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.]
Last Tuesday found me making the rare trip to Lincoln County, once more engaged in observations training with aspiring school administrators. On my way back to Winston-Salem, the route took me by a very convenient Harris Teeter location, which had very appealing slabs of salmon available. With some salad mix and plenty of creamy Caesar dressing, it was a second night in a row for a Caesar salad at the Roediger House.
After a fine day of work with a subcohort of administrators-in-training at a school in Asheboro, I found myself craving a somewhat healthier dinner that would not be too taxing to assemble. With prepped seasoned pounded chicken breasts vacuum-sealed and waiting in the freezer, I set up the sous vide and a couple of hours later some delicious garlic-seasoned morsels were ready for topping the power greens, along with my homemade creamy Caesar dressing.
Based on "Easy Lemon Caesar Salad Dressing," by Kim of lowcarbmaven.com.
Snow hit us overnight Friday a week ago, leaving a lovely covering but a pretty small amount.
When I took Sumner out for his first bathroom break in that pre-dawn chill, I noticed recent tracks in the fresh-fallen snow to indicate that someone had come up into the driveway and tried all the doors on the vehicles. As I followed his clear trail, it was obvious he had tried all the car doors on this block and, later, I learned that one neighbor found his footprints up on their porch as well. Not sure if he was looking for easy pickings left in an unlocked car, or if he was in search of shelter. The security cameras for the house did not pick up his image, though. But I know what his tracks look like!
Although it got up above freezing on Saturday, it wasn't by much, so even this small snow amount lingered on top of what was still lingering from the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend snow/sleet event.
Sunday morning's outside brrrr made early morning writing and coffee time in the old men's chairs all the more enticing. Most of the time, Sumner wants to climb up in my lap as soon as I try to open up my laptop; here he is adorably snoozing prior to making that sleep-spot transition:
When we rolled over into Sunday night's suppertime, as the weekend was wrapping up, I let the paralysis of uncertainty propel me to one of the easy go-to meals: sheet pan beef nachos, loaded up with terrific taco-spiced beef, plus onion and black beans and corn and quite a bit of Mexican cheese. There was lime crema on the side, and happiness on the inside, once it was all done.
Taco-Style Meat Based on "Crispy Beef Tacos," by Hilah Johnson. From HilahCooking.com.
"Homemade Chili and Taco Seasoning," from Jamie of MyBakingAddiction.com. [Published 03 February 2011]
"Easy Lime Crema," from Lisa Bryan of DownShiftology.com. [Published 22 April 2020]
As the hour for our supper gathering drew nearer last Friday night, the pressure to come up with a dessert was converted into the energy to come up with two. I brought back from the archives two delicious pies: lemon chess pie (which had not made an appearance since 2018)...
...and chocolate pecan ("blender") pie (pictured below; last made here in 2017).
Both were darned delicious, even though the chocolate pecan pie did not quite set up as it should.
The option to have a slice of each was chosen by the smarter majority of the attendees of the evening's festivities.
"Lemon Chess Pie," originally thought to be President Clinton's favorite version, but apparently it's not quite the same. My source is unknown but this link goes to the identical recipe.
"Chocolate Pecan Pie," a Jones Family favorite since at least the early 1980s. Also known as "Blender Pie," the recipe came from the late Lib Keith, who had a hair-cutting business at her house and whose son took my sister Allison to her first prom in high school.
Friday night was prime gathering time for the crew of regulars, driven in part by celebrating Mookie's birthday but also all glad to have a chance to be together. It was somewhat blustery and definitely arctic, with an all-day grey and temps in the mid-20s. A long-simmered hearty soup full of beef and cheese and bacon was about as on-target as I could get, for an old man whose ideas are not always stellar.
"Slow Cooker Bacon Cheeseburger Soup," from Holly Lofthouse of Life in the Lofthouse.
A window of opportunity last Friday morning coincided with ripened bananas on the countertop, and from the oven late morning emerged a warm and delicious loaf of Starbucks-style banana bread. With the last of my second cup of coffee to go with it, the snack was a well-regarded triumph of small and limited proportions.
"Starbucks Copycat Banana Nut Bread," from Liz of LifeLoveLiz.com. [Published 25 March 2015]
Seven years after starting the renovation and addition project that led to the creation of the kitchen space I love so much, I piloted a never-before-tried recipe for sautéed rainbow trout, depending on a recipe from the cookbook my sister Allison gave me. Seven years after that, I decided to make it for the second time. It represented a special-seeming supper for a quiet Thursday night, when winter's capacity to be ugly and dreary was strongly felt. A meal like this can certainly make one feel a bit better about everything, particularly when the sides include creamy grits and roasted asparagus cuts.
It was one of those cold damp drizzly bone-chilling January days, and to get over the numb hands and the fruitless search for warmth, I lit up Fire No. 76 and kept it going through the evening. I was freezing most of the day.
Based on "Sautéed Sunburst Red Rainbow Trout with Spinach and Roasted Red Bell Peppers," by Elisabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. In Tupelo Honey Cafe: New Southern Flavors from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2014), p. 144-145.
Adaped from "Creamy Grits," from Luquire Family Stone Ground Grits, milled in Greenwood, SC.
Last Wednesday night, I took the chicken that was left over from the previous evening's meal and turned it into a particularly delicious chicken salad. That could have been all that was needed, either piled high on a plate or lumped onto a brioche bun. But I had English muffins on hand and had bought a tomato, so instead it was all converted into open-faced chicken salad melts, with an unnecessary square of American cheese on top. Together with a mix of fruit, it was a refreshing supper that suitably satisfied.
One might argue that I'd worked up a pretty good appetite by continuing to labor against the thick sheet of ice that was lingering on the whole driveway, following our small bit of snow and large dose of sleet over the weekend.
With a fair amount of sunshine and temps just north of 50F, it certainly helped the endeavor but did not render it completely easy. I was able to extract larger chunks of this slippery driveway covering to tote down to the street curb.
Sumner supervised part of the time, and I can see in this final picture that he thinks my pile could have been more impressive.
Last Monday, an icy sheet of sleet and snow covered the landscape. This let me indulge my rare but joyful pasttime of shoveling the driveway and sidewalk and such, beginning with a path to the azaleas where Sumner so faithfully does his business.
Because it was the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, I had plenty of time to clear the steps without fear that mail delivery would be treacherous for the carrier. We don't want the postman to slip twice, much less once!
I guess I worked up a good enough appetite for a weeknight feast: seasoned rotisserie-style whole chicken, cooked in the Instant Pot, along with roasted broccoli florets and spiced roasted Yukon gold potatoes. It was all pretty freakin' good, I must say.
"How to Cook Instant Pot Whole Chicken - Rotisserie Style," by Sheena from GlutenFreePressureCooker.com.
"Rotisserie Chicken Seasoning," by Judith Hanneman, The Midnight Baker.
Inspired by the example of dear friend Amy, I tried making honeycrisp apple fritters for the evening sweet treat last Sunday night. It's not often I'll make fried things, and so this was an exceptional and rare treat. And a treat it was, all warm and delicious with that sweet glaze to boot. I am a fan of apple, and these did not disappoint.
"Cinnamon Spiced Apple Fritters with Vanilla Coffee Glaze," from Tieghan Girard of Half-Baked Harvest. [Published 11 September 2020]
We dodged a huge ice/freezing rain bullet in Winston-Salem last Sunday. The early forecast as this storm system was coming together put us on a dicey line, depending on how things shifted, that would lead either to 3 to 5 inches of snow, or a terrible mix of not enough snow, a good dose of sleet, and as much as a quarter inch of ice.
The event started not at 3 am as predicted, but closer to 5:30 am. The tiniest of flakes were just beginning when I got up with Sumner that morning. For a brief while, there was a lovely thick snowfall but by late morning it switched over to sleet. And then came the blustery gusts, forecast to reach speeds of 35 mph.
Those huge front doors in this 1905 house are not especially well-sealed but I was to learn there was more than just cold air drafts to be concerned about. While there is an abundant covered front porch that these doors find shelter in, they were no match for the gusts and heavy sleet, as shown in this short video:
The next photo does not show it well enough, but the height of the sleet pile on the towel I put down was incredible.
It stayed in the low 20s all day and, fortunately, those arctic-level winds were only menacing the house through the afternoon. The whole thing ended with a very, very short period of harmless mist that did freeze on contact but left no significant traces of any glaze, and almost as quiickly it shifted into a few flurries...and then it was all done.
With fears of ice, broken limbs, and downed power lines, fueled by all the local television news speculation (and these were all very reasonable warnings, no doubt), I decided to make the main meal of the day at lunchtime, before the greater threat of a power outage. In the bowls were coconut-red curry braised boneless beef short ribs, served with the curry cooking sauce over quinoa.
"Coconut-Red Curry Braised Short Ribs," by Mark Huxsoll in Cook's Country, December 2021/January 2022, p. 28.
Last Saturday was grey and cold with a biting nip in the air, fully anticipating the winter weather event that rolled in later that night and that proved to be a cold, cold wintry event all day on Sunday. Here in Winston-Salem, we spent Saturday knowing we were forecast to be on the line between full snow and mostly ice...and with lots of blustery gusts to accompany whatever ultimately rolled over us. It was perfect for a Saturday afternoon fire, though, which was No. 75 in the ongoing fire-counting chronicle.
The City aggressively brined the streets, as might be visible in this photo (above) of Spring Street in front of the house, from that morning. You might also spot where someone apparently heaved up a Buick over night, in the lower right corner.
When I was on faculty at Wake Forest University, I had a series of events throughout the year that were designed to bring my social studies crews together. The January event was a Chili Cook-Off, generally held in conjunction with the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend. Even after I left WFU, the tradition persisted for quite a few years: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. (The blog was begun in late 2008, and the house was under construction in early 2009.)
Ah, but these last few years, aflicted with the coronavirus pandemic and the shifted directions that all the most regular folks have moved onto, has pretty much brought the "cook-off" aspect to an end. But I still like making chili right about this time, and that's what happened last Saturday, with plenty to take in to-go containers to friends and neighbors.
"Simple Beef Chili with Kidney Beans," from Cook's Illustrated, Number Sixty-One [March-April 2003], p. 10-11.
With the renovation/addition project of 2008-2009, all of the old bathrooms were demolished...not merely renovated. Seriously: the actual physical spaces they once occupied were completely dismantled and all of that old material was hauled away to the landfill. In its place is "brand-new" construction that included a new master bathroom, a new powder room, a new main bathroom for the second floor, and a new private bathroom for each guest bedroom. Out went four old toilets, and in came five new contractor-grade toilets. In the master bathroom, the most-used toilet of them all has not held up all that great. For years, I've not been able to control poor seals that allowed a constant leak of water down to the bowl, meaning it was regularly replenishing the tank. Over the last year or so, there have been a lot of handle and flapper issues, too. Most recently, I noticed some cracking in the evacuation channel, suggesting the ceramics were possibly giving out. After 18 years as a homeowner, I've now had occasion to replace my first toilet, which occurred last Friday. It was mostly simple, really, and it sure is nice to have a dependable and problem-free toilet again. I do have a lot to learn about caulk, though.
This past summer, with some ground lamb on hand and a hankering to try something new, it led me to make a marvelous meat-potato-onion-herb hash. A few weeks later, I tried the same approach but this time with some breakfast sausage. Last Thursday evening, I brought out this recipe another time, with good hot country sausage, but upped the final result with a delicious fried egg sitting on top. It proved a satisfying endeavor.
Based on "Rosemary Garlic Ground Lamb and Potatoes," by Ashley Singh Thomas, founder of the food blog My Heart Beets.
We had planned a mid-week gathering of five this past Wednesday, but a close contact exposure for one of the couples meant they stayed at home to quarantine and self-isolate. I'd already put in motion an easy slow-cooker meal, inspired by a 99-cents-a-pound special on Boston Butt pork shoulders, plus the ease of overnight cooking...the grand total of that convergence of factors made pulled pork barbecue a marvelous dinner decision. The beauty of it was how easy it was to pack up and drop off at their apartment door so that they were still fed! And a nice heap of Mother's sweet southern coleslaw, to boot! I realize we had just had pulled pork a couple of weeks prior, but what's not to love about this filling and flavorful meal?
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 a recipe from Allison M. Jones.
I was given clear instructions to bring the joy of post-supper pool-playing to an end this past Tuesday night so that I could report to the kitchen...and not emerge until I had lemon sugar cookies ready to share. I complied.
"Lemon Sugar Cookies," from Melissa Stadler of ModernHoney.com. [Published 21 March 2016]
Following all the big and special eating associated with the holidays, I was more than delighted to return last Tuesday to a good roasted salmon dinner, with the commonly recurring associated pile of roasted broccoli. I had spent the morning at a session at High Point University and was glad to find excellent slabs of salmon fillet at the Harris Teeter on Eastchester, since my longtime home HT store has really gone downhill. And that afternoon marked the arrival of a final holiday period guest, my friend and colleague Jeremy, who came in from Lynchburg.
Once I realized I had some ground beef that needed to be cooked, I cycled through my easy options for last Monday evening's dinner before settling on the marvelous Boogaloo Wonderland sandwiches that were well-suited to that January day. One might consider these an especially tasty do-over of what otherwise could have been an ordinary sloppy joe, although piling it all up on brioche buns with a slice of American cheese on top, and oven-toasted, makes 'em suitably special.
The all-day chill under sunny and occasionally blustery skies propelled me to light a fire that morning, on the first full weekday of complete quiet after a good stretch of family here over the holidays. In my ridiculous ongong chronicle, this was Fire No. 74 in the wood-burning fireplace added along with the rebuilt kitchen, completed in early 2009.
The winds were stronger than I'd expected, and a couple of blasts were sufficient to send smoke billowing back down the chimney and into the kitchen area mid-afternoon. While I really enjoy walking outside on a crisp winter day with wood smoke lingering about, I prefer that it not be the scent of my kitchen. Nonetheless, I was able to get in some good writing time while the soothing warmth brought an added element of comfort to that nice fireside space.
"Boogaloo Wonderland Sandwiches," by Bryan Roof. In Cook's Country, April/May 2018, p. 4-5. Recipe has also been reproduced and tinkered with a bit by Cully's Kitchen. Link to "Boogaloo Wonderland Sandwiches." [Published 10 April 2018]
Before my sister and her family left for their journeys back to Charlotte and Indiana last Saturday, we had a bit of breakfast grub. The crew was most excited simply for there to be creamy cheesy grits, but I also threw in some marvelous sous vide bacon, onion, and Gruyère egg cups, as well as slices of the previous evening's farmhouse buttermilk cake. I think it was all reasonably well received but, as might be expected, the sad note on which it ended was their departures.
Based on "How to Sous Vide Egg Bites at Home," from Jenna Passaro of SipBiteGo.com. [Published 08 July 2021 / Modified 31 August 2021]
Cheesy grits adapted from: Luquire Family Stone Ground Grits, milled in Greenwood, SC.
With family all here last Friday night, it seemed wise to offer up dessert following our lasagna supper. I had farm-style buttermilk ready to use, plus some pecans I'd already chopped, and it was easy to go with farmhouse buttermilk cake. The problem, of course, is that I like it too much.
"Farmhouse Buttermilk Cake," from King Arthur Baking Company.
This past week was a small return to work for me following the holidays, with an hour-long online virtual session last Wednesday and an all-day masked in-person session Thursday on the campus of High Point University. An exciting additional feature of the week is the relocation of my nephew and his wife from Cincinnati to Charlotte. The Roediger House was the overnight stopping point in the wee hours Wednesday night, including their huge U-Haul and the supporting company of my sister and her younger son as well. They were all in Charlotte Thursday for the unpacking. Allison and Eli were back here that night, and then Kirk and Janelle came back to Winston and spent Friday night with us. In the picture above, you can see them enjoying the pool table: Eli is taking a shot, Kirk is not quite glaring at the photographer, and Kirk's wife Janelle awaits her turn to shoot.
For Friday night's dinner, we had lasagna along with cheesy garlic bread.
I also made homemade Thousand Island dressing for our garden sald, plus homemade croutons. We cleaned our plates pretty well, I'd say, but still left a bit of room for dessert...to be featured in tomorrow's blog post.
"World's Best Lasagna," by John Chandler (Dallas, TX). Found online at AllRecipes.com.
Adapted from "Thousand Island Dressing," from Graybert on GeniusKitchen.com.
"Croutons," by Marg CaymanDesigns on GeniusKitchen.com.
