Meal No. 4177: Salmon Croquettes

Dateline: Wed 12 Aug. A fine foursome sat down to dinner a couple of Wednesdays ago, on a mid-week movie night, with the main feature being salmon croquettes (i.e., cakes, patties, or burgers: call ‘em what you will.) A chili-garlic-lime aioli is always the right choice for dipping bites into, and I also spiced and roasted whole green beans. I sure didn’t grow up eating dishes like this but boy howdy have I come to like ‘em a lot.

It would have seemed like a missed opportunity not to have dessert, so I’d grabbed blackberries and raspberries on a recent grocery run and had a multi-berry version of Gerry’s cobbler in the oven while we ate our dinner. It really came out awfully sweet this time, and I wouldn’t have minded the filling setting up a little better. But I absolutely ate every bit and crumb and sent my bowl to the sink well-scraped of all its residual goodness.

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Adapted from “Salmon Burgers,” from Denise Austin, Shrink Your Female Fat Zones, Rodale Books (2003), p. 396.

"Chili-Lime Aïoli," from David Wald of Princeton, NJ, May 2009.

Adapted from "Gerry's Blackberry Cobbler," by Baritone Bob. In allrecipes, Summer 2024, p. 43. Also found online at AllRecipes.com. [Updated 14 January 2022]

Vanilla Ice Cream with Sweet Apples Compote

Dateline: Wed 05 Aug. Was it only two weeks ago that on Amy’s regular dinner visit we indulged in a strange concoction for dessert? Why yes: homemade vanilla ice cream topped with a sweet apples compote, which was really an over-sauced stewed diced apples filling like one might use to stuff handpies with. But I overdid its runniness and had also just made ice cream and I thought: Why the heck not?

Dateline: Fri 07 Aug. A couple of days passed with that delicious runny apple filling in a storage container, and in the meantime, I’d also made pastry for a double-crust pie but only used the bottom crust. What remained in the fridge was the perfect amount of dough to create four well-filled apple hand pies, brushed with egg yolk and cream and coated with cinnamon sugar, baked to a toasty doneness, and consumed with another big scoop of that vanilla sweet milk ice cream.

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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.

Adapted from "Hand-Held Apple Pies," by Diana Rattray of TheSpruceEats.com. [Updated 10 September 2019]

White Wine Coffee Cake

Dateline: Sun 26 July. Intentionally timed to be the final meal’s dessert before my brother-in-law wrapped up his summer visit, on the last Sunday of last month, we interrupted our movie watching to indulge in huge slices of white wine coffee cake. Originally brought to my attention in my youth, surrounded by the very many sweet old ladies of Buies Creek and thereabouts, this cake-mix-shortcut treat is hard to mess up and always proves pleasing. Plus: slices could be wrapped up to help Beau manage the long drive home the next day.

Sweet Milk Vanilla Ice Cream

Dateline: Fri 24 July. While the churning of vanilla ice cream coincided with National Vanilla Ice Cream Day back on July 23rd, it did not get served until after the next evening’s supper. And as is always the case, it was sweet and delicious and much appreciated by its partakers. Some chocolate fudge sauce was an added touch of grandness and it did not take long for the desserts to be disposed of.

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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.

Giant Sugar Cookies

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.

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Based on "Mardi Gras Sugar Cookies," from Kelly who once blogged at the now-defunct website AmericanCupcakeAbroad.com. [Published 20 February 2012]

Vanilla Bean Pudding Cake

Dateline: Mon 20 July. With the latest visit of fellow Tar Heel Chris late last month, some dessert was called for, and I went with the marvelous vanilla bean pudding cake. Simple enough to throw together while I'm making the rest of dinner, so that it can be ready soon after the evening meal, this sweet explosion of vanilla comes across as a real treat, even though it's not a grand production. But the end result is worth even small efforts, for sure.

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"Vanilla Bean Pudding Cakes," from Susan Reid. Published by King Arthur Baking. Recipe printed July 2017.

Meal No. 4157: Poppy Seed Chicken

Dateline: Sun 19 July. A small gathering of a mixed bunch from the regular crew was here so we could watch the recent film phenomenon, Obsession. That called for an earlier dinnertime and a doable menu, but I still wanted it to be a decent one. A Sunday night comfort casserole sounded perfect, and that meant dropping a seasoned whole chicken into the Instant Pot and whipping up the mushroom and onion filling on the cooktop. It all comes together in the baking dish with a Ritz cracker buttery crumb topping. When it’s dished up on the plates, the guests are advised, to their happy delight, that they shall dig into poppy seed chicken. And some roasted herbed whole green beans, too.

After the movie, I had some dessert to put together, with most of the prep having been done in advance: chocolate frosty-style shakes. Cold, creamy, chocolatey, and brain-freeze-inducing: we found the cupsful to be an entirely suitable way to close out the night.

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"Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole," by Ashley Moore in Cook's Country, February/March 2015, p. 20.

Guidance from "How to Cook Instant Pot Whole Chicken - Rotisserie Style," by Sheena Strain from noshtastic.com (formerly glutenfreepressurecooker.com). [Printed 08 January 2018 / Updated Online 21 January 2023]

"Rotisserie Chicken Seasoning," by Judith Hannemann, The Midnight Baker. [Published 22 March 2017]

"Homemade Chocolate Frosty," from Tieghan Girard of Half-Baked Harvest. [Updated 04 August 2025]

Meal No. 4153: RoHo Crew Gathering

Dateline: Sat 11 July. With more time at home and the feeling of a more leisurely pace in the summer, it’s always a good night if the gang can be brought together for happily hanging out and also hushing up our hunger. As I sorted through the fridge knowing I was about to leave town for a few days for work, I thought it could be a reason to deviate from the norm and offer up something unexpected to the bunch.

That’s how we came to have Mediterranean-style chicken kabobs with more tzatziki sauce but also baby back pork ribs.

I’d gotten the ribs prepped the night before with a good spice coating, and the usual approach here for oven-roasting usually results in something more tender. It was a challenge for the group to harvest as much of the meat as might have been desired, but they were good sports about it.

To bridge the gustatory gap between those offerings, I had chopped romaine with a Greek-style balsamic dressing, plus plenty of chopped Roma tomatoes and diced onion...

...and the ribs seems to require something along the lines of my mother’s stylings for coleslaw, which I’m always happy to chow down on.

And when you get to enjoy the company of such a fine cadre of friends, it’s best not to overlook the simple joys of a terrific dessert like a pan of Ina Garten’s lemon bars, well-dusted with powdered sugar and boosted with an extra punch of lemon tang.

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"Greek Chicken Souvlaki Recipe with Tzatziki" [Published 11 June 2018 / Updated 16 October 2020] and "Authentic (Easy) Tzatziki Sauce" [Published 03 June 2016 / Updated 27 September 2023] from Suzy Karedsheh of The Mediterranean Dish.

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

Based on "Greek Salad Dressing," from Jeanine Donofrio and Phoebe Moore of Love and Lemons. [Updated 13 May 2024]

"Lemon Bars," by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. Published in Barefoot Contessa Parties!, Clarkson Potter Publishers, 2001.

Meal No. 4151: Chick-Fil-A Dupe Sandwiches

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.

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"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.

Meal No. 4148: Middle Eastern Beef Gyros

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.

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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]

Lemon Meringue and Chocolate Meringue Pies

Dateline: Thu 02 July. It was double-duty for me on the first Thursday afternoon in July, when I let Pillsbury pie shells take some of the pressure off and then I compensated by making both a lemon meringue pie and chocolate meringue pie. They had time to chill a bit and then the chocolate version served as that evening’s dessert when Kristen and Mookie were over.

Additional Dateline: Sat 04 July. I saved the lemon meringue pie to bring out for dessert on the Fourth of July, though, because that was our big gathering of Roediger House regulars. I regretted that my approach to meringue left it shrunken and sweaty in the intervening days from making and baking to greeting and eating. But was it still a fine pie? In the sweetest mouth-puckering way possible, yes indeed.

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

Maple Pecan Praline Ice Cream

Dateline: Wed 01 July. Pushed into action by the most recent occurrence of National Pralines Day, I whipped up a batch unsuccessfully using a recipe that I've now thrown away. And then I made a maple ice cream base into which the pieces of praline could be mixed. It was a sugar-intense result in the end but served as a delightful sweet evening-concluder on the opening day of July.

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Adapted from "Maple Bourbon Pecan Ice Cream," from Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet. [Published 29 September 2012 / Updated 22 April 2025]

"Buttermilk-Pecan Pralines," by Nancie McDermott and Jill O'Connor, from Southern Living online. [Printed 24 June 2019 / Updated 10 October 2022]

Meal No. 4140: Cheeseburgers

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.

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

Chocolate Éclairs

Dateline: Tue 23 June. It was National Chocolate Éclair Day back on June 22nd, but my hopes for evening kitchen exploits to celebrate were derailed by our storm-sourced power outage. So the necessary postponement to the next day worked out to Mookie’s benefit, when he came for a PBBB dinner.

These are, of course, not part of my routine or repertoire (this is at best the fifth time), so I am audaciously amateur about them. But on that occasion, I was bolstered by the helpful directions and notes from a recipe by Nick Makrides in Australia. The inelegance of the finished products is directly traced to my unpracticed technique. Others who indulge in kitchen joys would by now have become smooth operators at straightforward pursuits like piping bags and tips. Not me! So there’s that.

The question of full filling could only be answered with each éclair’s sampling, but early tests returned positive results. I also appreciated the lightness of Chantilly whipped cream with mascarpone over the equally enjoyable and more typical pastry cream.

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"Chocolate Éclairs" [published 28 January 2023 / updated 27 May 2025] and "Easy Whipped Cream (Chantilly Cream)" [published 28 January 2023 / updated 06 April 2026] from Nick Makrides of The Scran Line.

Cinnamon Roll Snickerdoodle Blondies

Dateline: Fri 19 June. For the Juneteenth holiday gathering at the Roediger House, I tried out a new dessert for the crew. This time it was a combination of two recipes so I've melded it into one name: cinnamon roll snickerdoodle blondies. And boy howdy, did the folks seem to love 'em. I was pretty fond myself.

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Primarily based on: "Snickerdoodle Blondies," by Rachel Jugai of EatatMaudes.com. [Published 16 September 2025]

Vanilla Glaze based on: "Cinnamon Roll Blondies," by Sarah Fennel of Broma Bakery. [Published 23 December 2024]

Derby Pie on Pride Day

Dateline: Sat 13 June. Downtown Winston-Salem was alive and colorful with tons of activity on the middle Saturday of the month. It was the featured day of the Pride parade and all the associated events. With temps still cooking into the low 90s, the enthusiasm of the crowds did not seem much diminished or stilled. The celebration at home, of course, for those of us who don't venture out a lot when there are so many comforts within, was in bringing out an old-fashioned derby pie after supper. Twenty years ago I was spending lots of time in Louisa County, VA, working with schools there. In the evenings, as I was warmly lodged with the superintendent and her husband, I'd pass the time recording recipes from their grand collection of cookbooks and such. That's where this one came from, and I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've made it. We decided it was pretty darned good, especially with just a bit of the remaining sweet milk vanilla ice cream I'd churned not long before.

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"Derby Pie," from Eugenia Bumpass. In Cuckoo Cooks from Gilboa Christian Church in Cuckoo, Virginia.

Meal No. 4124: Chicken Salad Sandwiches

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.

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"Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie," from Heather Baird of SprinkleBakes.com. [Published 06 July 2020]

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sundae

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.

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"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.

Chocolate Frosty Shakes

The first Sunday of June was also National Chocolate Ice Cream Day, apparently, and it was therefore fitting that I'd made a new batch of homemade chocolate milk to freeze into cubes to then be developed into a blender-based chocolate frosty shake...à la Wendy's. This was my second attempt to make a Frosty this way, and once again I was very disappointed that my very expensive Vitamix blender seems unable to handle the job. Of course, once I research it further, I'm sure I'll find out it's just user error. But with guests waiting for their dessert, I did not like that my hosting efforts were jeopardized when that expensive appliance did not perform as expected.

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"Homemade Chocolate Frosty," from Tieghan Girard of Half-Baked Harvest. [Updated 04 August 2025]

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.