Key Lime Custard Ice Cream

Here's one more element related to this past Friday's movie night: that morning, I managed to make a batch of key lime custard ice cream, based on a recipe from Willa Whitley that friend and colleague Donna Whitley-Smith shared with me a decade ago. It chilled in the fridge all through the afternoon and, when the burgers on the grill were finishing up, I added in the flavorings and the rennet tablets and got it all set up in the deep churn 6-quart ice cream freezer. I snapped the motor into place and switched it on and...nothing. The little light came on, but no action followed. It seems after all these years I must've finally burned that poor motor up. With guests outside, burgers about to overcook on the grill, and last-minute prep to do for the movie night, I just had to put the canister back in the fridge and mask my frustration and disappointment that we could not have this particular added favorite feature of a summer movie night.

I churned about a quart of it the next morning in the countertop Cuisinart just so it wouldn't all go to waste, with hopes it would be a nice cool dessert to have on hand for the next couple of nights. Unfortunately, the flavorings were off and, in the end, I was glad it didn't get served to a crowd, because I also fear I did not make it custard-y enough when I was cooking the base, leaving it more icy than creamy in the final result. Oh well!

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"Lemon Custard Ice Cream," from Willa Whitley and shared by Donna Whitley-Smith.

Meal No. 1899: Juicy Burgers for a Movie Night

In advance of the outdoor movie night this past Friday night, I also grilled up a mess of burgers and, with the weather being so nice, we actually all sat outside in the parking area and scarfed them down. There was also enough remaining chocolate fudge to share once we'd wiped the ketchup from our chins and before we settled in to watch Stand By Me.

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"Grilled Juicy Burgers," from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks recipe magazine.

Movie Night: Stand By Me

Since it's been a summer with a lot going on, and with June being wet and July just being hot, it took me until this past week to turn my thoughts to the joy of a Roediger House summer movie night. The forecast for this past Friday was highly promising, and it ended up being nearly picture-perfect to have some folks over and set up camp chairs out on the parking lot and set up the screen and speakers and light citronella...and I was glad all over again to have gotten a cornhole set for our pre-movie entertainment.

The selection was Stand By Me, the 1986 classic based on a Stephen King novella, The Body, and directed by Rob Reiner. It's been a long time since I've seen it, and it sure was good all over again. That night was also a fine chance to see how sharp and bright the image could be with the new projector and better screen in place.

Speaking of screens, if you were local and watched the Friday morning WXII-12 newscast, you would yet again have been able to spot the Roediger House in the background while Bethany Moore did her live feed:

Movie Night 2016 #4: Raiders of the Lost Ark

On a hot and sultry July Friday night, the Roediger Theatre season continued with a great cadre of guests and a showing of the original Indiana Jones movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Since the last attempt at a movie night, I've upgraded both the movie screen and the projector and was mostly pleased with the improvement in the projection...but there will still be additional adjustments to be made.

Meal No. 1584: Indoor Pulled Pork Barbecue

This past Friday night was supposed to be an outdoor movie night...but as the blog post from that day explains, we encountered some technical difficulties with the projector, and then the house still got hit by a pretty heavy downpour during prime movie night hours.

There's a long-time core group that seems to willingly report a little earlier for a bit of grub, before the evening's film and if I can get it all put together, and Friday night the menu included indoor pulled pork barbecue, blue cheese coleslaw, and eggy potato salad. I also had creamy stuffed eggs and homemade pimento cheese to go with it all. We chowed down.

Also, let me note that this stormy pattern is persisting. This is the storm that passed through last night, waking me up at around 1:30 am:

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"Indoor Pulled Pork," by Bryan Roof. In Cook's Illustrated, January & February 2010 (No. 102), p. 6-7.

"Blue Cheese Coleslaw," from Ina Garten, from the Food Network website.

"Creamy Stuffed Eggs," a recipe shared with me by Barbara Huneycutt of Crozet, VA.

"Eggy Potato Salad with Pickles," by Jenny Rosenstratch and Andy Ward. In Bon Appétit, May 2012, p. 36.

"South Carolina-Style Pimento Cheese." Recipe worked out by me, based on Sharon's Palmetto Pimento Cheese.

Chow Hound's Tips: How to Make the Perfect Hard-Boiled Egg, by Margo True of Sunset Magazine.

Movie Night #3: Technical Difficulties...Please Stand By

The first day of July began cloudy and humid, after a night of storms and heavy rains, but by mid-day it had turned sunny and warm. I had held out hope that the forecast posted earlier in the week would hold up and that we'd all be able to enjoy another movie night tonight. The skies looked clear but it was humid and still warm as heck! By the time all the set-up was completed, I was pretty much sweated through.

The selection for tonight: the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory from 1971. It's such a fun film, but of course my brain had completely blocked out that it had singing numbers in it, which I can do without, thank you very much.

We were all settled in, some pre-movie tunes were playing from the iPod, and the crowd on hand patiently waited while I fired up the projector. And we waited. And we waited. And, finally, the "projector bulb" warning light appeared. Uh oh!

Look: I bought that projector back in 2007 and it's been great. I've taken it on the road a few times for conference presentations but it's pretty much just been an outdoor home theatre device otherwise. To me, even though it's not been used for 3000 hours (or whatever the promise is), I'd say nearly a decade of service is a fine testament to it.

And thank goodness the third floor/attic rehab created a great TV-watching area, because the 10 of us trooped right on up there and watched the movie in that cool comfort. And before we got all the way through it, a storm and downpour moved in. So the busted projector did us all a pretty huge favor, really!

Movie Night 2016 No. 2: Clue

Looking ahead a week, I saw that the forecast leading up to this past Sunday night was for perfect weather: clear skies following a very moderate afternoon. So the word went out for people to come join in on a second summer movie night, and there were twelve of us to take in the madcap romp Clue. I'd never seen it myself but I'm glad we got to screen it with a cool crew of folks on hand.

That night was also the inaugural run for a recent Roediger House acquisition:

Meal No. 1580: Juicy Burgers on the Grill

Last Sunday night, with a plan in place for the second movie night of the summer of 2016, it seemed a good idea to bring folks in early and serve up some more easy summer food. I didn't stray far from the previous weekend's plan: juicy burgers on the grill and chips on the side. These are almost always a good go-to for a crew on a terrific night like that one.

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"Grilled Juicy Burgers," from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks recipe magazine.

First Movie Night of 2016: The Breakfast Club

Last Friday night, many of the usual crew hoofed it up the closed-off driveway to the Roediger House to enter my most favorite of summer events: Movies Under the Stars. The evening was picture-perfect, crystal clear, just the right temperature, occasional slight breezes, a limited number of passing motorcycles and mopeds, and no sirens to drown out the sound.

On the movie bill that evening: The Breakfast Club, a film that I might have only seen one other time since it first came out back in 1985 (other than the original run at the theatre). It really is good.

I also try to have some good snacks on hand whenever the Roediger House hosts an outdoor movie night. On the first one of the season, back on June 10th, the shareable item was a few plates of fresh-made Doubletree-style chocolate chip cookies. They're mighty hard to beat.

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"Doubletree Hotel's Chocolate Chip Cookies," by Ayşegül Sanford and her blog, Foolproof Living. Published December 29, 2013.

Meal No. 1573: Juicy Burgers on the Grill

The Roediger House started off this past weekend just right, with juicy burgers on the grill followed by some chocolate éclair cake, all as a prelude to the first movie night of 2016. It was a glorious evening.

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"Grilled Juicy Burgers," from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks recipe magazine.

"Chocolate Éclair Cake," a common and popular recipe.

2014 Movie Night No. 2: Austin Powers

Although it was an unbelievably hectic day around the Roediger House, the evening found me prepping a pretty delicious meal (more on that in tomorrow's blog post) but also getting to enjoy the second Roediger Theatre movie night selection of the summer season:

Alspaugh Conclusion, Meal No. 1033, and a Movie Night

The last day of June was reasonably busy at the Roediger House. In the morning, Jake Alspaugh returned to put stain down on the center part of the porch that he replaced.

Here's a shot of the rubber roof repair above that, along the upstairs porch railing. This ought to remediate the water issue that led to the rot on the porch decking below.

A crew came for grilling of burgers tonight, which was Meal No. 1033:

And I got some cinnamon chip oatmeal cookies made this afternoon:

...which were then passed around for the first movie night of Season 7 of the Roediger Theatre:

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"Grilled Juicy Burgers," from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks recipe magazine.

"Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Cookies," from Hershey's Kitchens.

• On the Hershey's website: http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipe-details.aspx?id=6197&name=Oatmeal7Cinnamon7Chips7Cookies

• PDF of the Roediger House Version can be found by clicking here.

Movie Night 2013, No. 4: House of Dark Shadows

The final movie night event at the Roediger House for 2013: House of Dark Shadows. 

Good Lord, this movie is horrible. Which is why this evening's crowd that gathered in the chill October air seemed to enjoy it so much: it was fun to watch a film that never meant to be campy when it was made back in 1970, and that makes it pretty awesome for a fall movie night.

It didn't get as cold as the 2009 showing of The Shining, when temps at the end of the movie were at 43F (with a Real-Feel of 38F!). But it was still down to just shy of the upper 40s when things wrapped up tonight. What cracks me up is that the night turned into another great impromptu upstairs porch party, where we were all bundled up but enjoying the great view of a rising nearly-full moon over the city skyline (sort of like this).

Movie Night: Logan's Run

For what was likely the last perfect weather night for an outdoor movie, before the colder weather settles in, the Roediger Theatre kicked into motion last night with a screening of the 1976 futuristic classic Logan's Run. I hadn't seen it since it first came to TV in the late 1970s. The group was small but we all enjoyed the heck out of it.

The Outdoor Movie Set-Up

Meal No. 826: Juicy Burgers on the Grill

For last night's movie night, a few of the 6th & Vine crew came over early and I grilled up some burgers. We scarfed them down enjoying the nice fall evening in the parking area beside the house.

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"Grilled Juicy Burgers," from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks recipe magazine.

Movie Night: Evil Dead 3 (a/k/a Army of Darkness)

Oh, this fall is offering up some mighty fine weather for some Sunday evening movie nights. For the second week in a row, the Roediger Theatre kicked into entertainment mode and tonight's offering was the Bruce Campbell classic Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness. There was a good turn-out again and it was another great evening for an outdoor movie.

Meal No. 821: Six-Hour Chili

For Sunday night's meal, I got a few folks to come over early, prior to the movie night, and share in a big ol' pot of slow cooker chili and some of Granny Wilson's honey wheat cornbread. Yum.

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"Six-Hour Chili," from Williams-Sonoma.

First Movie Night of 2013: Race with the Devil

With perfect weather and a delightful group of friends and locals, the Roediger House very belatedly kicked off another summer fall movie season. The showing last night was the classic demonic horror/RV-chase Peter Fonda film from 1975: Race with the Devil. I remember watching and loving this one when I was a kid and it made it to TV in the late 1970s.

Folks seemed to enjoy themselves and they might have even liked the movie a little bit. The barest nip in the air by the time the movie was over was hardly sufficient to keep us from sitting around outside afterwards while the post-movie iTunes playlist played on.

I really do love those movie nights.

Movie Night: Evil Dead 2

For the second time now, the outdoor movie night season has extended into October with a chilly evening showing. This past Sunday night, it was the horror-comedy classic Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn.

It was ridiculous and nutty and a good time for the gathering of about 10 of us, and not nearly as cold as when we had The Shining on a 43-degree night in 2009!

Severe Front Brings Severe Change

This is the weather pattern that finally got me to take down the outdoor movie screen, and not a moment too soon. The way this blew through here this afternoon was quite a display from Mother Nature, although they had it much worse in Greensboro than we did here in Winston-Salem.