Meal No. 3081: Roasted Salmon over Caesar Salad

In between rounds of those sinful cinnamon roll doughnuts a little more than a week ago, I felt compelled to make that Wednesday meal a healthy one: roasted salmon on a Caesar-dressed salad seemed called for. That let me use the last of the creamy Caesar dressing I'd made not too long ago, and also allowed me to indulge the salmon I so enjoy.

It was a fantastic spring day that Wednesday, with the gladiolus byzantinus bringing out their initial blooms, and lots of bright sunshine even if it stayed in the low 60s. I brought out my mountain bike, cleaned it up a bit, pumped up the tires, and did my first ride of the season to break it—and me—in, limiting myself to a kind 7.1 miles.

Glazed Cinnamon Roll Doughnuts

This year Tax Day was Monday April 18th, a cold and dreary and depressingly rainy day. Or: perfect for the long hours at the kitchen table, working through all the forms and documentation and instructions and calculations. Once it is all done and dropped off at the post office, my thoughts turn to how best to reward those labors, which is often with some wonderful baking endeavor in mind. The next day, Tuesday, I got busy with a new recipe: fried glazed cinnamon roll doughnuts.

The dough rose wonderfully.

Just like regular cinnamon rolls, you spread the cinnamon-brown sugar filling onto the dough and roll it up and cut the rounds for rolls.

They also rose up well.

The fallacy in the recipe or the foolishness in my approach resides in this simple dilemma: how in the world would a cinnamon-sugar filling stand up to deep frying? So the first rolls unraveled and shed their sweet internal goodness into the frying oil.

The later ones held up better when I tried to pinch all the dough a bit tighter. The simple vanilla glaze was quite good. These rascals were something! For my 14th attempt at some form of cinnamon roll, according to my blog entries, this one was a unique belly-pleaser.

My experience with doughnuts is limited, at least from the standpoint of making them. I tried Krispy Kreme copycats back in 2014, and I made Cro-Nuts in 2020. I've also tried my hand twice at beignets, once back before building the new kitchen and again in 2013.

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Wait: there's more! I made a base for vanilla ice milk and churned it the next morning so that it would set up by that Wednesday evening...

...at which time I heated up a skillet, put some pats of butter in it, sliced a couple of the remaining cinnamon roll doughnuts, and griddled them to a chewy toasted gloriousness, so that I could add more of the glaze and then top them with scoops of that creamy vanilla ice milk. This let me approximate the "grillswith" dessert popular at the University Diner, the White Spot, and the former Sloan's in Charlottesville, where I lived in the late 1990s. (A fuller related blog post can be found here.) Oh. My. Gosh. A. Maze. Zing.

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Based on "Dunkin Style Cinnamon Rolls," from Nazeeha Khan of My Secret Bakes.

"Simplest Vanilla Glaze," by Mark and Michael Klebeck with Jess Thomson. In Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts: Secrets and Recipes for the Home Baker. San Francisco: Chronicle Books (2011), p. 132.

"Classic Vanilla Ice Milk," by Stella Parks, Pastry Wizard of SeriousEats.com. [Published 22 August 2018 / Updated 15 April 2020]

Hot Cross Buns

Easter Sunday morning, I did a thing: hot cross buns for the first time.

It's one of those things I've wanted to try. They were pretty doughy but still tasted pretty good, especially with the Moravian Love Feast-style sweet milked coffee I made to go with 'em.

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"Hot Cross Buns," from Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTinEats.com. [Published 08 April 2020; Updated 08 April 2021]

Meal No. 3080: Barbecue Chicken Pizza

After a tiny spell of morning showers moved out on Saturday a week ago, it turned into another lovely spring day, and I was of a mind to grill...while also jonesing for some deep dish pizza. Those two compulsions combined perfectly into a barbecue chicken pizza that night, based on the pan pizza dough recipe from the marvelous J. Kenji López-Alt. I had spiced, and left to sit overnight in that dry rub, some bone-in chicken thighs, which I grilled that afternoon.

I'd already made the mostly-no-knead dough the night before, and it rose and puffed up beautifully. Mid-afternoon, I gave it a bit more nudging with some light kneading before leaving it alone in a cast iron skillet and a 9-inch cake pan for a final rise and rest.

With a base of homemade barbecue sauce, the diced grilled chicken, red onion, fresh-fried bacon, and two kinds of cheese...it was a stupendous supper on a Saturday.

The portion of dough tossed into the 9-inch cake pan was not ready that night, so I let it rest and rise another 24 hours. Easter Sunday night was a glorious repeat of Saturday, with an even crisper tastier crust.

Most of Easter Sunday was warm and sunny and breezy, before clouds moved in late afternoon. The sunshine on the corner azalea in the grove highlighted my favorite color and style of that spring beauty.

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Deep-Dish Pizza Dough based on "Fool-Proof Pan Pizza" [Updated 03 January 2020], by J. Kenji López-Alt, former culinary director of SeriousEats.com.

"Wild Willy's Number One-derful Rub," in Smoke & Spice, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 2003, p. 171.

Meal No. 3079: Simple Beef Chili with Beans

Yet again I found myself caught with fresh ground beef that was near the due date for using it up. Without plans for any company over the "do-my-taxes" weekend, I got a head start with prep, and then got the beef and spices cooked, and then had it ready to serve for supper on the Ides of April, topped with cheese and tasty as always.

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"Simple Beef Chili with Kidney Beans," from Cook's Illustrated, Number Sixty-One [March-April 2003], p. 10-11.

Meal No. 3078: Emeril's Skillet Beef Stroganoff

Back on Thursday, April 14th, it was a good night to depend on the ease and delight of skillet beef stroganoff, for a filling and delicious dinner at the end of another hopeful spring day.

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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. 3077: Chicken Shawarma on Homemade Flatbread

I ventured into some new territory Wednesday, April 13th: grilled chicken shawarma on homemade flatbreads, with an easy yogurt sauce and an ample mounding of diced tomato and onion (and a smattering of romaine). The well-spiced overnight marinade gave the chicken thighs terrific flavor and the grilling process turned out perfectly tender and juicy portions to carve into bite-sized morsels.

Having recently tried my hand at homemade naan, I was perhaps all the more inclined to give flatbreads a go. They were not shapely and I still allowed them to be a bit thick overall...but they proved tasty and ideal as the bottom layer of the combined affair. Overall, this was a pretty smashing meal, if the chef himself may say so.

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"Chicken Shawarma (Middle Eastern)," from Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTinEats.com. [Published 06 February 2022]

"Easy Soft Flatbread (No Yeast)," from Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTinEats.com. [Published 11 July 2016; Updated 17 February 2022]

Meal No. 3076: Grilled Filet Mignon

On Tuesday a week ago, the lottery drawing to help whittle down the overstocked freezer produced a slip for filet mignon, so the vacuum-sealed and prepped portions were pulled out and gently cooked to 120°F in the sous vide immersion circulator that afternoon...and then finished nicely on the hot grill. Spiced baby potatoes and garlicked asparagus cuts made it a total affair of the appetites.

Meal No. 3075: Pesto-Ricotta-Mozzarella Pan Pizza

On Monday a week ago, after many weeks of craving it, I finally got around to making some fantastic deep-dish pan pizza, with a pesto base and topped simply with ricotta and mozzarella cheeses. I was a bit inattentive in the dough-making process and ended up with a rather dough-y result, and yet all three of those pieces were delicious and the third, in particular, was beyond what was wise.

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"Fool-Proof Pan Pizza" [Updated 03 January 2020] and "Pesto Pizza" [Updated 27 February 2019], by J. Kenji López-Alt, former culinary director of SeriousEats.com.

Meal No. 3074: Chicken Salad Sandwiches

I tossed an extra spiced chicken breast into the sous vide back in early April so that I'd have the key ingredient for another batch of zesty chicken salad for sandwiches on Sunday, April 10th. The Moroccan seasoning on the chicken paired well with the Korean barbecue sauce I added to the dressing, and on brioche buns it was a hard-to-beat easy Sunday supper.

The previous day's unseasonable chill, overcast skies, and menacing breezes made the bright sunshine of that Sunday morning particularly welcome. It gave me a positive fresh view of the just-cut front yard (above) but also granted Sumner a podium for a regal stance atop the front wall:

The third rotation of daffodils has emerged as well:

That weekend also was a full show by the largest azalea along the south property line, where this past year saw the loss of a number of those azaleas:

Since there still remained some of that scotch chocolate cake, for the evening's dessert offering, I powered the walk with Sumner late that afternoon, clocking in at 6.2 miles.

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Loosely based on "Chicken Salad Melt," a Roediger House original recipe.

Scotch Chocolate Cake

Back on April 9th, following the chicken tikka masala meal, and a short break for some upstairs time and a bit of pool playing, I had dessert to serve up for our gathering of six good souls: Scotch chocolate cake, an evil chocolate indulgence of remarkable palate-pleasing stature. We decided that the chocolate was not a muted feature of this sweet treat. I made sure I sent a lot of it home with the guests, because I cannot resist its ongoing allure.

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"Scotch Chocolate Cake," [in my world, also known as Texas sheet cake]. Credited to Susie Timmons. From "Popular: Cake Request Gets 22 Responses," by Michael Hastings, Food Editor of the Winston-Salem Journal. Published October 6, 2010.

Meal No. 3073: Chicken Tikka Masala

The wonderful crew of regulars was at the house Saturday night a week ago, and the menu was planned for its combination of goodness, ease, quantity, and appeal. I brought out of the archives a recipe for slow-cooker chicken tikka masala that was pretty popular a decade ago when I first got it from Cuisine at Home, the source of a lot of good dishes here. It is serviceable enough without necessarily being outstanding. Served over basmati rice along with spiced roasted cauliflower, it all proved reasonably satisfactory.

Ah, but I ventured into uncharted territory by trying my hand at garlic naan, which ended up being pretty good, I would say. Not bad for a first attempt!

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"Indian Chicken Curry (Tikka Masala)," from Cuisine at Home, Issue 85 (February 2011), p. 14-15.

Based on "Roasted Cauliflower," from Cuisine at Home, Issue 85 (February 2011), p. 15.

"Garlic Naan," from Chef John of AllRecipes.com.

Mexican Restaurant White Dipping Sauce (Virginia-Style)

I have found the singular occasion when apparently I am required to use Miracle Whip instead of my beloved Duke's mayonnaise: to replicate the Virginia-centric small-town (mostly) Mexican restaurant white dipping sauce. Always strangely addictive when little bowls of it have been placed along with the expected salsa, while I'd wait for my arroz con pollo in Bedford or Woodstock or Luray, it should not be confused with white cheese sauce. The limited research I have done on it suggests it originated in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and spread from there. I finally stumbled onto some copycat recipes and tinkered enough to produce my own seductive rendering of it, which did not last long in its maiden voyage through the Roediger House kitchen in early April.

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"Mexican Restaurant White Dipping Sauce," a recipe worked out by me, sampled by Spring Street, and approved of by all.

Meal No. 3072: Peruvian Chicken Breasts

Another morning without a definite plan for the dinner menu, so it was a return to the lottery drawing jar to figure out what to pull from the prepped packages in the freezer. On Friday the 8th the slip drawn was for Peruvian chicken breasts, which went into the sous vide to gently cook to a tender juiciness for supper, and then was served with stuffing and garlicked asparagus cuts. It was yet another belly-buster in the Roediger House.

Sumner and I managed to get in our big walk mid-day, and he found a baby squirrel to be rather interesting, over on Sixth Street. It looked like it might have fallen from the nest above, or slipped in one of his early efforts to run around on the high limbs of his home tree. Regardless, Sumner sniffed at him and then we moved on and left the little bugger to find his way, or to be found by his kinfolk.

Meal No. 3071: Sheet Pan Sweet Pork Nachos

Tucked away in a vacuum-sealed bag in the freezer was a healthy portion of saved Cafe Rio sweet pork. That was the slip drawn from the lottery jar to determine dinner on Tuesday a week ago. The sous vide set-up is not only good for cooking a fresh protein, but it also reheats frozen leftovers quite nicely. So I made a huge pan of sweet pork nachos, served with some lime crema, and it was delicious.

Meal No. 3070: Chicken Caesar Salad

Back on Monday night, April 4th, the sous vide meal as determined by the lottery drawing was for garlicked chicken breasts, which sat nicely atop a creamy Caesar-dressed salad.

And then I finished up the evening with a batch of chocolate sugar cookies. Because that's what you do after a salad supper.

Although it did not turn out as hoped, I did go to work that morning sporting North Carolina Tar Heels colors in anticipation of that Monday night's NCAA Men's Championship game. I was too nervous again to actually watch it and spent game time doing a five-mile walk around downtown. Although UNC lost by three points to the victorious Kansas Jayhawks, and that result came with understandable disappointment, there was no denying the the 8th-seeded underdog Tar Heels had a heckuva run in the 2022 tournament.

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"Chocolate Sugar Cookies," by Lindsay Conchar of LifeLoveandSugar.com. [Published 25 November 2020]

Lemon Velvet Cake

The remarkable dessert following our Cuban pork roast back on April 2nd was the glorious lemon velvet cake that I've made a handful of times. It is just an incredible recipe, one of many that Barry Parsons has gifted to the internet world. Between the six of us that Saturday night, plus a few containers given away to neighbors, only two slices were left for the following night's dessert.

After the guests departed and I'd finished with clean-up, tip-off of the semi-final game between my North Carolina Tar Heels and their arch-rival, Duke University, had occurred. I was much too nervous to watch or listen. So I decided to take my evening walk, stretching it out to over six miles. By the time I got home, brushed my teeth, and otherwise delayed as long as possible, I was able finally to pull up the status of the game, with three seconds left. And the glorious final game of the 42-year career of Mike Krzyzewski, in the first NCAA meeting of UNC and Duke, ended in a UNC victory...meaning the all-time record between 1st-year Carolina Coach Hubert Davis and the dreaded Coach K etched into perpetuity is 2-1.

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"Lemon Velvet Cake," from Barry C. Parsons of RockRecipes.com.

Meal No. 3069: Cuban Mojo Pork Roast

When the Boston butt pork roast is on a 97-cents-a-pound special, you don't ask questions; you just buy it. And with a crew of folks coming over on the first Saturday of April, it was a delightful opportunity to bring back the Cuban pork roast with citrus mojo.

I returned to the oven-roasting method (after its overnight marinade) but it loses some flavor compared to the slow-cooker approach.

It was a nice spread, with macaroni salad as a side. Oh, you ought to have partaken of the homemade cilantro lime sauce, speaking of spreads, that was awesome together with a successful first experiment of making my own ciabatta rolls:

It began the night before with making a biga, which bubbled up into a perfect starter:

Once I'd mixed it into the rest of the flour and water and salt and yeast, and kneaded it for about 15 minutes, it rose marvelously over the next three hours:

It seemed like a soupy sticky dough once it was ready to divide out into rolls, but that part of the process was not as tricky as I thought. I mean, I did not get exactly shapely rolls but boy howdy did they bake up to be awesome.

That morning was the Half-Craft Half-Marathon, which included a race route right by the house, which proved quite entertaining for Sumner:

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Adapted from "Pork Shoulder Roast with Citrus Mojo & Creamy Cilantro-Lime Sauce," by Alex Roberts of Brasa (Minneapolis, MN). Recipe in Food & Wine, May 2012, p. 152, 154.

Additional ideas gleaned from "Cilantro Lime Sauce," from Alexa Blay of Key to My Lime. [Published 04 September 2019]

"How to Make Ciabatta Rolls and Bread at Home," by Emma Christensen of TheKitchn.com. [Published 21 January 2020]

Macaroni Salad based on "Classic Macaroni Salad," by Jaclyn Bell of CookingClassy.com [Published 15 April 2017 / Updated 05 June 2020]