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.]
This past Sunday's evening meal was another sous vide easy prep, with seasoned split chicken breasts and roasted broccoli and roasted Moroccan-spiced cauliflower. To avoid the temptation of being too plain about it, I rescued the last of the French mustard herb sauce I'd made for a meal not so very long ago.
Blueberries were plentiful in the house last week, and I've been using them for healthier snacking and as an accompaniment to recent batches of overnight oatmeal. I also found a less healthy use for them: as a colorfully contrasting add-in to make complete a new recipe for lemon blueberry bread...topped with a delicious tangy and sweet lemon glaze.
That was my small baking project this past Sunday, to good result. I reckon this ought to be a repeater here at the Roediger House.
"Blueberry Lemon Bread with Lemon Glaze," from Danielle Rye of LiveWellBakeOften.com.
Last week's regular salmon meal left sufficient leftovers that the joy of croquettes could yet again grace the dinner table. That was the Friday night meal, with garlic-roasted whole green beans and that incomparable aïoli that pairs well with crab cakes and salmon croquettes, but also is an amazing spread for a deli-style sandwich, if one so chooses.
Recipe sent to me by my sister Allison, who cracked up when I asked about the source: adapted from "Salmon Burgers" (p. 396) and "Herb Sauce" (p. 395), from Denise Austin, Shrink Your Female Fat Zones, Rodale Books (2003).
"Chili-Lime Aïoli," from David Wald of Princeton, NJ, May 2009.
As I was getting my first cup of coffee last Friday morning, Sumner took up a sentry stance at one of the windows in the kitchen table area, intently watching a young squirrel who'd come across the power line and jumped up on the small north-end gable of the front porch. That little rascal worked his way down to the ground, skittered around the HVAC units, and ultimately ended up beneath the bird feeder in the back yard. That's where Sumner spotted him next, from his perch on the window seat in the attic pool table area, where he keeps an eye on potential prey until he decides a quarry has been targeted, and he animatedly and anxiously signals that it's time to go down two flights of stairs in order to give chase. Those yard rodents are almost always too fast and nimble for him, but not this time.
In the ongoing tally of successful squirrel kills, this is Number 9 for the sweet pooch of the Roediger House. The prey put up a good enough fight to bloody Sumner's snout, and he was quite the triumphant battle warrior with red streaks on his face and neck by the time his prize was breathing its last. We do not restrict him from his natural instincts, where the squirrels are concerned, because they do have a tendency to overrun the property in the absence of a dog's watchful vigilance. The pride at his skillfulness on these occasions is not an indication that there is callous glee for the wild one's brutal demise. Nature has its ways.
I'd like to add that Sumner had nothing to do with the headless bird we found on the driveway the following day. I've no idea what happened here but it was an odd thing to stumble upon.
Last Thursday night's special celebratory meal was the sentimental favorite: not so cajun chicken. The basic nature of this dish does not diminish its deliciousness, but it's been the featured item for quite a few noteworthy occasions in the life of the Roediger House, beginning with its prominent role as the first meal made in the brand-new kitchen that was completed in Spring 2009. I think it's better over rice but I rarely have rice any more, and instead these spiced and pan-seared chicken tenders were lovingly laid over the creamy Cajun sauce on a bed of spaghetti.
"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.
This past Wednesday was a full virtual teaching day for me, and while I was sequestered in my Zoom zone in the North Parlour, the weather up and turned dicey on me. Wind gusts became increasingly vicious and an unseasonably cold spell settled in on us here in Winston-Salem. For late April to be blessed with freeze warnings is pretty unusual but, lazy that I've been, there are no fresh spring tender plantings that were under threat. A nice sale on beef tenderloin at my Harris Teeter enticed me to splurge on a couple of thick filets. I braved the winds, and the grill managed to perform in spite of them, resulting in some of my best grilled steaks in quite a while. More roasted garlic-topped asparagus fatties, plus spiced roasted potatoes, turned it all into a pretty full and filling meal.
Last weekend, I decided to use up a reserve of caramel sauce in a quart of simple homemade ice cream. It had a wonderful texture and a next-level sweetness with that perfect shock from the sensational singed sugar that is at the heart of a batch of good caramel. It was offered as a small dessert out of the blue on Tuesday night but plenty remained to partake of on evenings that followed.
When (pre-pandemic) Roediger House regulars Kristen and Mookie came for a driveway camp chairs visit last Thursday afternoon, that caramel ice cream seemed a perfect accompaniment for a warm slice of fresh-baked chai-spiced snickerdoodle skillet cookie. It might have been a little too perfect.
"Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie," from Heather Baird of SprinkleBakes.com. [Published 06 July 2020]
Last Tuesday night was a chance to bring salmon to the dinner table yet again, but I mixed up the usual approach and brought back a miso-mirin glaze that first was tried here back in 2011. I put the slabs onto a soaked cedar plank and grilled them this time, as part of my revolutionary shenanigans. I hadn't applied this glaze to salmon in almost exactly four years, in spite of how tasty it is. But I also confess it's not quite as good as just doing a good salmon spice rub and tossing the fillets into the oven to roast. The ever-dependable side of roasted broccoli was just as right as rain, though.
Miso Glaze from "Miso-Glazed Salmon Steaks," in Bon Appétit, May 2011, p. 58.
Among the items that have been prepped, vacuum-sealed, and frozen for the stockpiling efforts of this past year's pandemic were burgers, full of flavorful goodness, suitable to be cooked to a perfect temperature via sous vide and then finished on the grill with the addition of American cheese. With Sun Chips for a snacky crunch, these were great this past Monday night.
I was ready for the red meat, because early afternoon found me venturing out yet again on my bike. This time, I traveled the Long Branch Trail down to the Salem Creek Greenway, and took it east to Salem Lake, and did the complete 7-mile circuit of the lake, and then huffed and puffed back home. Overall, it was about a 17.5-mile journey, although I thought I'd feel more depleted than I did. After supper, I headed back out with Sumner so we could get in just shy of 3.5 miles on our downtown walk.
Adapted from "Juicy Burgers," originally from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks recipe magazine, July 2003, p. 52-53. After Pillsbury was purchased in 2001 by General Mills, home of Betty Crocker (founded 100 years ago this year, mind you!), it basically ceased to exist as a company and lives on just as a brand. I guess that's why a Pillsbury cookbook recipe from 2003 is now only found on the Betty Crocker website.
After making those gosh-darn-delicious cinnamon roll sticky buns last Saturday, and eating one each day of the weekend, I was mindful of the need to compensate, somehow, with meals. Sunday afternoon was a great time for a circuit on my bike, and Sumner and I did a slightly shorter walk, at just over three miles. In between, there was a salad of power greens, topped with homemade creamy Caesar dressing and pan-seared spiced chicken tenders. It hit the spot with me.
Based on "Easy Lemon Caesar Salad Dressing," by Kim of lowcarbmaven.com.
As someone who is regulary susceptible to letting deadlines dictate when I tackle tasks, it was a delightful surprise when I got my taxes done a month earlier than when they were due. That's very unlike me. And I had a couple of mornings in a row with pleasant weigh-ins, as I keep track of my eating and diet. It put me into a celebratory mood, and I reached for a rare and glorious special recipe from my sister and her husband: cinnamon roll sticky buns.
The dough was exceptionally responsive and easy to work with.
With good Irish butter and dark brown sugar, with true Ceylon cinnamon, I got a good layer of filling spread and topped it with finely chopped pecans.
The second rising went well, with the individual rolls puffing up gloriously.
I probably could have let 'em bake a few more minutes but squishy cinnamon rolls are still cinnamon rolls.
Because they are both cinnamon pecan rolls and sticky pecan rolls, the recipe recommends flipping them over so that the oozy-goozy maple syrup-brown sugar-butter with pecan halves, in and on which the rolls baked, can become the topside and ooze back down into the rolls.
This batch, which is the 9th time I've made my sister's version, and the 13th of any kind of cinnamon roll, was as good as they've ever been. And it's not just because of the healthy dollop of unhealthy cream cheese vanilla bean frosting.
This past Friday was wonderfully sunny but still cool and breezy. That didn't stop the outside time as much as you'd think, given how much I hate chilly and cold. I was in a mood to celebrate and decompress after getting taxes done and mailed off, especially since they didn't bite as hard as they normally do! The filing deadline often seems to catch me right when the siren calls of spring yard labors are summoning, and I love looking past taxes to all the possibilities that now loom grandly.
When the evening mealtime was approaching, I reached for the leftover salmon from a couple of nights before and turned it into croquettes, according to the recommendation of my sister Allison in Indiana. Yet another batch of chili-garlic-lime aïoli felt like a decadent accompaniment, and the garlic-infused roasted whole green beans took their place as the ideal tag-alongs. It was so good that it was repeated for the Saturday night meal, with the substitution of broccoli for the whole green beans.
Recipe sent to me by my sister Allison, who cracked up when I asked about the source: adapted from "Salmon Burgers" (p. 396) and "Herb Sauce" (p. 395), from Denise Austin, Shrink Your Female Fat Zones, Rodale Books (2003).
"Chili-Lime Aïoli," from David Wald of Princeton, NJ, May 2009.
Here's a shocker for you: on Wednesday afternoon, it was a very early dinner, it consisted of roasted spiced salmon and roasted broccoli, and it was so very delicious.
It was back to the ease and dependability of sous vided chicken thighs last Tuesday night, with roasted garlicky whole green beans and the rare treat of Rice-a-Roni. At dinnertime, I thought I was full. By bedtime, I decided I was hungry. Perhaps it was tackling a very fast-paced evening walk with Sumner, where we hit 5.25 miles at an under 15-minute-mile pace. That boy had me huffing!
A steak dinner had been on my mind for a while, so last Monday night I dug a prepped pair of beef filets from the freezer trove to do most of their cooking in the sous vide immersion circulator, before I finished them in the cast iron skillet on the cooktop. With roasted asparagus fatties and spiced roasted potatoes, it was a terrific suppertime.
Among the tucked-away proteins stockpiled in the freezer are skinless boneless chicken breasts, and last Friday night seemed a good time to try to do something with them. The sous vide still makes it a simple prep with a guaranteed perfectly-cooked result...but still it seemed a plain option. So I dug into the interwebs and up came a recipe that appealed: a creamy French mustard herb sauce that really came out great. I added peas and, in hindsight, perhaps the unwise choice of a bit of stuffing.
Although we were under threat for some rain showers, they never materialized and it was a glorious day for outside time. That included a little professional lit reading in the camp chairs but also a 5-mile walk with Sumner and a 10-mile bike ride. You'd think with all that activity and a relatively light dinner, I would not have gained weight...but the next-morning weigh-in was disappointing.
Inspired by "Creamy French Mustard Chicken," from Karina Carrel of CafeDelites.com.
Assistance and education for the starling saga and strategy have been helped along by the following:
"Build Your Own Self Repeating Starling Trap," from Chuck Abare's Purple Marlin blog.
"Euthanizing House Sparrows," from Bet of Sialis.org. [Last Updated 12 January 2017]
I also depended on a couple of YouTube videos to guide me:
Last Thursday night seemed like a good opportunity to bring out an easy fun favorite: chicken and cheese quesadillas. As much as they have been enjoyed in this household since I came across an easy recipe for them back in 2015, it surprised me to look back and find that I had not made the standard chicken and cheese version since summer of 2018. I must say: they were greeted with delight that more recent night!
Preparation and cooking based on "Quesadillas for a Crowd," by Morgan Bolling. In Cook's Country, August/September 2015, p. 18.
Seasoning was based on "Taco Seasoning I," from Bill Echols on AllRecipes.com.
As soon as I try to talk myself into not bothering to blog a recent meal that's just more of my same-old same-old, my compulsion to document kicks in and I still have to create a post. Sunday night before last, it was another easy meal of sous vide spiced chicken thighs from the freezer cache, along with amazing roasted broccoli and the remainder of a previous batch of roasted potatoes.
That evening I was inclined to make a batch of cookies and ended up with my most disappointing result ever for the famous Doubletree chocolate chip cookies. I think it was because I used Irish butter that they spread so little and ended up more cakey and dry, but I was bummed at the crumbs.
That's likely why I was so quick to dive back the next day into cookie-making, this time emerging with the sensational chewy brown sugar cookies, of which I ate two whilst they were still warm and alluring.
"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.
"Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies," from Yvonne Ruperti of SeriousEats.com. [Published 24 September 2013 / Updated 30 April 2019]
Can anything really be better than a classic Snickers bar? It's been so long since I had one that perhaps I have glamorized and romanticized my memory of them, but I do think it's pretty hard to beat a Snickers for a just-what-I-want and just-what-I-need candy bar. Nonetheless, I'd had this recipe sitting in my ice creams notebook for quite a while and finally got inspired to try it when I had some extra caramel sauce to put to use. Take a good gander at that tempting picture, and then move on from it. It was weird. Now, I'm not drawn generally to peanut butter confections anyway, so it was already going to be a tough sell for me. The final verdict: ixnay on the ickersSnay iceay eamcray.
"Better Than Snickers Ice Cream," by Max Falkowitz of SeriousEats.com. [Published 28 October 2011 / Updated 15 April 2020]
After almost two years as a no-show, I thought I'd bring back my meager little creation, dubbed a spicy chicken wrap. It's got good flavor and flavorful goop, and last Saturday night it was accompanied by the last of the homemade Caesar dressing, for those who felt a dipping sauce was called for.
"Grilled Spicy Chicken Wrap," a Roediger House original recipe.
Trying to opt for more healthy meals and also whittling away at the freezer backlog of prepped proteins, Friday night was a quick repeat of pan-seared chicken tenders on power greens with more of my latest batch of homemade creamy Caesar dressing. It was another day where I felt like I'd been starving for hours, although it was also a day lacking in much activity, unfortunately. That salad hit the spot.
The weekend before last, I dipped all my toes into the sweets and goodies realm, and out came several tempting treats. The first to appear at meal's end was a new recipe for lemon pudding, served on the last Sunday evening of March, and it was amazing. (I'm sorry it looks like ramekins of soft butter in the photo above.) This early part of 2021 has proven to be a pudding bonanza here at the Roediger House.
But wait: there's more! March's final Monday also featured a pudding-based dessert, but this one took it up several notches on the fancy post. Pictured above is butterscotch budino, and below is the accompanying homemade salted caramel sauce:
...and to finish it all off I topped the servings with homemade whipped cream. There was plenty of all of it so I put additional portions into some easy plastic to-go tumblers and shared them with the neighbors down the street. It proved to be rather rich, and that stressed my system a bit overnight.
Another dessert I prepped and also churned was a batch of the ever-delicious Vietnamese coffee ice cream.
That's what I was able to bring out for an easy dessert after the roasted salmon meal on March 30th, and that sweet easy concoction that always pleases was every bit as good as ever. There was a time when I'd indulge in the occasional treat of Vietnamese coffee in the morning, which nowadays pretty much overwhelms me with a glucose shock since I don't consume as much sugar as I did in the pre-weight-management days. This ice cream helps keep part of that dream alive, though.
Finally, I also made for the second time a batch of lemon pie ice cream, which was considerably more involved than the simple coffee ice cream! I tinkered a bit with it, because I wanted more than just lemon curd ice cream with shortbread crumbles (yes: I made shortbread cookies to include in this ice cream). I also wanted the other key part of a good lemon pie: the meringue. Ultimately, I figured I'd try some swiss meringue to see how it would do, riffing a bit on the same approach to the filling for homemade Klondike bars. The result? Yet another absolutely amazing ice cream, happily homemade, plenty of it and still gone all too quickly.
"Meyer Lemon Pudding," by Sue Moran from The View from Great Island. [Published 10 January 2020]
"Butterscotch Budino with Caramel Sauce," by Frank Bruni of New York Times Cooking; adapted from Dahlia Narvaez of Pizzeria Mozza, Los Angeles. I used an alternate caramel sauce recipe: "Salted Caramel Sauce," from Maria and Josh Lichty of Two Peas and Their Pod.
"Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream," by David Lebovitz. In The Perfect Scoop. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press (2007), p. 35.
Lemon Meringue Pie Ice Cream was based on two different recipes:
"Shortbread Cookies," from Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTinEats.com. [Updated 26 September 2019]
