White Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies / Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

Last Saturday I tried out another new cookie recipe: white chocolate cheesecake cookies. They are very, very dense cookies but with a really nice flavor...albeit not especially much like cheesecake.

Then, on Sunday, following our Imperial Stout beef stew dinner, I offered up hot fudge pudding cake, using a recipe from the 100th Anniversary of Hershey's cookbook. It was runnier than I remember, meaning perhaps it needed a bit longer in the oven, but I believe we all indulged deeply nonetheless.

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"White Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies," from Kelly Senyei of JustaTaste.com. [Published 12 May 2014]

"Hershey's Hot Fudge Pudding Cake," from 100 Years of Hershey's Favorites. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd (1994), p. 8.

The End of February

Yesterday morning, it was gorgeously sunny but cold and windy. Still, while Sumner and I enjoyed a bit of time outside together, a pretty awesome setting was framed in my view as I looked up at the house from street level, with these most welcome indicators that winter is waning.

I've had to plant something less lovely in the yard, though:

Not long ago, I mentioned a frustrating encounter with trespassing parkers in the driveway, and it pissed me off enough this time that I decided I'd like to have more pointedly clear signage governing any of these interactions in the future. I'd like there to be no question if I decide to tow someone or charge a fee before I unblock the driveway. If I had my druthers, I wouldn't mar the yard with regulatory signage. It's another one of those tradeoffs for having a generous parking area on a downtown lot, surrounded by houses with rental units and on a street with various events throughout the year.

Meal No. 2536: Chicken Souvlaki and Greek Salad with Tzatziki Sauce

I was kind of proud of my greatly Greek grub back on Saturday, February 22nd. It involved a lot of advanced prep and then was fairly simple to plate late evening. The thrust of it was grilled chicken souvlaki skewers with homemade tzatziki sauce, which was delicious all unto itself. But I also made a Greek salad with a homemade vinaigrette, all topped with diced red onion, sweet bell pepper, tomato, and crumbled feta. On the side of all that was my first attempt at homemade hummus, with carrot and sweet bell pepper sticks. This was my second time of making chicken souvlaki and Greek salad...I can only wonder why I don't make it more often.

I didn't want to stop eating!

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Grilled Chicken Souvlaki Skewers Based on:

• "Greek Chicken Souvlaki Recipe with Tzatziki," from Suzy Karedsheh of The Mediterranean Dish. [Published 11 June 2018]
• "Chicken Souvlaki," from Ali of GimmeSomeOven.com [Published 29 May 2017]

Tzatziki Sauce Based on:

• "Tzatziki Sauce," from Suzy Karedsheh of The Mediterranean Dish. [Published 03 June 2016]
• "Tzatziki," from Ali of GimmeSomeOven.com [Published 18 August 2014]

Greek Salad based on "Chicken Souvlaki and Greek Salad with Tzatziki Sauce," from the blog of Kitchen Art: The Store for Cooks (West Lafayette, IN). [Published 25 June 2015]

"Easy Hummus Recipe," from Joanne Gallagher of InspiredTaste.net. [Published 12 February 2020]

Meal No. 2535: Steelhead Trout with Dijon Mustard

Back on Monday a week ago, before I hit the road for several days of work in Virginia Beach, I made a mid-day meal featuring the not-regularly-seen main feature of steelhead trout, baked with an herbed dijon mustard sauce and accompanied by roasted broccoli. Not as good to me as my baked salmon but still a fine send-off before packing and leaving home.

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"Steelhead Trout Bake with Dijon Mustard," from Nora on AllRecipes.com.

Meal No. 2534: Pipetizer Casserole

As Valentine's Day weekend wrapped up, it was three of us at dinner after a miserably cold day here in Winston-Salem. With a package of ground beef I wanted to cook up before I headed out of town for a week of work, I chose to go down a cheesy casserole path: Pipetizer casserole, which is somewhat of my own creation although it depends heavily on something called "Tailgate Casserole." I hadn't made this since last summer...it's not so good for my weight management so it has become a rarity at the RoHo.

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"Pipetizer Casserole" is an adaptation of "Tailgate Casserole," from The Big Book of Casseroles, by Maryana Vollstedt. San Francisco: Chronicle Books (2000), p. 120.

Meal No. 2533: Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

Every once in a while, one must dive face-first into a casserole of deliciousness. Such was the case for me a week ago Saturday night, on a quiet evening at home alone, and the golden choice for that menu was poppy seed chicken casserole. Did I overindulge? I might've.

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"Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole," by Ashley Moore in Cook's Country, February/March 2015, p. 20.

Valentine's Weekend Sweet Goodies

This year, Valentine's Day fell on Friday and, when it does so, it tends to have an outsized calendar presence and overtake the whole weekend. It also had an effect on me, with a decided bent towards some sweet treats appropriate for the occasion. It began with a delicious batch of red velvet white chocolate chip cookies, made that Friday afternoon (pictured above). They were pretty damned delicious and should show up more often than this.

Then, much later in the evening, I took a deep dive into an unsuccessful but nonetheless interesting strawberry shortcake experiment, using a recent article from Salon.com.

I really don't want to go to the trouble to dip strawberry halves in melted chocolate again but I felt the need to go all the way on this one.

The last of the weekend baking in honor of the holiday was a simpler one: good ol' chocolate chip cookies, made with browned butter, utilizing a recipe my sister Allison had sent to me to try.

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"Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies," from Holly Lofthouse of LifeintheLofthouse.com.

"Strawberry Shortcake," from Ashlie D. Stevens of Salon.com. Original Article: "This Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Shortcake Is an Easy-to-Make Treat that Looks Like a Labor of Love." [Published 12 February 2020]

"The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies You Will Ever Eat," from Monique Volz of AmbitiousKitchen.com. [Published 30 November 2019]

Meal No. 2532: Chicken Noodle Soup

On Valentine's Day, with enough chill in the air and a whole chicken ready to be boiled with vegetables and garden-grown herbs, I tried my hand at a chicken noodle soup, mostly by my own instinctive inventions. It was passable and comforting but unremarkable. I'll have to tinker with my approach. But the chicken was particularly scrumptious.

Quanto Basta Confab

Across the street from the house, in a building that once housed the county elections board (Historical Note: I walked across the street to register to vote after I bought the Roediger House in 2003), there is a popular and wonderful Italian restaurant called Quanto Basta. It's coming up on its fifth anniversary, and back on February 11th, the Roediger House happily played host to a gathering of members of the kitchen and front of house staffs.

It always makes me a little nervous cooking for chefs but we couldn't leave them without some goodies to snack on. I relied that night on three tried-and-true recipes, plus three brand-new ones. Pictured above are vanilla cashew clusters, and I didn't like them all that much. Below is the faithful party favorite: Rotel cups.

The much-loved Swiss and bacon dip came hot out of the oven once the evening got underway and most people were here:

I tried a simple and cool take on homemade garlic-and-parmesan cheez-its, which I really liked:

It's been quite some time since I made the gnarly garlic dip, this time using herbs from my kitchen garden, which is holding up well this winter:

And for a touch of sweet, I tried a new recipe for chocolate Bailey's Irish Cream cookies:

Overall, it was a terrific evening. Since I hardly ever drink beer anymore, it was nice to see the bounty of the Collinwood cooler getting some attention by the guests. And the pool table got some good use by better players than I manage to be. 

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"Vanilla Cashew Clusters," by Sheela Prakash of TheKitchn.com. [Published 14 June 2017]

"Rotel Cups," a recipe passed around on Facebook. Two online versions that match up to the recipe I used can be found at NormalCooking.com and RealHouseMoms.com.

"Swiss and Bacon Dip," from Rachael Ray. Available online at the Food Network website.

"Garlic Parmesan Cheez Its," from Jen the Beantown Baker. [Published 15 November 2016]

"Gnarly Garlic Dip," a recipe shared with me by Ann Cunningham in 2005. Her original name for it was "Garlic-Parsley Alouette Cheese."

"Bailey's Chocolate Cookies," by Ali of GimmeSomeOven.com. [Published 11 March 2012]

Carrot Cake Cheesecake Cake

That's a lot of "cakes" in the title, but that's the name on the recipe I was using, and that's probably the best way to describe for you the monstrosity that was served for dessert back on February 9th. It's a three-layer cake, with spiced carrot cake on top and bottom but a creamy cheesecake sandwiched in the middle. All of it is then adorned with a sweet and delicious cream cheese frosting. It got reasonably rave reviews from the dinner guests, although I'm sure it could be tinkered with and made much better. Still, it was a fun small challenge and I'm glad it turned out pretty well in the end.

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"Carrot Cake and Cheesecake Cake," from Jen the Beantown Baker. [Published 13 April 2011]

Meal No. 2531: Sweet Pork Sheet Pan Nachos

The Roediger House regulars made six around the dinner table back on Sunday February 9th. Seemed to me a perfect time to bring back sweet pork sheet pan nachos, topped with Mexican white cheese dip and lime crema. I hope I can modestly report that the reviews of dinner were pretty excellent, as we all found it much to our liking.

I urged folks to be mindful of dessert that night as well, but some still went for seconds. That new dessert experiment will be the subject of tomorrow's blog post.

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Shredded Pork based on "Cafe Rio Sweet Pork," from Holly of Life in the Lofthouse. [Published 30 October 2014] See also "Sweet Pork Nachos," from Holly as well. [Published 01 August 2017]

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

"The Best Mexican White Cheese Dip," from EatingonaDime.com.

"Lime Crema," also based on "Cilantro Cream Recipe" by Joshua Bousel of SeriousEats.com. [Published 30 August 2018]

Cap'n Crunch Cookies on a Saturday Afternoon

The latest batch of the really fun and always delicious Cap'n Crunch cookies were brought out of the oven at the end of the first week of February, with snow falling heavily and pointlessly outside in the late afternoon.

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"Cap'n Crunch Cookies," found online at The Capitol Baker, with credit going to The Sugar Plum Blog for inspiration and the source of the adapted recipe.

Meal No. 2530: Oven-Roasted Baby Back Pork Ribs

In between a work trip to Virginia and an observations training day with aspiring principals in Greensboro, I had a day of catching up on routine tasks on the first Wednesday in February. But I also had time to make up a decent dinner for the three of us around the table that night: oven-roasted baby back pork ribs with homemade barbecue sauce, smashed sweet potatoes, and Brussels sprouts gratin. I was a bit surprised at myself for making the trip for seconds and not being modest about the additional amounts I consumed.

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"How to Make Great Ribs in the Oven," by Emma Christensen. From The Kitchn. [Published 01 July 2017]

"Homemade BBQ Sauce," from Ali of GimmeSomeOven.com. [Published 03 July 2014]

"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.

"Brussels Sprouts Gratin," by Alison Roman. From Cooking on newyorktimes.com.

Salted Caramel Skillet Brownies

If these February 1st salted caramel skillet brownies were any indication, the year's shortest month began with great promise of sweet days ahead. Hot, a hint of gooeyness, and deep penetrating chocolate flavor, the chewy crusting around the edges thanks to the cast-iron skillet: these are pretty remarkable for just being a heaping helping of brownies.

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"Salted Caramel Skillet Brownies," from Maria Lichty of the Two Peas and Their Pod blog. [Published 29 April 2013]

Meal No. 2529: Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

February started up on a somewhat sunny Saturday, without it quite feeling anywhere close to springtime. Still, I somehow managed to work up a fierce appetite and needed to make mealtime according to the stereotypical senior citizen's schedule. In our bowls by about 3:30 pm were piping hot servings of bacon cheeseburger soup, and it was especially outstanding on that afternoon. There were ample leftovers to reach for over the ensuing days, which is just an added bonus. (Aren't bonuses, by definition, "added"?)

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"Bacon Cheeseburger Soup," from Catalina Castravet and Holly Nilsson of SpendwithPennies.com. [Published 01 March 2018]

Homemade Klondike Bars

Last April I got a wild hair to try a somewhat-intimidating dessert treat: homemade Klondike bars. When they turned out so terrific, I knew I'd have to give 'em another go. When I found myself with unused egg whites from making the awesome fudge ripple ice cream recently, I had the right impetus to go to action. So, back on January 30th, when the evening was winding down, I could produce from the freezer these magical little creations, to the delight and bemusement of the entire household.

While I've tagged this blog post as "ice cream," it really isn't. Part of the neat trick of these is they're made with a combination of Swiss meringue and whipped cream, giving you that fluffier and lighter filling for the thin crackle-shelled chocolate coating. Oh my: these are pretty wonderful!

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"Homemade Klondike Bars," by Stella Parks of SeriousEats.com.

Mid-Winter Sampling of Cookies

In the last couple of days of January, I put my mind to baking up cookies, as though I needed any more sweets to be smitten by. On that final Thursday, I made a batch of white chocolate and milk chocolate toffee cookies, adapted from my frequently-used white chocolate macadamia nut cookie recipe. They were perfectly decent, if not run-of-the-mill, but hot out of the oven they were still mighty tempting.

Then, on Friday January 31st, I had a bit of time mid-day to whip up another new recipe for cookies: lemon sugar cookies. Well, I didn't coat 'em with sugar so maybe they're technically just lemon cookies. But they were lemony great and ought to be put into the regular baking rotation.

Then came my first batch of cookies in February, made back on that first Wednesday of the month. I pretty regularly feel good about my cookies. I don't make grand claims about being a creator of them; I just follow the recipes and use experience to make minor adjustments here and there. As it happens, I tried out a new recipe for Bailey's Irish Cream chocolate chip cookies that just proved a bit frustrating. I mean, the cookies themselves were good but boy were they flat, greasy, fragile, and almost unpleasantly chewy. The recipe author did me right previously, with browned butter white chocolate chip toffee cookies, that I made a couple of times in quick succession. But I'm going to have to really rework this recipe if they're to turn out presentable enough to share.

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White Chocolate and Milk Chocolate Toffee Cookies, based on "Premier White Chocolate and Macadamia Pieces Cookies," from Hershey's Mauna Loa. Found online at https://www.maunaloa.com/recipes/premier-white-chips-and-macadamia-pieces-cookies/.

"Lemon Sugar Cookies," from Melissa Stadler of ModernHoney.com. [Published 21 March 2016]

"Bailey's Irish Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies," by Ashley Manila of BakerByNature.com. [Published 07 December 2019]

Meal No. 2528: Sheet Pan Fajitas

On the final Thursday afternoon of January, I tried out a new recipe in the latest issue of AllRecipes magazine: sheet pan chicken fajitas. I'd say it was fair to middling, although I dressed it up with a quick cheese sauce and that helped it become more palatable. I doubt I'll reach for this one again all that soon, though.

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"Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas," by THEMOODYFOODIE, in AllRecipes Magazine, February/March 2020, p. 62.

Meal No. 2527: Roasted Salmon on Caesar Greens

I'm not letting the winter doldrums crash on me too very hard. With a nicely roasted spiced slab of salmon atop Caesar-adorned greens, you can see that I was keeping my spirits plenty high (all the way back on January 29th, that is!).

(I'm still about two weeks behind with blog posts, so all I've been offering lately seems to be old news.)

Pimento Cheese Sausage Balls / Party Ham Biscuits

I'm glad my sister in Indiana drew my attention to a recipe for pimento cheese sausage balls, because they are a decent step up from the Bisquik-box version that the Jones family has made for decades. For a late morning snack on the final Tuesday of January, I mixed up a batch and enjoyed them fresh and hot out of the oven...and tucked the rest of them away in the freezer so they can be brought out at a moment's notice for overnight guests or to quiet a rumbling belly.

A few days later, I reached for the Costco-sized two-pack of Hawaiian party rolls in order to make a new batch of party ham biscuits, a sweet and savory treat that's perfect for a quick meal-on-the-go or a day-starting snack...and I'm glad I had enough on hand to last several days as well as a pan-full that I could take down the street to share with the neighbors.

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"Pimento Cheese Sausage Balls," by Kate Robertson Parrish of the ScratchMade Southern blog. [Published 20 March 2019]

"Party Ham Biscuits," a recipe shared with our family by Susan Brown, who was my sister Allison's college chum at the University of North Carolina. I recorded Susan's in my recipe collection in 1988. There are various versions of this recipe, of course. Pretty popular is the "caramelized" version, such as this one: "Caramelized Ham & Swiss Buns," by Iris Weihemuller of Baxter, MN, in Taste of Home, December 2013, p. 59.

Meal No. 2526: Emeril's Skillet Beef Stroganoff

My day's work back on January 27th took place fairly close to the house, when I spent the day with another subcohort from the High Point University Leadership Academy, this time at Calvin Wiley Middle School here in Winston-Salem. When the hunger for a meal struck late afternoon once I was back home again, I was able to offer up the delicious and simple skillet beef stroganoff from Emeril Lagasse.

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

The Good, the Blooming, and the Ugly

The yard is confused. It was colder than normal for much of October and November, and then we've had two rather nice warm spells: around Christmas, and for a good bit of the last several days. One of my daffodils was an early starter all the way back on January 15th and it looked like it was going to have company in its confusion:

I was really shocked yesterday, though, to notice small blossoms on the Bradford pear tree, which normally does not bloom until late February:

The crocus have pushed up early as well, and there's at least one blossom bud waiting to spring forth...but I doubt it enjoyed last night's dip into the 20s.

By the time spring rolls around, I'm wondering if the only bit of snow we'll have seen will be the dusting (pictured above) from January 31st.

Winston-Salem got doused on Thursday with over four inches of rain, along with some serious winds that persisted into yesterday as the temps dropped from the 60s down into the low 40s. That left me with a lot of small limbs to pick up and I had to tie down the waste carts to keep them from blowing all over the driveway. I was not surprised that the south end of the cellar had a fair amount of standing water.

Speaking of the driveway, I simply do not understand why I get talked to like I'm an asshole when I tell people they can't park in my driveway just because it looks like it wouldn't be an issue. It wasn't exactly a nasty run-in that I had with trespassers yesterday but it still left me frustrated and angry by the time it was all said and done. I just don't think I'll ever understand folks who simultaneously believe that they can make decisions for me about ways they can use my property and then also dictate to me how I'm allowed to feel about it.

Meal No. 2525: Chicken "Carne" Adovada

Back on Sunday evening a week ago, with four of us getting started on the third season of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, I served up one-bowl meals of chicken adovada, with its signature brick-red New Mexico chiles sauce. It was nowhere near as good as the pork version of carne adovada that I've made a handful of times, but I wanted a take on it that could be made with the chicken thighs I already had on hand.

But dessert that night helped make up for the mediocrity of the meal! Earlier in the weekend, I made a fresh batch of fudge ripple vanilla ice cream so that it would be set and ready after dinner that Sunday night. I also got the batter assembled for making DoubleTree-style chocolate chip cookies fresh and hot out of the oven to go with that ice cream. That's what finished us off after dinner. It was sort of amazing.

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"Chicken 'Carne' Adovada," by Cheryl and Bill Jamison on EatingWell.com. Originally published in EatingWell Magazine, September/October 2010.

"Vanilla Ice Cream" (p. 35-36) and "Fudge Ripple" (p. 122), from Bi-Rite Creamery's Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones, by Kris Hoogerhyde, Anne Walker, and Dabney Gough. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press (2012).

"DoubleTree Hotel's Chocolate Chip Cookies," by Ayşegül Sanford and her blog, Foolproof Living. [Published December 29, 2013.] Official DoubleTree recipe from Hilton.com was released to the public on 09 April 2020.

Meal No. 2524: Brunswick Stew

I am not a fan of winter. So the cold all-day rains and the contant temps in the 40s on Saturday a week ago managed to keep me chilled through and through. What better antidote than a huge pot of Brunswick stew? Finely dicing the remaining baby back pork ribs meat, adding in a fresh rotisserie chicken from Costco, and heaping in a delectable collection of canned vegetables and assorted sauces and seasonings all brought to fruition a hearty and pleasing stew.

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Brunswick Stew derived some inspiration from the following:

• "Get a Husband Brunswick Stew," by RAKESTRAW on AllRecipes.com.
• "Amelia's Slow Cooker Brunswick Stew," by Peach822 on AllRecipes.com.

The Unwelcomed Late-Night Bell-Ringers

I have no idea who the gentleman is pictured above, and he has no idea who I am, nor was it clear to either of us why he came ringing the doorbell as it approached 10 pm one Saturday night back in December. It took me nearly 10 minutes to get him off the front porch, although most of what he had to say while stymying my efforts to dismiss him never quite became cogent. I did try to find out for whom he thought he was looking when he came a-calling, but that didn't get me anywhere.

The next unwelcome caller rang the doorbell after midnight in the earliest minutes of January 24th. By the time I got out of bed and got some clothes on, I spotted him hobbling down the sidewalk past the driveway. He was looking from house to house confusedly and he seemed to have trouble walking. I caught up with him in hopes I could help him find the house he was looking for without rousing any other neighbors who were not his intended destination.

It turns out that he had found his way back downtown after being discharged from Baptist Hospital, and he was looking for a homeless assistance center, reportedly in the vicinity of Fourth and Spring Streets. So I walked with him to the only two places I knew of nearby that regularly offered services to the needy, but of course neither was open nor offering shelter services. We finally had to reach out to the Winston-Salem Police Department and, about 1:15 am, an officer found us where we were waiting in the chill night air. I headed back home after the policeman said he'd take the gentleman to one of the shelters located up around Tenth or Eleventh Street.