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.]
A hankering for beef last Wednesday propelled my greedy hands into the freezer's treasure trove of prepped proteins, and out came a couple of filet mignon steaks well-suited to the sous vide, and then great for the grill. A mess of roasted garlicky asparagus spears and cuts rode alongside on the served-up supper plates, and hunger was wrestled down to defeat on that winsome midweek evening.
Was I a happy dinner patron of my own kitchen this pst Tuesday night? Why, yes I was, with roasted spiced salmon sitting next to roasted broccoli florets on a supper platter.
We are in that fortunate season at the Roediger House when I have time and am also inspired to work on checking items off the always-present to-do list. The photo above can showcase one of those matters: for 12 years now, I've had to slowly watch the disintegration of the tile grout in the master bathroom...
...ultimately leading to a completely dislodged tile right in front of the sink.
A little background: the first major project I undertook with the Roediger House, after buying it in 2003, occurred in late 2008 into 2009: demolishing the old kitchen and very sad bathrooms on the back of the house and building a completely new and much-expanded kitchen area and several bathrooms. My general contractor, Peter R. Laroque of Mocksville, NC, was mostly good and I was pleased for 90 percent of it all. Ah, but as the project neared its conclusion all those years ago, there were elements that he did not finish up as he should have. One of the persistent problems has been in the bathroom tile work, where there was cracking and loose tiles occurring within a year or so of the job wrapping up.
Over the last week or so I reached back out to Todd Sink of Amazing Tile by Todd to come take care of the loose tile in the master bathroom. Mr. Sink installed the backsplash in the kitchen in 2017, which looks great even still. He does very nice work and he is able to offer terrific craftmanship without gouging the customer...a rare combination especially when one is looking for skilled expertise in a city environment...and in an old house like this.
Mr. Sink was here last Tuesday, to take up most of the center tile so that he could grind and clean the quickset from the undersides, and he dug out most of the rest of the grout throughout the floor. He set the tile that afternoon and returned on Wednesday to fill in the grout. It's amazing to have the floor whole again, and especially to no longer have tile rockin' and rollin' underfoot!
After a short stretch of being kind of good about desserts and sweets, I gave in to the urge last Sunday night to make a batch of pudding. This time, it was a return to vanilla bean, and it was many happy returns, at that.
"Vanilla Pudding," from the Food Network Kitchens.
The crew of RoHo regulars faithfully reported for a Saturday night hang over the weekend, and it was all the incentive required to bust out the glorious lasagna recipe that I've been making since 2010. The recipe has legions of loyalists and remains atop the AllRecipes download heap. It has never disappointed us. A nice crisp garden salad seemed called for but I wanted to dress it up with homemade dressing. In my world, lasagna is best accompanied by Thousand Island, and it was pretty spot on if not a bit pickle-y. Ah, but the novelty that evening was a first-time attempt at restaurant-style breadsticks.
They were not exactly pretty but they were more than pretty good. I was happy to hear the table's rave reviews so I guess it will be a happy obligation to bring them back.
Let's also take note of the terrific start to that Saturday: a long-overdue visit from Byron and Laura Hoover and family, as they circled back home from a grand nation-crossing summer vacation trip. An advisee from my days on faculty at Wake Forest University, Byron was a fantastic student but an even more remarkable teacher. The Hoovers are among my favorite people in the world and the old man can't quite wrap his mind around the fact that they are parents of a 15-year-old (as well as two other fine children). I made Byron take home a notebook with a collection of my article drafts, suitable punishment for him given how earnestly he has long encouraged me to write.
"World's Best Lasagna," by John Chandler (Dallas, TX). Found online at AllRecipes.com.
Adapted from "Thousand Island Dressing," from Graybert on GeniusKitchen.com.
"Copycat Olive Garden Breadsticks," from Tessa Arias of HandletheHeat.com. [Published 13 December 2013]
Oh, such heat and humidity were oppressively settled onto Winston-Salem this past Friday! I made my shopping runs separately because of how quickly refrigerated or frozen items were wilting and sweating in these summer doldrums. But I also needed to cut the grass (even though it's been so hot and mostly dry that it's been over a month since the last mowing). All that's to say: dinner was reduced to the ease of frying up bacon to serve as the centerpiece of cheddar and American cheeses melted onto brioche hamburger buns. Really kind of hard to beat!
I'm not especially thrilled to yet again require a visit from my longtime HVAC team with Webb Heating and Air Conditioning...but the downstairs condensate pump busted and that brings the system to an unceremonious halt. Perhaps a bit of summer fortune shown on us last Thursday when there was no cooling on the main floor because a heckuva storm blew through mid-day and kept the high temps at bay, mostly. The technician made it to the house a bit after 5:30 pm, which meant he walked past the burgers in the sous vide and the grill I was pre-heating (to finish off the cooked patties and, more importantly, to cheese 'em up once he completed the repairs). With some barbecue kettle chips as a tempting and unwise side, it was a suitable supper on another fine summer night.
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 in 1921, 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.
I was overdue for a grocery run and had spent part of my day doing assessment interviews down at High Point University last Wednesday, so I got the sous vide immersion circulator going in the early afternoon when I returned. Once it was heated, in went prepped vacuum-sealed Peruvian-spiced boneless chicken breasts. As they approached their finished stage, I stirred up Brussels sprouts with olive oil and gave 'em some good shakes and grinds of salt and pepper so they could roast up nicely. A quick batch of stuffing on the stovetop finished out the plates and it was a hearty and filling meal when it was all done.
This past Tuesday's return to breakfast for dinner meant a second go at the delicious banana bread pancakes, along with bananas foster syrup. This was one of the recipes I unearthed when doing a summer morning coffeetime exploration of randomly-grabbed old recipe magazines from the shelf in the butler's pantry...and I'm glad I did. The likelihood of me not wasting ripe bananas anymore has greatly increased with this as a new avenue for their use.
"Banana Bread Pancakes" and "Bananas Foster Syrup," from Cuisine at Home, Issue No. 103 (January/February 2014), p. 23.
Last Sunday's evening meal was over 24 hours in the making, thanks to the guidance of the marvelous J. Kenji López-Alt, from his time at SeriousEats.com: vacuum-sealed prepped baby back pork ribs pulled from the freezer and put in a 152°F immersion bath. Perfectly tender meat clinging lightly to the ribs, that I then sauced slightly and put under the broiler for a few minutes. I used up the last of a bag of russet potatoes to cube and spice, and then roast; I reached into the larder to bring out an increasingly-rare can of green beans.
Guidance for Pork Ribs from "Sous Vide Barbecue Pork Ribs," from J. Kenji López-Alt, former Culinary Director and current Culinary Consultant of SeriousEats.com. [Updated 27 May 2021]
Last Saturday's supper was pretty straightforward: homemade chicken salad with pecans and apples, served on brioche buns, and supplemented with Sun Chips. It had an extra zing to it thanks to a splash of Korean barbecue sauce, but it was balanced out by the bit of honey I mixed in as well.
Fighting a strange slight feeling of malaise and inertia for too much of Thursday afternoon put me in a bind at dinnertime, so I had to dive into the freezer to see what was sous vide-worthy. Out came Peruvian-spiced chicken thighs, that paired excellently with blackening-spiced roasted potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts.
To finish the evening with a bit of a sweet treat, I brought back the amazing lemon sugar cookies that have fans up and down the street and across school districts throughout the region. I hadn't made them since March, curiously, and that confession should reveal how much wisdom I am sometimes known to lack.
"Lemon Sugar Cookies," from Melissa Stadler of ModernHoney.com. [Published 21 March 2016]
Kind of surprised to see I hadn't made sheet pan beef nachos since February, given how easy and delicious and cravable they are. That was rectified this past Wednesday night, just as storms rolled through Winston-Salem, to the happy delight of the Four Guys at the dinner table.
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]
With friend and colleague Jeremy coming in for a few days to visit last Tuesday, I had a prepped meal that could easily be tossed into the oven depending upon his travel down from Virginia. And it had the remarkable virtue of being that rare treat of BFD: breakfast for dinner. The main feature was savory bread pudding, a definite step-up from the typical bread-milk-sausage-cheese casserole that was a staple of my growing-up years. I also made creamy grits and had some strawberries and blackberries for color and a sweet side.
And speaking of sweet things, I had some limes that looked like they were aging a bit and so I juiced them and found them to be perfect for a large batch of shortbread lime bars to celebrate the Verdant Fantastica Full Moon that was gracing us that mid-week. Isn't that shade of green perfect for the special occasion?
"Savory Bread Pudding," from King Arthur Baking. [recipe clipping]
Guidance for making the creamy grits: Luquire Family Stone Ground Grits, milled in Greenwood, SC.
Adapted from "Lemon Bars," by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. Published in Barefoot Contessa Parties!, Clarkson Potter Publishers, 2001.
A bit of leftover salmon is always ideal for croquettes, and ideal for dipping said croquettes is a fresh batch of homemade chili-garlic-lime aioli. Monday's mid-day meal was this fantastic combination, bonused beautifully by roasted garlicky asparagus spears and cuts.
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.
Prices are up on everything, and when the salmon was on a sale that put it back down to, well, what it had gone up to just before the real spike in price, I had to indulge in a ready and rapid repeat of the spiced roasted fillet with roasted broccoli florets. Lordy, I can eat that up as if I'd just been rescued from several weeks adrift at sea. That's what satisfied my appetite late Sunday afternoon, a misty drizzly grey day where we finally had a break in the heatwave. That night was ripe for a still-misty 5.25-mile walk through the West Salem and the West End Neighborhoods.
The cast of usual suspects dutifully reported for a Saturday evening of hanging out this past weekend, and I really wrangled over the dinner menu. Eventually, I settled on supper-sized baked beans, a savory and quite filling dish shared with me long ago by home-cooking culinary guide Stick Coulson, a former boss from my grad school days as a dorm hall director at Wake Forest, some 30+ years ago. And it had been a while since I made sweet Southern cornbread, so that was a cast-iron-skillet tag-along for the crew.
I do want so much to also offer up some desserts to these fine friends when they come over, and a new recipe emerged from my mental menu match-making: pink lemonade sheet cake with a lemony buttercream frosting. I chose a food coloring that was more fuscia than pink so they all swore they could taste blueberry in it!
"Baked Beans," from Redith Mozelle Newman Quesenberry (1927-2019) of Carroll County, Virginia, via Cindy Coulson of Cana, VA.
"Sweet Southern Cornbread," adapted from "Golden Sweet Cornbread," from bluegirl on AllRecipes.com.
"Pink Lemonade Cake," from Jocelyn Delk Adams of Grandbaby-Cakes.com. [Published 29 July 2014 / Updated 03 June 2022]
'Tis a July of a seemingly unending string of hot days mixed with summer storms or rain showers. The humidity has, of course, remained quite high. And yet: somehow I decided it was a good idea to make a chowder-y soup this past Friday evening, and what a banger I chose: bacon cheeseburger soup, an indulgent mish-mash of all the wrong things that arrive on one's spoon in all the right ways, come suppertime.
"Bacon Cheeseburger Soup," from Catalina Castravet and Holly Nilsson of SpendwithPennies.com. [Published 01 March 2018]
Reminiscent of the scrumptious sweet desserts that cut through the grease-coated remains of a fried shrimp-and-hushpuppies meal at a waterfront seafood restaurant down on the North Carolina coast, Atlantic Beach pie is always a winning entry in the Roediger House dessert hall of fame, with its creamy goodness and secret-surprise-ingredient crust, all in the style of the better-known Florida key lime pie...but with lemon instead of lime. Awesome enough to have two slices last Thursday night! Addendum: You can probably guess how it made my heart sing when, upon greeting my neighbor the next morning, she immediately said: "Do you have any more of that pie?"
"One Phenomenal Pie: Atlantic Beach Pie," from Chef Bill Smith. Published in Our State Magazine, May 2014. Also featured in "Found Recipes" on All Things Considered from National Public Radio, broadcast April 13, 2013.
Regular blog readers will know that I regularly rave about how much I like the regularly-appearing dinner of spiced roasted salmon fillet together with roasted salt-and-pepper broccoli florets. That was the meal that delighted me so much this past Thursday night.
Wednesday night's meal for three was a third go at chicken spaghetti casserole, a tasty and filling dish that was easy to manage while continuing through the latest episodes of The Boys on Amazon Prime.
"Homemade Chicken Spaghetti," from Holly Nilsson of SpendwithPennies.com. [Published 14 April 2019 / Updated 06 July 2020]
My intention last Tuesday to make it to the grocery store was never realized, so I had to fall back on pulling a prepped protein from the freezer. That ended up being a speedy return to sous vide blackened pork chops that were finished with a good sear (with butter and olive oil) in the cast iron skillet, to then be joined on the plate by roasted spiced potatoes and a nice pile of peas. Those are grandly-proportioned chops but I was not going to be dissuaded from pursuing my mandibular destiny.
Had to have something sweet to start the week, and that ended up being skillet brownies. Way too tempting, way too much sugar, and all so very good.
"Salted Caramel Skillet Brownies," from Maria Lichty of the Two Peas and Their Pod blog. [Published 29 April 2013]
If one has made a delicious batch of creamy Caesar dressing and invested in bags of hearts of romaine, there's gotta be a string of salads for supper. On the Independence Day holiday this past Monday, I tossed prepped beef tenderloin filets into the sous vide immersion circulator and finished them off on a gloriously hot and smoky grill...resulting in perfectly flavored and perfectly medium rare filet mignon to slice and dice for topping a dressed Caesar salad. Gracious, it was glorious.
While the heaviest thunderstorms of the summer thus far were pounding Winston-Salem, dumping a ton of rain and with a period of constant lightning, I was happily grooving away in my kitchen, hard at work on a trial run of a new recipe for red velvet sheet cake. It's a winner, for sure.
"Red Velvet Sheet Cake with Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting," from Lara, The Classy Baker.
November of 2018 is much too long ago for me to have made the wonderfully awesoome Indiana Corn Chowder, which appeared on the Roediger House dinner table to mark the first day of July this past Friday night. The compulsion to make it that evening struck me out of nowhere, really: it hadn't been on my radar or on my mind. I did take a few shortcuts as a result, and it did not seem to compromise the overall result. It was nice to be reminded, by the way, that its last appearance here coincided with a terrific and joyful weekend visit by amazing colleagues from Virginia, who had both recently retired when they ventured down for a weekend getaway.
Adapted from "Indiana Corn and Potato Chowder," by Brannon Soileau from his restaurant Maize, An American Grill (formerly of Lafayette, IN). In Indiana Cooks!, by Christine Barbour and Scott Feickert with photographs by Tom Stio. Bloomington, IN: Quarry Books (2005), p. 64-65. Recipe originally shared with me on 31 December 2006. You can find this, and quite a few other Indiana recipes, if you scroll to the bottom of this article: "Indiana Can Cook" [Published 12 October 2005]. Update: Brannon Soileau's latest adventure is Boss Bagels in San Antonio, Texas.
Fresh hearts of romaine, chopped to desirable proportions for easier consumption, plus a particularly on-target creamy Caesar dressing, and the ease of sous vide chicken breasts with blackening spices: it made for a suitable supper last Thursday evening. The relative restraint that a salad meal might represent was somewhat countered by the later indulgence of hot chocolate pudding, thick and smoothly set up, sweet on the tongue, and all-too-quick to disappear.
Based on "Easy Lemon Caesar Salad Dressing," by Kim of lowcarbmaven.com.
"Hot Chocolate Pudding," from the Food Network Kitchens.
Last Tuesday dawned sunny, breezy, and summertime perfect, and the house pooch Sumner and I could not wait to get outside and enjoy it as we started our day. I grabbed my first cup of joe before the brewing cycle was complete and had the camp chairs set up in the shade of the giant Bradford pear that looms over the Grove. There was frolic time for Sumner and the neighbor's delightful puppy Zoey, followed by reveling in a quiet respite before moving on with the tasks and plans of the day. I'd spent the day before conducting a virtual session with new teachers and administrators at Dakar Academy and depended on leftovers that previous night. It was nice to get back to regular kitchen endeavors Tuesday evening, when Mookie was on hand for dinner. Tuning in to the latest hearings of the January 6th Select Committee left no time for a store run; instead, I pulled out prepped frozen vacuum-sealed pork chops, sent them to the sous vide immersion circulator for the necessary interval, and finished them with a good searing in the cast iron skillet. Roasted Brussels sprouts and roasted spiced potatoes went alongside.
With a houseguest all last week, I'd tried to be mindful of some favorites worth serving up at mealtime, and that included last Sunday bringing out the caramelized party ham and Swiss biscuits...nicely toasted, wonderfully flavored, and well partnered with cheesy stone ground creamy grits. These little versatile creations are as good for party finger foods as they are for a breakfast item; I also like having them tucked away in the fridge over the holidays so that they're an easy microwavable afternoon snack for those feeling peckish before dinner. A close examination might reveal the absence of poppy seeds this time...while I did not miss them, I am reminded I need to restock that pantry item.
"Party Ham Biscuits," a recipe shared with the Jones family by fellow UNC alum Susan Brown. I recorded her version in my recipe collection in 1988. There are various takes on this recipe, of course. Pretty popular is the "caramelized" version, such as this one: "Caramelized Ham & Swiss Buns," by Iris Weihemuller of Baxter, MN, in Taste of Home, December 2013, p. 59.
"Spicy Horseradish Sauce" from "Beef Tenderloin in Wine Sauce," from The All-New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. Compiled and Edited by Julie Fisher Gunter. Oxmoor Press (2006), p. 295, 296.
Cheesy grits adapted from: "Luquire Family Foods Stone Ground Grits," milled in Greenwood, SC.
The after-dinner entertainment this past Saturday night involved breaking out our homemade version of Cards Against Humanity, based on the original Dark Shadows gothic soap opera, and dubbed by the Roediger House as Collins Against Humanity. It generally promises some side-splitting moments and a few shocks to one's sensibilities, as any good CAH session should.
Game time helped us transition from our barbecued chicken meal to our dessert phase, with a respectable interval to separate them. When everyone was ready, I dished out squares of carrot cake sheet cake with cream cheese frosting, along with scoops of brown sugar-cinnamon ice cream. I did not love the cake—it was a far cry from the far superior layer cake version that I make. But the ice cream was on point!
"Classic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting," from Jenn Segal of OnceUponAChef.com.
"Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream," from Heather Tullos of SugarDishMe.com. [Published 11 September 2015]
It was a second night of seven on hand Saturday night, for supper and seriously hilarious game-playing at the kitchen table. A value-pak of chicken thighs at a decent price was all the incentive I needed to fix us some grilled barbecue chicken, with the basting sauce a repeat of the Filipino version (with banana ketchup!) I'd made earlier in the week.
I did have to pull three prepped vacuum-sealed chicken thighs from the freezer and sous vide them—and then add them to the grill—to be sure we had plenty for the crowd...and of course there were exactly three thighs left over!
I made a batch of over-dressed bacon ranch potato salad plus some Jiffy corn casserole to complete our plates.
Basting Sauce based on "Filipino-Style Barbecue Chicken," from Chef John Mitzewich of FoodWishes.com and AllRecipes.com.
"Bacon Ranch Potato Salad," by Stacey Little from The Southern Bite food blog.
"Jiffy Corn Casserole," found on Facebook. Also known as "Corn Soufflé," as found in Stirring Performances, from The Junior League of Winston-Salem, Inc. (1988), p. 219. Online recipe (called "Spoon Bread Casserole") can be found on the JIFFY Mix website from Chelsea Milling Co.
