The on-going chronicle of all things related to the George and Laura Roediger House (c. 1905) in the historic Holly Avenue Neighborhood of downtown Winston-Salem, NC. More info and pictures can be found at RoedigerHouse.com. [Mobile users: CLICK TO SEARCH the blog.]
Thanksgiving night ended with a tasty and light new dessert: citrus-cranberry tart, with a speculoos cookie crust. It was a great choice because it was light, and because it was delicious.
I posted a lengthy reflective commentary on Thanksgiving Day itself, but because I'm behind a couple of days on posts, it is only now that we're getting to what the meal was here that day. With no guests in attendance, I cut down on the number of side dishes and just made the usual favorites of cornbread stuffing with bacon and apples, sweet potato casserole, and layered green bean casserole. I took the rare step of roasting a whole turkey, this time in a bag, and it was moist and well-cooked but certainly not special. Some turkey gravy I threw together helped bring it around!
Wednesday's evening meal proved to be a delicious treat: grilled filet mignon, roasted spiced diced potatoes, and roasted garlic-pecorino asparagus spears. Sometimes there is beauty in simplicity, no?
I might've gotten a bit carried away with Monday night's dinner, but it was well worth it: delicious salisbury steak with a savory mushroom gravy, homemade mashed potatoes, and roasted Brussels sprouts. It's one of those recipes where it's kind of infuriating that the author claims it's only 15 minutes to prep and 15 minutes to cook. Um, no. Not at all. Of course, a lot of these recipes I snag off of all these popular blog sites list the ingredients as already prepped. You know, like "one-half onion, diced" as if onions appear magically diced. I got pretty frustrated in putting everything together, which was more like an hour or more from start to finish, and then the final result really did make it all worthwhile.
"Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy," from Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTinEats.com. [Published 10 January 2018; Updated 30 September 2020]
This entry will post on Thanksgiving Day here in the United States, during a year that almost defies description. I decided to indulge in a moment’s reflection because these troubled times seem to call for it.
I am incredibly fortunate. Home is a warm, safe, and happy place. For nearly two decades, this great old house in downtown Winston-Salem has been a joy to dwell in. Most of the inside just looks great, with the plaster restoration and painting and floor refinishing and furnishings and artwork. It is well-stocked with food, appliances, entertainment, professional and casual wardrobes, and love. As we reach the end of the sixth year following the attic renovation to create a grand man cave, I still marvel at how beautiful it turned out. The plot of land on which the house sits is looking mighty fine after the yard rehab and installation of the irrigation system. Most of the leaves of autumn are in an enormous pile at the bottom of the driveway, and the sun regularly shines down on us in a merciful and forgiving way. Summer, the pooch of the Roediger House, is quietly and unassumingly the best dog in the world.
I know that outside the bounds of the property there is enormous misery, strife, sickness, hunger, death, loss, anxiety, unhappiness, and despair. We are eight months into an unimaginable mess of a pandemic, in a fractured and failing republic with divisions that seem likely to be beyond repair. I cannot fathom the reality that over 70 million Americans still voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election but I am relieved and elated that it was not enough for him to remain in destructive control of the levers of our national government. While the electoral process had its bright spots, I grieve that the politics of paralysis and obstruction were not soundly repudiated, that the balance of power on the US Supreme Court has been unethically tipped in a way that will have enduring long-term costs to things I believe in, and that what’s left of the GOP retained control of the US Senate and of the North Carolina General Assembly and even turned races for the Council of State and Judiciary. Those sad results temper the enormous relief that we are just weeks away from the end of the Trump monstrosity.
Because my profession is educational consulting, and most of my work takes place on site in schools and school divisions, I have mostly been without work. But again, here’s where I am incredibly fortunate, with comfortable reserves and a burst of mostly online work at the end of the summer and into the early fall that proved more than adequate. I am thankful to live in a house that’s paid for, with vehicles that are paid for, with no student loan or other debt hanging over me. I’ve partially curtailed my conspicuous consumption but still was able to make important political contributions in hopes of good outcomes on Election Day. Without having earned it, it feels like I’m semi-retired, and I sort of like it. I don’t have to live in fear of hunger or homelessness. The most obvious “cost” of these troubled times for me is that I don’t think I’ll be able to make my annual IRA contributions.
Unlike so many in the service industry or other vocations that are woefully underpaid, I have been able to stay mostly sequestered at home. A couple of times a week, I venture out for provisions or household needs. There have been no restaurant, bar, or coffee house excursions or adventures. Friends have been seen sparingly and fleetingly, mostly in driveway visits in the camp chairs on pretty days. I know how fortunate I am to be able to minimize risk and exposure.
Later today, I’ll be joyfully toiling in my kitchen, making a stripped-down version of a Thanksgiving meal but with no guests here to partake of it. I’ve long considered Thanksgiving to be my favorite holiday, because most years it lets me indulge in the joys of cooking but it also means a table full of guests and dear friends, a “chosen” family gathered happily together. It is still a day of joy and thanksgiving, a day of gratitude for the wonderful life I’m blessed with.
It's a good thing that Sunday night's supper was simply salad with Caesar dressing and some diced grilled chicken, because I also had some dessert! Appearing in this form for only the second time (although I made just the sweet cream gelato without the chocolate on another occasion), it sure was remarkable and I found it incredibly difficult to limit my intake.
"Stracciatella Gelato (Sweet Cream Chocolate Chip)," by Stella Parks, the Pastry Wizard at SeriousEats.com. [Published 06 August 2018 / Updated 15 April 2020]
Sunday night's supper at the Roediger House: sous vide chicken breast, finished on the gas grill, diced and placed on a bed of power greens dressed with homemade Caesar dressing. That was some straightforward goodness right there. I scarfed mine down but I'm sure the 5-mile walk earlier that day with Sumner really kicked up my appetite.
It counts as an unanticipated bonus when we find ourselves in the lead-up to Thanksgiving and have a glorious sunny Saturday with a high temperature of 74°F. That meant some casual outside time in camp chairs on the driveway but the big endeavor was an early afternoon long walk with Sumner, just over five miles, but we enjoyed popping in on the happy new homeowners, Amy and Gern, over in the Ardmore Neighborhood. That led to a big appetite for a hearty supper, too. Seasoned baked chicken thighs, roasted broccoli, and crispy-creamy diced Yukon potatoes with blackening spice were a bit overwhelming but well worth the journey to the clean plate.
With a carton of grass-fed organic whole milk that's simply too expensive to let go to waste, I realized I needed to find a good use for it before it went bad. So Thursday night I set aside time to play with a recipe that I hadn't tried yet, for double chocolate pudding. Oh, it was devilishly delicious, even though it didn't quite set up properly. Fortunately, that just meant I wasn't willing to offer any of it to neighbors, as might have normally been the case, and all of it had to be consumed here at the Roediger House on Friday night. Shucks.
Salmon, always roasted, will show up here at least weekly, either on a plate with roasted broccoli or Brussels sprouts or asparagus, or sitting atop power greens that have been dressed, more often than not, with a homemade Caesar dressing that comes out just a bit different each time I make it...but always good. Supper last night was just such a bowl-full of goodness.
When I dropped split chicken breasts into the sous vide immersion bath on Wednesday, I was granted more than enough cooked chicken to split between two meals. Half went into the wonderful batch of Brunswick stew on Wednesday, and the rest was diced and mixed into an herby dressing, and the resulting chicken salad was piled onto brioche buns for Thursday night's supper. I find myself playing with the recipe a bit every time I made it, and this was one of the occasions where it was especially good.
A windy chill settled on Winston-Salem this week, bringing to mind the approach of even colder weather, even though it was deceptively sunny and bright. Yesterday involved some writing in the morning up in the third floor entertainment kingdom, but then I switched it up with a few hours down in the cellar vacuuming up the standing water and pumping it out through the dining room window. Those heavy rain bands from the passing of the remains of tropical system Eta really did a number on us here! Two large garbage bags of discard made it to the curbside waste cart but the rest of the refuse will have to be tackled in subsequent days. Perhaps all that is what helped kick up my appetite for a good cold-weather meal, and that led to a nice pot of delicious Brunswick stew, with freshly-cooked split chicken breasts (via the Joule sous vide immersion circulator) and the cuttings of smoked pork ribs shared by the good neighbors down the street. The after-supper treat of the last of the boozy butterscotch ice cream capped off another good day in the life of the Roediger House.
After the roasted salmon dinner on Monday night, there was also some dessert! It was yet another new recipe, this time for boozy butterscotch ice cream made with authentic Cleveland whiskey. It offers a less-than-tame ride through a succession of flavors and tastes, one minute very much like a Wurther Original candy, the next like a creamy whiskey-laced lick of a tempting summer cone, and ending just like Daddy's kisses. (That last part was for a touch of humor. My dad was not a drinker.)
Roasted salmon and roasted broccoli are pretty darned frequent flyers at the Roediger House dinner table, because it's so good and because it's my favorite healthy thing to make, most likely.
I was stuck for dinner ideas tonight, trying to figure out what I could make without traipsing out to the store on a blustery, leaf-strewn Sunday evening. Then I remembered I had a jug of buttermilk that was going to be good for only a few more days, and that put me onto the idea of pancakes for supper. With bourbon-barrel maple syrup and a couple of unhealthy slabs of real butter, it was a breakfast indulgence in the early dark of evening.
"Best Tips for Making Pancakes: Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes," by Joanne Ozug on the Pioneer Woman website. [Published 10 May 2017]
It was time for a sugary indulgence this past Thursday night, after two days cooped up in the house while heavy rainfalls and major flooding in the area occurred.
The sweet treat was a second go at the chai-spiced snickerdoodle skillet cookie, and once again it sure was super tasty.
The cellar here did fully flood with several inches of water, to an extent that I only remember occurring one other time, about 10 years ago. There is so much junk and stuff down there now, so the clean-up of 2020 is going to be a malicious bear.
Ugh! Veteran's Day proved to be a long dreary rainy day, with occasional heavy, heavy downpours, the depressing news that we did in fact lose in the US Senate race here in North Carolina, and an accompanying restlessness that caused the hours to tick by slowly. At least dinner was delicious: the faithful standby of skillet beef stroganoff, this time with the added bonus of roasted Brussels sprouts that were incredibly on point. The leftovers were awesome to have on hand for the next few days, although those Brussels sprouts were gone quick!
Tuesday's delicious supper of pulled pork barbecue and homemade coleslaw was about as good as any batch I've made in a while. By depending on the slow cooker this time, I was able to let that pork cook for 14 hours overnight, then I shredded it and added more sauce, and then left it to cook another three hours. A simple quick barbecue sauce for serving brought it all together, happily joined in the bowl by coleslaw based on my mother's recipe.
Pulled Pork based primarily on "Slow Cooker Texas Pulled Pork," from cmccreight on AllRecipes.com.
Barbecue Sauce for serving was adapted from "Sweet and Tangy Barbecue Sauce" from recipe for "Indoor Pulled Pork," by Bryan Roof. In Cook's Illustrated, January & February 2010 (No. 102), p. 6-7.
Sweet Southern Coleslaw based on recipe from Allison M. Jones.
Not so long ago, perhaps thinking I was adequately confronting reality while also managing my expectations, I muttered something on the blog about having taken advantage of what was likely the last good weather day before autumn brings in its cooler temps and leaf-strewn cloudy dreary days. But boy howdy, especially since election day, it's been sunny skies and great temps. It even jumped up to 78°F on a recent glorious afternoon. That's meant quality outside time, particularly for raking leaves and for taking Sumner on long walks out and around town.
On Sunday, it was just that sort of good day, but it meant that I didn't leave all that much time to indulge in extensive dinner prep. So it was time to bring back out the Instant Pot, rub and season a whole chicken, and let it zip to a cooked conclusion in under an hour. Supper that night was just chicken, and that left good leftovers on Monday in order to put together a nice batch of chicken salad. That's what I heaped on split whole wheat English muffins, topped with tomato slices and Kraft Singles, so that I could serve up chicken salad melts. I'm hoping that the older I get, the better I get at appreciating simple joys like raking, walking the dog, and chowing down on unremarkable goodness like that.
Last Saturday, the day the race for President of the United States was called for Joe Biden, it was a celebratory supper at the Roediger House: skillet-roasted chicken and Yukon gold potato slices, along with roasted spinach. A delicious repast while taking in all the coverage of the joyful celebrations taking place all over the country, followed by a very inspiring and reassuring pair of speeches from the President- and Vice President-Elect.
Last Friday played out like this: morning coffee as per the usual routine, checking updates and headlines and Tweets on the unfolding election count, a bit of writing, another long afternoon walk with Sumner, and prepping chicken breasts from a value-pak I'd picked up a couple of days before. When I turned my attention to dinner, I was pulled in by a new recipe: Thai drunken noodles. It was an interesting process for preparation and I decided to just trust the directions...and it resulted in a delicious supper. I made it heartier with thinly-sliced chicken breasts that I'd marinated in some of the sauce before incorporating it into the fuller dish. I suspect I'll bring this one back again.
On yet another evening of watching coverage of the ongoing ballot count in the uncalled states, it was a supper on platters up on the 3rd floor with eyes on multiple media sources. And even if the good news has not yet come that Thursday evening, at least it was a good supper: grilled pork chops, green beans, and stuffing.
Wednesday night was yet another delicious round of this incredibly popular favorite of the Roediger House: a roasted slab of spiced salmon and a heaping helping of roasted broccoli. I'm not sure I can quite get enough of either.
The first Monday of November involved a morning spent on more professional literature, interspersed with regular checks of the latest news in the penultimate day of the election period. By early afternoon, hunger had set in, so I set to work on an early repast. On the plates: grilled filet mignon and super crispy garlic-and-rosemary-duck-fat roasted potatoes. Perfectly grilled steaks, flavorful and crispy potatoes, clean plates, bulging belly.
Those potatoes, though...
The first day of November dawned gray, cold, and wet and rainy but by mid-day the sun had emerged and it almost became a nice afternoon. Sumner and I did a good downtown walk that lasted just over an hour. Supper stayed simple: just some baked chicken thighs this time, because the dessert that night was the true star of the evening.
With a homemade raspberry curd, part of which was used to make a raspberry mousse to serve as the filling between layers, this colorful beast is called a raspberry lime rickey cake. Lime-touched cake layers, and an outer frosting with more lime punch to it, and glazed on top with the reserved portion of raspberry curd, I even adorned it with fresh raspberries just to make it look like I cared a lot.
I can't say that I'm at all fancy about cakes, and I never really go for the showstoppers or whiz-bangers. Let me make a poorly-decorated full-flavored chocolate cake, for instance, and I'll be a grinning somebody. I gave in to last weekend's hankering to try something with more of a 'wow' factor, and while it was an enormous pain in the ass to make, I can't say I found the results to be anything but pleasing.
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| Assembly In Process: raspberry mousse filling |
Some to-go slices were distributed to neighbors down the street, and a favorable verdict was returned back up this way.
Halloween 2020: a Saturday night, a full moon that was also a blue moon, clear skies, the final weekend before the Presidential election, and an accelerating coronavirus pandemic. What's not to love and hate about all that, all at once? The Roediger House is not situated where it gets trick-or-treaters, and the big costumed gatherings that raged here in the late Aughts and early Teens of the current century are now a thing very much of the past. So if the holiday itself could be no biggie, then why not give a shot at a new recipe that made unfulfilled promises of being this side of healthy?
In the supper bowls that night: quinoa, roasted asparagus, and tomato-basil feta, along with slices of pan-seared spiced chicken breast, tossed in a lemon-garlic vinaigrette. I was down with it.
Since the night brought us that exceedingly rare Halloween Hunter's Blue Moon (well, generally it happens on Halloween every 19 years), of course I also had to have a batch of Blue Moon Ice Cream made and ready to be served after that salad supper. This lemon-raspberry delight, with a festive light blue coloring, was a real treat in only its second appearance at the Roediger House.
"Quinoa, Asparagus, and Feta Salad," by AnnInLondon and published in AllRecipes Magazine, April/May 2020, p. 74.
"Blue Moon Ice Cream," by Alexandra Penfold of SeriousEats.com. [Published 13 July 2012; Updated 15 April 2020]
The final Friday of October was noticeably cooler and remained pretty blustery all day. That means more limbs came down, but not nearly as many as were brought down from the passing of Zeta's remnants the previous day. Sumner and I still did about a 75-minute walk that looped us down near Old Salem and then brought us back up through West Salem. My only driving excursion that day was just out to the grocery to stock up for the coming week. Since I came home with a slab of salmon, that had to be the first meal to be made with those fresh provisions. This time, the roasted fillet was perched atop power greens doused generously with the batch of homemade Caesar dressing I still had on hand...which was even stronger on the garlicky side of the ledger after having a few days to cure in the fridge.
Helpful suggestions from "How to Sous Vide Chicken Breast Tenders," from Jenna of the SipBiteGo.com blog. [Published 07 April 2020]
For the dressing, I combined ideas from:
The small dose of drear that enveloped Winston-Salem last Sunday cleared up and moved out by late morning Monday, and it turned into rather a fine day. A highlight was another full walk with Sumner, this time circling down through Old Salem, sweeping up to enjoy the downtown stretch of the Long Branch Trail, and looping around back to the west side via Martin Luther King Jr. and West End Boulevards. It helped to work up a pretty good appetite and led to early suppering at the Roediger House, with a new recipe to boot. This time it was Korean ground beef bowls with a mix of vegetables: baby bok choy, carrots, broccoli florets, and snow peas. For extra measure, I tossed a fried egg on each bowl. It was all pretty darned good.
