A Record-Breaking False Spring

The false spring that's played out over the last week was record-breaking on a couple of days, and as it came to its triumphant end on Wednesday before temps plunged down closer to normal, it at least tied the 1967 record of 86°F, at Piedmont Triad International Airport.

Sumner and Scarlett found it to be exceptionally pleasing for some front yard hang time, which means a couchant perch to watch for Sumner, and plenty of sniff and startle for Scarlett.

Here at the Roediger House, I only saw it get to 85°F, and the breezes were strong and it was delightful. The Bradford pear's short-lived blossoms are already being pushed aside by the emerging green leafing, and the lone surviving nearby cherry tree is in full strut.

A couple of the camellia bushes are also busting out in bloom, out behind the house, so I snagged a couple of photos to memorialize this stage of our seasonal progress.

Because I planted a staggered row of these bushes between two evergreen trees, I am once more testifying to poor landscape planning, and they will either have to be moved or I'll just have to dig 'em up and do away with them.

But for now, I appreciate their earnest coloring and gorgeous display as I peer out the kitchen window when I'm working at the sink.

Quanto Basta and Unneighborlyness

Oh, Quanto Basta: our longtime across-the-street Italian restaurant! Over the years, we have gotten to know not only the fine folks who work there but also plenty of the regular customers who park in front of the house and are warmly greeted by the pooches.

Last year, on a summer afternoon, while we were enjoying a pleasant sit under the huge Bradford pear tree in the side yard, I saw a couple walking past your back kitchen door where the washpit is. The gentleman liked the look of your mop left drying there from the weekend cleanup and decided to take it with him.

Just as I thought I might step out and confront him, I remembered when the amazing film students from the UNC School of the Arts asked to use your empty parking lot across from the house, while they were filming here on a Sunday and Monday. You know: days that the restaurant is closed. And you hard-heartedly said: “Nope!”

You were the only nearby property owners who were unwilling to help these film students out. So I thought to myself, as the gentleman with your mop exchanged glances with me: “Enjoy your fine new mop, sir!”

It’s a neighborhood. Either we are in this together, Quanto Basta...or we are not.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Toffee Cookies

'Tis true I was once a much more frequent baker of cookies, and it was regularly to the joy of the household and often to the benefit of educators with whom I might be working the next day. It's the latter consideration that got me busy with a batch of white chocoloate macadamia nut toffee cookies last Sunday morning, before I hit the road for a couple of days in Virginia in two different schools. Not exactly suitable for breakfast but that didn't stop me from the unrivaled delight of sampling the goods straight off the sheet pan on which they'd just been transformed by 13 minutes at the right temp. After so many, many years of thinking I could be content with the recipe from the package, I'm so glad Christina Marsigliese of Scientifically Sweet actually figured out what really could make these cookies perfect.

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Adapted from "THE BEST White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies," from Christina Marsigliese of ScientificallySweet.com. [Published 19 February 2025]

Creamy No-Bake Cheesecake

Saturday night's supper did a number on all three of us so I'm sort of glad that the dessert I'd prepped was a light one. Or at least conducted itself with the appearance of such. Brought back for the first time in about two-and-a-half years was the creamy no-bake cheesecake perfected by the former Pastry Wizard of SeriousEats.com, Stella Parks. Plenty of tasty treats have made their way to the Roediger House table thanks to Stella, who is remarkable at avoiding our disappointment or displeasure. If this James Beard award-winning cookbook author, New York Times bestseller, and excellent recipe developer is willing to tell me a thing or two, I'll sure listen.

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"Easy No-Bake Cheesecake," by Stella Parks, BraveTart and pastry wizard, and now an Editor Emeritus of SeriousEats.com. [Recipe Updated 30 October 2019 and 21 September 2025]

Meal No. 4057: Bacon Egg & Cheese Buttermilk Biscuits

Saturday was the final full day of Eastern Standard Time for the outgoing winter months, and it was another Holly Avenue crew at the dinner table, which gave me the chance to use up some buttermilk and some bacon and to give in to a hankering for biscuits. The central feature: bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits, all from scratch. The biscuits were a bit malformed but still darned delicious, and it had been a while since I'd made chile-rubbed bacon in the oven. The baked scrambled eggs were light and fluffy and enhanced with a Swiss-and-Gruyère cheeses-to-pleases. It proved to be an unexpectedly filling meal, though, and we were all sort of miserable in a good way afterwards.

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"The Food Lab's Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe," from J. Kenji López-Alt, Culinary Consultant for SeriousEats.com. [Published 07 August 2015 / Updated 19 December 2025]

"Chile-Rubbed Bacon," by Rick Martinez. In "D.I.Y. B.L.T. O.M.G.: Bake Better Bacon (Upgrade Idea No. 1)," Bon Appétit, July 2016, p. 44.

"Baked Scrambled Eggs," from Heather Johnson of TheFoodHussy.com. [Published 09 September 2019 / Updated 08 February 2026]

Meal No. 4056: Grilled Pork Kebabs with BBQ Glaze

After an almost-full week of work down in southeast Georgia, it was pretty nice to be back in place at home this past Friday. Friend and neighbor Jonathan was back on hand for supper and hanging out, and it was a perfect evening for grilling. So we had pork kebabs with a sweet barbecue glaze, a pot of roasted garlic quinoa gave good grains, and an abundance of herbed roasted asparagus rounded out the plate.

We reveled in a high temp in record territory that fine Friday in Winston-Salem, hitting 83°F at the local weather station and 84°F on the Roediger House Tempest.

Lots of sunshine (but gentle breezes to moderate the sun's bake) meant plenty of good time on the driveway with the pups and with our dinner guest when he arrived.

And the next sign of spring was emerging on the Bradford pear tree, with a few early blossoms and plenty of ready-to-burst buds. I am so glad that the end of winter is nearly here, and I welcomed the time change over the weekend that lets me indulge these pleasant evenings even longer!

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"Grilled Pork Kebabs with Barbecue Glaze," by Andrea Geary. Recipe was an online extra from Cook's Illustrated and based on "The Best Way to Grill Pork Tenderloin," Issue No. 134, May & June 2015, p. 6.

Meal No. 4055: Spiced Pecan & Blue Cheese Salad with Chicken

February exited the scene on a Saturday this year, and it turned into a lovely late winter day. I'd hoped to work out an evening for a special salad offering, based on the signature version at a local favorite special occasion restaurant. With herbed sous vide chicken as its centerpiece, on a bed of spring mixed greens, the bowl was a tribute to the iconic spiced pecan and blue cheese salad from Ryan's Steaks, Chops, and Seafood. I offered myself an abundance of sliced cucumber and not quite enough grape tomatoes, and the sweet and sour vinaigrette was generously splashed all over.

That final day of February had a particularly enticing event late morning: a Bobby Boy Bake Shop meetup with Ericka and Jesse Morgan and their family. Ericka was one of the graduate students in my social studies education program at Wake Forest University, graduating in 2004. I hadn't seen her in about 20 years, though, and now with five kids and an incredibly busy daily life, this reunion was an understandable long time in coming. It was terrific, of course, and her kids are just marvelous.

And it was pretty nice to then come home to my own superstars:

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"Spiced Pecan and Blue Cheese Salad," inspired by the signature salad at Ryan's Steaks, Chops, & Seafood (an excellent Winston-Salem restaurant). "Sweet and Sour Vinaigrette" from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, compiled and edited by Julie Fisher Gunter. Birmingham, AL: Oxmoor House (1999), p. 373. "Cinnamon Vanilla Glazed Walnuts" recipe from McCormick & Company. Thanks as always to Jimmy Randolph for helping me track down those recipes.

Meal No. 4054: Baked Herbed Chicken Thighs

When Friday night rolled around a week ago, it was the end of a busy stretch of days. But hunger struck early that evening and so I went ahead and put together a dish of herbed baked chicken thighs, using an approach that helps them come out tender and so very juicy and also well-seasoned. Roasted cumin-coriander cauliflower was its own mound of temptation on the plate, and some herbed-garlicked whole green beans found their way to the small bit of open territory off to the side.

Copycat J. Alexander's Carrot Cake

It seems to me that the only J. Alexander’s Restaurant I’ve ever encountered was up in Winchester, VA, and I might have eaten there two or three times. But I do not recall getting to try its featured carrot cake, so having a copycat recipe for it is due not to compulsion but to coincidence. Might I nonetheless be glad for how well it served to guide my dessert-making for four of us last Thursday night? Absolutely. While I’ve no plans to abandon the much-loved three-layer version that dear friends (who at the time lived in Winchester!) recommended years and years ago, this sheet cake take will be perfect for a re-make.

Bradley took some back home to Boone to share with his family, and apparently his younger son Russell thinks Daddy needs to visit Dr. Ray-Ray again soon and come home with more of that carrot cake.

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Based on "Copycat J. Alexander's Carrot Cake," from Jamie Lothridge of MyBakingAddiction.com. [Updated 19 April 2019 / 28 March 2024]

Meal No. 4053: Penne alla Vodka

A dinner gathering of four on Thursday of last week featured penne alla vodka and homemade garlic breadsticks. A bit oversauced on the penne and overproofed where the breadsticks were concerned, the gents at the table were still gracious as they dispatched the viddles.

That Thursday proved to be quite the busy day. The North Carolina Council for the Social Studies has brought its annual conference to Winston-Salem, and friend and former grad student Bradley Phillis kindly invited me to co-present a session with him. We walked in the rain that morning from the house to the Benton Convention Center and enjoyed a warm reception from our audience, leaving us both pleased and also inspired for future collaborations.

Late that afternoon, just before dinnertime, a team of students from the UNC School of the Arts were here to plot, plan, and review various areas and rooms of the house as they anticipate filming here Easter weekend. A few of them are returners and it was good to see them; others are new faces and I can only hope future projects bring them back as well.

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Based on "Penne alla Vodka," from Daniel Gritzer, Senior Culinary Director of SeriousEats.com. [Updated 21 September 2025]

Meal No. 4052: Skillet Beef Stroganoff

The comfort of the latest Amy convergence last Wednesday was a chance to see if she’d be pleased at the reappearance of skillet beef stroganoff, a rewarding go-to menu item when there are mushrooms and ground beef and a short window of prep time. She responded in the affirmative.

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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. 4051: Cheddar-Crust Chicken Pot Pie

As we approach the almost exact 40-year mark of knowing one another, my good friend and fellow UNC alum Kelly found his way back over to the house for a dinner visit last Tuesday night. Bearing a couple of fine gifts, the absolute best of which was his presence, Kelly joined us at the table for a supper of cheddar crust chicken pot pie and roasted herbed whole green beans. We were on the second of a couple of frigid-feeling days after the previous week's welcome warm-up, and I was absolutely committed to something that would be fully comforting. In this, there was success.

Tuesday morning brought welcome signs of our crocus resurrection, and I shall giddily celebrate Spring’s arrival especially after a January of winter’s enduring onslaught and about a thousand dollars sent to Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas to cover it.

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"Chicken Potpie with Cheddar Crust," from Food Network Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 8 (October 2011), p. 132-133.

Meal No. 4050: Meatloaf Minis

Last Monday's dinner for three of our Holly Avenue crew was pretty scrumptious: mini meatloafs, roasted spiced potatoes, and roasted herbed broccoli florets. A hearty bottle of rioja alongside, a few chai spice cinnamon oatmeal cookies, and a comfortable casual evening hang: that was a fine way to start the week.

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"Mini Meatloaf," from Lauren Allen of Tastes Better from Scratch. [Published 20 February 2023]

Cinnamon-Chai Oatmeal Cookies

After having been jovially admonished the previous Saturday, when I conducted my final all-day seminar with this final cohort of aspiring administrators in an Educational Leadership masters program at High Point University, for not having brought a batch of cookies for class, I knew I'd have to rectify the error before seeing a portion of them for our instructional coaching rounds the following Monday. So I extended my kitchen time last Sunday night past dinner clean-up to make a fresh batch of cinnamon-chai oatmeal cookies. These are such rewarding cookies to make, and I had a couple hot out of the oven that night. Then, I bagged up most of the rest to take with me Monday to Vance County, about two hours away from Winston-Salem. They were reasonably well received by the crew.

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Based on: "Caramel-Chai Oatmeal Cookies," in Cuisine at Home, September/October 2013, p. 47.