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: Thu 13 Aug. There we were, barreling toward the middle of August, and we’d gotten back into that mix of heat and humidity and a persistent threat of storms here and yon. And yet by the late afternoon in Winston-Salem a couple of Thursdays ago, there was a bit of breeze and it didn’t feel so sticky and it was nice to sit outside. So I decided on a dinner of roasted vegetables, each spiced as befit its constitution, and all quite hearty and good upon the plate.
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]
About the quickest delicious meal I've whipped up at the very last minute occurred last Thursday, another gorgeous late August day in Winston-Salem: ramen soy sauce noodles. I'd translated this recipe from an Instagram post a while back, hoping I'd eventually try it out. That's what I randomly flipped to in a recipe notebook, and I'm sure glad I did. It was remarkably delicious.
Based on "Viral Ramen Noodles," from Brian Gerwig [NC]. Instagram Profile: g_bque. [Posted 15 May 2024]
By the time we were into a third day that felt much more like November than August, the persistent drear and rain hanging about, I just wanted soup. That's what happened on Wednesday, mid-day, and it was a stupendous pot of the roasted broccoli and cheddar variety. I ought not to have eaten quite so much of it, but any regret you hear in this is a contrivance.
Based on "Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup," by ChefNini and posted to GeniusKitchen.com.
An awesome gathering of ten worked its way down the long counter in the kitchen, where the dinner guests found either beef or vegetarian chili, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and a big ol’ pan of Granny Wilson’s honey wheat cornbread. That was last Thursday’s absolute highlight, and a long-anticipated reunion of friends both local and distant. It was a rare evening that required the accommodating spaces of the dining room, which lends an air of special celebration to a night like that.
"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.
Last Monday was a fridge clean-out meal, suitable in part because I really did need it to just be light and uncomplicated. There was a smattering of salad and a few drizzles of Thousand Island to use up, and a few crowns of broccoli whose date of arrival at the house might have been hard to pin down with certainty. So: not broccoli salad but salad and broccoli (which I'd roasted and spiced and herbed...just the way I like it!).
From the pseudo-bunkbed positioning of Sumner and Scarlett on the previous morning, you'd think it was a very lazy Sunday around here. But they were happily napping and I was awkwardly working on my laptop so as not to disturb them too much.
That Sunday was also a chance to snag a few more photos of lovely blooms in the yard, so here ya go...
Devoid of any fresh ideas for dinner and mindful of the abundance of vegetables I had on hand last Tuesday night, it was a vegetable plate supper for the Roediger House. Roasted spiced potatoes, roasted broccoli florets, and Brussels sprouts gratin were available in abundance to fill the plate, and it was all cleaned expeditiously to the general satisfaction of the household.
"Brussels Sprouts Gratin," by Alison Roman. From Cooking on newyorktimes.com.
Sunday was full with continuing efforts to prepare the house to once again serve as a location for a student production from UNCSA's School of Filmmaking, which will take place next weekend. This time, it is only the dining room that will be the hot set, and I spent much of the day getting most of our stuff out of it. For dinner, it was the simple and easy vegetable plate approach: roasted spiced broccoli and cauliflower, plus the half-assery of Jiffy cornbread muffins.
The empty house, a fridge with leftovers, a dual dog duty to keep me busy: it all means I hadn't made a meal since Thanksgiving night once we arrived at the first Tuesday of December. I'd stocked up on vegetables for the busy holiday week and plenty of them hadn't been utilized yet, so I cut and seasoned them (including special herb blends from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia!) and gave 'em a good shake in olive oil. Then came the extended roasting to achieve a bit of charring here and there. Roasted spiced cauliflower, roasted herbed broccoli florets, and roasted herbed asparagus spears were just right for dinner time that evening.
The nearby Piedmont Triad International Airport reported its first measurable snowfall in 1,038 days—that’s how long we have gone during this snow drought. Here in Winston-Salem, the report was about half an inch overnight from Monday to this day. Not enough to freak out the dogs when they first went out that morning, especially since this is the first visible snow for Scarlett in her lifetime.
Oh, but that bitter cold! It stayed in the 30s and plunged again Tuesday night back to the mid-20s. But I'm still not ready to move to Canada. Seems Canada is trying to move here.
Last Tuesday's company invited a different take on our much-loved sheet pan nachos, this time with a heaping helping of plant-based chorizo crumbles. That just ain't my thing, so I passed on the supper, which is why I forgot to take a picture of one of the plates once it was served up. (There is joy in sharing foods and feasts that I like to make; it's more a chore when otherwise.) I can attest to the sexiness of the lime crema, though.
And then came time for dessert, and I tried a new recipe so that I could use some of the amazing cinnamon last week's guests gifted me with, plus a small bit of honey given by my UNC chum Kelly on his recent visit. We all rather liked this new thing: honeybun cake. Layers of cinnamon and brown sugar alternating with a moist yellow cake, but tender and moist once baked, the slices oozed casually with the vanilla and honey glaze applied to the hot cake. That may not be the style of cake that the crafters of this National Day intended, but I think it fit the bill for us.
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]
"Honeybun Cake (From-Scratch)," from Monique Kilgore of DivasCanCook.com. [Published 11 September 2022]
While the Roediger House dinner table was filled to a happy capacity in the lead-up to Thanksgiving, we gathered to dig into tomato and corn galettes last Monday night. I leaned on store-bought pie crusts this time and probably did a bit too much experimenting and license-taking when I put the pie-like pair all together. Still, with an herbed pre-roasting of the abundance of tomato slices, and extra shakes of cheese at various layering stages, we were likely to be seduced by these extra touches if they'd only come together in concert with one another. Some herbed roasted whole green beans went alongside but we wanted to still save room for dessert, which goes without saying.
And what was that dessert? Well, although there were still plenty of lemon bars left from the previous evening, I detected a hint that those had not proved universally satisfying. Some rather delicious bananas were on hand, in abundance, and I always love to make some pudding. My faithful stand-by recipe from Murray's Old-Fashioned Vanilla Wafers set me up for a fine batch of banana pudding. And this time it seemed worth it for our good guests to have a toasted meringue topping, instead of that old stand-by of Cool Whip.
Pulled together and based on the following evolving recipe history:
"Murray's Old Fashioned Nana Puddin'," from the Murray Vanilla Wafers [now discontinued] package. Also found online at http://melissaannbrook.blogspot.com/2011/04/banana-and-vanilla-wafer-with-pudding.html.
Thanksgiving week was a grand affair at the Roediger House, beginning with Sunday evening's arrival of what we lovingly call The Oklahoma Crew. Yep: they drove all this way, around 1,000 miles, to allow us a gracious amount of time for laughing and talking and hanging out and eating good food. The convivial carload that pulled up in the driveway did include two posse members who prefer a vegetarian menu over this holiday, a departure from their normally strict vegan lifestyle. We began last Sunday night with an actual vegan offering: vegetarian chili. If they were so inclined, southern sweet cornbread was offered, as was sour cream and cheese. It was a fine start to the week, especially because I didn't have to eat any of that non-beef chili.
"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.
Sweet Southern Cornbread adapted from "Golden Sweet Cornbread," from bluegirl on AllRecipes.com.
Saturday a week ago was a clean-out-the-hopper supper: roasted spiced potatoes and roasted broccoli florets. Nothing fancy or remarkable, but the habit here is to document it all.
Humble vittles served their purpose last Sunday night, once more as a means to employ vegetables before they expired. With a full roasting after seasoning, appropriate to their respective oven tenures, the plate was graced with piles of excellent broccoli florets, whole green beans, and cubed red potatoes. After clean-up, that first full day of fall was ideal for an invigorating evening walk, clocking in at 4 miles.
Let me also share with you the pups being pretty adorable with one another that morning. They really have bonded together supremely well.
Friday night a week ago was once again a default choice when dinnertime rolled around: a plate of roasted vegetables so that I could use up what had been hanging around almost too long. That meant spiced roasted russets, cubed; herbed and seasoned asparagus spears, thin; and just a handful of remaining broccoli florets, also roasted but only with some salt and pepper to go with the avocado oil. I had to undertake quite a long stroll afterwards, because even vegetables can carry some bulk when consumed in too great a quantity.
A preceding grocery run had me thinking of a different use for a mess of Roma tomatoes but I figured Thursday a week ago I'd better do something with 'em before they went bad on me. A natural choice was a tomato and corn pie, although I chose to make it a galette instead so that the other pie crust could be used for dessert. It was imperfect, but still scrumptious, and I included my much-loved roasted broccoli (enhanced with a marvelous Shenandoah herb blend!) on the side. That Thursday was a bit humid but still a nice day and I found myself drawn to a bit of yard work. That supper was all the more suited to my appetite as a result.
Pulled together and based on the following evolving recipe history:
"All-Butter Pie Crust," from King Arthur Test Kitchen of King Arthur Baking. See also "Butter vs. Shortening: The Great Pie Crust Bake-Off," by PJ Hamel of King Arthur Baking. [Published 23 November 2013]
On the final night of the week's visit from dear friends from Oklahoma, we sat down at dinnertime to a pair of tomato and corn pies, with herbed roasted tomatoes and a chive-and-basil topping. This time around, I made them double-crust, because who doesn't like crust?
We also had side salads with more of the homemade dressing choices from their first night here, plus another round of roasted spiced potatoes.
Dessert was also well-received: a deep dive into chocolatey irresponsibility in the form of chocolate pudding cake. Paired with the last of the homemade vanilla sweet milk ice cream, it was a crowd-pleaser.
Tomato and Corn Pie pulled together and based on the following evolving recipe history:
"All-Butter Pie Crust," from King Arthur Test Kitchen of King Arthur Baking. See also "Butter vs. Shortening: The Great Pie Crust Bake-Off," by PJ Hamel of King Arthur Baking. [Published 23 November 2013]
Guidance for herb-roasting tomato slices from "Herbs de Provence Roasted Tomatoes," by Alicia Shaw of Laughter and Lemonade.[Published 17 January 2014]
"Gooey Chocolate Pudding Cake," from Holly Nilsson of SpendwithPennies.com. [Published 13 May 2020 / Updated 07 July 2020]
Last Friday night was a grand gathering for 11 at the Roediger House, with five visiting from Oklahoma and the rest of us happy citizens of Winston-Salem, all coming together for food and fellowship and fun and frivolity, which is among my most favorite things. Hoping to provide for all comers, there was a huge pot of beef chili, long a house favorite, plus a second kettle of vegetarian chili. To go with it all, I also had a pan of the marvelous Granny Wilson's honey wheat cornbread, also a consistent pleaser of meeters and eaters here.
And yes: our heatwave was continuing on that day. With so many people about, the HVAC system did have trouble keeping up...but the good time was not dampened.
"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.
The ongoing culinary challenge of last week was to make sure I was accommodating the vegetarian preferences of a portion of the guest crew. On the Fourth of July, which fell on Thursday, a doable way to balance the varying palates seemed to reside in two versions of sheet pan nachos: one with seasoned taco meat, and the other without. By the time you pile on enough Mexican cheese, plus onion and corn and black beans, and if there's a generous dollop of lime crema and/or avocado lime sauce to go with it, one might just have a shot at keeping the supper crew satisfied. With an outside RealFeel of 105°F, maybe something spicy was less wise than I initially thought, but fortunately the gang was willing to overlook my underthinking it.
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," by Hilah Johnson. From HilahCooking.com.
"Homemade Chili and Taco Seasoning," from Jamie Lothridge of MyBakingAddiction.com. [Published 03 February 2011]
"Easy Lime Crema," from Lisa Bryan of DownShiftology.com. [Published 22 April 2020]
Last Wednesday evening felt right for a sensible vegetables plate meal, featuring roasted broccoli florets, hoisin whole green beans, and roasted baby potatoes. But I still had to have something indulgent alongside, so there were also cheddar bay biscuits in abundance.
Then I ruined all those good intentions with a too-tempting dessert, where the recent discovery of Mamaw Emily's strawberry cake was the centerpiece of finishing out the night's culinary exploits. Well-dressed in that ridiculous strawberry frosting, I still feel bad serving folks a cake where I cheated with a box mix. But man! this is a tasty cake, for sure.
"Easy Cheddar Bay Biscuits (Red Lobster Copycat)," from Amy Nash of House of Nash Eats. [Published 11 August 2023]
"Mamaw Emily's Strawberry Cake," from Jennifer Bruce of Manitou, Kentucky. Published on TasteofHome.com. [Updated 19 November 2023]
