Meal No. 826: Juicy Burgers on the Grill

For last night's movie night, a few of the 6th & Vine crew came over early and I grilled up some burgers. We scarfed them down enjoying the nice fall evening in the parking area beside the house.

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"Grilled Juicy Burgers," from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks recipe magazine.

Movie Night: Evil Dead 3 (a/k/a Army of Darkness)

Oh, this fall is offering up some mighty fine weather for some Sunday evening movie nights. For the second week in a row, the Roediger Theatre kicked into entertainment mode and tonight's offering was the Bruce Campbell classic Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness. There was a good turn-out again and it was another great evening for an outdoor movie.

Meal No. 825: Glorious Beef and Mushroom Stir Fry

Back in June, I fetched from down home some of the items that I and my sister from Indiana are receiving from my mother's estate. These have been stored in the front parlours since then, awaiting an opportunity for my brother-in-law Tom to fly down and take their items back in a U-Haul.

Today was that day. 

It was not a hard packing job but it still pushed us into a later dinner, which I was so intent on getting prepped and on the table that I forgot (for the first time in a very, very long time) to take a photo of it. We went with beef, mushroom, and onion stir fry tonight. It was passable. But it was an unmitigated delight to have time to visit with Tom, who I get to see much too seldom. Indiana feels like a long ways away too much of the time!

Sunday Night Update: After Tom got home, my sister texted me the following picture, which suggests that my nephew Eli might have been happy with the surprise shipment of Cheerwine I added to his dad's U-Haul load:

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"Glorious Beef with Mushrooms," in Wok Fast by Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison. Ten Speed Press, 2002, p. 87 (recipe) and p. 26-27 (marinade and sauce).

Meal No. 824: Biscuits and Gravy

The long drive home after a couple of days of work in Virginia pushed me over to the easy-meal side of the ledger. With my sausage's use-by date coming up fast, I figured biscuits-n-gravy would do me fine. And yes: that's a bottle of Xingu Brazilian black beer going alongside.

Meal No. 823: Dizzy Pig Spiced Salmon

I gave the Dizzy Pig Raging River spice rub another go this evening, but I broiled and baked the salmon rather than grilling them. I'm not sure I'm sold on this rub: I got too much fennel seed taste and that's not one that I care for.

But I cooked the salmon pretty close to perfect for my tastes, and the quinoa and sugar snap peas went along with it just fine.

Meal No. 822: Pancakes

Monday was a welcome day at home and off the road but it's a blur to me because I had a whole mess of business-related tasks and paperwork to sort through. I went the simple supper route with some fresh hot griddled pancakes with real maple syrup and tall glasses of whole milk.

Meal No. 821: Six-Hour Chili

For Sunday night's meal, I got a few folks to come over early, prior to the movie night, and share in a big ol' pot of slow cooker chili and some of Granny Wilson's honey wheat cornbread. Yum.

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"Six-Hour Chili," from Williams-Sonoma.

First Movie Night of 2013: Race with the Devil

With perfect weather and a delightful group of friends and locals, the Roediger House very belatedly kicked off another summer fall movie season. The showing last night was the classic demonic horror/RV-chase Peter Fonda film from 1975: Race with the Devil. I remember watching and loving this one when I was a kid and it made it to TV in the late 1970s.

Folks seemed to enjoy themselves and they might have even liked the movie a little bit. The barest nip in the air by the time the movie was over was hardly sufficient to keep us from sitting around outside afterwards while the post-movie iTunes playlist played on.

I really do love those movie nights.

First Day of Fall 2013

To commemorate the first day of fall, September 22, 2013, I took an updated photo of the Roediger House, as seen from North Spring Street.

Meal No. 820: Brendan's Moroccan Bistro Chicken

Named in honor of the former 7th grade student who introduced me to it, tonight's dinner is called Brendan's Moroccan Bistro Chicken, and it's always a winner around the Roediger House. Tonight was no different. A nice mix of spices coating and flavoring a pile of chicken thighs, simmered at length in chicken broth with a cinnamon stick, and tonight served over brown rice as a one-bowl meal.

Meal No. 819: Skillet Beef Stroganoff

Another long but good week on the road, so the meal upon my return this Friday night had to be simple and filling. I'd like to have it be a bit more saucy, but the flavors were solid.

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"Beef Stroganoff Hamburger Dinner in a Skillet," by Emeril Lagasse. Found online at The Food Network.

Another Damn Cat

For the last few months, there's been another one of those yellow feral cats lurking around. It traipses through the back yard and, when Cyprus spots it, it makes her crazy, of course. Cyprus has chased her in the back yard a time or two, but she's also sort of tangled with her in the back corner of the lot. On that occasion, the cat held her ground and was pretty vicious-sounding.

In early September, I set out the Havahart® trap and baited it with some dry cat food. It took two nights to snag her, but now I can report that another wild yellow cat from the neighborhood has now fallen prey to my pest management schemes.

And she is one wild vixen, too. I don't have video of her initial rampage the first time I went out to the trap once she was in it, but I just about couldn't manage to hang on to it when she was hissing and jumping and slamming her body all around. All I was trying to do when I moved her that first time was make sure she wasn't cooked in the direct sunlight, until I could get her hauled to the Animal Control shelter on the following Monday morning.

The following video captures her spirit when I was moving her to the truck for that final transport, though:

Challah Bread Pudding with Kahlua Cream Sauce

Since my friend Sheryl's visit here recently coincided with the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah holiday, I made a round challah loaf. A huge round challah loaf. And got several uses out of it: a bread accompaniment to two meals, some delicious French toast, and this past weekend: bread pudding.

And not just some regular old bread pudding. This is not a typical dessert for me...this might be only my second attempt at bread pudding ever. I think what really made it was the Kahlua cream sauce on top.

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"Challah Bread Pudding with Kahlua Cream Sauce," from Tori Avey's The Skiksa in the Kitchen blog.

Red Velvet Cookies

Here is a new cookie recipe find, which was included in a recent issue of Cuisine at Home. This was their inaugural voyage from the RoHo kitchen and the reception was encouraging!

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"Red Velvet Cookies," in Cuisine at Home, September/October 2013, p. 46.

Meal No. 818: Grilled Leg of Lamb Dijon

Earlier in the summer, I tried out a recipe that I'd never taken notice of in one of my cookbooks, but I'm glad I finally stumbled across it. It's grilled leg of lamb with a rich and aromatic dijon marinade, and that's what Sunday night's small gathering at the Roediger House was willing to partake of.

Kamado Meal #20

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"Grilled Leg of Lamb Dijon," in The All-New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, compiled and edited by Julie Fisher Gunter. Birmingham: Oxmoor House (2006), p. 254.

"Sweet Onion Corn Bake," by Jeanette Travis of Fort Worth, TX. Published in Taste of Home, April/May 2003, p. 37-38.

Meal No. 817: Filipino Chicken Adobo

The Saturday night meal for a small gathering:

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"Introducing Chicken Adobo," by Bryan Roof. In Cook's Illustrated, March & April 2012, p. 6-7.

Meal No. 816: Planked Asian Pork Tenderloin

This was dinner this past Thursday night, which was also a chance to catch up with Roediger House regular Ben Phillis and find out how the first few weeks of school have gone.

I really like the sauce with this plank-grilled pork tenderloin but I'd like it to get "done" faster than it does.

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"Planked Pork Tenderloin with Asian Style BBQ Sauce," from Fire & Flavor. Recipe on cedar grilling planks package insert.

"Grown-Up Mac-N-Cheese," by Ina Garten. Recipe from the FoodNetwork.com website.

Meal No. 815: Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup and Pimento Cheese Paninis

On Wednesday night, I ended up making soup again, putting me on a two-day soup streak. Not that there's anything wrong with that, especially when it's this excellent recipe for cream of tomato soup.

That night I also put to its first use an impulse purchase (that was on a great sale) from Costco: a panini griller. The pimento cheese paninis were a-maz-ing.

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

"South Carolina-Style Pimento Cheese." Recipe worked out by me, based on Sharon's Palmetto Pimento Cheese.

Meal No. 814: Boursin Potato Soup

Still running a couple of days behind on the blog...this is the meal from this past Tuesday evening. It was good, as can be expected from my Cuisine at Home recipes, but not as good as the recipe shared with me by my sister Allison and her husband Tom (see this blog post).

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"Boursin Potato Soup with Bacon and Chives," in Cuisine at Home, Issue 101, September/October 2013, p 19.

Meal No. 813: Sambal Chicken Skewers

Here's a snapshot of Monday night's simple one-bowl dinner: sambal chicken skewers.

The last time I made this, it was delicious but way too incredibly hot. This time, I backed way off on the sambal oelek and the sriracha. I served it over probably my best pot of basmati rice to date and watched several episodes of Archer while wolfing it down.

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"Sambal Chicken Skewers," in Bon Appétit, July 2013, p. 69.

Meal No. 812: Grilled Shrimp with Spicy Garlic Paste over Angel Hair Alfredo

This past Sunday night, as the house returned to normal after all the weekend activity, I wanted a decent but different dinner that would not have too much muss and fuss about it. My trip to the Harris Teeter netted some peeled and deveined shrimp but I wasn't initially certain about the use I'd put them to. A visit to the recipes on the Cook's Illustrated website clarified things for me, although I'm not expecting this to be a repeater on the RoHo menu in the future.

This was grilled shrimp with a spicy garlic paste, which I decided to serve over angel hair pasta with an alfredo sauce. The pasta and alfredo were better than the shrimp, but it was still reasonably edible.

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"Garlic Shrimp with Spicy Garlic Paste," from Cook's Illustrated.com.

Meal No. 811: Challah French Toast

Prior to Sheryl's departure to head back home to California, we got to share one more meal. For Sunday morning brunch, I used some of the remaining challah loaf to make French toast, along with some good old Southern sausage balls.

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"French Toast," from King Arthur Flour online.

A Wedding in Beaulaville

No meal last night to post about, because yesterday was the long car trip down to Mike's Farm outside Beaulaville, NC. My niece Ashley got married on a picture-perfect September Saturday afternoon, and Sheryl was game to go along, even more so since she's known my family for so long now.

Meal No. 810: Braised Chicken and Brussels Sprouts

Trying still to stick with foods that might traditionally be associated with Rosh Hashanah while my friend Sheryl is here from California, I depended yet again on the great braised chicken and Brussels sprouts dish that has been quite popular in the Roediger House since it was first shared with me by Donna Whitley-Smith. I also really liked being able to serve the Tupelo Honey Cafe's take on smashed sweet potatoes, which were again a huge hit. That was the dinner here last night, and palates were pleased, methinks.

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"Braised Chicken and Brussels Sprouts," in Everyday Food, Issue 97, November 2012, p. 22.

"Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2011.

Meal No. 809: Lamb Meat Loaf

In the spirit of the Rosh Hashanah celebration of the Jewish New Year, it seemed fitting to offer up a lamb dish that was, well, at least sort of round. That means for last night's supper I perhaps repeated all-too-quickly the wonderful lamb meat loaf recipe using that terrific Tupelo Honey Cafe cookbook, a gift of my sister Allison.

Packed with finely-diced onion and shiitake mushroom that's been sautéed...

...plus a mix of other simple but good ingredients, this is one fine meat loaf. I made true homemade mashed potatoes and also offered up a mess of green beans to go with it. The challah loaf I made earlier yesterday afternoon was a welcome but rare addition of bread with this meal.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meat Loaf," in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (2011), p. 150.

Round Challah for a RoHo Rosh Hashanah

This weekend, the Roediger House is enjoying a very special visitor: my dear friend Sheryl, a principal in California and a fellow PhD student from back in my Curry Ed School days at the University of Virginia. It's been a lot of years since Sheryl was last here, which means her visit this time was her first chance to see the new kitchen and the other renovations on this great old house.

Her visit also coincided with Rosh Hashanah. I'm neither observant nor Jewish, but I'd like to be a good host to my faithful friend. That means we had apples dipped in honey, for instance:

As I have whinily lamented on the blog in the past, I feel pretty shaky and inadequate in my skills for and my confidence in working with yeast doughs and breads. But another tradition around Rosh Hashanah is to bake a round challah loaf. I've never baked challah before, and it seems I decided my first foray into it would be the greater challenge of also braiding it into a round shape.

Thank goodness for the internet, and not just YouTube. Sheryl helped capture the following photographic record. I must say I was pretty darned pleased with how it all turned out.

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Challah Recipe from The Shiksa in the Kitchen, which I first discovered thanks to the Bon Appétit website.

Guidance for Braiding the Challah:

• CookKosher.com's YouTube Video
• "Weaving Round Challah" by Tamar Ansh
• Kosher on a Budget by Mara Strom

[I'm hoping this experience will inspire me to bake challah myself and not wait until I stumble across it at one of the great local bakeries in town...especially since it's also perfect for making French toast, which I love!]