Meal No. 2701: Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes

With dense depressing rains falling last Sunday morning, and an encroaching chill more appropriate to the advent of November, I took comfort in a mid-day indulgence: fluffy buttermilk pancakes with bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup and skillet-seared country sausage patties. I've always preferred patties to links and, with pancakes, I've always preferred sausage to bacon. That made it a winning lunch that managed to carry me through the rest of the day.

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"Best Tips for Making Pancakes: Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes," by Joanne on the Pioneer Woman website.

Meal No. 2700: Homemade Chicken Spaghetti

A cozy dish of pasta comfort graced the Roediger House bowls last Saturday night at dinnertime: a fresh batch of oozy and cheesy chicken spaghetti casserole, full of great flavor and heavy on the belly. And although I completely overlooked the herbs I was supposed to add in when making it, the final result was still pretty pleasing. 

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"Homemade Chicken Spaghetti," from Holly Nilsson of SpendwithPennies.com. [Published 14 April 2019 / Updated 06 July 2020]

Meal No. 2699: Whole Roasted Chicken

'Twas a fine feast last Friday night, following what might have been the last picture perfect gorgeous weather day for a while. It is, after all, getting very nearly to the end of October, and autumn seems already to be rushing by. On the plates that night: whole herbed roasted chicken, roasted Brussels sprouts (cooked beneath that delicious chicken!), and roasted rosemary-pecorino potato wedges. No element of the dinner disappointed.

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Based in part on "Perfect Roast Chicken," from Ina Garten on FoodNetwork.com.

Meal No. 2698: Roasted Salmon on Caesar-Topped Greens

Last week was a bit of a struggle, because my morning weigh-ins kept confounding me, in spite of smarter meal choices like the one I did last Wednesday night: roasted spice-rubbed salmon fillet sitting on greens adorned with a delicious and garlicky homemade Caesar dressing. Did I overdo the garlic in this batch? My next-morning breath suggested Absolutely!, in spite of the tooth-scrubbing I did before the bed-down hour.

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

Meal No. 2697: Sous Vide Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Lordy, what a gorgeous day we enjoyed in Winston-Salem last Tuesday, with bright sunshine and temps that hit the mid-70s. Sumner and I took a good long downtown walk, clocking in at just under an hour, and I also enjoyed some driveway camp chair time to continue reading some professional literature that I've been mucking my way through. Because I'm still trying to keep the reins tight on my weight window, I reached yet again for the sous vide approach with split chicken breasts in order to make a somewhat healthy batch of chicken salad for supper that night. I've been indulging quite a lot on the sweets and treats front without balancing it all well enough with hard yard labors or other walks with the pooch...so I have to be determined at least to get my menus right.

Can I say that I'm rather enjoying the very-nearly-perfect chicken I'm getting by following the SeriousEats.com guide for split chicken breasts for chicken salad?

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Adapted from "The Best Classic Chicken Salad Recipe," from J. Kenji López-Alt, Chief Culinary Consultant of SeriousEats.com. [Published 03 June 2015 / Updated 17 April 2020]

Buttermilk Ice Cream and Chocolate Pound Cake

As we hit the one month mark of autumn weekend before last, I found myself drawn to my kitchen with a swirl of possible confections and goodies to tackle. When it was all said and done, I'd made a familiar ice cream and an unfamiliar loaf pound cake. 

A jug of buttermilk was nearing the end of its shelf life, so a batch of buttermilk ice cream involved a predictable impulse, especially when I found myself with five egg yolks from making the epic rainbow cake a few days before. I made the base Friday and churned it Saturday; then it was safely tucked away in the freezer to set up and serve as an evil temptation.

On Sunday afternoon, when the mid-day meal was completed and all washing up done by 3 pm, I figured I'd set out ingredients to reach room temp so I could try a new pound cake recipe, this time a chocolate one with an over-the-top ganache poured over it. Just so you know: it was terrible. That recipe has been balled up and tossed, never to appear at the Roediger House again.

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"Buttermilk Ice Cream," from Bi-Rite Creamery's Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones, by Kris Hoogerhyde, Anne Walker, and Dabney Gough. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press (2012), p. 37.

"The Best Chocolate Pound Cake," from Heather Mubarak of the Browned Butter Blondie blog. [Published 08 October 2020]

Meal No. 2696: Emeril's Skillet Beef Stroganoff

Last Sunday it was necessary to satisfy early-day hunger with what might either have been a late lunch or an incredibly early dinner: skillet beef stroganoff with egg noodles. This is one of those dependable dishes that comes through for me when I've got some ground beef to use up, when I don't want a lot of muss and fuss, and when I don't want it to overwhelm my next-morning weigh-in. It ain't fancy, but I fancy it.

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

Meal No. 2695: Roasted Salmon and Broccoli

After an afternoon of moderate investment in yardwork (mulch, topsoil, mowing) last Saturday, I was ready for a return to the roasted salmon and broccoli meal that always comes in as a winner for dinner. There's a light spice coating that I got from Savory Spice Shop, and my temperature probe helps me cook it to the perfect temperature, and roasted broccoli has become one of my most favorite vegetables. I reckon it's smart to stop and celebrate when simplicity serves to satisfy so well.

Super Epic Rainbow Cake

An endeavor I seem willing to take on every couple of years, right about this time each fall, is humbly referred to as a "Super Epic Rainbow Cake." That's what I found myself tackling last Friday afternoon. 

It does have a bit of a wow factor, with all those layers and colors.

And sure: it's more of a production, when you figure that whipping up the batter is only half the story. Then, it's time to weigh and portion it into six different bowls and for each to get the proper gel food coloring.

That leads to six different cake pans and six cooling racks and six pans to wash when it's all said and done.

I tried a shortcut icing that ended up goopy and messy, so the cake had to be sliced and portioned into to-go containers since the top layers were slippin' and slidin'. But that's all right, because I wanted to share as much of it up and down the street as possible. That's why I had but a single slice, and that was a-plenty for me.

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"Say It With Cake: Super Epic Rainbow Cake," from the Whisk Kid blog.

Meal No. 2694: Barbecue Chicken, Blue Cheese, and Crispy Prosciutto Flatbreads

I hate when I overdo it at dinnertime, and I had no fortitude to resist having too much of the flatbread goodness that I whipped up last Thursday night. With freshly-cooked (via sous vide) chicken thighs nicely diced, some prosciutto crisped in the oven, a batch of diced and sautéed Vidalia onion, blue cheese, cheddar cheese, and a bit of mozzarella...well, it was indeed all too much.

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Chicken was prepped based on "Sous Vide Chicken Thighs," from Anne of UpstateRamblings.com. [Published 01 September 2019]

Crisping the Prosciutto was helped along with guidance from:

• "How to Make Prosciutto Crisps," from Karen Tedesco of FamilyStyleFood.com.
• "Crisped Prosciutto," from MarthaStewart.com.

Meal No. 2693: Filet Mignon

Last Wednesday was when my fall order of mulch came, and it couldn't have been a more glorious day for the beginning of the associated labors that that entails. I found myself wearing down too quickly, I'm afraid, and it turned my thoughts to beef for dinner. I had vacuum-sealed some pre-prepped filet mignon steaks that I pulled from the freezer and dropped into the sous vide immersion circulator before finishing them on the grill. Some garlic-romano roasted asparagus spears were perfect to go with it.

Brownie Pudding with Creamy Italian Gelato

After those amazing mushroom and swiss burgers on homemade pretzel buns a week ago Saturday, I found my way to also provide some dessert. I'd prepped the base and then churned and frozen a fresh batch of sweet cream gelato already, so it was waiting in the freezer...and it was an ideal accompaniment to a new recipe: brownie pudding, a rich and sweet chocolate inundation that reduced me to lip-smacking adorational mania and fealty to a god unknown. So what if I dribbled some of it on my new Carolina Tar Heels t-shirt? The pain of the stain cannot rival how hearty is this party of delectable goodness.

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Sweet Cream Gelato based on "Stracciatella Gelato (Sweet Cream Chocolate Chip)," by Stella Parks, the Pastry Wizard at SeriousEats.com. [Published 06 August 2018 / Updated 15 April 2020]

"Brownie Pudding," from Ina Garten on FoodNetwork.com.

Meal No. 2692: Mushroom & Swiss Burgers on Pretzel Buns

The remnants of the tropical system called Delta, the tropical storm that cruised across the Gulf of Mexico and then hit Louisiana, slowly passed over the northwest Piedmont of North Carolina the weekend before last. With all that rain and mess, that Sunday was a perfect opportunity to delve into a yeast bread project, and this time I decided I wanted to try making pretzel buns for burgers. 

The dough came together great and rose nicely. Then, the individually portioned buns were boiled in a mix of water and baking soda...

...and tossed into the oven after getting a nice egg wash.

They definitely looked on the money when they came out. And they tasted on the money when I slathered a bit of Duke's mayo on them and topped them with my homemade grilled burgers and added Madeira mushrooms and Swiss cheese. 

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"Pretzel Buns," from Irvin Lin of EatTheLove.com. [Published 11 July 2016]

Meal No. 2691: Deviled Chicken Thighs

Saturday night a week ago, after a day full of rain and drear thanks to the slow passing of another tropical storm system coming up from where it had wreaked more havoc in Louisiana, I took comfort in a comforting meal: deviled chicken thighs with a rice-vermicelli mix and roasted garlic spinach. It was a pretty awesome meal whose goodness I can absolutely depend on, which is why it makes frequent appearances on the menu here.

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Based on "Deviled Chicken Drumsticks," by Ian Knauer. In Gourmet, August 2008.

Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie

Just because I cannot exercise proper control, I found myself making something sweet to fill in an unexpected experiential void Friday night a week ago. The choice was a new experiment: a chai-spiced snickerdoodle skillet cookie. It was simple and splendid, splendidly simple, and simply stupendous.

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

Meal No. 2690: Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

Thursday a week ago, my dinner efforts were again driven by dates on packages in the fridge. That particular night, it was a pair of split chicken breasts that I'd picked up on a good special that were reaching the end of days. I did some simple seasoning on them, vacuum-sealed them, and dropped them into a sous vide bath to cook up. In the meantime, I prepped the onions, mushroom, and thyme that gets sautéed in butter, then simmered in wine, and finally cooked with broth, cream, and flour until it is a delicious goop. I diced up the chicken breasts and tossed them in, added a crushed butter cracker topping (mixed in with melted butter), and baked it until it bubbled. The bowls were loaded with this goodness, but only for a short while, because it's grub that's quickly gobbled.

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

Meal No. 2689: Grilled Chicken

 

Last week, I spent two days conducting virtual training sessions with different groups of teachers from Dakar Academy in Senegal. It's a four-hour time difference, so last Wednesday and Thursday mornings, I was up at 3:30 am in order to be ready to begin at 8:30 am their time. I managed to go to bed early both nights, but perhaps not early enough! The sessions felt reasonably solid, even though I know there's not a substitute for being present in the room with the teachers I'm working with. I was content to do the bare minimum for supper that Wednesday night....I had a couple of fresh chicken breasts that I pounded, seasoned, and grilled. And that's all that was on the plates for supper: just the tasty grilled chicken!

Maybe it was easier to go light on the dinner because, after finishing up late morning that Wednesday, I set out some butter and then set my mind to making a batch of cookies. This time, the cookie of choice was butter toffee cookies, with espresso chips, crushed toffee, and pecans. Oh so good when they first come out of the oven, of course!

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"Butter Toffee Cookies," originally from King Arthur Flour. The catalog that comes periodically from KAF has recipes in it, which is where I originally got this. But, as sometimes happens, it is not available on their website. I'm glad someone posted it to Food.com.

Meal No. 2688: Grilled Pork Chops

 Tuesday a week ago, with yet another great afternoon of sunshine, reasonable breezes, and awesome temps, it sure was nice to step out the back door and grill up pork chops for dinner. I made stuffing and a small pot of buttered peas to make it a complete meal, and it was completely delicious.

Pumpkin Spice Birthday Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I suppose it's nice to be invited to undertake a command performance. That's the high-falutin' way I'll describe last Monday's latest cake endeavor: a pumpkin spice birthday cake with cream cheese frosting. The terrific couple that bought the house down the street (where my former Wake Forest University student Karissa and her husband lived, who are the reason I even knew about this house to buy it in 2003!) have graciously received my offers of various treats from the kitchen. With Lori's birthday coming up, Cody and I talked about the option of a homemade creation for the occasion.

It led me to try out a terrific new recipe for pumpkin spice cake with a cream cheese frosting. I got to sample the trimmed edges when I converted it from a sheet pan cake to a rectangular layer cake, and they were tender and tasty.  Those guys were kind enough to snap a couple of shots and text them to me, since all I had was the photo of the whole cake with my amateur frosting job:

Fortunately, their reports upon sampling were favorable, so I think it was a hit!

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Based on "The Best Pumpkin Cake I've Ever Had," from Sally McKenney of Sally's Baking Addiction. [Published 11 October 2017]

Meal No. 2687: Grilled Filet Mignon

 

One might argue that I am pretty fond of steak, and it's unquestionably a fair claim. At the same time, I'd say it doesn't show up as frequently as it once did. So on those glorious sunny fall afternoons when I fire up the grill with a nice cut of filet to toss onto it, it is certain that the supper will be super. Also, I still can't quite get enough roasted broccoli, so I had a nice pile of it on the plate.

Red Velvet Cake

One might think I've been on quite the cake-baking run of late, and it does seem that it's a charge that might stick. The urge hit again a week ago today and I spent the middle of last Sunday mixing up, baking, and frosting an amazing red velvet cake. It's the kind where you split the two baked layers to create a four-layer monstrosity, granting you the treasured tsunami of sweet cream cheese icing, and then some.

Once again, I attempted to spread the love as well as the frosting, offering slices to neighbors up and down the street, and it seems that there were some willing takers amongst the bunch.

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"The Best Red Velvet Cake," from Barry C. Parsons of RockRecipes.com.

Meal No. 2686: Roasted Whole Chicken for Sunday Supper

It doesn't seem like I was planning to turn supper into a feast last Sunday night, but that's what ended up happening. Once I decided that a whole chicken would be the main feature, I sought out an untried recipe for roasting it, added Brussels sprouts to the pan for its last half hour, and had time to make a batch of delicious creamed corn. It was one of those meals that confirmed in taste all those hoped-for aspirations in the joyful cooking process. One would have to be extra stubborn not to have enjoyed it.

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Based in part on "Perfect Roast Chicken," from Ina Garten on FoodNetwork.com.

Meal No. 2685: Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuits

As the breezy chills of October's first Saturday morning finally gave way to bright warming sunshine, the household was hit with an early-day hunger. I had a batch of bacon I'd already cooked and was reserving it for the purpose achieved at lunchtime: bacon egg and cheese biscuits. That would be from-scratch buttermilk biscuits and homemade fast-food-style scrambled eggs, mind you.

When I first started teaching school in Raleigh, I was living in Chapel Hill. My extremely early morning commute allowed me to regularly take the Gorman Street exit as I came into southwest Raleigh and zip through the Hardee's drive-through for a 99-cent bacon egg and cheese biscuit and a Coke. (I think that biscuit today runs $2.79 or thereabouts.) My homemade version was exceptional, if you must know, but two of 'em were too many. 

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"The Food Lab's Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe," from J. Kenji López-Alt, Chief Culinary Consultant of SeriousEats.com. [Published 07 August 2015]

"Baked Scrambled Eggs," from Heather Johnson of TheFoodHussy.com. [Published 09 September 2019]

Meal No. 2684: Roasted Salmon and Broccoli

On the day it was announced that Donald Trump had contracted the coronavirus, I roasted salmon fillet and broccoli and had a pretty early supper on what proved to be a gorgeous sunny day in Winston-Salem.

Double Chocolate Liqueur Ice Cream + Classic Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

The onset of evening Sunday before last felt so odd, as I looked at my watch and saw it flip over to 7 pm while the sky was already dusking and darkening depressingly. A simple oatmeal supper had occurred early and I was restless for something to do, and it's in my kitchen that joyful distractions can be most easily found. So I made yet another batch of ice cream, even though I still had on hand a full container of brown sugar cinnamon ice cream in the freezer. It had been three-and-a-half years since I'd made double chocolate liqueur ice cream, a devilish dollop of dark deliciousness, and that made its return all the more special. This ice cream will make you forget your religion and the names of several of your favorite teachers.

But wait: there's more! Why leave the ice cream so lonely in a bowl, when it can be the blobby add-on to a slice of moist and tender and deeply-chocolatey-frosted yellow cake?  It's clear that I know very well how what's so very bad for me can also be so very good to me. The cake was my Thursday afternoon endeavor, in time to share several slices out with various neighbors while still holding on to a sizable portion for the RoHo household.

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"Classic Yellow Cake," by Robyn Stone. Found online at addapinch.com.

"Super-Simple Chocolate Frosting," from King Arthur Flour. Posted 01/01/2010.

"Double Chocolate Liqueur Ice Cream," by Kita Roberts. From her Pass the Sushi blog.

Meal No. 2683: Sous Vide Chicken Salad

Back on the final Tuesday of September, the dinner idea that came calling was to once again pull out the Joule sous vide immersion circulator and to cook up a pair of split chicken breasts. I seasoned them well, thinly sliced lemons to slide in, and snipped fresh rosemary sprigs from the kitchen garden; they were bagged and vacuum-sealed; they went into the immersion bath for about 90 minutes. After pulling them out and tossing them into an ice bath, I threw together a well-herbed dressing and some diced asparagus stalk discs, then mixed it all up with the tender chicken and served it on brioche buns. It was a symphony of simplicity.

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Adapted from "The Best Classic Chicken Salad Recipe," from J. Kenji López-Alt, Chief Culinary Consultant of SeriousEats.com. [Published 03 June 2015 / Updated 17 April 2020]

Meal No. 2682: Sous Vide Filet Mignon

To start off last week, the Monday night meal was a combination of sous vide and grilling of filet mignon, complemented by roasted garlic-pecorino romano asparagus spears. And all that was quite good, but the star attraction was slices from my first making of a rustic boule. Following the simple no-knead techniques from Jim Lahey and the original article on it in the New York Times, I started that loaf the night before because it has a 20-hour rise time. 

I shaped it into an elongated loaf and tossed it into a pre-heated cast iron dutch oven.

It came out golden brown and gorgeous.

I thought the crumb would be more bubbled but it was still a spongy fresh interior nonetheless.

And it was pretty awesome served up with softened butter to go with that fine meal.

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Helpful Guidance from "The Food Lab's Complete Guide to Sous Vide Steaks," from J. Kenji López-Alt, Chief Culinary Consultant of SeriousEats.com. [Published 02 June 2015 / Updated 28 May 2020]

"No-Knead Bread," by Mark Bittman of the New York Times Cooking website. Adapted from Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery.

Blue Velvet Buttermilk Cake & Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream

I found myself in the yolks and whites dilemma again, back on September 24th. I wanted to make another batch of ice cream and all I need for that is yolks...and I hate for the egg whites to go to waste. It was an easy dig into my cake recipes binder to decide to try a new one out: white velvet buttermilk cake with an ermine frosting. I've never undertaken that old-fashioned buttercream that depends on cooked flour and milk and granulated sugar, and it was a miserable failure, on this first attempt. It did not stiffen up sufficiently and became a gloopy mess once I'd spread it onto the cake layers. I don't much care for layer cakes that have to be refrigerated but my hands were tied on this one!

Still, it was the dessert offering on Friday a week ago and what likely saved it all was the ice cream that was the initiating culprit in this dual endeavor into the glorious land of sugar and sweets. I tried out a brown sugar cinnamon ice cream, and while I hope I never have to stand there chopping cinnamon morsels again as I did late into the previous evening, I do hope to get this ice cream on my plate again soon.

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"White Velvet Buttermilk Cake," from Liz Marek of SugarGeekShow.com. [Published 09 March 2018 / Updated 08 June 2020]

"Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream," from Heather Tullos of SugarDishMe.com. [Published 11 September 2015]