The on-going chronicle of all things related to the George and Laura Roediger House (c. 1905) in the historic Holly Avenue Neighborhood of downtown Winston-Salem, NC. More info and pictures can be found at RoedigerHouse.com. [Mobile users: CLICK TO SEARCH the blog.]
Dateline: Tue 21 July. On a fridge clean-out night when leftovers served as supper, cookies were called for. And since it seemed like it had been a while since I had made regular (but giant) sugar cookies, that was the call that ultimately was made. Sweet and soft, chewy at the edges and luscious in the middle, them cookies is right tasty.
Based on "Mardi Gras Sugar Cookies," from Kelly who once blogged at the now-defunct website AmericanCupcakeAbroad.com. [Published 20 February 2012]
Dateline: Thu 09 July. Not a common dish here but I’ve happily made it for the third time in the last several weeks: copycat Chick-Fil-A sandwiches. Always better than the mushed mess that I only encounter if it gets ordered when I am working or presenting (otherwise, I avoid Chick-Fil-A because of the social stances of the company), this latest occasion was based on an alternative recipe that popped up on my Instagram feed.
After clean-up, with a hankering for something sweet to wrap up the night, I threw together a batch of lemon sugar cookies. They were awesome.
Dateline: Fri 10 July. There were three substantial fried chicken breasts remaining from that copycat endeavor from the evening before. A recent Costco run offered the bounty of glorious green hearts of Romaine ready to be chopped up, and I’d also prepped a fresh batch of creamy Caesar dressing. That’s how we came to make Meal No. 4152: Caesar Salads with Chick-Fil-A-Style Chicken Breasts diced and laid atop.
As I recently noted, I’ve got quite a backlog of blog entries in the queue, which is what led me to start adding “Dateline” notices at the start of each post. On the day we had these chicken Caesar salads, that morning’s check of the RoHo blog was the documentation of what we had 12 meals ago. Come August, I’ll be hitting the road again for work and my obsessive tendency to post something daily will be backfilled with these saved musings whilst I’m away.
"Chick-Fil-A Dupe Sandwiches," from Drew Reilly of Dish with Drew. First spotted on Instagram. [Published 25 June 2026]
"Lemon Sugar Cookies," from Melissa Stadler of ModernHoney.com. [Published 21 March 2016 / Updated 06 September 2018]
Based on "Easy Lemon Caesar Salad Dressing," by Kim Hardesty of lowcarbmaven.com.
Dateline: Mon 06 July. As the heatwave continued over us, with heavy humidity and only slightly moderated high temps, I made sure to invest my energies in the cool of this air-conditioned house. Once more, it was something that passed by in an Instagram scroll session that situated my meal choice, an experiment in sheet pan beef kebabs in order to make gyros. The homemade tzatziki sauce came out great and garlicky, and I was ready to tackle homemade yogurt flatbreads again, to rave reviews.
I didn't pull together the accompanying salad fixings but we didn't seem to miss it once the chowing down began. A fresh hot flatbread, that zingy creamy tzatziki, and the well-spiced beef kebabs: it was sufficiently feastworthy for the three of us.
Fine though the supper was, it left me certain we could manage some white chocolate macadamia nut toffee cookies for a dessertish nightcap.
Based on "Juicy Middle Eastern Sheet Pan Beef Kebabs," from Nicole Keshishian. On Instagram: @kalejunkie. [Posted 18 March 2026]
"Authentic (Easy) Tzatziki Sauce," from Suzy Karedsheh of The Mediterranean Dish. [Published 03 June 2016 / Updated 27 September 2023]
"Layered Yogurt Flatbreads," from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen. [Published 30 April 2020]
Adapted from "THE BEST White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies," from Christina Marsigliese of ScientificallySweet.com. [Published 19 February 2025]
Dateline: Fri 26 June. A couple of meals prior to this particular evening represented the most recent round of peanut butter bacon burgers, and the home-ground beef made an extra two burger patties that I did not need that night. So on the final Friday night of June, I put those two rascals into the skillet to cook, added cheese near the end, and served it all up on brioche buns with more of my homemade special burger sauce. Some chips on the side were not needed but earned their appreciation nonetheless.
And then I made dessert: white chocolate macadamia nut toffee cookies, for the win.
Adapted from "THE BEST White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies," from Christina Marsigliese of ScientificallySweet.com. [Published 19 February 2025]
Dateline: Tue 09 June. A portion of leftover Costco rotisserie chicken, supplemented with some fresh seasoned and herbed chicken breasts from the sous vide immersion circulator, all got turned into a tasty chicken salad for sandwiches a little more than a week ago. Side servings of chips brought the picnic feel to the summer supper table.
In the meantime, I also threw together the quick-and-easy chai-spiced snickerdoodle skillet cookie to be baking away in the cast iron whilst dinner was munched on. It emerged hot and fresh and all too tempting before we could leave the dinner table.
"Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie," from Heather Baird of SprinkleBakes.com. [Published 06 July 2020]
Dateline: Mon 08 June. On a casual weeknight, I got a wild hair for coming out at dessert time with something new and different. I'd spotted online an intriguing combination of cookies and ice cream, in the form of what some call a pizookie sundae. Basically, you drop a healthy ball of chocolate chunk cookie dough into a ramekin, let it bake into full cookieness, and then top it with ice cream (and if you still have homemade chocolate syrup, perhaps a few streaks of that as well). This was really, really good, truth be told. I'll be glad to have it reappear before long.
"Mini Individual Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae (Pizookie)," from Melissa Stadler of ModernHoney.com. [Published 04 February 2017 / Updated 09 September 2018]
Based on "Sweet Milk Ice Cream," published in the King Arthur Flour catalogue some years ago, but the recipe is no longer available on their website.
Over Easter weekend, with a film project happening once more here at the Roediger House, members of the cinematography and design crews came over Friday a week ago to bring some of the equipment and to do preliminary work on dressing the sets. While they worked in the cellar and up in the study, I was in the kitchen making a batch of chocolate sugar cookies in hopes they might be tempted when the time came for a little break. They seemed to like 'em reasonably well.
Then, as the second day of filming was proceeding, I snuck a batch of cinnamon-chai oatmeal cookies into the oven to be ready for everybody as the crew was easing out of the lunch break. It made me happy to see them partake.
"Chocolate Sugar Cookies," by Lindsay Conchar of LifeLoveandSugar.com. [Published 25 November 2020]
Based on: "Caramel-Chai Oatmeal Cookies," in Cuisine at Home, September/October 2013, p. 47.
Grammatically, it might have been just as well to title this post: "Jack & Norma Is in the House." That's because it is actually a film title as well as the name of the two characters who took up their well-plotted positions and marks in one of the upstairs guest bedrooms the weekend before last.
This was the latest student production to film here, masterfully managed and crafted and produced and executed by aspiring filmmakers from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. It's a dialogue between John F. Kennedy, Jr., and Norma Jeane Mortenson, who of course is better known as Marilyn Monroe.
From 6 am to 6 pm that Saturday and Sunday, the Roediger House came to brilliant life while abuzz with the determined activity of these remarkable artists. Each time we get to serve as a location, I get swept up by how special it is to witness all that they manage to make happen, and the way that they go about it, while also quickly depleting my preferred list of adverbs and adjectives to somehow convey it out to you lovely readers and interested others.
Given that the UNCSA campus is just over a mile from here, but also because the house can pretty easily accommodate their needs, it makes me all the more grateful that the Roediger House was discovered by the first crew that shot here in November 2024. I've loved seeing their finished products for over 20 years, as they are presented each spring at the conclusion of the academic year...and now, to be so intimately present while they work their creative magic: it's exceedingly awesome and rewarding.
There are stolen moments I bear witness to, as I drift around the periphery of these creative endeavors. Like an intense flash of brotherly unity and quiet respect as the director and 1st AD wrapped up a quick sidebar conference down at the bottom of the stairs, before heading back up for the next set-up and take; or the deeply-felt joy at the remarkably perfect gift the crew gave the director once filming wrapped. There is a lot of joy and respect and thanksgiving ferried on the backs of two simple words: “You guys…”
And darn it: these guys just keep being the nicest, most professional, most considerate guests while they work. With each successive production and its associated crew members, I've no doubt that throwing wide the front doors for a good film location time will become my permanent state.
Reckon that's why another film will be shot here this coming weekend!
And it does not always play out to where I can make a sweet treat happen, but this time things fell into place, so Sunday there were some fresh cinnamon-chai oatmeal cookies ready for them once the lunch break wrapped up.
Previous UNCSA Production: "The Dog House"
Next UNCSA Production: “Under Review”
Based on: "Caramel-Chai Oatmeal Cookies," in Cuisine at Home, September/October 2013, p. 47.
Last Thursday I was hoping I'd get a batch of cookies baked not only for the sweet treat of the household's desires, but also to share with the groups of students from the UNC School of the Arts Filmmaking program...but alas: they finished their preliminary location tasks and were gone before I could offer any. And boy howdy, did they miss out, because from the oven emerged the simply amazing lemon sugar cookies that are among our most favorite here. I might've snuck an extra for myself while I was on kitchen duty and out of sight of any curious onlookers.
"Lemon Sugar Cookies," from Melissa Stadler of ModernHoney.com. [Published 21 March 2016 / Updated 06 September 2018]
Last Tuesday evening after supper, I set to work on the latest batch of Cap'n Crunch cookies. These have proven to be a terrific variation from standard cookie fare, earning favorable reviews whether served at home or taken with me on the road for work. That's what put me on cookie duty last Tuesday night: the good intentions to bring along a bag-full when I met with one-half of the latest cohort of aspiring school administrators pursuing a master's degree at High Point University. We had a great day together, and since our visit coincided with the faculty's obervance of crazy hat day, I made my own small effort at playing along.
"Cap'n Crunch Cookies," found online at The Capitol Baker, with credit going to The Sugar Plum Blog for inspiration and the source of the adapted recipe.
'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.
Adapted from "THE BEST White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies," from Christina Marsigliese of ScientificallySweet.com. [Published 19 February 2025]
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.
Based on: "Caramel-Chai Oatmeal Cookies," in Cuisine at Home, September/October 2013, p. 47.
Monday a week ago was a welcome return to the simple and delicious chai-spiced snickerdoodle skillet cookie, as a stand-in for dessert that night. I'd spent so much time out on the driveway shoveling that I took the easy way out, not only with the dinner plan but also for the sweet treat to follow. This dependable recipe comes out terrific every time and the slices of cookie generally receive rave reviews from guests.
"Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie," from Heather Baird of SprinkleBakes.com. [Published 06 July 2020]
When I was on faculty at Wake Forest University, I built into the calendar each year a series of events that were simply reasons to gather: a dessert and decaf in May, a brunch in the run-up to Easter, and each January a chili cook-off gathering. The most consistent continuation of those, albeit with an evolving or shifting guest list because of different directions that life takes us, has been the January chili affair. These troubled times are the very reason we must stay connected, so last Sunday night the chili cook-off came back to life at the Roediger House.
The pandemic put a true kink in the ritual, and the only year since that I made an effort to at least time a chili gathering to its usual spot around Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday Weekend was in 2022. Deviled by a nostalgic impulse here in 2026, I wanted this to be a bigger deal: that meant a guest list and an invitation card to be mailed, adapted from the graphic I'd used back in 2010. The weather worried us a bit that day: we were in the mid-30s with precip moving through and a promise of a frozen mix. But for the hearty souls who turned out, it was a great night with a delicious variety of chili to sample.
With it being the first attempt at resurrecting this event for a few years, I didn't have a good measure of how available folks on the invite list might be. Still: better to be prepared, right? So I made a couple of appetizer options for us, including my version of South Carolina-style pimento cheese (above) and my own divination of Virginia-style Mexican restaurant white dipping sauce:
Of course, there had to be a pan of Granny Wilson's honey wheat cornbread. Since this delicious variation makes a full sheet pan's worth of sweet cornbread, the chili cookoff was perfect for bringing it out. I must've missed something in its preparation, though: it wasn't quite as on target as I'm accustomed to. No pictures are available, which is probably for the best.
Let's not leave out the dessert options for that chili winter's night, starting with Ina Garten's marvelous lemon bars on shortbread cookie crust. Well-glucosed and super lemony, these bars are marvelous to the max, each and every time.
Before we no longer had the recent holidays out of sight in the rear view mirror, I also wanted another go at eggnog tres leches cake. Alas, the version I've been most dependent on makes a thicker sponge cake than seems prudent—it can end up with unmilked dry portions that I find problematic. So I skimmed down the cake layer with some clever mathing, but kept the milks and topping amounts constant.
"Simple Beef Chili with Kidney Beans," from Cook's Illustrated, Number Sixty-One [March-April 2003], p. 10-11.
"Vegetarian Chili," from All About Vegetarian Cooking. By the editors of Joy of Cooking: Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker. New York: Scribner (2000), p. 82-83. Cookbook was a gift from former student Alison Pomeroy.
"Granny Wilson's Cornbread," a recipe shared with me by Linda B. Dunlap.
"South Carolina-Style Pimento Cheese." Recipe worked out by me, based on Sharon's Palmetto Pimento Cheese. [Published 23 October 2009]
"Mexican Restaurant White Dipping Sauce," a recipe worked out by me, sampled by Spring Street, and approved of by all.
"Lemon Bars," by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. Published in Barefoot Contessa Parties!, Clarkson Potter Publishers, 2001.
Modified from "Eggnog Tres Leches Cake," from Michele Feuerborn of FlavorMosaic.com. [Published 13 December 2015]
Following last Thursday's boys' night supper, the proper thing for this host to do seemed to be a dessert concoction of some sort. It had been a while since I'd made what Sam Merritt calls the WORST EVER chocolate chip cookie, and it's easy enough since it uses melted butter instead of softened (as almost all my cookie recipes require). This is the recipe that steps in when I've not planned ahead, in other words. But it's also really good: these chocolate chip cookies have a distinct air of childhood reminiscence and they also taste awesome. The large batch meant several plates went out to neighbors and as a take-away for the excellent Mookie.
"The WORST EVER Chocolate Chip Cookies," from Sam Merritt of SugarSpunRun.com. [Published 28 November 2018; Updated 19 December 2024]
For the first time in over a year, I brought back the wonderfully easy and perfectly delicious chai-spiced snickerdoodle skillet cookie for after-dinner last Thursday night. A reasonable undertaking when I've got no other plan in motion, this sweet treat comes together quickly and then presents itself as an irresistible vixen with an unimpeachable siren song. We handled our sizable slices with aplomb.
"Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie," from Heather Baird of SprinkleBakes.com. [Published 06 July 2020]
While the baby back pork ribs dinner enjoyed on the first Saturday night of 2026 might well have been sufficient to leave us all satisfied, I still felt like we were due a dessert offering. I'd made and stored away some vanilla ice cream, using a perfect and perfectly dependable approach from King Arthur Baking. Then I also whipped up a batch of shortbread cookies, which are generally supposed to be left to set up but I went ahead and served 'em warm and a bit pliable with the sweet frozen dairy scoops of heaven.
Based on "Sweet Milk Ice Cream," published in the King Arthur Flour catalogue some years ago, but the recipe is no longer available on their website.
"Shortbread Cookies," from Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTinEats.com. [Published 16 March 2019 / Updated 18 June 2025]
This past holiday season was not wildly focused on sweets or fun foods, as I might have hoped, given the extra time at home. But that doesn't mean there weren't some goodies to please us while family gathered or friends were on hand. The earliest entry into that suite of treats was peanut butter fudge (pictured above), a pretty simple concoction that's worth breaking out the double-boiler for. It sets up nicely and brings out the peanut butter flavor in earnest measure. I also made a double-batch of pimento cheese (pictured below), using a recipe I came up with after reviewing a number of competitors. I've included a link (at the bottom of this post) to the recipe that was most impactful, if you feel like playing around a bit yourself.
I also made another kind of chocolate pie. You'd have to go all the way back to the winter of 2011 to find the first time I made Emeril Legasse's chocolate cream pie. It is a stunning concoction, not because it's particularly fancy, but because the simple alchemy behind it brings out the most marvelous heavenly slice of chocolatey goodness, almost light in feel but definitely well-massed in endorphin delights. It has made semi-regular appearances here over the last decade and a half, although it's been missing from the dessert rotation for over a year and a half.
Many a time it's been on the dessert menu here, I've shortcutted its prep by using store-bought chocolate crusts...but Nabisco discontinued that product. I don't love chocolate graham cracker crusts but my grocery stores don't seem to carry those either. Isn't it better to make one's own, though? That's definitely the route I took for that chocolate cream pie. It seemed to be well received when I served it on Christmas Eve after we'd had our fill of skillet pizzas.
I might as well throw in for good measure the way I used up the rest of a peasant bread loaf: a fine round of nighttime cinnamon toast. Well-buttered and then thickly sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar, these crunchy sweet delights were much more than I could handle on the evening when temptation compelled that I make them.
Finally, as the holidays were wrapping up, I wanted to send my brother-in-law back on the road with a bagful of white chocolate macadamia nut toffee cookies, given his fondness for them as road snacks. I had to sample a couple myself, as they came out of the oven the night before his Sunday morning departure, and I could attest most assuredly to the latest success with this new-found recipe. Gone so rapidly, and knowing only one possible solution: make another batch. That happened a couple of evenings later:
"15-Minute Peanut Butter Fudge," in the article "Simplifying Fudge" by David Pazmiño. In Cook's Illustrated, January & February 2007, p. 22-23.
"South Carolina-Style Pimento Cheese." Recipe worked out by me, based on Sharon's Palmetto Pimento Cheese. [Published 23 October 2009]
"Emeril's Chocolate Cream Pie," by Emeril Lagasse (2007). Featured on The FoodNetwork.com website.
"Perfect Oreo Cookie Crust," from Sally McKenney of Sally's Baking Addiction. [Published 11 November 2022]
Adapted from "THE BEST White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies," from Christina Marsigliese of ScientificallySweet.com. [Published 19 February 2025 / Updated 11 October 2025]
Extra time on an unexpectedly cloudy afternoon drew me to my kitchen and next thing I knew I was whipping up a batch of Cap’n Crunch cookies, just in time to spoil Thursday night’s salad supper for three. These were a fortuitous revelation when I undertook a web search to a different creative use for this cereal of fantastic childhood memories, and various versions from different Cap'n Crunch special edition flavor profiles have gifted us with an interesting history of repeat appearances over the intervening years. I certainly was glad that these were available to offer samples to students from the UNC School of the Arts who came by for prep work for upcoming filming here.
"Cap'n Crunch Cookies," found online at The Capitol Baker, with credit going to The Sugar Plum Blog for inspiration and the source of the adapted recipe.
Let the holiday baking season begin, I thought, as I'd cleaned up from an early dinner this past Tuesday and was ready for something sweet to finish out the evening. Eggnog sugar cookies were the selected recipe, tamed in their size but still big on sweet taste, warmed by their mix of spices. The batch was big enough to bag up a bunch of 'em to take with me the following morning for instructional rounds at Vance County Middle School, about a two-hour drive from Winston-Salem. I don't think the group minded their extended travel time, once they'd arrived safely for snacking.
"Soft & Chewy Eggnog Cookies," by Lindsay Conchar of LifeLoveandSugar.com. [Published 26 November 2019 / Updated 15 March 2023]
