Meal No. 4222: Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

Sun 18 Oct. The ‘boo’ feel of October puts the household into a monster and madness mode…or at least pulls us toward those movies and series that highlight the horror or macabre. This past Sunday’s gathering started early enough to squeeze in episodes of the latest take on Stephen King’s Carrie, and the regular besties were present and accounted for. But the deep chill and temperature plunge after some record heat in the preceding weekdays propelled our menu to emerge from the soups and stews category.

This time, I went with bacon cheeseburger soup. What a blast of balanced flavors and seasonings, inundated with but not overwhelmed by the volume of fresh-grated sharp cheddar cheese, tasty on tongues and not fully satisfying until seconds were sampled upon a return to the pot.

Now, understand that this soup tends to be so good that one should harbor no hesitancy about its leading role in a meal at any time...but you better believe that the rudeness of upper 30s temps that Sunday morning drove the decision-making. I ain’t ready for winter yet.

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Based on "Bacon Cheeseburger Soup," from Catalina Castravet and Holly Nilsson of SpendwithPennies.com. [Published 01 March 2018]

Meal No. 4220: Hot Honey Bacon Ranch Chicken Wraps

Sun 11 Oct. Our rainy weekend, while the dregs of Hurricane Isaias passed ever-so-slowly over the area, drew to its inevitable close Sunday a week ago, and once more it found me packing my bags...this time for a full week up in Virginia. But lunch was called for before I departed, and it let me use up some leftovers for yet another version of a wrap. On that day, the call coming from the kitchen gods said we needed to see what we thought of a bacon ranch chicken wrap, and our unrepentant response to that call was one of gustatory gladness.

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Dressing adapted from "Chicken Bacon Hot Honey Ranch Quesadillas," by Nick Nesgoda of Burnt Pellet BBQ. [Posted 10 October 2025]

Meal No. 4218: Bacon Cheddar Sandwiches

Fri 09 Oct. Once I’d decided I didn’t want to have to run to the store last Friday, I turned to a couple of packages of bacon that needed to be fried. My trusty electric skillet moved that project along to a speedy enough conclusion, and then those crisp slices were ready to be joined by slices of sharp cheddar cheese on brioche buns for a tasty sandwich supper.

Meal No. 4209: Sausage and Egg Wrap

Dateline: Thur 24 Sept. As long as I’ve been messing around with making burrito-shaped wraps, mostly for chicken Caesar wraps, I figured I’d try it out for a breakfast-style burrito. That’s what the early meal was back on September 24: scrambled eggs, a pan-seared sausage-onion mix, a bit of cheese, some black beans, and a smattering of corn to bulk it up, all rolled up in an oversized flour tortilla that was skillet-toasted and then greedily consumed. With a bit of salsa.

Meal No. 4208: Cuban Pork Sheet Pan Nachos

Dateline: Wed 23 Sept. On the Wednesday before last, the amiable Amy made it a joyful evening, with her weekly visit and a chance to see if she doesn’t mind tasting whatever the latest offering is from the ol’ Roediger House kitchen. And thanks to a late afternoon meeting for me, we had to go with one of our faithful stand-bys: Cuban pork sheet pan nachos. Now, mind you: we do not scrimp on these. They are abundantly cheesed and also sport plenty of black beans and shoepeg corn, along with fresh-chopped onion. And did I mention all that cheese? But it’s still not enough dairy, because my sour cream dollop is always sizable, and plural.

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Sheet Pan Nachos loosely inspired by "Loaded Sweet Pork Sheet Pan Nachos," originally credited to Elyse Ellis and updated by Steph Loaiza of Six Sisters Stuff. [Published 14 March 2018 / Updated 17 December 2024]

Meal No. 4207: Bacon Gruyère and Caramelized Onion Quiche

Dateline: Sat 19 Sept. It was a second night in a row for a reunion of UNC Tar Heels around the table, back on Saturday the 19th. Fellow alum and fellow Golden Fleece argonaut Chris was amenable to a return journey over to the Triad for a delightful evening of visiting and hanging out and, of course, some suitable grub. Without heading to the grocery store, I realized early in the day that I could pull this off with a bacon Swiss Gruyère quiche, with a base of caramelized onions, along with sliced tomatoes as a cool and refreshing side. It was all helped along, methinks, with a harbinger of the coming fall: apple cider doughnut loaf cake. This sweet side-ride has only shown up here a couple of times before, but it is appreciated with each return.

Also: this dear little hellion Scarlett is a mess:

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Recipe based on "Bacon and Caramelized Onion Quiche," from Kelley Epstein of Mountain Mama Cooks. [Published 11 April 2011]

"Apple Cider Doughnut Loaf Cake," by Sarah Jampal. In Bon Appétit, September 2020, p. 56, 57, 76. [Published 14 October 2020]

Meal No. 4206: Chicken Caesar Wraps

Dateline: Fri 18 Sept. Once again a couple of Fridays ago did the afternoon bring about the much-anticipated return of my UNC college buddy Kelly, back in our neck of the woods and willing to venture over to Winston-Salem in the midst of terrible thunderstorms and downpours...and in spite of a hatred of driving. We made the most of his brief visit, centered on a simple meal of chicken Caesar wraps and broccoli-and-bacon salad. There was almost enough discussion time but I’ll be happy when we can connect up again before long. Also: while I don’t think I came close to nailing it, I should note that the broccoli-and-bacon salad hadn’t been on a menu here in almost 10 years. Crazy.

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Based on "Easy Lemon Caesar Salad Dressing," by Kim Hardesty of lowcarbmaven.com. [Published 05 January 2016]

Adapted from "Broccoli Salad," by Carolyn Purpura Mackay. In Cook's Country, August/September 2012, p. 7.

Meal No. 4201: Baby Back Ribs

Dateline: Thur 10 Sept. When the pork baby back ribs are on sale, I can’t help but toss a rack or two into the grocery cart. A couple of Thursdays ago, as the lovely afternoon quickly became summer-like, it made ribs seems suited to the weather. Ah, but I do have a fondness for slow-roasting these in the oven and tried out a different recipe for ‘em, much to my delight and satisfaction. To keep the focus on eating more ribs and not crowding up my plate or stomach, I tossed canned green beans into a pot with a few seasonings and let them serve as momentary distractors between eager bites of tender morsels of meat.

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"Tender Oven-Baked Barbecue Ribs," from Holly Nilsson of Spend with Pennies. [Published 05 May 2024]

Meal No. 4179: Sausage Pimento Cheese Quiche

Dateline: Fri 14 Aug. When dear friend Amy sends me a recipe suggestion, we often realize Instagram aligns its algorithm for folks like us. That latest example was for sausage pimento cheese quiche, and that was the Friday meal a couple weeks ago. An expiring pound of hot breakfast sausage and the last of a recent batch of homemade pimento cheese were helpful assistants in the endeavor. While I probably overstuffed it and left too little room for the egg-and-cream filling, it still baked up pretty terrific, and was all on its own more than enough for that night’s supper.

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"Sausage and Pimento Cheese Quiche," from Anne Walkup of The Southern Lady Cooks. [Published 08 January 2026]

Meal No. 4171: BBQ-Glazed Pork Kebabs

Dateline: Tue 04 Aug. As we headed into August’s first work week, while I was absolutely not working, I had some packages in the fridge whose ‘use by’ dates drove my menu planning. That included pork tenderloin, and as long as we remain in a summer groove, grilling was the cool dude choice. I’ve been really enjoying the simple goodness of barbecue-glazed pork tenderloin kebabs and prepped all the cubes the evening before. A pot of roasted garlic-spiced quinoa and more simple salad with homemade dressing helped make the plate full. Oh, but there was still more room to dip the kebab cubes into more barbecue sauce!

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"Grilled Pork Kebabs with Barbecue Glaze," by Andrea Geary. Recipe was an online extra from Cook's Illustrated and based on "The Best Way to Grill Pork Tenderloin," Issue No. 134, May & June 2015, p. 6.

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. 4145: Creole Pork Chops

Dateline: Thu 02 July 2026. It’s always awesome if Kristen and Mookie can come over for a weeknight dinner, as occurred on the first Thursday of July. I’d thought about grilling but on a 100-degree day, that no longer proved appealing. I let the sous vide step into that breach and finished the Creole-spiced pork chops with a skillet sear. We also had roasted herbed whole green beans plus convenient stovetop stuffing. A meat and two sides is how this chef rides.

The run-up to the Fourth of July saw much of the country enduring that brutal heatwave, and in Winston-Salem, we topped out at triple digits for the first time this year and for the first time since 2012 (when we hit a record high of 102°F). Official temp readings for that string of hot days around our nation's 250th birthday did not hit that mark again (although we reached 99°F on the 3rd and 4th). My weather app's predictions notwithstanding in terms of that magical mark of 100, it was still blistering.

Meal No. 4144: Cheeseburger Wellingtons in Puff Pastry

Dateline: Wed 01 July. It was just a crazy cool idea that crossed my radar and that then set me into motion as July commenced under a brutal heatwave: puff pastry cheeseburger Wellingtons. Outrageous, no? But it seemed too fun not to foist it upon Amy on her weekly Wednesday visit that day. And she knew immediately what I was doing when she walked in, likely because Instagram knows we have similar interests and fed us the same post that inspired that evening's meanu. I fried center-cut bacon, and I got a batch of onions almost perfectly caramelized, and I made some more souped up special burger sauce. Then I got to work on the thin and small burger patties. Once they'd been given a good sear on each side, the wellingtons underwent their assembly. I had a pretty messy result overall and yet these really were pretty darned good...and incredibly filling!

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“Burger Wellington (Cheeseburger Wrapped in Puff Pastry),” from Chef Josh Gale, The Chef Out West. [Published 30 June 2026]

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

Meal No. 4139: Detroit-Style Pizza

Dateline: Wed 24 June. As summer started up, we had one night of intense storm activity, and the resulting power loss on one evening threw off my best-laid plans that week. But I also made a promise to dear friend Amy that we would have pizza on her regular Wednesday visit, so the celebration of National Detroit-Style Pizza Day was a day late...but not a dollop short of sauce! Although I felt like this was a less successful attempt, we still wolfed down our respective portions. The take-away lesson is that it only gets better with practice.

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"King Arthur's Detroit-Style Pizza," from King Arthur Baking and inspired by SeriousEats.com [Updated 21 September 2025]. See also the accompanying blog post, "A Pair of Pan Pizza Recipes," by PJ Hamel. [Published 18 June 2019]

Meal No. 4138: Peanut Butter Bacon Burgers

Dateline: Tue 23 June. It was another opportune boys' night when Mookie made a Tuesday evening visit a couple of weeks ago. He's long been a fan, and a reasonably regular partaker of, the house specialty of peanut butter bacon burgers. Since he missed the recent offering just over 10 meals ago, I thought he was owed his due, so to work I went.

Home ground chuck tender steak, homemade peanut butter, homemade special sauce, and the slightly fussy touch of latticed bacon...all on buttered toasted brioche buns with the house-made beef and cheddar melts sauce, a/k/a a souped-up Thousand Island dressing. The mastication was occasionally interrupted by giddy happy gustatory giggles.

This was the 36th occasion for this particular delicacy, and I always like to update the history accordingly:

• Inspired by Yo Mama's in the French Quarter of New Orleans
• First Made: Meal No. 180
• Last Made: Meal No. 4126
• Fresh Home-Ground Beef, typically from boneless beef short ribs and top sirloin
• Homemade Peanut Butter
• Homemade Burger Sauce
• Labeled Photo of a Sample "Final Product" Burger: Guide to Meal No. 234

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Guidance on grinding, shaping, and cooking burgers from "Best Old-Fashioned Burgers," by J. Kenji Alt, in Cook's Illustrated, No. 93 (July/August 2008), p. 10-11.

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

Original bacon braid guidance from "Bacon Sheets," from MyFridgeFood.com. See also: "How to Make Bacon Lattices for the Perfect BLTs," a nice video demonstration, from Justin Chapple's Mad Genius Tips on the Food & Wine website [published 02 March 2015 / Updated 14 September 2021 by Bridget Hallinana].

Meal No. 4134: World's Best Lasagna

Dateline: Fri 19 June. Clearly it had been too long since I'd made our huge pan of lasagna for the crew (we last did it almost exactly three years ago for Meal No. 3400). Friday a week ago, it was another delightful gathering of Amy and Gern and Kristen and Mookie. We feasted on that delicious lasagna, partnered with some big and bubbly focaccia and a side salad with choice of dressing. I reckon we might've missed this dish being on more recent menus and that night sort of made up for it.

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

"Big and Bubbly Focaccia," from King Arthur Baking. [Published January 2025]

Meal No. 4126: Peanut Butter Bacon Burgers

Dateline: Thur 11 June. An enormous amount of time has passed since the last time I made peanut butter bacon burgers, a remarkable undertaking and a definite gustatory treat. These monstrosities might get put together in slightly different ways each time they appear here, but there are some faithful constants that are catalogued just below. Peanut butter bacon burgers are very much a labor of love with an incredibly satisfying conclusion.

This was the 35th occasion for this particular delicacy, and I always like to update the history accordingly:

• Inspired by Yo Mama's in the French Quarter of New Orleans
• First Made: Meal No. 180
• Last Made: Meal No. 3583
• Fresh Home-Ground Beef, typically from boneless beef short ribs and top sirloin
• Homemade Peanut Butter
• Homemade Classic Burger Sauce (recipe below)
• Labeled Sample "Final Product" Burger: Guide to Meal No. 234

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Classic Burger Sauce

from Cook's Illustrated, July-August 2008, p. 11.

4 T mayonnaise
2 T ketchup
1 tsp sweet pickle relish
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl.

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Guidance on grinding, shaping, and cooking burgers from "Best Old-Fashioned Burgers," by J. Kenji Alt, in Cook's Illustrated, No. 93 (July/August 2008), p. 10-11.

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

Original bacon braid guidance from "Bacon Sheets," from MyFridgeFood.com. See also: "How to Make a Bacon Lattices for the Perfect BLTs," a nice video demonstration, from Justin Chapple's Mad Genius Tips on the Food & Wine website [published 02 March 2015 / Updated 14 September 2021 by Bridget Hallinana].

Meal No. 4122: Sausage, Onion, and Potato Hash

Dateline: Sun 07 June. My quick run to the grocery store was mostly unsuccessful Sunday a week ago, so I shifted my plans for that evening and brought to the supper table a comforting easy favorite: sausage, onion, and roasted potatoes hash. I've been making this a while, when there are potatoes and some form of sausage on hand and I need to figure out a dish to serve. It's worth it to spice and roast the cubes of potato separately before adding them into the skillet in the end, and when time allows it's sure tasty to get the diced onion on the road to caramelization. The skillet was cleaned out and no leftovers remained: a good sign, no?

Meal No. 4121: Bacon & Cheese Sandwiches

Dateline: Fri 05 June. It was a terrific three days up in Richmond the first week of June, conducting a Project CRISS training for another fine group of teachers at St. Christopher's School (plus one from Hanover County!). I always feel graciously and warmly welcomed and the group responded so positively to our collaborative endeavor. We wrapped up early enough Friday afternoon that I was able to get home, enjoy time sitting in the shade with the pups nearby, and still get a supper on the table before 6 pm. Simple menus help that, like the ease of throwing a pan of chile-rubbed bacon into the oven and then tackling the rest of the package in a skillet on the cooktop. A slice of sharp cheddar on the bottom half of brioche buns, and a Kraft Single on top, and the double-layers of bacon were almost quite enough.

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"Chile-Rubbed Bacon," by Rick Martinez. In "D.I.Y. B.L.T. O.M.G.: Bake Better Bacon (Upgrade Idea No. 1)," Bon Appétit, July 2016, p. 44.

Meal No. 4120: Pork Medallions with Ginger-Soy-Shiitake Cream Sauce

Dateline: Mon 01 June. The new month was welcomed on its first day with the happy return of Amy and Gern to the dinner table. And a long-time house favorite was served up to the delight of us all: pan-seared pork medallions with a ginger-soy-shiitake cream sauce. We had our much-loved company mashed potatoes alongside, and there was fresh-made creamy Caesar dressing for some crunchy green lettuced salad. We feasted with joy.

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Based on "Pan-Seared Tuna with Ginger-Shiitake Cream Sauce," from The Bon Appétit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild, 2006, p. 398-399.

"Company Mashed Potatoes," a Jones Family favorite.

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