Meal No. 4137: Caesar Salad with Filet Mignon

Dateline: Mon 22 June. Just before storms hit on the second evening of summer, the Roediger House dinner fare centered on Caesar salads with filet mignon, a wonderfully hearty treat made easier by the sous vide immersion circulator and a good finishing pan sear.

That Monday was also the occasion of Sumner’s 10th birthday, sweet and precious pup that he is. Words cannot capture how fortunate it is to have found him, or to have had him find the Roediger House. Adopted from our local Animal Adoption and Rescue Foundation when he was about 9 months old, he has been a genuine joy and the absolute best boy in the world.

When a fast-moving storm rolled over us right after dinner clean-up was completed, we lost power in an instant.

Most of the Holly Avenue Neighborhood, plus the east side of the West End Neighborhood (here on our side of Broad Street), as well as First Baptist and Centenary Methodist and Calvary Moravian Churches, were all dark. Power was restored around 9:45 pm.

I strolled that evening through our powerless section of downtown, clocking in at about 2.5 miles, because old men survey the “damage” like that. When I got back to the house at 9:30 pm, I tried to snag a photo of this uncharacteristic dark, but my iPhone camera did quite a bit to compensate. Still, it’s an eerie shot that I kind of dig.

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

Guess Who Lost the Rat Race

Dateline: Sat 06 June. As the first full week of June was drawing to a close, there was quite a bit of excitement happening. Let’s start with a first-time accomplishment by the house imp, Scarlett: she managed to pounce on and eliminate a yard rat.

Then, no more than 40 minutes later, I’ll be darned if she didn’t slay a second larger rat. That girl must’ve wanted to get in my good graces something fierce.

The next day, there was a third rat slaying by this girl. Not only did I have no idea we had such a rat problem, I had no clue that she was such a rat problem solver.

You go, Scarlett Impia!

But wait! There is more! When I was getting that Saturday morning started in the kitchen, the number and speeding intensity of a convoy of Winston-Salem police cars piqued my curiosity enough to tune into the scanner on Broadcastify.

Once the communications exchanges made clear there was a complete shutdown of Salem Parkway and US 421 just down from the house, I thought I’d stroll to see what was afoot. From the Peters Creek Parkway bridge over the highway I snapped these shots.

Eventually the local news had the fuller story: this was the conclusion of a vehicle chase that left one WSPD unit flipped onto its roof and another slightly smashed into a small SUV.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Dateline: Mon 01 June. Coming in at just about the most perfect I've ever made it, the dessert at the start of the month was the glorious traditional creamy lemon meringue pie. The lemon filling was truly airy and excellent but there was something uniquely pleasing about the way the meringue turned out. While the four of us might have been desirous of larger or additional portions, we also were wise enough to recognize when enough was enough. Boy howdy, was it ever good.

The next day, before I headed out for a few days of work in Richmond, the Goodyear Blimp flew over downtown. Here's the photo to record that uneventful event.

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"Lemon Meringue Pie," based on a classic and common recipe.

Meal No. 4090: The Viral Ramen Recipe

The supper came early yesterday, as the week rolled to a close. I returned Thursday night from my final stretch of work travel for the spring and did not make it to the grocery. But that’s okay, because I’m still able to make an excellent bowl of ramen with (mostly) pantry staples. I had snagged an upscale brown rice ramen from Costco, which came out much softer and more silky. It was a nudge shy of too much once plated, and I licked my soy-sauced-lips happily.

I’d made a quick run over to Chapel Hill for a most excellent reason: my friend and fraternity brother Bryan and I met with the new student body president at UNC, a meeting of old campus leader minds with this bright and energetic new generation.

Then last night I indulged another happy tradition: attending screenings of Fourth-Year films at the UNC School of the Arts, not far from the house. Of course, the student films have been drawing me there since 2004, but now the productions are even more meaningful because the house has served as a location and especially because I want to support the amazing students it’s been an honor to get to know.

The auditorium was bursting with such excellent energy and glorious inventive spirit, and this old man was overjoyed to see so many of the young filmmakers who have worked on films (often more than one!) at the house. They applauded wildly for one another but also with good reason, given the quality of their final productions. The Fourth-Year projects are spread across two nights, an abundance of riches and so much talent and wondrous creative ideas. I'll catch the other half of this program tonight, which will include two films shot here. We truly are fortunate to have this university and conservatory here in Winston-Salem.

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Based on "Viral Ramen Noodles," from Brian Gerwig [NC]. Instagram Profile: g_bque. [Posted 15 May 2024]

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

We've been taking it easy on the dessert regimen lately...seems like there'd been more of it than good sense would call for. But when Amy was here last week, I gave in to a simmering desire for a good old-fashioned single-layer yellow cake round with a simple chocolate frosting. And it was really awesome, actually, in all that non-fussy ordinary glory. Perhaps I could have sliced a larger portion but I exercised rare restraint.

With all that taken in for the evening's sustenance, a walk downtown was certainly necessary before bedtime. I did an initial circling of the block in the day-ending gloaming and snagged this photo of the back of the Roediger House, perched below Broad Street grade, and itself looking towards the city skyline.

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"Homemade Yellow Cake," from Stephie Predmore of Stephie Cooks. [Published 13 November 2025]

"Whipped Chocolate Buttercream Frosting," from Erica Acevedo of the Crumby Kitchen. [Published 16 July 2022 / Updated 15 January 2025]

Winter’s Late January Sleet Smack

Oh, with giddy anticipation, once the cackling imprecision of breathless long-view predictions had put in our minds the slimmest glimmer for a foot-high snowfall fever dream, did we all hustle and bumble into dedicated preparation last week. But a complex convergence of multiple systems and fronts made it hard to know what all those models were promising. And we all should understand and be forgiving of the floundering meteorologists: the models are playing catchup to the shifted landscape that comes with climate change uncertainty.

When I woke around 4:30am Sunday morning, it was 14°F and we had mostly gotten sleet, in abundance. The barest incidence of light snow flakes and occasional pelting by fat cold rain drops were nothing compared to a couple of inches of those rough tiny granules of ice. Sumner hated it, finding it to be terribly disconcerting. Scarlett, true to her shepherd, husky, and Saint Bernard lineage, was ready to seek a cliff face for ice rappelling.

Reports around the state and region made it clear we were lucky in terms of damage but we missed out on what would have been an enormous gorgeous snowfall had the precip been otherwise. Just around the corner from the house was what appeared to be the command center or staging hotel for one huge crew that never had to go out since we didn’t get all the ice that was so fearfully anticipated.

Our power stayed on even if elsewhere fortunes were much less bright. To have this much sleet coverage was a bit of a wonder but it also really was coming down for a good part of the day. Imagine if it had only made it all the way down as snow! I still got out and trudged my 3.5 miles while the sidewalks and streets were stompable enough as long as the boots were steady and sturdy...that's when I spotted the linemen's trucks behind the hotel and was sure those crews didn't mind never getting called out.

Speaking of crews: a team from Budd Services (the company that provides groundskeeping for the neighboring office building) spent Saturday night in their trucks on the parking lot behind us. We get to see these gentlemen regularly through all seasons, always impressed by their diligence and focus.

After daybreak Sunday, they emerged into the brutal cold and got busy spreading ice melt and running the scraper blades. But yeah: tell me again about the immigrants who don’t work but who are taking our jobs…?!

The Monday that followed all this was bright and sunny but still cold and breezy. As is so often the case, the house looked lovely in that early morning light but I also knew I'd have to get the flatblade shovel in hand and get to work clearing off the front steps for the postal carriers and some sort of path across the parking lot down to the street.

And a task like that is a sore and painful reminder that I have entered my seventh decade on this earth.

An even colder arctic push invaded overnight Monday so that by the time I got up Tuesday morning, it was 11°F on my Tempest weather station, and the nearby Smith Reynolds Airport was registering 9°F. Current projections are that our area will continue to experience below-normal temperatures perhaps into the latter part of February. You can count on me to keep you posted, especially if bellyaching results.

Meal No. 4021: Roasted Spiced Potatoes and Roasted Broccoli

Back on Saturday of last week, just before I hit the road for a short work trip, it was the better part of wisdom to use up some vegetables in the hopper, and so it was a supper of roasted spiced broccoli and roasted russet and sweet potatoes, combined. After years of baking or steaming vegetables, I'm glad roasting has come home to roost.

Right outside the house on that rainy Saturday afternoon, the streets were abuzz with pasionate protestors, rallying in response to the killing of mother and artist Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. The point of origin was the parking lot behind the house, and then the group circled the block.

I'm not sure how far the march carried down Fourth Street towards the city's center, but the protestors soon positioned themselves at the intersection of Fourth and Broad.

Lots of bullhorn calls, chants by the protestors, and encouragingly responsive horn-blowing from passing traffic continued for much of the afternoon. The location of the house gave us a pretty good view of their persistence in spite of the rainy weather.

Meals No. 4014 and 4016: Spring Mix with Chicken Breast

Spring mix and the sous vide were the essential combo for a midday salad on the final Monday of 2025. I prepped homemade Thousand Island dressing to adorn it all with, and the standard finishing touch of roasted sunflower seeds got their last-minute shake-shake on top. It was a satisfying bowl of green and good, although I was pretty darned hungry again within a few hours.

The sky overhead on those last couple of days of 2025 also brought us an unusual sight, more common down at the beach or over a football stadium: an airplane towing a banner of some sort. I'd spotted it on a downtown stroll but the plane was over the central business district and I was down near Old Salem, so I couldn't make it out.

But then on New Year's Eve, it flew directly over the house when out we went with the pooches, so I was able to snag a couple of quick photos. Mystery solved: an advertisement for the following weekend's Duke's Mayo Bowl game between Wake Forest University and Mississippi State (which WFU handily won 43-29).

By the end of the week, we'd leaped over into 2026, and that Friday invited a repeat of the salad-with-chicken meal. Broken record that I am, but these holidays had been an ongoing battle with the morning weigh-in and I dithered between impulsive determination and surrendering to impulses. My downtown walking regimens had been intense and aggressive but my body was operating with a mind of its own. The battle waged after that first Friday salad lunch was taking another pass at what I call the College Tour route: I walked through all five college campuses within striking distance of the house, clocking in at a sweaty 6.4 miles once I ambled in pain back up the driveway.

Still, let's celebrate how the year's inaugural Friday started and ended: with a fiery dawn to begin the day, and the nearly-full Wolf supermoon appearing over the city that evening, trying to break through the day's cloud cover.

The Saturday timing of the fullness of that moon coincided with a rainy drizzly day, so my next chance to catch sight of it was as it was charting its brilliant exit path toward the western horizon Sunday morning.

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

Meal No. 4001: Roasted Spiced Salmon Salads

It’s going to be a joyful Sunday evening if dear friend and fellow UNC alum Kelly is swinging by for a spot of grub and hanging out. Of course, he caught me minding my morning weigh-ins during this frantic in-between of holidays: the gaudy culinary indulgence of Thanksgiving, and the sweets and treats of Christmas—and that meant it was a tempered menu. Roasted spiced salmon was the key feature, and we used it to top fancied-up salads that were adorned with spiced sugared pecans, grape tomatoes, blue cheese or goat cheese, and a long-loved special sweet-and-sour vinaigrette. We did still manage a dessert—more about that in tomorrow’s blog post.

And here’s a brief word to offer credit where it’s due: those salad stylings are inspired by memories of one I’d regularly enjoy at the local special celebration restaurant, Ryan’s Steaks and Seafood. I first went there in 1987 or 1988, and it's been the place for marking good times with friends and loved ones, including the night I closed on and took possession of this fine old Roediger House!

Early Winter with No Wonderland

As I process the shock to my system from our unseasonably deep chill starting with Thanksgiving, I had too much time to mull that unexpected and unwelcome transition. Here comes a hodgepodge of stuff, which begins with noting that Thanksgiving weekend was absolutely fantastic for the joys found inside the house.

But that holiday Thursday initiated an extended, never-ending, sub-normal, and occasionally wet-and-dreary weather pattern. Saturday’s mid-20s morning temps were quite a deviation even for late November, Sunday never got above 41°F, and Monday hit only a high of 43°F.

Sunday and Tuesday were cold and rainy. Sunday’s hourly forecast had the added cruelty of lying to us: the reduction in precip was promised in each coming hour only to jump back up to rainy certainty. Tuesday was ugly at least for the first half of the day.

It was cold and dreary enough, and of course this old house can be a bit drafty; the smart move was to bring Grandmother’s amazing quilt out of its summer storage drawer and place it comfortingly over the master bed!

That was just in time for the unrelief of Wednesday, bright and sunny but temps at freezing. It’s the time of year for blooms to emerge from some of the camellia bushes, so here’s how they were looking.

It wasn’t too cold for two squirrel-focused house canines, who seemed unbothered by 32°F as long as yard pests remained active across branches and power lines above.

Once evening rolled around, and they’d had their supper, they were ready for their quiet hangout napping up on the third floor, and I was ready to continue working my way back through the first season of the original Mission Impossible television series.

The final full (and Super!) moon of 2025 arrived at dinnertime that Thursday, but we had a winter weather system moving in that obscured it. I’m glad I went ahead and snagged its rise on the clear evening prior.

On the first Friday of December, local schools were closed or on a virtual day schedule in cautious expectation of a mix of wintry weather that did not materialize here. Instead, on a mizzly nasty dreary day where afternoon temps eased down into the low 30s, it was a delightful lunch on Fourth Street with a longtime social studies colleague, followed by an afternoon home movie hang up in the mancave with our new neighbor. It was a Friday that communicated clearly: once in, stay in! Sound directive, that.

Let’s roll it all together in the appropriate finale of the Winston-Salem Christmas Parade in the stark chill of early dark that first Saturday of December.

Because of the location of the Roediger House, we witness much of the staging of floats and performers and fancy or vintage vehicles.

This year’s event seemed to draw in huge crowds in spite of how cold it was. Or maybe because of it? I’ve strolled the route in past years and practiced my usual restraint in 2025 by stepping only up to the main intersection by the house to grab a few documentary pics. I do think folks had a fine time.