Meal No. 3386: Filet Mignon

An even more beautiful day was upon us this past Sunday, even if the afternoon grew a bit warm under a full treatment of sunshine, and Sumner could not get enough of it. The morning east-origined light lit up the house and pulled front and center the summery mix of colors and shades.

More lily blooms have appeared in front of the porch, with others looking increasingly ready to follow suit.

The squirrels were particularly active that day, and it kept Sumner’s watchful eye turned up to 11. But it also seemed to wear him out:

...and he didn’t seem to mind when we occasionally took inside breaks so that he could sit (or lie) a spell in front of a kitchen AC register:

And then he spotted the new neighbor groundhog, feasting on the untended hillside of the adjoining property behind the house:

As the day wore on, and the kitchen called to me to undertake my main meal’s culinary shenanigans, I gravitated towards the sous vide, pulling a prepped beef filet steak out of the freezer to gently cook. Then I prepped a russet potato for baking and cut up broccoli florets to be ready for roasting. I felt I’d been eating a bit of junk the previous couple of days and was jonesing for a full meal centered on beef, which got a nice two-sided sear in the skillet just before I plated the food. This did not disappoint!

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“The Perfect Baked Potato,” by Lan Lam. In Cook’s Illustrated, January & February 2016 [Number 138], p. 14-15.

Pride Saturday in Winston-Salem

The long week of rain and showers and mist and grey finally stepped aside last Friday afternoon to allow a short run of sun and a boost in the heavy feel of humidity, and Sumner and I went out into it for a walk of just over three miles. His panting, though, meant a couple of sit-down breaks but we were unhurried and it was just nice to be outside. Saturday morning was our first time out on the driveway for morning coffee in almost a week, even though it was initially cool and cloud-covered. We had just long enough for a cup before the arrival of my high school classmate Shelia, a noted academic and upper level university research administrator, alumnus of Wake Forest University, and proud mom taking her daughter for a college tour.

Activities surrounding the Winston-Salem Pride Festival brought a morning closure to Spring Street, with the parade checkin just up from the house, so Shelia and I had oatmeal in the kitchen instead of venturing out to a breakfast spot. It was a fine visit and she was not gone long before it was time to greet Amy and Kristen and Mookie as they pulled into the driveway for parking convenient to the Pride events they were heading to. Sumner and I stayed close to home and he enjoyed happy interactions with the wide-ranging strangers passing by who were almost as glad to see him.

Thank goodness the weather broke late the previous afternoon so I could get the yard mowed before the influx of passersby, given how the house does seem to stand out and catch the eye of many. I like the idea of putting my best foot forward. Timing is everything, too, with the daylilies and astra blue balloon flowers and pansies and, now, the new lilies all blooming gloriously, with that luscious lawn well watered by so very much rain of late. The mix of clouds and sun, still humidity and soothing breezes, quiet solitude and gaggles of pedestrians…the weather’s unpredictability kept an elevated edge to the feel of the day, the uncertainty of when it might turn pushing the happy enjoyment of right now so that none might be guilty of squandering opportunity.

A brief surprise visit occurred near the end of the afternoon, when the day at last committed to be mostly sunny. It was Ken, my fellow PhD chum from the University of Virginia, whose family is still here in Winston-Salem. Has it been a decade since he came by here? We did a quick bit of catching up before he dashed off to his destination.

By evening, Sumner and I headed out for our evening walk, clocking in just a nudge past 3.5 miles, enough that we realized it was warmer than we first thought. But it was such a nice night that, at 10 pm, he still wanted to lie on the grass of the front yard and watch the activity of our well-situated street. Eventually, I was able to talk him into bedtime, to which we both eagerly surrendered. It was a fine first Saturday helping roll us into official summer.

Meal No. 3385: Candyland Tomato Garden Salad

Almost perfectly timed to the official beginning of summer, the Candyland cherry tomatoes have started coming in (although size-wise they are closer to plumb blueberries than cherries!). The abundance of the first harvest elevated my Friday night garden salad to a whole 'nother level, with those fresh juicy first fruits, and there was just the right overstock of remaining Thousand Island dressing that I'd made for the previous weekend's special guests. It all went into a bigger bowl since this was my meal for the day, and it was darned delicious.

Above is a photo of how the kitchen garden looked on May 8th, and below is the photo from Friday evening just after 8 pm.

Meal No. 3384: Chicken Supreme

It's been over five years since I brought out this recipe handed down from my mother, the rare deviation from her good but generally standard fare. I remember her treating it as experimental and unique and it may well have been: I've yet to find a comparable recipe on the web that does not go either the chicken divan route, or that doesn't require condensed soups and cheddar or processed cheese. Mother called it "Chicken Supreme," and it's cooked chicken and steamed or roasted broccoli florets covered in a simple lemon-mayo-sour cream sauce, with grated parmesan in the middle and on top. It's put under the broiler to finish with a bit of browning and a touch of crisping. It might be really good, or it might be warm nostalgia with the golden benefit of bringing to mind a wonderful mother...but I happily consumed it Thursday evening.

Confrontation with a Porch Pirate

The Saturday afternoon of Father’s Day weekend was lovely, and in between stages of prep for the Saturday night suitemates soirée were suitable snatches of outside time for Sumner to soak up sun and for breezes to please us. Sitting as is our custom in the shady spots of the driveway means we are not always visible to folks on the street that we, in turn, can plainly see. One of those daring daylight sowers of shenanigans was an oddly-attired suitcase puller, whose brief stop and quick dash onto a neighbor’s porch caught my eye...and in her hand (and then stuffed speedily into the suitcase) was a package I’d already noticed over there.

So down to the street I went, first to make sure I snapped a photo, and then there was the half-block slow-moving pursuit (a heavy suitcase and ankle weights were in play) as she told me to quit following her and I told her to return that package. At the front door of Quanto Basta, she finally stopped, unzipped that stuffed suitcase, and threw the pilfered package into the street.

As a man of a certain age, I’m still not conditioned to think quickly enough about videoing an outlandish encounter like this. But I hope it’s enough for the Winston-Salem PD that we have a good picture of her, and at least for one neighbor, a better outcome for her package.

Meal No. 3383: Baked Split Chicken Breasts

Last Wednesday night, on the first official day of summer, we were hemmed in by rain and drizzle and general yuckiness. That made the pressing need to bake split chicken breasts, as they were nearing their use-by date, a suitable comfort at mealtime. A little smattering of roasted Brussels sprouts proved perfect in quantity, and easy stovetop stuffing made for a starchy side.

Thank goodness there was still enough vanilla bean ice cream remaining from the vanilla milkshakes celebration, plus hot fudge sauce from the previous week. That ice cream is really just superior, and the hot fudge sauce this time really brought back memories of all those sundaes ordered at McDonald's in my younger freer days.

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Cooking guidance from "Baked Split Chicken Breast," from Prospective Phd on AllRecipes.com. [Updated 13 February 2023]

The Groundhog Moves In

Earlier this month, events transpired that brought out a fresh line of homeownership excitement to report on. Over the June 9th weekend, when I was piddling in the kitchen but without my usual music playing, I was hearing some odd bumps and creaks that I could not isolate or figure out. It was raining, too, and it wasn't clear if I was hearing the house settle or birds on the gutters or something in the wall.

The following Monday, the mystery began to dissipate, first with the discovery of some digging at the foundation behind the HVAC units, and then spotting a displaced foundation vent cover. I glanced out the kitchen window just a bit later in time to see a groundhog there, who quickly retreated through the foundation wall into the kitchen complex crawlspace, directly under the butler's pantry.

Seems to have been a good time to have on hand a battery-powered motion-activated camera I could quickly mount above that, by leaning out one of the kitchen table bay windows. That was my first thought: documentation! (Well, also the convenience of automatic monitoring with app notifications when triggered.)

Then I headed down to the cellar to see if I could spot his activity through the internal foundation openings. (The cellar is only under the center of the house—specifically, the dining room and the master bedroom and the back part of the main hallway—and there is crawlspace under the front parlours and under the kitchen addition.) Sure enough, he was ambling around up under there, checking things out, utterly unconcerned with the grey-headed bespectacled homeowner tracking his movements with a flashlight...and snapping photos with his phone.

Next came the internet research: what damage might a groundhog do, how does one evict such an unwelcome guest, are they aggressive or rabid, and so on...

I ordered a Hav-A-Hart trap since I never retrieved my last one from dropping off a sick stray pup at a nearby vet clinic. I see tons of groundhogs on my walks around the city, perhaps because they are drawn mostly to roadsides and other transportation infrastructure sites because all those areas have been 'worked' during construction. Only twice before have I seen a groundhog in the vicinity of the house: once up on the parking lot above us, and once when he was hiding under some clutter at the back wall and being very aggressive at the curious and investigatory Sumner.

So that Tuesday, I suited up and armed myself to go investigate firsthand. A wildlife specialist is a minimum of $300 but a steak knife duct-taped to a metal rod is just pennies on the dollar. In my other hand, a spare unused meat fork. A headlamp, disposable painter's overalls, and work gloves completed my uniform. (Overlooked was the need for a facemask: it's mighty dusty up under the house.) I swept the entirety of this vast crawlspace; I reckon it's a fair-sized kitchen that got built onto the house 15 years ago! Finally, at the end of that belly-squirming journey, when I got to the other side that's under the kitchen table, there was slight movement under a rounded bulge of black plastic: there he was, surely hoping I'd go away and leave him be. But the potential damage he could inflict did not allow that option. Now is the time to stop reading if you think you might not care for what I did next.

Steeling my courage, and without thinking through a more comprehensive plan, I stabbed that mound with the meat fork. He shot out like a light, turned on a dime along the interior foundation walls of the kitchen bay, and scampered to a place of retreat amongst the tangle of ductwork coming through the original foundation from the HVAC unit in the cellar. I was overcome for a bit from all the dust that got stirred up and undertook a retreat of my own to recover and dust off and wash out my throat.

The next day, Wednesday, I went up under there again, similarly armed but this time with a facemask and some garlic powder, and did another thorough sweep. I found no signs of that groundhog, nor did I find any signs of any digging either. Perhaps he'd managed to escape without my temporary camera capturing it? Did he find a way to climb up inside a wall? I found no other avenue of escape but then again I'm not operating with the deeper knowledge of a wildlife specialist who gets $300 a pop for his services.

For a number of days, all was quiet. I didn't know if I injured him or missed entirely. I could not tell if he got out or if he found some other hiding spot somewhere up under this awesome old manse. I ended up with a foundation vent hole to cover up again and had a definite preference for which side of it he was on when I did so. Then, on the first day of summer, with dreary grey skies still overhead and ongoing threats and splashes of rain, I chanced to spy on the neighboring slope behind the house:

It only makes sense that that's my guy, right? Doesn't it have to be? I watched him long enough to see his place of retreat, circled on the above photo, just above him, and I'm more than happy for him to embrace a non-Roediger House address for a new abode.

Look at the bugger. He appears to be quite content, comfortable in these new digs (haha!), convenient to plenty of grass and clover to eat to his heart's content, no?

It's too bad that it was not a sunny day for putting the Canon long lens to work capturing him as best I could.

I'll be keeping my eye on him, though, given that the crawlspace's temptations might not have yet passed.

National Vanilla Milkshake Day

A review of the blog, should one be so inclined as to take one, would return a nil result on the question of "milkshakes." The only ones that have crossed the threshold here since the blog began have come from Sonic, Cook-Out, or Steak 'N Shake, more than likely. As someone who, in high school and college, felt he was quite the homemade milkshake maker, I sure have left behind those inclinations, although let's acknowledge that storebought cartons of ice cream were the fundamental ingredient in those. And then came National Vanilla Milkshake Day, a catalyst to action in the unending pursuit of contrived variety to keep me from being so rutted in routines around here. I threw together the base for a creamy batch of homemade vanilla bean ice cream on Sunday, then churned it on Monday, and then it was fully frozen and ready to go into a blendered milkshake by Tuesday evening's dessert time.

And what's the verdict? Those were some spectacular vanilla bean milkshakes.

The end of spring, the summer solstice, and the start of summer played out in another multi-day string of blah and grey and rain and wet. The weather pattern remained stuck over us, its unending sameness a literal water torture of the soul and spirit. While we missed our sunshine and outside time, there was enough to do around the house and on my laptop. Sumner's refuge could be found in his extended naps in his various favorite spots, including the loveseat nestled in the floor-to-ceiling dormer on the third floor.

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"Vanilla Ice Cream" (p. 35-36), from Bi-Rite Creamery's Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones, by Kris Hoogerhyde, Anne Walker, and Dabney Gough. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press (2012).

Meal No. 3382: Cheeseburger Sliders on Homemade Dinner Rolls

After a couple of really nice almost-summer days, the new week began with dark skies and a Juneteenth morning of 94 percent humidity. Sumner and I tried to take in some driveway and coffee time but the sweat was instant and all over. When it was decided a few days before that the regular RoHo crew would come over that night, I’d begun planning the menu when the weather was delightful and I thought we’d grill burgers to nestle onto homemade burger buns. Storm clouds and all day rain dictated otherwise.

Still at the center of the supper offering was ground beef, but it was transformed into a sauced filling for cheeseburger sliders on homemade dinner rolls. The Thousand Island dressing from the weekend got boosted with a few added key ingredients and diced onion reported dutifully for its essential role. With cheese above and below, the assembled slider mass baked up to suitable gooey-ness, a testament to the downside of human evolution and what we find appealing.

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"Cheeseburger Sliders," by Natasha Kravchuk of Natasha's Kitchen. [Published 27 March 2020]

"Soft Dinner Rolls," by Natalya Drozhzhin of Mom's Dish. [Published on Natasha's Kitchen 20 November 2020]

"Beef & Cheddar Melts Sauce," a Roediger House creation.

Meal No. 3381: World's Best Lasagna for the Averyites

After an enormously successful reunion of suitemates from UNC down at Ocean Isle in April, it has energized additional smaller gatherings. First was an evening here with Ronnie and Tina a few weeks ago; then I had lunch with Arnold and his family as they passed through Greensboro in early June (photo below).

This past Saturday night, Ronnie and Tina returned and we were joined by Jimmy and Julie for a dinner evening together. Oh, what a marvelous occasion, stretching late into the night, full of conversation and catching up and tales of kids and weddings and grandkids (well-timed topics on the eve of Father’s Day). Pictures shared as phones were passed around the table, notes compared on North Carolina pottery craft and history, stories brought forth of high school band and color guard and flag core and cheerleading…we had long finished our desserts and still around that kitchen table we sat until we realized it was after 11 pm and they all still had drives back home to undertake.

Having everybody here was a suitable incentive for a big ol’ pan of lasagna and fresh-made focaccia (boosted with delicious olive oil gifted by Ronnie and Tina when they were last here). A sad salad of iceberg lettuce bejeweled with a crown of homemade Thousand Island dressing brought an illusion of healthiness to these well-freighted plates.

We started off with some homemade pimento cheese, though, that received approving remarks.

And the evening concluded with a new approach to tres leches cake, with its small hint of warm cinnamon and plenty of luscious sweet milkiness throughout. I was called out by the guys a few days later after confessing in a group text exchange that some cake squares still remained after everybody had left.

I remain grateful for these enduring friendships!

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"South Carolina-Style Pimento Cheese." Recipe worked out by me, based on Sharon's Palmetto Pimento Cheese.

"World's Best Lasagna," by the late John Chandler (Dallas, TX). Found online at AllRecipes.com.

"Easy Rosemary Garlic Focaccia," from Adam and Joanne Gallagher of InspiredTaste.net.

"Thousand Island Dressing," which was based on a version from Graybert on GeniusKitchen.com.

"Tres Leches Cake with Whipped Cream and Dulce de Leche," from the Busty Baker: Putting the 'Cup' in Cupcakes. [Published 21 February 2009]

National Fudge Day

Last Friday was National Fudge Day, so I made two kinds: peanut butter fudge and chocolate walnut. The former is a small batch, but the chocolate makes a ton, so there was plenty to share with friends and neighbors, and too much reserved to the household. It's been quite some time since either of these was made at the Roediger House, perhaps owing to the serious reduction of the parties and gatherings for which those confections have proven to be well-suited: peanut butter fudge was last made nearly four years ago, and chocolate fudge hasn't shown up since Christmas 2018.

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"15-Minute Peanut Butter Fudge," in the article "Simplifying Fudge" by David Pazmiño. In Cook's Illustrated, January & February 2007, p. 22-23.

Meal No. 3380: Chicken Tikka Masala

Friday night's abundance of supper goodness was another take on chicken tikka masala, warm and spicy and served over plenty of basmati rice. I pulled together ideas from two different recipes, and also took a few liberties, and the outcome was more than pleasing to the palates.

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Chicken Tikka Masala was based in part on:

• "Tandoori Chicken Thighs," by Becky Hardin. Found on Easy Chicken Recipes. [Published 10 August 2020 / Updated 09 October 2020]
• "Chicken Tikka Masala Bake," by Sabrina Snyder of Dinner, Then Dessert. [Published 17 February 2021]

Meal No. 3379: Roasted Chicken over Brussels Sprouts

As a riff on a house favorite, braised chicken over Brussels sprouts, a simplified version made up the supper this past Thursday night. Brussels sprouts and shallots, shaken up in olive oil and spread into a pan, were a fine bed for bone-in chicken thighs. By the time the roasting was completed, it made for fine supper plates of tasty and filling proportions.

Sour Cream Pound Cake and Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream

Last Tuesday's terrific dinner was followed, after a respectable rest spell, by a tasty dessert combo, comprised of fresh-baked sour cream pound cake and scoops of Vietnamese coffee ice cream that I'd made that morning. Each of them is fine on its own but they do seem to go well together!

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"Sour Cream Pound Cake," from McCormick. Found online and, formerly, on the original Vanilla Butter & Nut flavoring's packaging box.

"Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream," by David Lebovitz. In The Perfect Scoop. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press (2007), p. 35.