Meal No. 3792: Sheet Pan Beef Nachos

My long trip back from the southern tip of Florida yesterday had a most delightful stopover point: Brunswick, Georgia. This brought me back into contact with an education colleague with whom I first began working 20 years ago in Page County, Virginia. Together with another member of division leadership in his current school system, we visited some classrooms in a middle school and had some great conversations. I was back home late afternoon, which left enough time to throw together sheet pan beef nachos, which were fantastically delicious and satisfying.

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Sheet Pan Nachos seriously modified from "Loaded Sweet Pork Sheet Pan Nachos," from Elyse of Six Sisters Stuff. [Published 14 March 2018]

Taco-Style meat depended partly on "Crispy Beef Tacos," by Hilah Johnson. From HilahCooking.com.

"Homemade Chili and Taco Seasoning," from Jamie Lothridge of MyBakingAddiction.com. [Published 03 February 2011]

Doing Doral in the Sunshine

I remain so very glad for the work I get to do. Most of my consulting agenda has me in schools during the academic year, primarily with administrators but also often with coaches and teacher leaders. Every once in a while, I also find myself returning to Project CRISS trainings, something I’ve been doing since 1993. That’s what took me to Miami this week, and it situated me at the Miami Doral Intercontinental Hotel, and they do know how to take care of folks!

I can’t say I minded 78°F either, under sunny skies with pleasant breezes, perfect for heading out for a good walk at the end of the day of training. That’s how I discovered I was staying next to the Carnival Cruise Lines headquarters. I never want to do a cruise but their HQ is massive like their ships, although this photo leaves much of it obscured. And just up from my own hotel I strolled past this absurdity:

Ugh.

Meal No. 3791: Bacon Cheeseburger Sliders on Homemade Rolls

Last Sunday night's belated birthday gathering brought the RoHo regulars back to the house, and we kept a casual vibe in play by serving up an easy hand-held dinner of bacon cheeseburger sliders, with choice of chips, and plenty of the Mexican restaurant white dipping sauce for those who were so inclined.

And while those dinner rolls were pretty darned tasty again, I may have given 'em a longer cook than was needed.

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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. 3790: Not So Cajun Chicken

A meal of special significance for the life of the Roediger House is the long-time standard of Not So Cajun Chicken over white rice. A sentimental favorite from that awesome short period of my life when I lived and taught in Raleigh, the house version here was what I turned to for new or special guests; then it was also the very first meal I made in the new kitchen when it was completed in 2009. I always love it, and it transports me back to special moments and times and people and places. I do not bring it back often enough!

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"Not So Cajun Chicken," a dish I regularly enjoyed at Crowley's Old Time Favorites restaurant and bar on Medlin Drive in Raleigh, NC. (Another version of the recipe can be found here.) A heap of thanks is due to Jimmy Randolph for tracking down the recipe for me.

Meal No. 3789: Loaded Baked Potatoes

After it proved so satisfying back in November to make a dinner of loaded baked potatoes, I found that a reasonable course of action last Friday evening, when there were four small Russet potatoes remaining from a larger bag. Washed, rubbed with olive oil, coated in kosher salt, and roasted at 400°F for an hour, they came out perfect again...even though I consider myself pretty unpracticed at the art of baking a potato.

The 24th of January at the end of an extended arctic deep freeze seems an especially odd time to see a bluebird couple checking out the house mounted on the fence. But sure enough, there they were Friday morning while I was meeting over coffee with a neighbor. Stopping the conversation to photograph the moment seemed rude so you might have to just rely on my word here.

Meal No. 3788: Simple Beef Chili with Beans

It was hard not to make a big 'ol pot of chili sooner, with this terrible arctic cold snap raging across our area this past week. I gave in at last on Thursday evening, when a weather-related cancellation allowed me an unexpected day at home, and all the time in the world to put a batch on the stovetop for a long simmer. Putting aside the customary desire for a skillet of cornbread, it was sufficient to let the steaming bowl get its cheesy adornment and to slurp away with abandon. Then, it was a gorgeous sunset but I only caught a shot of the last of it:

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

Mexican Restaurant White Dipping Sauce

Hanging over me since the holidays has been a desire to make another batch of Mexican restaurant white dipping sauce. I'd gotten all the ingredients but I never got my rear in gear. Ah, but before January could get away from us, when I had an unexpected day off Thursday, I made it happen. Inspired by a runnier (and maybe sweeter?) partner to watery salsa in small-town Mexican restaurants, especially in Virginia when I've been on the road working, this is a recipe I brought together from a mix of ideas I came across. It's been well-received on previous occasions, and this weekend was no different.

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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. 3787: Pork Chops and Two Sides

With three for dinner this past Wednesday night, as the bitter sub-freezing multi-day misery persisted, I was drawn to a standard meat and two sides. In this case, it was creole-spiced pork chops, cooked to a perfect temp in the sous vide and then pan-seared for a suitable finish. Alongside I had spiced roasted sweet potatoes and roasted herbed asparagus cuts. It was more than sufficient to the appetites that night.

The forecast offered us some hope for relief, but it left its mark in some memorable waking temperature readings. As noted above, Tuesday morning we got down to 16°F; yesterday we were a nearly-balmy 17°F. Whatever precip came through east of us was held in place by this such that I got to stay home Thursday when school was delayed in Alamance-Burlington.

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Based on "Roasted Sweet Potatoes," from Chelsea Lords of ChelseasMessyApron.com. [Published 04 March 2019]

The Birthday Cards Project

If I know your birthday, and I have your address, there is a fair chance that you will find yourself on the receiving end of some birthday card I've lovingly (or giddily) photoshopped and MS Worded into being. In the quiet of the year's end and before work had started up in earnest, that's the project I set my sights on: trying to work up birthday cards for 2025 for the folks on my long-maintained list.

Now, as is my particular bent, here comes the backstory. On some visit to an office supply store like Staples or Office Depot on a long-ago work trip, I chanced to grab a box of Avery notecards suitable for inkjet printers. I thought it'd be a nice way to easily produce some basic Roediger House notecards, using the original pen-and-ink graphic that came to me at the time of the house purchase. I also experimented with using instead some photo I'd snapped as part of daily life, like that shot of Sumner by the fireside, comfy in my old man's chair.

Over time, I began playing a bit with the lay-out and design, every once in a while crafting a special card from an idea that popped into my head. Then I started making an occasional birthday or thank-you card, especially once it seems that manufactured greeting cards had gotten much more expensive than I liked. I toyed with a different format and printable cards, for post cards, as well.

Maybe there are many who still embrace the tradition of holiday cards each December, with their curated address lists hastily updated near year's end; I still love that endeavor and have wanted to maintain the practice. Handwritten correspondence, or dropping in out of the blue, and especially taking note of the birthdays of good and special people all seem to be fading customs, or they've been supplanted by social media and electronic communication and the ease of a text message adorned, perhaps, with some emoji or meme or jumpy gif. I still like the idea of a birthday card.

Other holidays sometimes get swept up into my mania, so perhaps you were in my sights when I made Easter, July Fourth, or Halloween cards to send out. I'm also not above executing other random ideas into cards, whether it's because I found it amusing or to note some significant event or to send love or hugs or encouragement.

Although I have stocked up on those nice perforated Avery notecard sets for printing, I also realized a much more affordable route for my grand schemes was simply buying reams of white cardstock and the "invitation"-sized envelopes that fit them perfectly once cut and folded. As long as I keep my excellent color inkjet printer well-supplied, I guess this card-creation indulgence might continue for the forseeable future.

Meal No. 3786: Crispy Chicken Biscuits

The two large biscuits left over from the Sunday night bacon egg and cheese versions worried me into making another unwise menu choice: fried crispy chicken with a special sauce to serve as the central feature of those biscuits, once they were warmed up a bit on Monday night. Out came the skillet, into it went a mess of vegetable shortening, and before you knew it, I was chomping down on tasty chicken filet biscuits as if I'd just come from a drive-thru.

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Adapted from "Chick-Fil-A Crispy Chicken Sandwhich [sic]," by Lauren Allen. On TastesBetterFromScratch.com. [Updated 29 January 2023]

Meal No. 3785: Bacon Egg & Cheese Biscuits

Last week's experiment with the marvelous new cookbook generously gifted by a fantastic colleague from Georgia brought me to a biscuit recipe that I wanted to try again. That's what drove Sunday night's meal choice, the incredible home-made version of a long-time fast food favorite: bacon egg and cheese biscuits. And oh my! Were those biscuits awesome! By which I mean the biscuits all by themselves were stupendous, but of course loaded up with rectangles of baked scrambled eggs, tasty bacon, and a top and bottom layer of cheese....well, you can see for yourself that as a chef at suppertime that evening, I done good.

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"This Is How You Make a F*$%ing Biscuit" (p. 103). From Yellowstone: The Official Dutton Ranch Family Cookbook, by Gabriel "Gator" Guilbeau with Kim Laidlaw. San Rafael: Insight Editions, 2023.

Based on "Baked Scrambled Eggs," from Heather Johnson of TheFoodHussy.com. [Published 09 September 2019]

Winter Deals Its Mean Hand

Yesterday morning's full-bore fog foretold of the coming extended deep-freeze from yet another far-flung artic blast, swooping down across the south, plunging us into blustery chills and miseable cold. But just before 6 am, it was a glorious haunting of Spring Street as the Roediger House stood firm in the face of that brutal promise of winter misery.

Meal No. 3784: Pappardelle with Homemade Bolognese

Last night's supper was squeezed between two at-home movies on a boys' night, and I made great use of the sous vide to bring out an already-prepared (but stored in the freezer!) batch of homemade bolognese sauce. It spent a couple of hours getting sufficiently warmed up again in the immersion circulator, and meanwhile I set to work on a new recipe for focaccia. This one is noted as the 2025 Recipe of the Year on the King Arthur Baking website, and I grabbed my instructions for it from the January 2025 catalog that came a few days ago. At the last minute, I cooked up pappardelle nests and then we served our plates with a good pile of the pasta along with sizable squares of that high-risen tasty focaccia.

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"Homemade Bolognese Sauce," from Holly Nilsson of SpendwithPennies.com. [Published 17 January 2023]

"Big and Bubbly Focaccia," from King Arthur Baking. [Published January 2025]

Meal No. 3783: Sausage, Onion, and Potato Hash

Last Tuesday, the night before I made a 5 am departure to be gone for three days of work out of town, I had a pound of Italian sausage to use up. With plenty of onions and quite a few Russet potatoes, it came down to an easy skillet favorite: hash. (As I've noted previously: hacher, from the French: "to chop." Hence, our Americanized or Anglicized word "hash," to generally refer to a dish of chopped meat, onions, and potatoes, plus whatever else might suit your fancy.) The potatoes were cubed and oven-roasted with a mix of spices; the diced onions were slow-sautéed to soften and sweeten; the sausage was cooked into a crumbled repose. Then all was brought together to heat through and mix those flavors, and the bowls of bounty satisfied all palates.

Meal No. 3782: Chicken and Biscuit Dumplings

A fantastic and most generous colleague from Georgia sent me the nicest surprise gift this past week: a cookbook from the modern-day Western series Yellowstone. Its author was hired initially to provide craft service for the production of the series and ended up also becoming the on-screen ranch cook, responsible for food on and off set. The first recipe that jumped out at me, and that I tried out this past Monday evening, was chicken and biscuit dumplings. It was a hearty dish, full-flavored and nicely varied from typical chicken casseroles or pot pie. And the biscuits were themselves pretty tasty, even if I didn't do a good job of cooking them as well as I should before serving up the bowls of deliciousness. It was a fine inaugural run with this newest and very much appreciated addition to the kitchen library!

After clean-up, it was time to get in my evening stroll, which began under the rising full moon, with Mars very nearly adjacent to it. My iPhone, when wielded by my inexpert hands, never quite captures how lovely a cityscape shot like this really is, but I'm posting it anyway.

When I'd gotten in my couple of miles, I did go straight to the Tylenol bottle. I'd spent the afternoon getting the driveway cleared out from our recent snow event, and this old man was definitely feeling it all over his body.

How I felt at day's end was at huge variance from how the day started: with Sumner splayed on my lap with a Prokofiev recommendation from my buddy Kelly, playing on the laptop via Youtube.

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"Rancher's Chicken and Biscuit Dumplings" (p. 82-85) and "This Is How You Make a F*$%ing Biscuit" (p. 103). From Yellowstone: The Official Dutton Ranch Family Cookbook, by Gabriel "Gator" Guilbeau with Kim Laidlaw. San Rafael: Insight Editions, 2023.

Meal No. 3781: Caesar-Dressed Greens with Chicken Strips

Sunday night found me tackling an unusual dinner: fried chicken strips, to go with a salad of power greens and a new batch of creamy Caesar dressing. I mixed ideas from two recipes for these strips, and they were pretty awesome. This isn't something I make with any frequency and I always feel a bit bumbling in the process. It was such a nice reward when they turned out as well as they did!

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Chicken Strips based on ideas from:

• "Tony's Chicken Tenders with Honey Mustard Sauce," from The Neelys on The Food Network.
• "Southern Fried Chicken Strips," originally by Genise Krause (Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin). Current article updated by Lesley Balla of Taste of Home. [Updated 14 November 2023]

Based on "Easy Lemon Caesar Salad Dressing," by Kim Hardesty of lowcarbmaven.com.

Meal No. 3780: Bacon & Cheese Sandwiches

An upgrade from the open-faced cheese toasts with bacon that I remember my mother often making, with slices of Cracker Barrel sharp cheddar, the meal last Saturday night was reminiscent of that: bacon and cheese melts on brioche buns. My version was freshly-fried bacon, and a double-layer of Kraft Singles, toasted in the oven, and happily consumed as the day was wrapping up.

Meal No. 3779: Snow Day Oatmeal

From the deepest recesses of my childhood comes the regular call for a steaming bowl of oatmeal, and with the delightful disruption last Friday presented by the winter weather we were getting, it's what I turned to at mealtime. It is nice to be an adult who can still be a bit shame-faced about making it the way he wished he could when he was a sugar fiend youngster.

Our Small Snow Event

The much-anticipated event last Friday was the arrival of a winter storm, and it came pretty much when and to the extent that was forecast...if not a nudge less than we'd hoped for.

As often happens in our part of the country, when a system of moisture comes up from the south, it wants to arrive in warmer air, even though we'd been extremely cold here for quite a while. So while it was mostly a snow event, some sleet and freezing rain got mixed in.

But it finished out again with enough snow to make it lovely for the arrival of some sunshine Saturday morning.

Officially, they say we got a couple of inches. The dogs loved it, frolicking and hopping, dashing and darting, and it was still pretty cold.

It was a perfect posting on social media that memorialized how funny we are in the South about our snow events:

Meal No. 3778: Buttermilk Pancakes

Last Thursday's workday had me in Vance County, so I didn't get home until pretty late in the afternoon. Among the appealing options for a meal that could be quickly whipped up was the satisfying selection of buttermilk pancakes. With more maple syrup than is pictured, a tall glass of water alongside, and a fourth one from the last of the batter, this was sufficient to nourish and satisfy. Then I braved the chilly temps and the chillier wind chill to get in a 3.5-mile downtown stroll before the evening got away from me.

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"Best Tips for Making Pancakes: Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes," by Joanne Ozug on the Pioneer Woman website. [Published 10 May 2017]

What To Do with a Large Loaf of Excellent Bread?

The terrific loaf of bread made along with tomato soup last Sunday invited a quick return to grilled cheese sandwiches with the leftover bowls of that goodness, on Monday evening. It was a miserable cold day with a morning of freezing rain and an icy glaze, which gave small way only to rainless grey skies and temps remaining near freezing. Fresh grilled cheeses with that delicious soup were just right with me.

Even though it was not needed, I was unable to resist a batch of cinnamon toast later that night, using up more of that loaf. It'd been quite a while since this much-loved childhood favorite has found its way back to the table.

Meal No. 3777: Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup

This past Sunday was definitely a winter's day, complete with temps around freezing, a tease of lovely snow, and a steady cold mix of sleet and rain and flurries for a good part of the afternoon. That means a smart chef would turn his attention to a pot of soothing soup, no? Because I remain ultimately satisfied with it, I stuck with the ultimate cream of roasted tomato soup from the ever-dependable folks at Cook's Illustrated, which is never a bad idea.

But I hankered also to pilot a new bread recipe, with grilled cheese sandwiches in mind. And here came author Crystal Wilkinson to fill that need, with a generationally-tested recipe for a hearty loaf that came out just right. Incredible flavor and unbelievably soft, it was awesome bread...but it did not stand up as well to the buttering and griddling as my peasant loaves. Still: there were no regrets by this patron of his own diner.

Awakening that morning to a 60-degree first floor wasn’t a shock, because I’ve been waiting for the heating system to once again blow its motor. Perhaps the cold snap was just the right stressor to this tenuous agreement, while the unit limps along into its nearing retirement (or euthanasia?). When Matt, who was on-call for my HVAC provider, got to the house mid-day, he was able to deliver good news: he got the system to re-start and it ran fine through a couple of cycles so that he could be satisfied it was back up and running. Just after he left is when it started to snow beautifully—outside, not inside!

Of course, the system being temporarily down made Sunday morning’s latest fire necessary (Fire No. 96 as these things are obsessively tallied). The ease of opening the chimney flue and simply striking a long match to the laid logs and lighter wood means there was a toasty warmth emanating in short order.

Losing the heat downstairs makes things harder but I don’t think I can rightly call it a hardship, and with the repair bill limited to the trip charge, I'll look ahead to some future day when the trigger is pulled on replacing the system—and I’ll cover that too. I’d best temper my urge to complain when I also know I can go where it’s not cold and still be in my home.

Count me on the exceptionally relieved side of the ledger, though, that we made it through all the holidays with all the company and events here before it acted up, even in this small way that was hardly inconvenient. An otherwise easy winter Sunday, a cozy fire, piddling kitchen pursuits, and a fresh loaf of bread...it was all good.

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"Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup," from Cook's Illustrated, November 1999. Recipe can also be found online at Cookography.com.

"Hearty Sandwich Bread," from Crystal Wilkinson. In Praisesong for the Kichen Ghosts. New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2024, p. 98-99.