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.]
The afternoon on Monday a week ago was unexpectedly taken up by the fortuitous availability of my new electricians. By the time they wrpped up, I had to switch to a simpler dinner approach. It was pretty quick to put broccoli florets into the oven to roast, to put on a pot of quinoa, and to spice and grill a couple of tuna steaks. The dinner plate was pleasing and good!
That meal that makes me so very happy—roasted salmon fillet and roasted broccoli—sat briefly on my dinner plate Sunday a week ago, until I scarfed it all down posthaste.
The marvelous Ms. Dee Dee, so very loved by Sumner, is pictured above after she gave him a rawhide to work on. A few days later, she brought him a ball that made him pretty happy:
She most generously offered some fresh garden tomatoes to the Roediger House. That sent me on a quest for the best late summer use of them that suited the mood and the moment. That led me to a recent post from the clever, dependable, and accessible J. Kenji López-Alt on The Best BLT.
The occasion seemed to require extra special steps, like making homemade English muffin toasting bread for the first time.
Oven-baked bacon for a crowd saved me some effort normally devoted to tending a skillet and soaking up a smell of bacon fat...and also gave me perfectly flat and crisp strips.
Cheese for those who wanted it, and mayo for other partisans, once I'd toasted the bread slices in the skillet either with bacon fat or butter...and you have these lettuce-less masterpieces, which were excellent the Saturday before last.
"The Best BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato) Sandwich," from J. Kenji López-Alt. [Updated 16 August 2022]
"English Muffin Toasting Bread," by PJ Hamel of King Arthur Baking. [Blog Post from 25 December 2008]
If I make an early main meal of the day, I am not always able to fight the predictable subsequent temptation to then use the freer evening time to make a sweet treat. Friday a week ago, it was cookies that came calling to me from the recipe notebooks, but I kept it simple and straightforward with the giant sugar cookies that are an adaptation of Mardi Gras sugar cookies. (Leave out the coloring and this is what you get.)
"Mardi Gras Sugar Cookies," from Kelly of AmericanCupcakeAbroad.com. [Published 20 February 2012]
A late summer Friday afternoon when the weather remains reasonable and pleasant seemed great for grilling some filet mignon. Roasted garlicky asparagus alongside and it all served to satisfy at week's end last week.
A quick repeated mid-day meal, but the refrigerated puff pastry dough needed to be used: pesto, ricotta, bacon, mozzarella, and white cheddar on a puff pastry crust...that served as the early meal last Thursday and boy howdy was it too good to stop eating once I was full. I've gotta get myself under control.
It's been over two years since I last made this terrific and easy-to-throw-together dish, based on a recipe from a family I got to know well back when I was teaching 7th grade in Raleigh. This is Monie's version of carbonara, basically a thick bechamel boosted with grated parmesan, with sautéed onion and bacon stirred in, served this time over rotini. It was a palatable punch in the expanding gut last Wednesday afternoon.
"Pasta Carbonara," a recipe shared by Monie Lawrence of Raleigh, NC.
While it's quite a production in putting it all together, there is no comparison to the wonderfulness in the result when one decides to tackle apple crisp cheesecake bars, suitable for company of treasured friends. These are rather amazing and did not require the adornment of my leftover maple cream sauce or homemade sweet vanilla ice milk. But there you have it.
"Apple Crisp Cheesecake Bars," from Meghan McGarry of ButtercreamBlondie.com. [Published 03 October 2014]
Oh, it's been far, far too long since I made these wonderful savory garlic beef and broccoli turnovers. I think about them regularly but I suppose it takes the right convergence of events and components for it to all come to fruition. When the extra special guests at supper are Amy and Kristen, which happened Tuesday of last week, out must all the stops be pulled!
This is a Philadelphia Cream Cheese contest-winning recipe, from back when they were working hard to drum up consumer investment in their short-lived cooking creme line of cream cheeses. Alas, consumer demand did not measure up, it seems, but fortunately the substitutes are easy enough to throw together...even better without all the stabilizers and additives that apparently marred the original product.
Adapted to puff pastry from "Savory Garlic Beef & Broccoli Turnovers," by Kirsten Renee Shabaz of Minneapolis, MN. Taste of Home, November 2011, p. 31. (Go to food.com for a copy of the original recipe.)
"DIY Cooking Creme," from Finding Joy in My Kitchen, 25 May 2011.
Last Monday night, I did not have mushrooms but everything else about the evening's one-bowl meal hewed very closely to Emeril's skillet beef stroganoff. It's hearty, great with flavor, a touch spicy depending upon how much of Emeril's Essence one chooses to use, and it always satisfies.
Based on "Beef Stroganoff Hamburger Dinner in a Skillet," by Emeril Lagasse. Found online at The Food Network and also on Emerils.com.
For a first-time visit to the house by neighbors Mike and Jessica, the occasion seemed to give license to one of the grander desserts that show up here from time to time: white chocolate walnut blondies with maple cream sauce, plus sweet vanilla ice milk that I had churned that morning. That's the overindulgence of which we were all guilty last Sunday night, and any shame I felt was obscured by the enduring sweetness lingering in semi-permanent residence on my tongue. (This dessert is known for eliciting from me over-the-top reactions.)
"White Chocolate Walnut Blondies with Maple Cream Sauce," from Jillian Hatsumi of ABajillianRecipes.com. [Published 23 July 2018]
"Classic Vanilla Ice Milk," by Stella Parks, Pastry Wizard of SeriousEats.com. [Published 22 August 2018 / Updated 15 April 2020]
Today is the 10th anniversary of Mookie's arrival at the Roediger House, after he spent a number of years out in Portland before coming back home to Midway. We like to think that the Roediger House has managed to give a little joy in return for all the fun and frolic that he's brought to us, especially since his wife Kristen caught his eye at some shindig here somewhere along the way. Mookie's very first meal here was my second attempt at making copycat Chic-Fil-A sandwiches, so to celebrate the anniversary that's what I made last Saturday night. (Side note: first time making these since the big weight-loss push that began in 2018!)
After dinner, and a few rounds of pool between Mookie and me, we all settled in for The Great Muppet Caper movie from 1981. Partway through, I pulled from the beer cooler a batch of lemon pudding I'd already made and offered those to the receptive crew in the man cave.
"Chic-Fil-A Copycat Sandwich," by Hilah Johnson. From Hilah Cooking. [Published June 2012]
"Homemade Lemon Pudding," from Lynn Walls of Lynn's Kitchen Adventures. [Originally published 2011 / Updated 31 January 2022]
I mean really: how many people do you know who buy a new mailbox for their house in, say, 2014...and then don’t get around to putting it up until 2022? If you know me, then that tally is at least 1. Boxed up in the original packaging and stowed away in the cellar for over eight years, this sturdier, heavier mailbox may have been part of my rug ordering from Hayneedle right around that time, just ahead of the second wave of renovation work that occurred that year (plaster restoration, painting, floor and mantle refinishing). It was a slip in my Quarantine Task Jar but had not yet been drawn. Yay, me!
The last of the homemade creamy Caesar dressing pulled me over to the salad realm for Friday night's supper. An afternoon sous vide bath for the frozen prepped beef tenderloin filet meant it was ready for the hot skillet just before suppertime. It was a hearty and somewhat healthy bowl of good grub to finish out the week.
After weeks of sustained high heat and humidity, most days in the 90s or sultry moist near-90s, a break in the pattern finally came on Friday, August 12th. Sumner and I started our morning in the almost-chilly stillness of pre-dawn with light breezes and no mosquitoes. My customary coffee session in a camp chair on the driveway was an uninterrupted sanctuary of quiet time before beginning with the duties of the day. For Sumner, there is no greater highlight of his morning outside than catching sight of his most favorite of many buddies, Ms. Dee Dee (photo above from several days prior).
During July, we had 18 days at 90°F or above, and another 11 days that were 86°F-89°F. During the first 11 days of August, we had six days over 90°F and five days over 85°F. It's been a hot summer, along with many days of high humidity and some long stretches with no rain. The much-delayed relief that finally came at the end of last week was pretty darned heavenly. I wouldn't trade those morning coffee sits for anything.
Once again, it was a slip drawn from the freezer-reduction lottery can that determined last Thursday's dinner menu: Peruvian-spiced chicken breasts, tossed from the freezer into the sous vide immersion circulator, and supplemented with roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts. And I mean an abundance of Brussels sprouts, but that can make for a good next-day snack.
This past Wednesday night's stellar supper was a fresh round of salmon croquettes, with the even more stellar garlic-chili-lime aïoli. The return of roasted broccoli florets was also welcome. It was an abundance of good food, finished with a satisfied smile, but it did require of me a late evening downtown walk of atonement.
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.
Tuesday's meal was a testament to my weakness in the face of temptation, and into bowls went hearty potions of chicken with savory spiced coronation sauce, all over a bed of fresh-steamed rice. It was particularly rich that night and sat heavy in the belly, so the 4-mile evening stroll in the sultry temps felt like penance.
"Coronation Sauce for Chicken," from 400 Sauces, by Catherine Atkinson, Christine France, and Maggie Mayhew. Hermes House (2006, 2008), p. 155.
For a change of pace when my bananas ripened quickly, instead of pancakes or regular loaf banana bread, I tried a new recipe: dark chocolate-olive oil banana bread in a cast iron skillet. On the one hand, it's a little weird. On the other hand, I helped myself to a second slice as soon as I finished the first. That was the evening treat last Monday night.
"Dark Chocolate-Olive Oil Skillet Banana Bread," by EmilyC, posted on Food52.com. [Published 07 January 2017]
Monday's meal was mid-day, and it was mighty good: roasted spiced salmon on a bed of Romaine with homemade creamy Caesar dressing. That is all.
Longtime Roediger House chums Amy and Gern are huge fans of puff pastry pizza, and it was about time I followed her lead once again. That's what happened Sunday night, when I unrolled a sheet of that tempting and ridiculous dough, topped it with pesto and ricotta, and then layered an abundance of mozzarella on top. I forgot about the fork-pricking preparatory step of the process so the huge puffs shifted my well-landscaped pizza topography...but the result was still darned tasty.
Perhaps among the readers of this blog post will be at least a few who are sympathetic to the dual dilemmas of "out of sight/out of mind" and also the incremental pace of decline. All that's to say: I was way, way, way overdue in giving the wetbar cabinets a thorough cleaning. It's so easy to overlook, ignore, or fail to fully register how bad one might have let the dust get until the wine glasses get moved, as the photo below ably shows:
The amount of entertaining that occurs here has been cut way back, and I hardly ever drink either. So those cabinets have remained untouched and neglected...until this past Sunday. I started my day with unloading the whole thing, and then first washing all the stemware and beer glasses and such:
Then I gave all the coffee mugs a good dishwashing as well:
Once I'd dusted and also wiped down all the cabinets, and Windexed the glass of the cabinet doors, I had a much finer wetbar to admire in passing:
Chalk another item off the Quarantine Task Jar list, that does not drive all my labors in these freer days of summer but which I'm always glad to knock out when I get around to it. (That same Sunday, another one of those annoying tasks was handled: giving the exhaust fan in the master bathroom a good cleaning. Most people might not notice it but I was mindful of how filthy it was looking!)
How special does a Saturday night have to be for the supper to be bacon sandwiches on brioche buns with cheddar and American cheeses?
Friday night at the Roediger House was another salad supper, and this time I went with southwestern Caesar with fresh grilled garlic-spiced chicken breasts. The heat of summer remains firmly settled on us and firing up the oven inside the house seemed like an unwise move. It was a pretty delicious salad, really, with a new batch of my particular take on southwestern Caesar dressing, with its touch of heat and its touch of sweet, full of a fine combination of flavors, and well-suited to a good bed of hearty greens...with corn, black beans, and that perfectly-cooked chicken.
Southwestern Caesar Dressing was my creation but was based on:
The latest drawing from the freezer overstock lottery can came up a prepped protein that was well-suited to a longtime favorite dish taken from the annual Pillsbury recipe contest: pork medallions with dijon mushroom cream sauce. It's been long enough ago that I last made them, so all the better that the focus was entirely on their creamy goodness over excellent homemade mashed potatoes.
Adapted from "Pork Medallions with Dijon Mushroom Sauce," by Frank Hollands of Moorhead, Minnesota. Bake-Off Contest 37 (1996). Published in Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks' A Taste of the BAKE-OFF Issue from March 2001, p. 40-41.
I was out of town for work for a couple of days but, so far as the blog is concerned, it's going to look like I had pancakes two meals in a row. No grocery run, a long mid-day walk in the sweltering 97°F temps, a need for something easy from what I had on hand: Wednesday was perfect for terrific fluffy buttermilk pancakes. Breakfast for dinner again: score!
"Best Tips for Making Pancakes: Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes," by Joanne Ozug on the Pioneer Woman website. [Published 10 May 2017]
This past week's ripening banana cache set in motion not only Sunday night's banana bread pancakes but also a two-loaf batch of Carolyn's banana bread, which is probably my best result yet using my former neighbor's tried-and-true recipe, with her recommended tweaks. I lingered in the kitchen Sunday night after supper in order to whip these up and bake them, and the slice I had with my Monday morning coffee was pretty stupendous. And large.
"Carolyn's Banana Bread," a recipe shared by former neighbor Lori Pilon.
The bananas I had on hand were reaching a perfect state of ripeness to be ideal for a quick repeat of the banana bread pancakes recipe that I had made so recently. But they're pretty quick and easy to throw together and it's a super tasty result, so I ain't mad.
"Banana Bread Pancakes" and "Bananas Foster Syrup," from Cuisine at Home, Issue No. 103 (January/February 2014), p. 23.
Thank goodness I got an early start on these browned butter chocolate chunk cookies, served as dessert on Saturday night. Why is that?
Because once you've made the cookie dough, the portions are scooped out but then tucked away, tightly wrapped, for up to 48 hours in the fridge. When you are ready for them, it's a typical bake in the oven and out comes a pretty ho-hum result.
But an unremarkable cookie can be salvaged, if one also has made a batch of butterscotch ice cream to accompany it.
"Chocolate Chip Cookies," by Claire Saffitz. From Dessert Person. New York: Clarkson Potter / Publishers (2020), p. 133-135. Recipe can be found on the Of Feast and Field blog [Published 06 June 2021]
"Butterscotch Ice Cream," from Deb Perelman of SmittenKitchen.com. [Published 14 March 2008]
Three at the table on Saturday night was sufficient reason to make a small feast, on this occasion featuring a spatchcocked roasted whole herbed chicken, along with spiced roasted potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts. Also, it takes only the slightest motivation to add in some Alabama great white sauce, for dipping those chicken morsels into. We had our fill, and yet somehow from within also found the fortitude to fully embrace the two-element dessert that I served up after a short respite to recover. (More on those sweet treats in tomorrow's blog post.)
"Spatchcocked (Butterflied) Roast Chicken with Quick Jus Recipe," from J. Kenji López-Alt, Culinary Consultant at SeriousEats.com. [Published 07 May 2010 / Updated 13 April 2020]
"Alabama Great White Sauce," from Smoke & Spice by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press (2003), p. 362.
A full day of unseemly fatigue last Friday is my go-to excuse for keeping the dinner plan easy and painless: hamburger supreme, a not-very-good-for-you casserole with a devilish combination of mostly pantry ingredients that results in a steaming mound of comfort and deliciousness. It's been a Jones family favorite since the early 70s and might also be a threat to me living until my 70s. Still, if you're willing to be moderate and cautious, you might just want to snag the pdf of the recipe from the bottom of this post and find out for yourself if it should hold such sway.
"Hamburger Supreme," from the late Mrs. John T. (Glynn) Johnson of Buies Creek, North Carolina, via Janice Jones Bodenhamer.
I'd grabbed a number of peaches, a combination of Eastern, white, and yellow, intending to have them as snacks when afternoon peckishness hit me. But then I was in the mood for a summer-y dessert this past Thursday night, and instead I emptied out my bowl of diced and sliced peaches from the fridge and incorporated them into a first-time trial of Ree Drummond's peach crisp. With the maple cream sauce as a tempting topper, it was a scrumptious successor to supper that night.
