Sumner's 10th Birthday Cake

Dateline: Sat 27 June. Between the gastric distress afflicting both pups and the storm-driven power outage on Sumner’s official 10th birthday, it seemed prudent to delay making his special treat. But before that week was out, we got down to it.

I fully expected both Sumner and Scarlett to greet it with great trepidation, as they are subjected to a tightly-regulated and highly-scheduled diet and dining routine.

With little need for encouragement, permission, or assurances, those pups did indeed execute their best doggie dive into the suitable celebration snack, with its heavy concentration of pumpkin and homemade peanut butter and adorned with non-fat Greek yogurt with even more peanut butter.

Sumner was quite certain that his single small slice was not nearly enough.

And much to their delight, controlled portions could be offered up for midday snacks for a few days following. Also: here's the cake before it got cut up and served:

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”Dog Birthday Cake,” from Sofi Llansó of Broma Bakery, a baking blog founded by Sarah Fennel in 2010. [Updated 05 June 2026 ]

Meal No. 4141: Caesar-Dressed Greens with Herbed Chicken Breast

Dateline: Sat 27 June. How'd we play it at the Roediger House on the final Saturday night of June? With a fresh spring mix dressed with homemade creamy Caesar dressing and topped with herbed chicken breasts brought up to perfect temp in the sous vide immersion circulator.

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

Meal No. 4140: Cheeseburgers

Dateline: Fri 26 June. A couple of meals prior to this particular evening represented the most recent round of peanut butter bacon burgers, and the home-ground beef made an extra two burger patties that I did not need that night. So on the final Friday night of June, I put those two rascals into the skillet to cook, added cheese near the end, and served it all up on brioche buns with more of my homemade special burger sauce. Some chips on the side were not needed but earned their appreciation nonetheless.

And then I made dessert: white chocolate macadamia nut toffee cookies, for the win.

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Adapted from "THE BEST White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies," from Christina Marsigliese of ScientificallySweet.com. [Published 19 February 2025]

Meal No. 4139: Detroit-Style Pizza

Dateline: Wed 24 June. As summer started up, we had one night of intense storm activity, and the resulting power loss on one evening threw off my best-laid plans that week. But I also made a promise to dear friend Amy that we would have pizza on her regular Wednesday visit, so the celebration of National Detroit-Style Pizza Day was a day late...but not a dollop short of sauce! Although I felt like this was a less successful attempt, we still wolfed down our respective portions. The take-away lesson is that it only gets better with practice.

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"King Arthur's Detroit-Style Pizza," from King Arthur Baking and inspired by SeriousEats.com [Updated 21 September 2025]. See also the accompanying blog post, "A Pair of Pan Pizza Recipes," by PJ Hamel. [Published 18 June 2019]

Chocolate Éclairs

Dateline: Tue 23 June. It was National Chocolate Éclair Day back on June 22nd, but my hopes for evening kitchen exploits to celebrate were derailed by our storm-sourced power outage. So the necessary postponement to the next day worked out to Mookie’s benefit, when he came for a PBBB dinner.

These are, of course, not part of my routine or repertoire (this is at best the fifth time), so I am audaciously amateur about them. But on that occasion, I was bolstered by the helpful directions and notes from a recipe by Nick Makrides in Australia. The inelegance of the finished products is directly traced to my unpracticed technique. Others who indulge in kitchen joys would by now have become smooth operators at straightforward pursuits like piping bags and tips. Not me! So there’s that.

The question of full filling could only be answered with each éclair’s sampling, but early tests returned positive results. I also appreciated the lightness of Chantilly whipped cream with mascarpone over the equally enjoyable and more typical pastry cream.

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"Chocolate Éclairs" [published 28 January 2023 / updated 27 May 2025] and "Easy Whipped Cream (Chantilly Cream)" [published 28 January 2023 / updated 06 April 2026] from Nick Makrides of The Scran Line.

Meal No. 4138: Peanut Butter Bacon Burgers

Dateline: Tue 23 June. It was another opportune boys' night when Mookie made a Tuesday evening visit a couple of weeks ago. He's long been a fan, and a reasonably regular partaker of, the house specialty of peanut butter bacon burgers. Since he missed the recent offering just over 10 meals ago, I thought he was owed his due, so to work I went.

Home ground chuck tender steak, homemade peanut butter, homemade special sauce, and the slightly fussy touch of latticed bacon...all on buttered toasted brioche buns with the house-made beef and cheddar melts sauce, a/k/a a souped-up Thousand Island dressing. The mastication was occasionally interrupted by giddy happy gustatory giggles.

This was the 36th occasion for this particular delicacy, and I always like to update the history accordingly:

• Inspired by Yo Mama's in the French Quarter of New Orleans
• First Made: Meal No. 180
• Last Made: Meal No. 4126
• Fresh Home-Ground Beef, typically from boneless beef short ribs and top sirloin
• Homemade Peanut Butter
• Homemade Burger Sauce
• Labeled Photo of a Sample "Final Product" Burger: Guide to Meal No. 234

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Guidance on grinding, shaping, and cooking burgers from "Best Old-Fashioned Burgers," by J. Kenji Alt, in Cook's Illustrated, No. 93 (July/August 2008), p. 10-11.

"Beef & Cheddar Melts Sauce," a Roediger House creation.

Original bacon braid guidance from "Bacon Sheets," from MyFridgeFood.com. See also: "How to Make Bacon Lattices for the Perfect BLTs," a nice video demonstration, from Justin Chapple's Mad Genius Tips on the Food & Wine website [published 02 March 2015 / Updated 14 September 2021 by Bridget Hallinana].

Meal No. 4137: Caesar Salad with Filet Mignon

Dateline: Mon 22 June. Just before storms hit on the second evening of summer, the Roediger House dinner fare centered on Caesar salads with filet mignon, a wonderfully hearty treat made easier by the sous vide immersion circulator and a good finishing pan sear.

That Monday was also the occasion of Sumner’s 10th birthday, sweet and precious pup that he is. Words cannot capture how fortunate it is to have found him, or to have had him find the Roediger House. Adopted from our local Animal Adoption and Rescue Foundation when he was about 9 months old, he has been a genuine joy and the absolute best boy in the world.

When a fast-moving storm rolled over us right after dinner clean-up was completed, we lost power in an instant.

Most of the Holly Avenue Neighborhood, plus the east side of the West End Neighborhood (here on our side of Broad Street), as well as First Baptist and Centenary Methodist and Calvary Moravian Churches, were all dark. Power was restored around 9:45 pm.

I strolled that evening through our powerless section of downtown, clocking in at about 2.5 miles, because old men survey the “damage” like that. When I got back to the house at 9:30 pm, I tried to snag a photo of this uncharacteristic dark, but my iPhone camera did quite a bit to compensate. Still, it’s an eerie shot that I kind of dig.

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

Meal No. 4136: Grilled Chicken Tenders

The happy circumstance of half-priced chicken tenders at the grocery left me with one final package on the first official day of summer, so I seasoned and marinated them and then let the grill take care of the rest. Alongside, there was salad with some fresh flavor-boosted Thousand Island dressing. But a true highlight was a dish of twice-baked cheesy bacon-scallion-sour cream mashed potatoes, highly reminiscent of what the old Raleigh favorite restaurant known as Darryl's would have called "smashed potatoes." (That name conjures something else altogether these days.)

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"Grilled Chicken Tenders," from Sara Welch of Dinner at the Zoo. [Published 14 May 2018 / Updated 23 March 2019]

Based on "Beef & Cheddar Melts Sauce," a Roediger House creation.

Little Scarlett Impia Blasts the Gastro Trouble

With the odds-on-favorite that little Miss Scarlett Impia had been gobbling up rabbit or rat poop or the occasional cat turds in the yard and in the landscaping, she ended up with quite a run of diarrhea right around the Summer Solstice. After false hope sprang from a couple of yard doodies that looked to be on the upswing, she was back to rousing me around 4 am and running out to the azaleas for a creamy hydrant torrent, if you know what I mean.

On the first day of summer, in fact, she was so docile as to cuddle for hours on the couch...before finding herself downstairs having a pee accident in her malaise. (At least it was just in the back hallway while she was trying to rest.) The winning home remedy at the Roediger House when dogs are dogged by dour doodies is a big ol' crockpot of DIY dog food, with brown rice, butternut squash, lentils, carrots, and sweet potato. She gobbled that stuff up when it was presented to her, and in short order she was soon getting back to her regular self.

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Based on "DIY Homemade Dog Food," by Chungah Rhee of the Damn Delicious blog. [Published 27 April 2015 /Updated 19 September 2025]

Based on "Easy Crockpot Dog Food," by Chungah Rhee of the Damn Delicious blog. [Published 13 May 2015 / Updated 08 July 2024]

Meal No. 4135: Fried Chicken Tenders & Potato Skins

Dateline: Sat 20 June. The Harris Teeter had chicken tenders at half price week before last, and so I scooped up four packages of ‘em. When Amy was over that Saturday night, it was license to be a little wild with the menu.

That’s how we came to go the appetizers-for-dinner route, with fried chicken tenders, bacon-scallion-cheddar potato skins, and a homemade version of the wildly popular Chick-Fil-A dipping sauce.

Fried foods don’t happen here that often so I am often extra relieved when it turns out as great as it did that night. And could those potato skins have been better cheesed? I think so, but the extra sour cream helped me feel better in the end.

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"Chick-fil-A Sauce," from Drew Reilly of Dish with Drew. [Published 18 June 2026]

Cinnamon Roll Snickerdoodle Blondies

Dateline: Fri 19 June. For the Juneteenth holiday gathering at the Roediger House, I tried out a new dessert for the crew. This time it was a combination of two recipes so I've melded it into one name: cinnamon roll snickerdoodle blondies. And boy howdy, did the folks seem to love 'em. I was pretty fond myself.

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Primarily based on: "Snickerdoodle Blondies," by Rachel Jugai of EatatMaudes.com. [Published 16 September 2025]

Vanilla Glaze based on: "Cinnamon Roll Blondies," by Sarah Fennel of Broma Bakery. [Published 23 December 2024]

Meal No. 4134: World's Best Lasagna

Dateline: Fri 19 June. Clearly it had been too long since I'd made our huge pan of lasagna for the crew (we last did it almost exactly three years ago for Meal No. 3400). Friday a week ago, it was another delightful gathering of Amy and Gern and Kristen and Mookie. We feasted on that delicious lasagna, partnered with some big and bubbly focaccia and a side salad with choice of dressing. I reckon we might've missed this dish being on more recent menus and that night sort of made up for it.

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Adapted from "World's Best Lasagna," by the late John Chandler (Dallas, TX). Found online at AllRecipes.com.

"Big and Bubbly Focaccia," from King Arthur Baking. [Published January 2025]

Meal No. 4133: Not So Cajun Chicken

Dateline: Thur 18 June. From Meal No. 1 in 2009 to Meal No. 4133, I offer for your consideration the simply excellent Not So Cajun Chicken. Long depended on as a special occasion meal, or something to serve first-time guests, this dish has recurred less frequently but it has not been forgotten or sidelined. My college roommate Jimmy pulled up this recipe by scouring the interwebs and locating it in a South Carolina newspaper, if memory serves, after he and I met up for a meal at that old Raleigh favorite haunt known as Crowley's. That must've been late 2004 or early 2005 and I have thoroughly enjoyed its long history among Roediger House staples.

Just like I have enjoyed the almost-10-year-old sweet boy Sumner, captured here after a bit of rain that afternoon.

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"Not So Cajun Chicken," a dish I regularly enjoyed at Crowley's Old Time Favorites restaurant and bar on Medlin Drive in Raleigh, NC. (Another version of the recipe can be found here.) A heap of thanks is due to Jimmy Randolph for tracking down the recipe for me.

Meal No. 4132: Mini Meatloafs & Two Sides

Dateline: Wed 17 June. It was another wonderful Wednesday back in mid-June with Amy on hand for her weekly hangout time. When she keys in her code at the back door lock, the pooches lurch into a ready position and then they are absolutely beide themselves with joy when Amy comes in. The whole household is always glad to see her. For our dinner that evening, some mini meatloafs seemed like a fun choice, along with spiced roasted potatoes and some herbed roasted whole green beans. We got our feast on and talked and laughed joyously.

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"Mini Meatloaf," from Lauren Allen of Tastes Better from Scratch. [Published 20 February 2023 / Updated 24 January 2025]

Meal No. 4131: Pan-Seared Tuna Steaks with Ginger-Soy Glaze

Dateline: Tue 16 June. Somehow it's been over three years since I made tuna here, and that was what was featured Tuesday a week ago. A slight special at the Harris Teeter made the tuna steaks marginally more attractive, but I'd been looking out for them nonetheless. On that night, I spiced and pan-seared them to a tasty medium-rare while also cooking down an Asian-inspired ginger-soy glaze to go over top. I also tried out black ("Forbidden") rice as a novelty and was well-pleased with the result. A small side salad with Thousand Island dressing finished out the plate.

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Adapted from "Sesame-Seared Tuna with Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette." In Cuisine at Home, Issue 48 (December 2004), p. 22-23.

"How to Cook Black Rice (aka Forbidden Rice)," from Chris Scheuer of The Café Sucre Farine. [Updated 22 May 2024]

Thousand Island Dressing adapted from "Beef & Cheddar Melts Sauce," a Roediger House creation.

Meal No. 4130: Roasted Spiced Salmon Caesar Salads

Dateline: Mon 15 June. Perhaps to regular readers it is obvious by now that I have accumulated a sizable backlog of blog post entries. Hence, the June addition of introductory "Datelines" so that it is easier to tell where in time I am placing an unnecessary chronicle of something. Anyway: Monday a week ago, the salmon looked good and was even priced on a special, so I also grabbed some more salad and brought back out the tasty creamy Caesar dressing from the evening before. It made for a gracious plenty and was a fine start to the week.

Meal No. 4129: Chicken Caesar Salads

Dateline: Sun 14 June. It's always a delight when Kristen and Mookie can come over for dinner and a visit. Our recent Sunday night gathering occurred near the end of a surprising heatwave in Winston-Salem, and I couldn't imagine heating up the kitchen with an oven or standing out in the hot sun over the grill...and I wondered if maybe we'd all just like something that didn't feel so heavy. That's what brought me to chicken Caesar salads. But we boosted the dish a bit: hard-boiled eggs, crispy bacon bits, and even some homemade garlic-parmesan croutons. The chicken was nicely spiced and seemed to be appropriately sized for our respective piles of green and the accompanying goodies.

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

"Croutons," by Marg CaymanDesigns on GeniusKitchen.com.

Guidance on the 7-5-5 Method for Extra Large Eggs from "Instant Pot Hard-Boiled Eggs," by Coco Morante on Epicurious.com. [Published 24 January 2018]

Derby Pie on Pride Day

Dateline: Sat 13 June. Downtown Winston-Salem was alive and colorful with tons of activity on the middle Saturday of the month. It was the featured day of the Pride parade and all the associated events. With temps still cooking into the low 90s, the enthusiasm of the crowds did not seem much diminished or stilled. The celebration at home, of course, for those of us who don't venture out a lot when there are so many comforts within, was in bringing out an old-fashioned derby pie after supper. Twenty years ago I was spending lots of time in Louisa County, VA, working with schools there. In the evenings, as I was warmly lodged with the superintendent and her husband, I'd pass the time recording recipes from their grand collection of cookbooks and such. That's where this one came from, and I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've made it. We decided it was pretty darned good, especially with just a bit of the remaining sweet milk vanilla ice cream I'd churned not long before.

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"Derby Pie," from Eugenia Bumpass. In Cuckoo Cooks from Gilboa Christian Church in Cuckoo, Virginia.

Meal No. 4128: Emeril's Skillet Beef Stroganoff

Dateline: Sat 13 June. ‘Twas another hot late spring Saturday, as we trudged through a dry heatwave in the run-up to mid-June. As I sorted through ideas for dinner that night, I defaulted to a grandly doable menu: Emeril’s skillet beef stroganoff. Well-seasoned with Emeril’s Essence spice mix, this combination of ground beef, onion, mushroom, wine, and beef consomme, served over wide egg noodles, and adorned with fresh shreds of sharp white cheddar plus some shakes of parsley regularly fits the bill for getting folks fed and satisfied.

Meal No. 4127: Steak au Poivre

Dateline: Fri 12 June. When I moved to Winston-Salem 25 years ago upon joining the faculty of Wake Forest University, I took up residence in a faculty apartment...and it was the first time I had a kitchen since before I started my PhD program at the University of Virginia. (Well, except for a couple of summer sub-leases in my poor doc student days.) I had accumulated an incredible pent-up desire to cook things and had collected tons of recipes when visiting friends in various places. But I'd also followed the wise advice of friend and UVA mentor John Lloyd and subscribed to Cook's Illustrated. One of the earliest recipes I attempted from one of the first issues I received told me that cooking could seem both fancy and infinitely possible: steak au poivre. It's something I've made numerous times over the years, although when it appeared here Friday a week ago, it was the first time in about two years. I also made well-buttered mashed potatoes and roasted up herbed whole green beans. The crowning touch was the peppercorn-shallot cream sauce, which was really just glorious covering it all.

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"Steak au Poivre," by Dawn Yanagihara. In Cook's Illustrated, September & October 2001, p. 8-9.

Meal No. 4126: Peanut Butter Bacon Burgers

Dateline: Thur 11 June. An enormous amount of time has passed since the last time I made peanut butter bacon burgers, a remarkable undertaking and a definite gustatory treat. These monstrosities might get put together in slightly different ways each time they appear here, but there are some faithful constants that are catalogued just below. Peanut butter bacon burgers are very much a labor of love with an incredibly satisfying conclusion.

This was the 35th occasion for this particular delicacy, and I always like to update the history accordingly:

• Inspired by Yo Mama's in the French Quarter of New Orleans
• First Made: Meal No. 180
• Last Made: Meal No. 3583
• Fresh Home-Ground Beef, typically from boneless beef short ribs and top sirloin
• Homemade Peanut Butter
• Homemade Classic Burger Sauce (recipe below)
• Labeled Sample "Final Product" Burger: Guide to Meal No. 234

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Classic Burger Sauce

from Cook's Illustrated, July-August 2008, p. 11.

4 T mayonnaise
2 T ketchup
1 tsp sweet pickle relish
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl.

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Guidance on grinding, shaping, and cooking burgers from "Best Old-Fashioned Burgers," by J. Kenji Alt, in Cook's Illustrated, No. 93 (July/August 2008), p. 10-11.

"Beef & Cheddar Melts Sauce," a Roediger House creation.

Original bacon braid guidance from "Bacon Sheets," from MyFridgeFood.com. See also: "How to Make a Bacon Lattices for the Perfect BLTs," a nice video demonstration, from Justin Chapple's Mad Genius Tips on the Food & Wine website [published 02 March 2015 / Updated 14 September 2021 by Bridget Hallinana].

Meal No. 4125: Copycat Chick-Fil-A Sandwiches

Dateline Wed 10 June: It was a welcome Wednesday signaling Amy's weekly visit and we sat down at dinnertime to the generally rare offering of copycat Chick-Fil-A sandwiches. It's the sort of thing I can throw together incredibly quickly, which was helpful that night because there was quite a bout of afternoon pool-playing, much to my delight. The fried chicken fillets were pretty perfect, and the brioche buns were slathered with almost enough Duke's mayonnaise. It's the long stretches in between the times I make these that sanctioned my doubling up on 'em. Now I can complain even more about weigh-ins. And did I mention that we finihed the evening with a fresh round of chocolate chip cookie sundaes?

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"Chick-Fil-A Copycat Sandwich," by Hilah Johnson. From Hilah Cooking. [Published June 2012]

Meal No. 4124: Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Dateline: Tue 09 June. A portion of leftover Costco rotisserie chicken, supplemented with some fresh seasoned and herbed chicken breasts from the sous vide immersion circulator, all got turned into a tasty chicken salad for sandwiches a little more than a week ago. Side servings of chips brought the picnic feel to the summer supper table.

In the meantime, I also threw together the quick-and-easy chai-spiced snickerdoodle skillet cookie to be baking away in the cast iron whilst dinner was munched on. It emerged hot and fresh and all too tempting before we could leave the dinner table.

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

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sundae

Dateline: Mon 08 June. On a casual weeknight, I got a wild hair for coming out at dessert time with something new and different. I'd spotted online an intriguing combination of cookies and ice cream, in the form of what some call a pizookie sundae. Basically, you drop a healthy ball of chocolate chunk cookie dough into a ramekin, let it bake into full cookieness, and then top it with ice cream (and if you still have homemade chocolate syrup, perhaps a few streaks of that as well). This was really, really good, truth be told. I'll be glad to have it reappear before long.

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"Mini Individual Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae (Pizookie)," from Melissa Stadler of ModernHoney.com. [Published 04 February 2017 / Updated 09 September 2018]

Based on "Sweet Milk Ice Cream," published in the King Arthur Flour catalogue some years ago, but the recipe is no longer available on their website.