Meal No. 502: Packin' a Porterhouse

 

The steak I grilled tonight was massive and marvelous, but I did not quite fry the fries up to the crispness I prefer.

A small remainder of key lime frozen yogurt sealed the meal's deal.

Meal No. 501: Cuban Sandwiches with Cilantro Lime Mayonnaise

Faithful blog readers know that my menu choices at night are frequently driven by whatever happens to be in the list of specials this week at my local Harris Teeter. On occasion, though, I shop at one of the local Lowe's Foods, when they are closer to my other errands. (Lowe's is based here in Winston-Salem but has stores across the state and into South Carolina and Virginia.) The special on Boston Butt pork shoulders at Lowe's set me up to try out another recipe tonight, which was good because seven of us bellied up to the counter when dinner was called.

I've had this recipe a while and it always seemed tempting; I just usually made barbecue if I had a Boston Butt on hand. It's a crockpot meal, which was good today because a crew of us took in the IMAX Dark Shadows this afternoon (a great idea given all the rain that's been dumped on Winston-Salem the last couple of days--no yardwork!) And it's still barbecue-like because it is slow-cooked pork with a nice mix of spices. This is kicked up with lime and cilantro and cumin, and the sandwiches we made are dressed up with a lime-cilantro mayonnaise.

The other new recipe I tried this evening was for a mushy southern potato salad. I've never actually made potato salad before, and this was an excellent first run, methinks.

Dessert was a whole new fresh batch of key lime frozen yogurt, a repeat of the dessert from just last night. Guess it was that good. Actually, seriously: it was that good.

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"Cuban Sandwiches with Cilantro-Lime Mayonnaise," from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks.

"Eggy Potato Salad with Pickles," by Jenny Rosenstratch & Andy Ward and Inspired by Sally Bell's Kitchen in Richmond, VA. In Bon Appétit, May 2012, p. 36.

Monday Morning Zucchini Bread

In the late 1990s, a good friend from UNC undergrad and then also the UVA PhD program, Tim Thomas, had me come to Shenandoah County (where he was a school administrator) to provide training to teachers there. He and his lovely wife Laura had me stay with them at their house in Woodstock, and Laura made the most amazing zucchini bread. I wrested the recipe away from her all those years ago, and it remains a favorite in the Roediger House.

There were folks crashing last night here and I figured this would be a good thing to have on hand when everybody got up. The zucchinis came from Ronnie's Country Store right here in downtown, and they made an incredibly moist and flavorful bread to help us get our day started right.

Meal No. 500: Grilled Veal Loin Chop

I did not remember, when making plans for tonight's meal, that it was going to be a Meal Milestone.

It is very nearly and almost three years to the day since the kitchen addition to the Roediger House was substantially completed and was in working order for creating the first meal.

I would say, though, that even without planning it, tonight's menu was sufficiently qualified to stand in for the milestone of being the 500th meal in this new kitchen.

On the table for a gathered group of four: grilled veal loin chops with a rosemary-garlic gremolata; blue cheese and pine nut risotto (I've been on a risotto kick); fresh-steamed whole green beans; and a salad with home-made buttermilk blue cheese dressing to start things off.

Oh, and let's not forget the finisher: home-made key lime frozen yogurt:

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"Grilled Veal T-Bones with Rosemary Gremolata," Cuisine at Home, Issue No. 93 (May/June 2012), p.24-25.

Blue Cheese & Pine Nut Risotto, based loosely on Emeril Lagasse's directions found in "Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto Casserole."

"Buttermilk-Blue Cheese Dressing," from Southern Living, February 2006, p. 137.

"Key Lime Frozen Yogurt," Southern Living, February 2006 (clipping/lost page number).

Meal No. 499: Waffles

Late night simple meal that just doesn't happen very often at the Roediger House: Belgian waffles with powdered sugar and real maple syrup. A call went out via text message and, in spite of the late hour, there were several takers of the offer to become partakers.

And I don't know about at your house, but in this one there was some spirited discussion about what to coat the waffles with:

Meal No. 498: Baked Chicken Imperial

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"Baked Chicken Imperial," by Adam Ried. In Cook's Country, April/May 2012, p. 10-11.

Meal No. 497: Steak au Poivre

After conducting an all-day workshop for instructional coaches in Winston-Salem today, I made a quick-grab of the on-sale strip steaks at Lowe's Foods on my way home. That made it possible for me to return to one of my earliest recipe finds after I moved to Winston-Salem and into a faculty apartment at Wake Forest University: steak au poivre with a brandy cream sauce. I hadn't made it in quite a long time, and it's still good after all these years.

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"Steak au Poivre," by Dawn Yanagihara. In Cook's Illustrated, Number 52, September & October 2001, p. 8-9.

Meal No. 496: Linton Hopkins's Linguine Carbonara

Good grief! Another awesome meal, with tonight's coming from Chef Linton Hopkins's recipe published in Food & Wine.

I went so far as to hand-dice some deli pancetta for this one, and the sauce got extra silky with the addition of egg yolks.

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"Bucatini Carbonara," by Linton Hopkins. In Food & Wine, July 2009.

Meal No. 495: Scallop & Asparagus Risotto

A full day of yardstuff, including finishing the patio pad outside the back kitchen door and also cutting the grass.

And I still had time to come in and whip up this kickin' awesome meal: pan-seared scallops over asparagus risotto. It was a little bit invented but mostly based on Emeril Lagasse's shrimp and asparagus risotto casserole.

Patio Pad 2012

I've got this fireplace now, one that was put in along with the new kitchen and all. It's wood-burning, which I love. In the last three years, though, I've had only a handful of fires. (This winter, it was because we didn't have a winter, mind you.) Part of the reason is I was having to depend on bundles from Lowe's, which were always pretty good wood but that's not copasetic with my finicky financial sensibilities.

Now I've finally got a good source of firewood, and I want a big load of it. But where to store it?

Within the last year, I've gotten a big firewood rack and a cover for it. That's all still boxed up in the South Parlour, where I've got a lot of junk stored for now. I didn't yet have anywhere to set it up outside.

Once I started working on landscaping, and digging up this hard red Piedmont clay, I began depositing it outside the back kitchen door, in anticipation of creating at least a level place for that rack. Then my idea for this patio pad grew, and that slowed me down quite a bit.

That meant another run to Lowe's. And then as it grew, they ran out of my color of pavers. But I've persevered and now I've got a completed patio pad and place for my firewood rack, as of this afternoon.

Not perfect, not professional, but here's what it is: done.

Meal No. 494: Juicy Burgers on the Grill

A crew of us went up to the Grand Theatre yesterday to catch Marvel's The Avengers, and all comers were invited back to the house for the grilling of juicy burgers on the grill. It was an awesome evening to sit in camp chairs out on the front porch.

Interestingly, while we were finishing up, Owen Wilson drove by on a bicycle. He's in town filming a movie.

Too-Mulch-Uous!

Here's a little mulch ado about nothing...

At the front end of my morning, I got a delivery of mulch from Pope Sand & Gravel, the same folks who brought me my excellent topsoil not too long ago. While I've only got a quarter acre lot, which is largely covered with a sizable house and a big parking area, I'd rather err on the side of having an overabundance of mulch...hence the big pile. If I want to lay it down thick, I'll be able to do so.

And that's what I did once that pile was unloaded: I got busy spreading the mulch along that entire strip on the south property line, where I've planted azaleas and rhododendrons. It's looking mighty fine.

Meal No. 493: Pulled Pork Barbecue

What a great Sunday evening, and a perfect opportunity to have a crew of people come over and an excuse for me to break out the amazing recipe for pulled pork barbecue.

It's a reasonably involved process to get this barbecue on the table, with a couple of hours of brining, then three hours of low-temp foil-sealed roasting, followed by another 1.5 hours uncovered roasting to create a good bark. And it is worth it.

I was very glad that the gathered guests included former Wake Forest grad student/advisee Bradley Phillis, and he brought along his fiancée Lauren.

The barbecue and sauce did nicely all on their own, but I really like having Ina Garten's version of blue cheese coleslaw to go with it.

Tonight I also had creamy deviled eggs, using a recipe shared with me years ago by dear Charlottesville friends Barbara and Jim Huneycutt. Brad and Lauren did me a great service by getting those hard-boiled eggs peeled in time for me to make the creamy insides. Amy showed her fondness for them as we all ate our dinners up on the second story porch, looking out at the city skyline.

For dessert, I had an ice-and-rock-salt freezer of ice cream churning, and it pumped out some yummy frostie chocolate ice cream. (Recipe stumbled upon on Southern Living blogs, when looking for how to make peach Nehi ice cream. It was submitted by a blog community member named "pbj1118.")

I think their expressions mean they liked it.

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Indoor Pulled Pork Barbecue, in Cook's Illustrated, No. 102, January-February 2010, p. 6-7.

Blue Cheese Coleslaw, from Ina Garten:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/blue-cheese-cole-slaw-recipe/index.html

Meal No. 492: Meatballs with Cream Sauce

After a good full day working on a patio pad outside the rear door off the eating nook/bay in the kitchen, I was still up for trying out a new recipe. This one comes from the Taste of Home cookbook, and it's called Meatballs with Cream Sauce.

I ate way too much, but it was mighty good after a day of working outside and skipping lunch.

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"Meatballs with Cream Sauce," by Michelle Thompson of Smithfield, Utah. In The Taste of Home Cookbook, Reiman Media Group, 2006, p. 102.

2012 Komen Race for the Cure

This morning, Spring Street was once again a key element of the route for the 2012 Komen Triad NC Race for the Cure. And this year, I had something other than me sitting out front to show that I'm a supporter:

I have a suspicion that the terrible controversy that broke out in mid-winter over the Komen Foundation cutting funding for Planned Parenthood impacted participation just a bit this year, although I do not know what the official numbers are for 2012. I do know that a number of my friends who were very much a part of this in years past were not in the race or walk this go round.

Quick Update: Just checked local news sites, and found a report from earlier in the week that suggests that the numbers this year are around 6,000; in 2011, it was over 10,000 participants. That's pretty dramatic.

However, there was still a huge turnout. Cyprus and I enjoyed sitting out front watching them go by until the heat in the direct sunlight started to wear on both of us. Plus: I had more yardwork to get to.

Previous Komen Race entries: 2010, 2011.

A Friday Afternoon Landscape Update

I'd like to think I'm making reasonable progress for a traveling man, when it comes to the landscaping plans I've got sort of forming themselves in my head. Having already noted the hard labors of hole-digging in Piedmont red clay, and having received my load of topsoil to work with, I was able to purchase thirteen azaleas and four rhododendron for planting along the south property line.

And today I broke out the weedeater and took care of the tall grass overgrowth along the north property line, in the narrow strip of land between the front porch and the easement alleyway beside me.

Meal No. 491: Creamy Dijon Chicken

Once again, it was an evening when I've been working up in Virginia and have driven the almost five hours to get home. But I'd already lined up foodstuffs on my last shopping trip and had that drivetime to contemplate what meal I might make. This evening, it was a recipe I got a long time ago from my good friend Cindy Coulson (and she credits it to Carolyn Frost): creamy dijon chicken, topped with walnuts.

Alongside, I reached for a special purchase from the Piggly Wiggly in Hamlet, NC: butter beans. The meal was terrific and it put me out like a light...I had to go straight to bed.

The Mild Winter's Small Robbery

Over the Christmas holiday, one of the things I got excited about was putting the fireplace in the "new" part of the house to use. I had fires only five times the first winter, and last year I only had one.

This year, it's been so mild! And the few times it was really cold and I was at home and could enjoy a fire, it was much too gusty outside to safely light one.

So the stack of wood and kindling that I set up over the December holiday will just wait until it gets cold again next year, I suppose.

Sticky Buns: Round 5

My friend and colleague Ebbie Linaburg says she does not have a compulsive bone in her body, and I do appreciate her even-keeled and steady manner. I, on the other hand, seem to have several uncontained compulsions, and my tendency to tally things here on the blog is rather convincing proof of it.

So yes, this past Sunday represented the fifth round of cinnamon roll sticky buns that I've made. These pictures are intended to make your mouth water just a bit. For good reason, I might add.