Fire No. 100: Inaugural Fire of the Fall Season

The kitchen addition to the Roediger House was completed in 2009, and upon the masons' recommendation we let the fireplace and chimney cure for almost a year before putting it to first use. More recently, under a frost advisory and awakening to temps just above 40°F on the final Saturday of October, I was pretty certain that a roaring morning fire was called for.

The logs and lighter wood were all laid, in waiting, when I cleaned the fireplace up last Spring, so all it took was a match and an open flue to get that blazer going. This was the 100th fire in the fireplace over these last 15 years.

It was also Homecoming Weekend for Wake Forest University, where I was once on faculty, and that brought former grad student Karen here to make one of the upstairs guest rooms her crash pad when she got to town. We stayed up way too late talking when she arrived Friday night but it was, as always, an awesome visit. We got to have coffee together by the fire on Saturday morning, after Sumner finally relinquished his cozy spot to her.

Then she scurried away to join her family and sorority sisters and WFU classmates for the football game and other festivities. But doggone it: we forgot to get a picture together! So I'm posting a shot of that Class of 2006 masters cohort in secondary social studies instead.

Welcome to 2025

The holiday spirit never settled on me this year, even though I cherished gatherings with friends and the delightful addition of my brother-in-law to the household during the break between semesters. I very nearly failed in my annual Christmas card tradition, scrambling to get them all done in an uncharacteristically quick three days, all the while reveling in how much I enjoy turning my thoughts while signing each one to people I’ve known far and wide and long and short. This year’s Roediger House card seemed to strike quite a few people in some kind of way because there was a spike in texted responses from folks that was so very appreciated.

It was a December of much movie-watching and idle projects, and not nearly enough of the cooking that I want to do when there’s this ample supply of uncommitted time, because my morning weigh-ins were bent on being a persistent warning and things got a little out of control. (Last Saturday morning was my highest pounds reading since 2018 and I was not amused.)

The nondescript weekend nestled between two holidays, when it’s a mystery as to what day or date it is, was also a wild weather ride. I’ve already belly-ached about the cold and drear of Friday and Saturday, and that misty malaise and those well-chilled temps led to a quick second fire of the season. (I obsessively count things: this was Fire No. 95 since the kitchen renovation and addition of that wood-burning fireplace in 2009.)

Sunday was winter’s Southern sensation of weird warm temps, high humidity, more precipitation, but also an ongoing watch for thunderstorms that never quite materialized here. If Saturday trapped us in the 40s, waking up to 60°F that morning was a mixed blessing. But hey: I prepped a set of logs to be ready for whenever the next fire needs to be lit, and I was glad it was warm and not raining while the coffee brewed so that the task could be more comfortably accomplished.

But here we are to begin a new year. My honest report on this first day of 2025 is that the life of home and work is marvelous but my fears for our nation’s future are always sitting nearby, waiting to pounce with their oppressive depressing weight at any moment. I will bear in mind the useful guidance found in what my mother had placed and positioned all over her house, because she was a wise woman: I will change the things I can; I will find a way to accept the things I cannot change; and I will choose as wisely as I can where my energies will be placed and what costs I will bear. As others have noted with helpful sagacity: it is a time for choosing. I hope the coming year bears marvelous fruit from all of your own wise and necessary choices!

Meal No. 3600: Indoor Barbecued Chicken

On the occasion of the 3600th meal since completion of the new kitchen in May 2009, it was a gathering of nearly all of the Roediger House regulars. With five at the table and a desire to overcome the week's grey overcast mood (an extended wet and dreary weather pattern settled on us for about eight days), something in the comfort realm was called for. Oven baked barbecued chicken, using a new recipe from a dependable source, was at the center of the supper. And it was juicy and full of flavor...but maybe a step down from the previous oven-baked version I made about six years ago.

In a nod to the urge to take it too far, I brought back Willie Mae's mac and cheese, always scrumptious and hearty, consistently just a bit too much, hard to regret nor easy to excuse. As a cooling balance, I had some of my mother's coleslaw prepped and ready as well. This was certainly a meal that left us all feeling pretty stuffed!

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"Oven Baked BBQ Chicken," by Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTinEats.com. [Published 18 May 2020 / Updated 03 May 2023]

"Willie Mae's Mac and Cheese," shared by Willie Mae's Scotch House of New Orleans via Good Morning America. [Published 19 May 2020]

Sweet Southern Coleslaw based in part on a recipe from Allison M. Jones.

Replacement Microwave Installed

When the new kitchen was designed and brought online in 2009, a family-sized large-capacity microwave was definitely on my list. The requisite research at that time led me to choose a Panasonic inversion countertop unit, which I ordered that February while I was off on a work trip. I suppose things were busy enough just a few years later when it died in the middle of Thanksgiving Day cooking, because I do not seem to have mentioned it on the blog. And while I should have made a warranty claim, that was back when my travel kept me hopping so much that things like that just fell through the cracks. Fortunately, Costco had a similar solid Panasonic model that I could snag quickly and it's been a steady workhorse ever since.

It might be a coincidence but after one Friday's cleaning by the ladies, I discovered that the microwave's turntable spun not just during cooking cycles but also anytime the door was opened. (Fortunately, it stopped spinning if the door was closed during non-operation.) While it still works perfectly well, I reckon it is a bit long in the tooth, especially with its frequent use by this kitchen dabbler, so I went ahead and upgraded to a newer model. That arrived at back on April 27 and has already been happily pressed into service.

Meal No. 3594: Not So Cajun Chicken

The list of meals thought of as special or traditional or favorites of the house is pretty extensive, but always in the top rankings will be the beloved Not So Cajun Chicken. First encountered when I was living in Raleigh and regularly consumed at Crowley's on Medlin Drive, it was my friend and college roommate Jimmy who found a reasonable approximating recipe for it that I've happily used ever since. It was the very first meal I made in the new kitchen when it was completed in 2009. And it returned to the Roediger House dinner table last Sunday at lunchtime, grandly sauced, suitably spiced, nestled comfortably on fresh-steamed rice.

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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.

Quarantine Task Jar Update: Kitchen Swinging Door

The huge demolition and rebuild project that led to a wholesale replacement of the simple small old kitchen and sad little bathrooms back in 2008-2009 did not result in full replacement of everything. For instance, the butler’s pantry room was rebuilt to its original dimensions, but upgraded with hardwood floors, electrical outlets, and removal of an unnecessary window. Another carryover from the original kitchen was to have a new door but it was hung on its original swinging spring hinge. Alas, over time, when the retractable top piston hinge would sometimes stick, the door would fall over. It finally weakened the bottom hinge brace enough that, on one fateful afternoon, the door fell over and the break was complete:

Fortunately, the duo of Jami and Zeb Raines at Southern Raines Customs came through with a welding repair so that I could return that swinging door to full service. (Actually, I think Zeb completely recast it.) That was another one of my to-do tasks that eventually would have been drawn from the Quarantine Task Jar. Admittedly, as with so many tasks around here, it still took a few more months to rehang that door after reattaching the hinge plate. But as of December 20, 2023, it once more became operational.

Meal No. 3502: Simple Beef Chili with Beans

Last Friday night’s gathering of five centered on a dinner of beef chili and sweet southern cornbread, served at the bar in the 3rd-floor man cave and eaten while balanced on laps in the tv sitting area. That’s what’s required if the downstairs HVAC system is once again on the blink. But it's a forgiving and accommodating crew that regularly gathers here at the house and everyone made it yet another great night to be together.

Last Wednesday, about midday, the downstairs filled with an acrid smell, and a quick sniff at a couple of HVAC registers confirmed that once again the blower motor was blowing up. Although the tech from my dependable folks at Webb Heating & Air Conditioning found it was still functioning, and could not source the odor to any mechanical issue, we awoke the next morning to zero heat and 61°F in the front of the house. The next tech to come Thursday confirmed another blown motor and a replacement timeline of 3-5 days.

By Friday, it was 56°F inside. (Activities and where they occurred adjusted accordingly!) For the record: The latest trio of blower motor issues started with a blow-out in July 2020; the second was in June 2022; and now 18 months later, it's come around a third time. It is proving to be not just inconvenient but awfully expensive for my friends from Webb to continue not figuring out the issue.

When I undertook my first major renovation and addition project on the house in 2008, the HVAC subcontractor who designed and installed the entirely new system for the whole house was Barnette Heating & A/C, Inc. from Mocksville, NC, and it has been a 15-year problem-plagued journey, and the issues have not been small ones. I just realized that the first blower motor that had to be replaced was less than two years after the original installation.

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

Sweet Southern Cornbread adapted from "Golden Sweet Cornbread," from bluegirl on AllRecipes.com.

Sandalwood Rose is Gilded

Blogger's Confession: I have a few blog posts written quite a while ago that have been waiting for when I needed a filler, which has often occurred because I was on the road or simply didn't have anything else fresh to post about the Roediger House. This one has been sitting in the draft box for just over 10 years, and I'm letting it now run free.

My tendency in running a household is to buy in bulk, to buy lots when on sale or if it's a good deal, and to stock up on consummables that don't go bad.

In the upstairs landing bathroom's linen closet, which at the time of this writing (in 2013) had not yet been finished to serve as a linen closet, I stored the Costco and Sam's Club packages of toilet paper and Kleenex, the shelf-full of toilet bowl cleaner and Tilex Fresh Shower spray, a couple of boxes of hotel shampoos and soaps that I realize I just don't need to be collecting...and an oversupply of shower gels, shampoos, and antibacterial liquid handsoaps, mostly from Bath & Body Works.

A while back, I reached into the back of the closet and found some shower gel/body wash that had gotten pushed so far back it had fallen off the back of the shelf. It was the strongly-scented but very appealing Sandalwood Rose version. It hit me right for the moment so it became the next bottle of body wash for me to put in the master bathroom shower.

I realized at that time that I hadn't seen Sandalwood Rose back on the market in a long time and, later, I looked it up online. Here's what I found on Amazon, in February 2013:

Yes, that's for a single bottle. I have another one just like the one pictured, and newer bottles of it in their redesigned packaging. I reckon that, even though some people think this body wash is worth 80 bucks plus shipping, I'm going to use it like it's really worth the already over-priced $11 shown on the label on the bottom of the bottle.

A Very Braidy Christmas Eve

The order of events on the Saturday on which Christmas Eve fell this year was a wee bit off, because I produced either a very tardy breakfast pastry or a very early dessert. What is this magic of which I speak?

It was a pair of braided Meyer lemon loaves, lovingly crafted from scratch with a sweet enriched dough, filled with a sweetened cream cheese and a layer of homemade Meyer lemon curd.

This was quite something, gooey and gorgeous, tasty and tantric…and fully approved by the holiday celebrants at hand.

Ah, but this is just one of the newsworthy facets of this holiday Saturday. In the meteorological realm, I believe they grandly proclaim it a bomb cyclone, a weighty mass of lost invading Arctic air that busts through an unstable jet stream. It overwhelmed most of the continental United States with its most potent and deadly punch coming on Christmas Eve. The weather station at the Old Town Club adjacent to Wake Forest University clocked in at a low of 4°F but here at the house we only dipped to a downtown-moderated 7°F. Daytime temps under sunny skies reached the mid-20s, so all trips out with sweet Sumner were expeditious. This is the coldest we have been in quite a few years, I think, but the Roediger House remained cozy and infinitely blessed.

I’m sorry the comfort and joy abiding within could not be gifted to the troubled neighbors two houses down, where a late afternoon domestic row—and perhaps a mental health crisis?—required police presence and multiple officers to subdue a particularly combative woman who had tried to stab her male companion. It’s a new neighbor there, whom I’ve not met, but I feel for them.

Saturday night might have been spicy and wild for some, and sacred or somber and centered for others, given that it was Christmas Eve. At the Roediger House, it was a perfect night for oven-baked baby back pork ribs, homemade barbecue sauce, and perfectly roasted Brussels sprouts.

This was Meal No. 3258 in the ongoing count of meals made in the kitchen addition to the Roediger House.

That left plenty of room for more desserts for those so inclined: either more of the braided lemon loaf or a remaining serving of the Meyer lemon pudding cake (with a little more of the Meyer lemon ice cream!).

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"Braided Lemon Bread," by MaryJane Robbins of King Arthur Baking. Corresponding blog post is "A Sunny Bread to Chase the Snow Away: Braided Lemon Bread." [Published 05 April 2010]

"How to Make Great Ribs in the Oven," by Emma Christensen. From The Kitchn. [Published 01 July 2017]

Video Doorbell Installation

Downtown living has its attractions but it also is reason for some extra measures of security...not so much because of major fears about crime but more so for the assurance of being able to monitor and also review footage should something be amiss. My cameras are pretty old now, given advances in technology, but they mostly serve their purpose. At the rear door to the parking lot, though, that particular camera is not so great, as shown in the daytime video capture above.

This second photo shows a tremendous improvement, as one of my mid-summer Quarantine Task Jar items was to obtain and install a video doorbell, which is working beautifully (both video stills were captured at about the same time). However, as the owner of a 1905 house, not exactly of meager size, and with all the associated renovation and upkeep needs, I’ve regularly been asked about how much of the work was I taking on myself. My standard reply was to tell people it took me a day and a half to wire the front doorbell when I first moved in back in 2003, so I’d better leave the serious projects only to professionals. Plus, I could not afford to botch a DIY and then also have to pay someone to come do it right.

When I decided to add a video doorbell to the back door from the parking area, how long did it take to wire it? Yep: a day and a half. Pulling the interior trim was easy, but running the wire under the kitchen crawl space was the labored portion of it all. Ah, but I got it all rigged and working and tied into the smarthome and connected to my iPhone/Apple Watch…and the difference in security camera coverage is enormous.

While I am occasionally considered to be a smart man, that reputed intellect is not always fully operational. For instance, to determine the height of the drill hole, of course I thoughtlessly measured from inside the back door instead of from the top step outside...so the doorbell looks a little high.

In these last few months, it's caused me to learn that occasionally the parking lot is a cut-through option for wee-hours traversers.

Nonetheless, I’m happy to have this newest tech in place, with its two-way communication capability but especially with its camera coverage. Installing it finally incentivized me to reconnect the smart deadbolt (the SmartThings hub that controls it was one of the networked items that the now-retired LinkSys WiFi router was uncooperative with) so that it can be controlled via Alexa again. Now, somebody can ring the back doorbell and admittance can be granted without leaving the comfy confines of the third floor!

Wetbar Cabinet Clean-Out

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!)

Master Bathroom Tile Repaired!

We are in that fortunate season at the Roediger House when I have time and am also inspired to work on checking items off the always-present to-do list. The photo above can showcase one of those matters: for 12 years now, I've had to slowly watch the disintegration of the tile grout in the master bathroom...

...ultimately leading to a completely dislodged tile right in front of the sink.

A little background: the first major project I undertook with the Roediger House, after buying it in 2003, occurred in late 2008 into 2009: demolishing the old kitchen and very sad bathrooms on the back of the house and building a completely new and much-expanded kitchen area and several bathrooms. My general contractor, Peter R. Laroque of Mocksville, NC, was mostly good and I was pleased for 90 percent of it all. Ah, but as the project neared its conclusion all those years ago, there were elements that he did not finish up as he should have. One of the persistent problems has been in the bathroom tile work, where there was cracking and loose tiles occurring within a year or so of the job wrapping up.

Over the last week or so I reached back out to Todd Sink of Amazing Tile by Todd to come take care of the loose tile in the master bathroom. Mr. Sink installed the backsplash in the kitchen in 2017, which looks great even still. He does very nice work and he is able to offer terrific craftmanship without gouging the customer...a rare combination especially when one is looking for skilled expertise in a city environment...and in an old house like this.

Mr. Sink was here last Tuesday, to take up most of the center tile so that he could grind and clean the quickset from the undersides, and he dug out most of the rest of the grout throughout the floor. He set the tile that afternoon and returned on Wednesday to fill in the grout. It's amazing to have the floor whole again, and especially to no longer have tile rockin' and rollin' underfoot!

Meal No. 3150: World's Best Lasagna

The crew of RoHo regulars faithfully reported for a Saturday night hang over the weekend, and it was all the incentive required to bust out the glorious lasagna recipe that I've been making since 2010. The recipe has legions of loyalists and remains atop the AllRecipes download heap. It has never disappointed us. A nice crisp garden salad seemed called for but I wanted to dress it up with homemade dressing. In my world, lasagna is best accompanied by Thousand Island, and it was pretty spot on if not a bit pickle-y. Ah, but the novelty that evening was a first-time attempt at restaurant-style breadsticks.

They were not exactly pretty but they were more than pretty good. I was happy to hear the table's rave reviews so I guess it will be a happy obligation to bring them back.

Let's also take note of the terrific start to that Saturday: a long-overdue visit from Byron and Laura Hoover and family, as they circled back home from a grand nation-crossing summer vacation trip. An advisee from my days on faculty at Wake Forest University, Byron was a fantastic student but an even more remarkable teacher. The Hoovers are among my favorite people in the world and the old man can't quite wrap his mind around the fact that they are parents of a 15-year-old (as well as two other fine children). I made Byron take home a notebook with a collection of my article drafts, suitable punishment for him given how earnestly he has long encouraged me to write.

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

Adapted from "Thousand Island Dressing," from Graybert on GeniusKitchen.com.

"Copycat Olive Garden Breadsticks," from Tessa Arias of HandletheHeat.com. [Published 13 December 2013]

Property Plot Map

In finished form, the property plot map pictured above looks so simple. I've been wanting to craft that rascal for years....definitely since 2012, when I really got serious about landscaping around the house. I just had to take the time to make it and the quarantine/stay-at-home coronavirus shut-down gave me both opportunity and incentive to accomplish it. It helped that I could start with a full property survey that was done back in 2006, although I only had the paper copy of it (shown below). The first step was scanning it.

When I first started working on landscaping the yard, I pulled out my dependable Mead legal pad and hand-drew the different parts of the yard, and labeled what I was planting in their approximate locations (photo above). Of course, the next year, there were changes, additions, revisions, replantings, and replacements...so I had to basically hand draw the yard maps all over again:

I've got some rough digital copies of my architect's plans for that addition on the rear of the house but without the whole property layout:

I'd been wanting to combine them and clean them up so that I could have a digital document, allowing me to produce copies of the full property layout when that's what was needed, or to be able to produce sections to be able to record landscaping and planting and such in certain areas, like just the front yard, all the while knowing that there are likely to be changes from year to year.

That's part of the reason why so many of my plants still have the identifying tags on them, even if they've been in the ground for years. I've been waiting until I had a proper record-keeping system for tracking it all. I confess that I'm pretty thrilled with how this full property outline map turned out. I'm delighted by all kinds of small and inconsequential things. I also love checking things off the list, especially when they are as old and out-of-reach as this one has seemed.