Meal No. 4159: Skillet Deep Dish Pizzas

Dateline: Wed 22 July. Keeping the Wednesday tradition going, the Roediger House welcomed Amy back for another fine night of supper and hanging out. Knowing her fondness for pizza, it was an easy call to make that the featured menu for the four of us, especially because I regularly hanker for it myself. Two deep dish skillet pizzas with pretty awesome crusts were prepped: one straight pepperoni, and the other was built half pepperoni/bacon and half barbecue chicken/bacon/red onion/blue cheese. That menu had a lot of folks feeling happy that night. Who doesn’t love some pizza, eh?

---

Pizza Crust based on "Fool-Proof Pan Pizza," by J. Kenji López-Alt, culinary consultant for SeriousEats.com. [Updated 30 March 2023]

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.

---

"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. 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.

---

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. 4111: 2 x 2 Soup in Bread Bowls

With the return of Chris (a UNC chum and fellow Argonaut of the Order of the Golden Fleece) back on September 23rd, the occasion fell alongside a fall-like rainy spell with temps no higher than the upper 50s. Soup was a natural fit for that nasty weather, and I thought Chris might like to shake it up a bit with something served in a bread bowl. I went with 2 x 2 soup, so named because its ingredient list dwells mostly in two-fers: 2 pounds of ground beef, 2 cans of minestrone, 2 cans of Rotel, and 2 cans of kidney beans. The outlier is the 1 pound of Velveeta that gets mixed in at the end of the cooking time until it melts into a creamy cheesy smoothness before ladling into the waiting bread bowls. We enjoyed ourselves while we enjoyed this dinner.

---

"2 x 2 Soup," from various sources.

Soup Bread Bowls from "My Mother's Peasant Bread," by Alexandra Stafford of AlexandraCooks.com. [07 November 2012 / Updated 11 February 2026]

Meal No. 4088: Birthday Sliders Selection

The final Saturday of April, as storms and rain rolled in after a long dry spell, it was a warm gathering of great friends at the Roediger House. With a birthday celebration to draw us together, we kept our menu simple but still good.

I made Hawaiian rolls to serve as slider buns, and then diverged into two kinds for people to choose between or freely indulge both: cheeseburger sliders or bacon turkey Swiss spicy ranch sliders.

I probably made the cheeseburger Hawaiian rolls too large, and the turkey-bacon sliders rolls too small. But we all managed well enough.

There was also warm Swiss and bacon dip and a fresh batch of southwestern dip, too.

---

"Hawaiian Sweet Rolls," from Kate Dean of I Heart Baking. [Published 15 March 2017 / Modified 15 March 2022]

Based loosely on "Chicken Bacon Ranch Baked Subs," from Brandi Skibinski of The Country Cook. [Published 09 March 2025]

Adapted from "Cheeseburger Sliders," by Natasha Kravchuk of Natasha's Kitchen. [Published 27 March 2020]

Bacon Jam from "Bacon Jam Cheeseburger Sliders," from Nick Nesgoda of Burnt Pellet BBQ. [Published 08 April 2025] Instagram Reel can be found at https://www.instagram.com/p/DXhTPrXyBc3/.

"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.

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

"Spicy Ranch Dressing," from Alexa Blay of Key to My Lime. [Published 09 March 2021]

"Swiss and Bacon Dip," from Rachael Ray. Available online at the Food Network website.

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

Meal No. 4060: Chicken Bacon Ranch Subs

Last Friday's meal for three was partially experimental, although the overall central feature had appeared here before in other forms. So that evening we sat down to chicken bacon spicy ranch subs, along with an abundance of aged cheddar and peppercorn kettle chips. An unscheduled chilly but full-sunshined afternoon bestowed a feeling of freedom and offered time for making a batch of bahn mi rolls, and they were imperfectly formed and a bit well-browned but perfectly tasty. I made a fresh batch of spicy ranch dressing and cooked up some more chile-rubbed bacon. So as not to overlook anything essential, I converted some remaining cherry tomatoes into tomato dice in hopes it might perch well enough in the smooshed sandwich as to help us look past the absence of beefsteak tomato slices, as it seemed essential to get this right in nearly every respect. (They ended up on the side, though.)

---

Based loosely on "Chicken Bacon Ranch Baked Subs," from Brandi Skibinski of The Country Cook. [Published 09 March 2025]

"Bahn Mi Roll," from Natasha Syanova of Natasha's Baking. [Published 07 August 2023]

"Spicy Ranch Dressing," from Alexa Blay of Key to My Lime. [Published 09 March 2021]

"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. 4044: Cuban Lechón Asado

Those 99-cent Boston butt pork roasts are hard to walk past when I spy them on sale at my local Harris Teeter, and then I cannot ignore the draw of Cuban pulled pork, based on a recipe for Cuban lechón asado. Cooked low and slow overnight in the crockpot, shredded and re-sauced early afternoon, adjusted as need be with seasonings and stirring, the tender succulent strands and morsels are a mounded marvel by the time they sit upon homemade burger buns. There was plenty of homemade Mexican chipotle street taco BBQ sauce with which to adorn it all. That's how we did dinner last Sunday evening with six good friends sharing time together.

I'd gotten a jump on our usual creamy avocado lime sauce by making a version of it the previous evening to go with salads. Still, I thought it needed a bit of a boost in flavor, so a bit more garlic, a splash more of fresh lime juice, a couple more scallions, plus a dreamer's wish all went into it before it became the dressing for our fresh-baked buns.

All the messy winter weather we'd had in January and early February had kept our happy crew of RoHo regulars from getting together, and it was—as always—a delightful reunion that Sunday night.

---

Adapted from "Slow Cooker Cuban Lechón Asado," from Cory Fernandez of TheKitchn.com. [Published 10 December 2022]

"Beautiful Burger Buns," from Ellen "Moomie" Dorsey of King Arthur Baking. See also the accompanying blog post, "Burger Buns with a Beautiful Backstory," by PJ Hamel. [Published 28 June 2021]

"Mexican Chipotle Street Taco BBQ Sauce," a Roediger House original recipe. [First Made 08 May 2023]

Mexican Coleslaw assembled using:

• Base Recipe: "Mexican Coleslaw," from Christin Mahrlig of SpicySouthernKitchen.com. [Published 08 August 2017]
• Add-In Ideas: "Mexican Coleslaw with Spicy Lime Vinaigrette," from princessmommie on Food.com. [Printed 10 August 2018 from GeniusKitchen.com]
• Seasoning Mix: "Homemade Chili and Taco Seasoning," from Jamie Lothridge of MyBakingAddiction.com. [Published 03 February 2011]

Meal No. 4030: Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

As our inch-and-a-half (or maybe two?!) of accumulated sleet from the weekend's winter storm remained fully in place everywhere, and while the city seemed mostly shut down, we took a real plunge Monday night very nearly into single digits. With four planned for a supper gathering, I was pretty set on having soup. This time, it was cream of tomato soup, along with grilled cheese sandwiches on either homemade Japanese milk bread or peasant bread. We certainly had our fill and seconds proved to be a powerful temptation to make it so.

---

"Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup," from Cook's Illustrated, November 1999. Recipe can also be found online at Cookography.com.

"Easy Same-Day Peasant Bread," from Jenny Rosenstrach of the CupofJo.com blog. [Published 02 February 2022] Adapted from Alexandra Stafford of AlexandraCooks.com. [07 November 2012 / Updated 15 November 2025]

Meal No. 4029: Beef Cheddar Melts on Milk Bread

Our heavy sleet day last Sunday meant there would be no shopping excursions, and as few ventures outside at all except for what the pooches required. It was a fine day for baking up a loaf of Japanese milk bread but also for tossing a couple of prepped vacuum-sealed filet mignons into the sous vide immersion circulator. I'd already prepped the special cheddar melts sauce. All that remained was to slice that bread, butter it up good, adorn it with sliced of cheddar, slice the cooked beef after giving it a good pan sear...and let's not forget the caramelized onion slices as well. This was one of those dinners where the talking tongues were silenced while the tasting tongues reveled in gustatory glory.

---

"Japanese Milk Bread Recipe (Hokkaido Milk Bread)," by Dini Kodippili of The Flavor Bender. [Published 01 July 2020]

"Beef & Cheddar Melts Sauce," a Roediger House creation. [Published 14 October 2022]

Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls for the Sleet Day

We were stuck with such a winter weather mess last weekend, and what form it was to take or how much damage it might do proved impossible to predict. But it sure put me in a mood to make a batch of eggnog cinnamon rolls before my final holiday carton of it reached its unusable state.

Ooey gooey sweet and sensational, the fluffy cinnamon rolls produced from this particular recipe are consistent winners. I certainly didn't realize I'd left these aside for almost two years. They are heavenly bundles of sugar and spice, fully adorned with an irresistable eggnog and white chocolate glaze, and then raised to excess by a cream cheese icing.

This last picture (above) is how the rolls looked straight out of the oven, before they were amply doused by that afore-mentioned sugary glaze. Also: in my incessant disposition to count unimportant things, I'll call this the 25th batch of some sort of cinnamon roll that I've made since I started this blog in 2008.

---

"Easy Fluffy Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls," from Tieghan Girard of Half-Baked Harvest. [Published 24 November 2020]

Meal No. 4018: Beef Bolognese

The happy return to the RoHo of dear friend Chris, a fellow UNC alumnus, occurred on Tuesday of last week. He’s always running in so many different directions that it can be rather cool to nail him down for dinner. On this occasion, we sat down to fettuccine with homemade bolognese, big bubbly focaccia, and creamy Caesar-dressed salads, eating our contented fill and wanting just a bit more, while also knowing a dessert offering was in the offing.

---

"Homemade Bolognese Sauce," from Holly Nilsson of SpendwithPennies.com. [Published 17 January 2023]

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

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

Meal No. 4010: Skillet Sausage Pizzas

Christmas Eve at the Roediger House was a pretty nice Wednesday, for late December: warm enough for good outside time with the dogs and suitable for casual house endeavors as per one's mood. With breezes to keep me from overheating, I knocked out a 5.1 mile walk in the early afternoon, in fact. And then, with four at the dinner table, I depended on prepped overnight mostly-no-knead pizza dough so that we could all feast on skillet sausage pizzas that night. Laid out on a bed of homemade pizza sauce that I'd retrieved from the freezer, adorned with almost enough cheese, and helped across the finish line by well-scattered Italian sausage, we slayed our slices and wiped away any wondering sauce and bellied up to the buffet bar for more because it's what the moment called for. One of the pizzas also got an abundance of marsala-sautéed mushrooms to go with that sausage, and there would one find the winning slices, for sure.

We got pretty close to 70°F on that Christmas Eve, by the way. Once the direct sun is hitting my Tempest weather station, I recognize there is a false elevation of the temp reading...but still! It's almost the end of December and I was enjoying outside in my short sleeves. Heck, yeah!

---

Pizza Crust based on "Fool-Proof Pan Pizza," by J. Kenji López-Alt, culinary consultant for SeriousEats.com. [Updated 30 March 2023]

Meal No. 4009: Walnut & Grape Chicken Salad

Tuesday a week ago was the eve of Christmas Eve, and I had leftover herbed chicken breast that was perfect for supper. But it needed help, so herbs, red onion, grapes, walnuts, and a nice honeyed dressing were brought to bear and a delicious chicken salad resulted. I’d also made another peasant bread loaf, because it was also a night for leftover tomato soup and more grilled sandwiches were needed. My chicken salad went onto its own slice of fresh bread. As our weather had moderated during Christmas week, it made for a pretty pleasant post-dinner stroll through downtown after I'd done clean-up, with a vigorous 4.2 miles as the mark once I returned home, a bit sweaty!

---

"Easy Same-Day Peasant Bread," from Jenny Rosenstrach of the CupofJo.com blog. [Published 02 February 2022] Adapted from Alexandra Stafford of AlexandraCooks.com. [07 November 2012 / Updated 15 November 2025]

Meal No. 4006: Cream of Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

As we reached the end of the week before Christmas, the weather finally moderated; that Saturday was gloriously sunny with fully blue skies and yet still was marred by some sharp cold breezes. (Sumner enjoyed that morning, as the photo at the bottom shows.) I'd already put into motion my plan for that night's meal, though, thanks to a loaf of homemade peasant bread in anticipation of grilled cheese sandwiches, the perfect accompaniment to steaming bowls of delicious cream of tomato soup.

It was the mid-day meal that Saturday and couldn't have been better timed. Partial atonement came from a brisk walk of nearly four-and-a-half miles in the final hour of daylight. Then: a honking huge slice of remaining chocolate meringue pie!

---

"Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup," from Cook's Illustrated, November 1999. Recipe can also be found online at Cookography.com.

"Easy Same-Day Peasant Bread," from Jenny Rosenstrach of the CupofJo.com blog. [Published 02 February 2022] Adapted from Alexandra Stafford of AlexandraCooks.com. [07 November 2012 / Updated 15 November 2025]

Meal No. 4002: Prime Rib Melts on Texas Toast

Enough prime rib remained from Meal No. 4000 to use for Monday night leftovers, and it was a chance for me to try a variation on Texas toast, topped with everything bagel seasoning rather than sesame seeds alone. Once baked, my inartful technique resulted in compromised shaping of these rolls but their flavor and fluff were not affected. Once sliced, buttered, garlic’d, and toasted, they served as entirely suitable beds for cheese, chopped prime rib, sautéed onion, and one’s choice of cheddar melts sauce and/or red wine demi-glacé. This meal was a big ol’ yum-fest.

---

”Texas Toast à la Canes,” from David Schmid of David’s Delights. On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DP7GRISDADr. [Published 17 October 2025]

Meal No. 3979: Baked Spaghetti

Although we didn’t get to enjoy Gern’s participation in an overdue gathering of the Roediger House regulars, last Sunday’s mealtime still proved a joyful reunion. The travel season this fall had me out of place so much that these occasions have felt too few and so very far between. I reached for an old favorite: baked spaghetti, a recipe I’ve been making for almost 30 years now.

A dish like this seems to improve when it can have a salad to go with it, especially when there is homemade dressing with which to top it. And we have become sort of fond of big bubbly focaccia around here, and the lazy Sunday afternoon gave me plenty of opportunity to indulge its easy but time-spansive prep process.

---

"Baked Spaghetti," by Margaret Coalson via Stick Coulson, 13 July 1997.

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

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

Meal No. 3959: National Sausage Pizza Day

Making only its fourth appearance at the Roediger House on Saturday night a week ago: Detroit-style pizza.

This time, it was in recognition of National Sausage Pizza Day, so I subbed sweet Italian sausage for the more traditional pepperoni. That's not the only ingredient that requires an alternative, because I cannot easily obtain true Wisconsin-style cheddar and have to make do with what is available here. On these limited trials of this marvelous rectangular pie, though, I've not yet been faulted for these alterations.

---

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

National Cinnamon Buns Day

My first full day at home after quite a stretch of "travel weeks" coincided with National Cinnamon Buns Day, and I was fully committed to its celebration. Well, not committed enough to make one of my better and more involved recipes, which is how I fell back onto what still proved to be an excellent choice: Perfectly Pillowy Cinnamon Rolls, the 2021 Recipe of the Year from King Arthur Baking. With a truly incredible soft dough and just the right amount of filling, adorned with my own cream cheese frosting (extra thick for oozing on a hot bun), these were a welcome return to these marvelous confections...the first version I've made since February 2024!

In the ongoing chronicle of all kinds of things here at the Roediger House, this was the 24th batch of something from the realm of actual cinnamon buns or cinnamon rolls or cinnamon roll sticky buns.

---

"Perfectly Pillowy Cinnamon Rolls," from PJ Hamel and the Test Kitchen Team at King Arthur Baking.

Meal No. 3949: Vierling Saloon Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

On the final weekend of September, it was time for the terrific Bookmarks Festival of the Book, and that's the draw that brings dear UNC friends Margaret and Tathy to the house for a few days. They are pretty busy with the daytime events but then we get to enjoy visiting with one another in the front parlour once they've come in for the night. We also set aside time last Saturday night to have supper together, and the rain and drear of that early morning set me on a course for Vierling Saloon chicken and wild rice soup. Always a crowd pleaser, this hearty dish signals the advancing autumn season and has been a long-time favorite of the household.

I also had some fresh-baked rosemary-garlic focaccia to go with it, and it too fit the bill well. And while we did have our periods of rain, by that evening it was pretty nice for a good sit and visit on the front porch.

---

"Vierling Saloon Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice Soup," formerly offered at the Vierling Saloon in Marquette, Michigan. Another online version of the recipe can be found at Miss Mary's Blog.

"Easy Rosemary Garlic Focaccia," from Adam and Joanne Gallagher of InspiredTaste.net.

Meal No. 3945: Skillet Pepperoni Pan Pizza

By Tuesday of last week, I at long last was able to pull off pizza, with our faithful and easy deep dish skillet approach as cleverly conceived of by culinary guru J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. The dough turned out especially hearty in flavor and terrific in chew (as the pie gods ordain!), the saved homemade sauce had just enough zing, the melted cheese lay about in a well-managed balance, and the pepperoni occupied their proper population density stations. Its goodness called for eating two or seven more slices but my more disciplined appetite exerted a moderating maintenance of rash desires.

---

Pizza Crust based on "Fool-Proof Pan Pizza," by J. Kenji López-Alt, culinary consultant for SeriousEats.com. [Updated 30 March 2023]

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