on par with how the official KLP is made. Persian limes take the place of Key limes (or the famous Nellie & Joe’s Key Lime Juice); I sub out the graham cracker crust, opting instead for pulverized Biscoff cookies; and I prefer an enhanced stabilized whipped cream atop once it’s all set up first in the fridge. Sometimes I make too much of that whipped topping.

Also: you cannot ask someone whose nickname in 8th grade was “Mr. Precise” to successfully work with the determined imprecision of quality parchment paper that must be fitted into an 8x8 non-stick pan. It cannot be done and there is a price to be paid regarding mental health. But when it is time to cut and serve, and the whole of it has been freed from its bakeware, the unpanned brick of beauty does offer up much cleaner slices. Then again: I think there are plenty of YouTube and Instagram recipe bloggers who have made a million reels about how to cleverly snip and cut a sheet to properly slip into the pan. I guess I have some self-schooling to do.

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Adapted from "Key Lime Pie Bars," from Christina Marsigliese of ScientificallySweet.com. [Published 17 July 2023 / Modified 28 May 2024]

"Stabilized Whipped Cream," from Alyssa Rivers of TheRecipeCritic.com. [Published 02 November 2023]

Meal No. 4032: Creamy Chicken Francese

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I remain unskillful with chicken cutlets, but the temptation to make a pan of creamy chicken francese last Friday night for a Holly Avenue neighbors dinner was a reminder of how much practice is still needed. Nonetheless, it was still all pretty good, and while the recipe stands well on its own, some Cabernet-Madeira mushrooms and a bed of spaghetti to set it all on did their part to make the outcome a qualified success.

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"Creamy Chicken Francese," from Karina Carrel of Cafe Delites.

Vanilla Bean Pudding Cake

After our bucatini carbonara had had a chance to settle in a bit last Thursday night, a dessert seemed necessary in order to make the evening complete. And I went with vanilla pudding cake, which I probably over-rely on when I’ve not made better or other plans for a sweet conclusion to any small dinner gathering. But what’s the harm in serving up so tasty a treat? Plus: I need to keep working on my technique with it until I really nail down how to get perfect ratios of cake and pudding...an elusive goal still.

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"Vanilla Bean Pudding Cakes," from Susan Reid. Published by King Arthur Baking. Recipe printed July 2017.

Meal No. 4031: Linton Hopkins’s Bucatini Carbonara

The pickings at the grocery store last Thursday were understandably slim, following our intense and enduring winter weather event from the previous weekend. It was my first time of venturing out, and apparently the same could be said of many of my fellow shoppers (plus: it was senior discount day, so there’s that). Although I was able to add a salad to our dinner plates, I had to fall back on something I could produce from pantry staples that night: Linton Hopkins’s bucatini carbonara. Lordy, it’s so silky and wonderful, rich and pleasing. I still had a version of Thousand Island dressing to help along the future prospects of the spring mix I’d grabbed fresh. Jonathan, our guest at dinner, very thoughtfully brought along a really nice red wine, which paired perfectly. Good company, good food, good wine, good conversation. Oh, and maybe a dessert also manifested before the evening got away from us, so more on that in tomorrow’s blog post.

Please note: It's outrageous to this summer-loving senior that 20°F that morning was an improvement.

And while it wasn't as much about the weather as it was distance when I needed to have a virtual meeting that morning, I was reminded that that's what school has been like for a lot of students across our area since schools were closed all week. Weather-related interruptions to the school calendar always cost us, but we all know ain't nobody coming to school on Saturday, on spring break, or after the posted end of the year.

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Adapted from "Bucatini Carbonara," by Linton Hopkins. In Food & Wine, July 2009.

A Sheetload of Ice

The grand sleet event of late January that offered us an accumulation of close to maybe three inches of mostly sleet, which compacted down into a 1.5-2 inch sheet of ice all over every ground surface (yard and driveway and steps and sidewalks!), had a lasting impact because temperatures remained very much below normal. Schools were out the whole week and I was lucky that I'd had no scheduled work trips. I thought I'd let a standalone blog post capture a piece of this story...or should I say a kazillion pieces?

After initially carving a path to walk more safely from the street to the back door, and clearing off the front steps and sidewalk as well, I wanted to get as much of the driveway cleared as I could.

The bright sunshine of last week helped even while it was still too cold for my efforts to get boosted by any rapid melting. Instead, I had to rely on gradually chipping away with a flatblade shovel, wedging underneath where I could, and hoping that a large enough section would break up or lift up. The wheelbarrow helped but unfortunately the tire isn't holding air for very long.

Digging in the front edge, pushing in gently, lifting a bit, waiting for the rewarding sound of cracking ice, and either happily grabbing up a huge chunk or aggressively shoveling the bits and fragments...

I mean: I did finally get the car out, and I reckon not quite half of the parking lot was freed of its icing.

One of four massive piles of these ice slabs is pictured here, tucked behind a dead cherry tree but easily accessed from the upper lot area. Another sizable pile of this icy debris sits in the kitchen herb garden; a couple of smaller piles are nearby. At the street, on one side of the driveway entrance is a similar pile of these chunks and on the lower side is a pile twice as big. Here's a shot of that taken once the snow had begun last Saturday morning:

Meal No. 4030: Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

As our inch-and-a-half (or maybe two?!) of accumulated sleet from the weekend's winter storm remained fully in place everywhere, and while the city seemed mostly shut down, we took a real plunge Monday night very nearly into single digits. With four planned for a fine Holly Avenue gathering of neighbors for supper, I was pretty set on having soup. This time, it was cream of tomato soup, along with grilled cheese sandwiches on either homemade Japanese milk bread or peasant bread. We certainly had our fill and seconds proved to be a powerful temptation to make it so.

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"Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup," from Cook's Illustrated, November 1999. Recipe can also be found online at Cookography.com.

"Easy Same-Day Peasant Bread," from Jenny Rosenstrach of the CupofJo.com blog. [Published 02 February 2022] Adapted from Alexandra Stafford of AlexandraCooks.com. [07 November 2012 / Updated 15 November 2025]

Meal No. 4029: Beef Cheddar Melts on Milk Bread

Our heavy sleet day last Sunday meant there would be no shopping excursions, and as few ventures outside at all except for what the pooches required. It was a fine day for baking up a loaf of Japanese milk bread but also for tossing a couple of prepped vacuum-sealed filet mignons into the sous vide immersion circulator. I'd already prepped the special cheddar melts sauce. All that remained was to slice that bread, butter it up good, adorn it with sliced of cheddar, slice the cooked beef after giving it a good pan sear...and let's not forget the caramelized onion slices as well. This was one of those dinners where the talking tongues were silenced while the tasting tongues reveled in gustatory glory.

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"Japanese Milk Bread Recipe (Hokkaido Milk Bread)," by Dini Kodippili of The Flavor Bender. [Published 01 July 2020]

"Beef & Cheddar Melts Sauce," a Roediger House creation. [Published 14 October 2022]

Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls for the Sleet Day

We were stuck with such a winter weather mess last weekend, and what form it was to take or how much damage it might do proved impossible to predict. But it sure put me in a mood to make a batch of eggnog cinnamon rolls before my final holiday carton of it reached its unusable state.

Ooey gooey sweet and sensational, the fluffy cinnamon rolls produced from this particular recipe are consistent winners. I certainly didn't realize I'd left these aside for almost two years. They are heavenly bundles of sugar and spice, fully adorned with an irresistable eggnog and white chocolate glaze, and then raised to excess by a cream cheese icing.

This last picture (above) is how the rolls looked straight out of the oven, before they were amply doused by that afore-mentioned sugary glaze. Also: in my incessant disposition to count unimportant things, I'll call this the 25th batch of some sort of cinnamon roll that I've made since I started this blog in 2008.

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"Easy Fluffy Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls," from Tieghan Girard of Half-Baked Harvest. [Published 24 November 2020]