Meal No. 4161: Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps

Dateline: Fri 24 July. A portion of leftover grilled chicken was exactly the protein I needed to go along with fresh-chopped Romaine, a homemade creamy Caesar dressing, some crushed croutons, plenty of shaved parmesan and asiago, and bits of fried bacon, all to serve as the stuffing of pan-seared wraps. (I did supplement with additional chicken cooked via sous vide.) For those who needed it, there was some spicy ranch dressing to serve as a dipping side. On that grey and drizzly Friday night, while we were in a cool spell, I’d been too sedentary inside the house while the weather remained unappealing, so something lighter and healthier seemed like a good move.

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. 4141: Caesar-Dressed Greens with Herbed Chicken Breast

Dateline: Sat 27 June. How'd we play it at the Roediger House on the final Saturday night of June? With a fresh spring mix dressed with homemade creamy Caesar dressing and topped with herbed chicken breasts brought up to perfect temp in the sous vide immersion circulator.

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

Meal No. 4137: Caesar Salad with Filet Mignon

Dateline: Mon 22 June. Just before storms hit on the second evening of summer, the Roediger House dinner fare centered on Caesar salads with filet mignon, a wonderfully hearty treat made easier by the sous vide immersion circulator and a good finishing pan sear.

That Monday was also the occasion of Sumner’s 10th birthday, sweet and precious pup that he is. Words cannot capture how fortunate it is to have found him, or to have had him find the Roediger House. Adopted from our local Animal Adoption and Rescue Foundation when he was about 9 months old, he has been a genuine joy and the absolute best boy in the world.

When a fast-moving storm rolled over us right after dinner clean-up was completed, we lost power in an instant.

Most of the Holly Avenue Neighborhood, plus the east side of the West End Neighborhood (here on our side of Broad Street), as well as First Baptist and Centenary Methodist and Calvary Moravian Churches, were all dark. Power was restored around 9:45 pm.

I strolled that evening through our powerless section of downtown, clocking in at about 2.5 miles, because old men survey the “damage” like that. When I got back to the house at 9:30 pm, I tried to snag a photo of this uncharacteristic dark, but my iPhone camera did quite a bit to compensate. Still, it’s an eerie shot that I kind of dig.

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

Meal No. 4129: Chicken Caesar Salads

Dateline: Sun 14 June. It's always a delight when Kristen and Mookie can come over for dinner and a visit. Our recent Sunday night gathering occurred near the end of a surprising heatwave in Winston-Salem, and I couldn't imagine heating up the kitchen with an oven or standing out in the hot sun over the grill...and I wondered if maybe we'd all just like something that didn't feel so heavy. That's what brought me to chicken Caesar salads. But we boosted the dish a bit: hard-boiled eggs, crispy bacon bits, and even some homemade garlic-parmesan croutons. The chicken was nicely spiced and seemed to be appropriately sized for our respective piles of green and the accompanying goodies.

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

"Croutons," by Marg CaymanDesigns on GeniusKitchen.com.

Guidance on the 7-5-5 Method for Extra Large Eggs from "Instant Pot Hard-Boiled Eggs," by Coco Morante on Epicurious.com. [Published 24 January 2018]

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]

Meal No. 4119: Pork Chops and Two Sides

The final day of May occurred a week ago Sunday, and it was a standard meal of a meat and two sides. I took advantage of the sous vide immersion circulator to bring to perfect temp a trio of prepped pork chops from a Costco value-pak. I added in canned green beans and some stovetop stuffing, and I think the diners were happy enough with the results.

It was another lovely day in downtown Winston-Salem, with good yard time with the pups. Sumner was happy to soak up sun, as is his bent, and it also gave me a chance to spy the earliest blooms on the amazing astra blue balloon flowers that grow on either side of the front steps.

Meal No. 4118: Sheet Pan Nachos for Movies Day

The final Saturday of May was an all-day movies event at the Roediger House. The afternoon was horror flicks and the evening selection was a light comedy. In between, we sat down to a dinner of sheet pan nachos, with a choice of either beef or Cuban pork. Both of those proteins had been previously prepared and stored away, and I used the sous vide to bring them back to life for helping build those nachos. I also made a fresh batch of garlicky lime crema, which was well-utilized by the seven of us at the table.

With folks hanging out all afternoon, a tub of southwestern dip struck me as a judicious appetizer. Definitely well-suited to tortilla chips, this long-time house favorite is hard to resist.

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Sheet Pan Nachos loosely inspired by "Loaded Sweet Pork Sheet Pan Nachos," from Elyse of Six Sisters Stuff. [Published 14 March 2018]

Taco-Style meat depended partly on "Crispy Beef Tacos with Cilantro Lime Sauce," by Jeremy the Contrarian Money on Instagram. [Published 19 February 2026]

"Easy Lime Crema," from Lisa Bryan of DownShiftology.com. [Published 22 April 2020]

"Southwestern Dip," in Betty Crocker Monthly Recipes, December 2001.

Meal No. 4114: Seasoned Chicken Breasts on Salads

Unpleasant weigh-ins at the end of May caused small bursts of restraint to govern some kitchen activity. On the final Tuesday of the month, that led to seasoned sous vide chicken breasts to go atop salad, with a choice either of homemade creamy Caesar dressing or homemade white balsamic dressing. Both of those options were nearing the end of their shelf lives but they were still good for supper that night.

Meal No. 4102: Filet Mignon

The rare extravagance of a lovely slab of filet mignon graced the dinner table Thursday night, cooked after seasoning to a perfect temp in the sous vide immersion circulator and then pan-seared to finish it. With some of the previous evening's remaining roasted sweet potatoes, that huge chunk of beef did not require any further accompaniment. And I suppose I'll be frank about choosing this pricey move in the current economic uncertainty: this year's Costco rewards certificate for last year's expenditures put me in a bit of a compensatory celebratory mood and I decided to treat it like a pot of free money. When I made that over-the-top shopping run where it was mostly about essentials to stock up on, I let a package of beef tenderloin steaks be the cherry on top.

Maybe there was another reason that celebration felt in order: recent UNCSA grad Hoffman West was in town for the premier of his final School of Filmmaking project, titled "Sick & Twisted." An incredibly special and personal project made in tribute to and in memory of a schoolmate and fellow filmmaker, it was a fantastic production in all respects. Hoffman (who directed it) and his co-producer Syd mastered the art of honoring an inspiring trailblazer who left so many of his fellow sojourners with the blessing of having known him, but even more so for having witnessed how vision and passion co-conspire when gifted hands give fully over to them.

Meal No. 4101: Boneless Pork Chops

Wednesday was even more special than usual this week. Not only was it the mid-week supper reunion with dear friend Amy, but it also was enhanced by the welcome arrival of Hank West, UNC School of the Arts School of Filmmaking Class of 2025, who was willing to take us up on our offer of a place to stay when he was in town. Hank and his team were the first UNCSA students to spot and then film at the Roediger House, November a year ago. At dinner time, we loaded our plates with pan-seared boneless pork chops (cooked to a perfect temp in the sous vide), roasted spiced sweet potatoes,roasted hoisin green beans, and roasted spiced broccoli. Fortunately, we still had red velvet cream cheese swirl homemade ice cream for dessert, so we were all pretty full by the time Hank and I tackled multiple rounds of pool.

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"Roasted Sweet Potatoes," from Chelsea Lords of ChelseasMessyApron.com. [Published 04 March 2019]

Meal No. 4100: Chicken Salad Melts

Two big ol' split chicken breasts looked tempting enough at the grocery that I brought 'em home, seasoned them, and then tucked them into vacuum-sealed bags along with fresh sprigs of rosemary and thyme and sliced lemon. The sous vide took it from there and, just before dinner, I deboned and diced them to go into a chicken salad. That's all necessary if one has decided it's an evening to take old hamburger buns and create baked chicken salad melts for supper.

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Chicken was prepped and cooked based on "The Food Lab's Complete Guide to Sous Vide Chicken Breast," by J. Kenji López-Alt, former culinary director of SeriousEats.com. [Updated 28 May 2020]

Meal No. 4082: Caesar Salad with Filet Mignon

Last Monday I needed to keep it simple and moderately healthy, so it was Caesar-dressed spring mix topped with filet mignon. The sous vide immersion circulator is my friend for prepped steak cuts from a larger beef tenderloin, back when I got it on sale, and a finishing pan sear sets us up for a successful salad supper.

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

Meal No. 4076: Steak Salads

Last Friday's meal selection was a response to an unkind morning weigh-in: spring mix salads with beef filet tips and homemade Thousand Island dressing. The sous vide came in handy for bringing the tenderloin steaks up to temp, once I'd pulled them from the freezer, and then I finished them with a solid sear in the skillet before turning them into salad-worthy tips.

Meal No. 4069: Quick-Take Lasagna

When one has been out of town all week for work and had too many appointments on the first day back home, dinner might just have to be craftily invented. Previously-made bolognese was extracted from the freezer and tossed into the sous vide to unfreeze it. After that, putting together a casserole dish of lasagna was kind of straightforward. Mostly working from memory, I imitated the best lasagna I ever made, known as World's Best Lasagna. And was it pretty darned good? Oh, yeah. I even seconds that motion.

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

Meal No. 4068: Caesar-Dressed Greens with Chicken

Saturday a week ago was the first of two full days of filming by a crew of students from the UNC School of the Arts (more on that in a subsequent blog post). The schedule was 6 am to 6 pm, so I dropped prepped frozen chicken breasts into the sous vide mid-afternoon and whipped up a fresh batch of creamy Caesar dressing so that once they departed I could pull off supper with little delay. The very leafy greens were succulent, the chicken was tender and well-herbed, and the dressing was richly garlick'd. It was a fitting lighter fare, which left room for the final slice of chocolate chess pie from the previous evening.

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

Meal No. 4063: Roasted Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Threats of severe storms and tornadoes brought a premature end to my day at St. Christopher's School in Richmond last Monday, although I still had time to complete a presentation with the lower school faculty. The trip home was a bit rainy but otherwise blessedly uneventful and I got back to the house with enough time to dig a batch of broccoli cheddar soup out of the freezer and drop it into the sous vide immersion circulator to bring it gently up to a serving temp. It was hearty and cheesy and filling, and just right for the weird weather I was taking shelter from that evening.

Meal No. 4061: Steak Salads

Too much good eating left me badly in need of a salad last Saturday night. I'd already prepped homemade Thousand Island dressing and I'd grabbed some leafy greens on the last grocery run. I pulled prepped filet mignons from the freezer and dropped 'em into the sous vide immersion circulator and then finished them with a good pan sear. Once diced, they sat atop the salad gloriously, and it was a pretty awesome supper.

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"Thousand Island Dressing," which was based on a version from Graybert on GeniusKitchen.com.

Meal No. 4055: Spiced Pecan & Blue Cheese Salad with Chicken

February exited the scene on a Saturday this year, and it turned into a lovely late winter day. I'd hoped to work out an evening for a special salad offering, based on the signature version at a local favorite special occasion restaurant. With herbed sous vide chicken as its centerpiece, on a bed of spring mixed greens, the bowl was a tribute to the iconic spiced pecan and blue cheese salad from Ryan's Steaks, Chops, and Seafood. I offered myself an abundance of sliced cucumber and not quite enough grape tomatoes, and the sweet and sour vinaigrette was generously splashed all over.

That final day of February had a particularly enticing event late morning: a Bobby Boy Bake Shop meetup with Ericka and Jesse Morgan and their family. Ericka was one of the graduate students in my social studies education program at Wake Forest University, graduating in 2004. I hadn't seen her in about 20 years, though, and now with five kids and an incredibly busy daily life, this reunion was an understandable long time in coming. It was terrific, of course, and her kids are just marvelous.

And it was pretty nice to then come home to my own superstars:

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"Spiced Pecan and Blue Cheese Salad," inspired by the signature salad at Ryan's Steaks, Chops, & Seafood (an excellent Winston-Salem restaurant). "Sweet and Sour Vinaigrette" from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, compiled and edited by Julie Fisher Gunter. Birmingham, AL: Oxmoor House (1999), p. 373. "Cinnamon Vanilla Glazed Walnuts" recipe from McCormick & Company. Thanks as always to Jimmy Randolph for helping me track down those recipes.

Meal No. 4035: Cuban Pork Sheet Pan Nachos

Hemmed in as we were by the back-to-back winter weather events, I went into the foodstuff reserves in order to make dinner for three of us on Monday evening of last week. That made me glad for some stored-away Cuban pulled pork that served as the heart of a large sheet pan of nachos. Oh, of course there was onion and black beans, a fair amount of corn, and an abundance of Mexican cheese atop the bed of tortilla chips. A fresh batch of well-garlicked lime crema was a figurative cherry on top.

Each day of that first full week of February involved some measure of time tackling the driveway. I'd only cleared the ice pack partially, and then we got two-thirds of a foot of marvelous snow the next weekend. I had plenty to do out there.

You know: like make a path across the driveway to get to the less treacherous strip of yard along the south property line, where the pooches take care of all of their needs.

As I'd mentioned, Scarlett is well-suited to the snow cover. She loves being out in it, sniffing here and there, lying flat upon the snow and/or ice pack, ready to flick and fling icy chunks and snowy splinters whilst she leaps and yaps and nudges Sumner to play along. But let's also all celebrate how marvelous they are about getting out there and doing their business promptly and in designated locations and, at least for Scarlett, on an incredibly regular schedule.

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Sheet Pan Nachos based on "Loaded Sweet Pork Sheet Pan Nachos," from Elyse of Six Sisters Stuff. [Published 14 March 2018 / Updated 20 September 2024]

"Easy Lime Crema," from Lisa Bryan of DownShiftology.com. [Published 22 April 2020 / Updated 07 May 2020]