View from the GMAC Building

From the upstairs porch, you might get a view of the Winston-Salem skyline that looks like this:

At the far left is the recently-vacated GMAC Insurance Building, which was originally the Integon Building. In the middle are two buildings that overlap one another: the Nissen Building and the Winston Tower. To the far right, with the rounded top, is the Wells Fargo Center (originally the headquarters for Wachovia Bank).

My friend Connie Frye stopped by on the final Sunday afternoon of September, and she was kind enough to use her credentials to get me up to the 18th floor plaza of the GMAC Building. This is the GMAC Building as seen from the top of the Nissen Building, which Connie also took me up to:

This was really cool, and I snapped a few pictures:

Meal No. 1127: 2 x 2 Soup

It turned out to be a pretty busy day on Monday, with two crews still onsite in the house working on plaster and floors and such. Still, I wanted to offer up one more meal for the guys before I hit the road for a few days of work up in Shenandoah County, Virginia. The cold snap over the weekend put me in a soup mood, so we had a pot of my cousin's recipe for 2 x 2 soup at mid-day on Monday.

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"2 x 2 Soup," from various sources.

Meal No. 1126: Vierling Saloon Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

The weekend turned really cold (temps in the 40s during the day) and while it moderated some by Sunday afternoon, I was in the mood for a huge pot of Vierling Saloon's chicken and wild rice soup. It'd been quite a while since I made this fantastic concoction using a recipe I got from some family members who live out of state. After a big ol' bowl of it, it was clear I'd not made this recently enough, because it was super fantastic. Perhaps as good as it's ever been.

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"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.

Meal No. 1125: All-American Roast Beef

I grabbed a bottom roast at the Harris Teeter and decided to make that the meal for Halloween night, which was just a casual evening with a small dinner crew and a horror movie to watch. With the house in complete disarray, this was the substitute for the usual big Halloween party.

I went with a simple and quick recipe for roasting the beef and made another batch of company mashed potatoes and some gravy. The beef was kind of tough but the flavor was good.

And there was dessert! What I have long called Texas sheet cake but which apparently is also known as Scotch Chocolate Cake:

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"All-American Roast Beef," from RCP80 and found on AllRecipes.com.

"Company Mashed Potatoes," a Jones family favorite.

"Scotch Chocolate Cake," [in my world, also known as Texas Sheetcake]. Credited to Susie Timmons. From "Popular: Cake Request Gets 22 Responses," by Michael Hastings, Food Editor of the Winston-Salem Journal. Published October 6, 2010.

Meal No. 1124: New Year's Day Meatballs

One of the great events on the Roediger House calendar is the annual Halloween party, which has occurred each year since 2006. Well, except for 2008, because of the previous renovation and addition project that resulted in the fantastic kitchen and additional bathrooms on the back of the house. That project started on Monday, November 3, 2008, and I spent Halloween weekend clearing out all the spaces that were set to be demolished to make way for the new construction.

The blog didn't start till 2008, either, so these are the years with entries chronicling past parties: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.

This year's party also had to be canceled, because of all the current work that's going on, leaving so many of the spaces in the house "disrupted":

First Floor Hallway

Second Floor Hallway

Anteroom

Dali Room

Dining Room

Entryway/Foyer

Landing Bathroom

Van Gogh Guest Room

Wyeth Guest Room

Wyeth Guest Room Shower

Wyeth Guest Room Bathroom

It's a big house, until you undertake complete and total plaster restoration and refinishing of almost all the floors in the original part of the house. I'm loving the progress but I also confess that it's been a long, long stretch with a house in disarray.

On another note, my cousins Marilyn and Earl and Marilyn's dear friend Joel came for dinner this past Thursday, and it was great to see all of them. We had New Year's Day meatballs, company mashed potatoes, and lima beans. Joel was especially glad about the lima beans since his wife (who could not join us) is not a fan of them.

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"New Year's Day Meatballs," from Carol Fultz of Indiana (2001).

"Company Mashed Potatoes," a Jones family favorite.

Meal No. 1123: Hamburger Supreme for the Crews

I had a few days off this week, and there are two crews working full time while I'm home: Ricky and Nubee Sneed and Brandon Rogers from Clemmons Flooring, LLC, and the Mearns brothers from Estate Plaster, Inc. I had a hankering to put a lunch on the table for them and yesterday at mid-day I made a recipe-and-a-half of the Glynn Johnson casserole that we call Hamburger Supreme. We dug it.

Today at mid-day, the Clemmons Flooring guys insisted on bringing the lunch. Brandon had made smoked pork ribs and chops, and Nubee brought slaw and broccoli and rice casserole. They had enough to also include the Mearns brothers from the plaster restoration team. We feasted on this good Friday.

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"Hamburger Supreme," from the late Mrs. John T. (Glynn) Johnson of Buies Creek, North Carolina, via Janice Jones Bodenhamer.

Meal No. 1122: Pork Medallions with Dijon Mushroom Sauce

This meal from last night is a faithful trooper on the list of Roediger House regulars: pork medallions in a dijon mushroom sauce. Usually canned mushrooms are the easy reach on this, but I went ahead and sautéed fresh mushrooms along with minced shallots. Jasmine rice and lima beans were decent sides but I always wish I'd made more goop when this dish finds its way to the plates.

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"Pork Medallions with Dijon Mushroom Sauce," by Frank Hollands of Minnesota. From Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks' A Taste of the BAKE-OFF Issue from March 2001, p. 40-41.

Meal No. 1121: Grilled Veal Chops

For what is likely to have been the last pretty day of fall, with unseasonably warm temps and light breezes, I just wanted to grill out last night. The veal chops were on sale and looked good, and with homemade mashed potatoes and perfectly-cooked asparagus, this was quite the feast for a Tuesday evening.

Meal No. 1120: Penne alla Vodka

Last night's dinner was decided rather late, without a trip to the grocery, which left me with limited choices based on what I had on hand that wouldn't take too long. I was reminded of a pasta dish that I had made only a couple of times, the last of which was nearly four years ago. It fit the bill and left me satisfied and with the pasta sleepies.

Ladies and gentlemen: I give you penne alla vodka, Roediger House style:

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"Perfecting Penne alla Vodka," by Rebecca Hays. In Cook's Illustrated, Number Eighty-Three, November & December 2006, p. 10.

Meal No. 1119: Juicy Burgers on the Grill

It's Monday and a day off for me, which means I got to be at home all day while the Roediger House was hosting two crews: Clemmons Flooring, LLC, and Estate Plaster, Inc. It's also a phenomenally gorgeous October day with bright sunshine, light breezes, and warm temps. All that adds up to an absolute necessity that burgers be grilled and that the guys all sit down for a bit and share a meal. There were still some of those good dulce de leche cheesecake bars on hand for dessert. It all seemed to go over reasonably well.

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"Grilled Juicy Burgers," from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks recipe magazine.

Meal No. 1118: Lamb Meatloaf

Seven good folks around the table last night celebrated a birthday, feasting on a menu of lamb and multi-mushroom meatloaf, slow cooker sweet potato casserole, layered green bean casserole, and dulce de leche cheesecake bars.

Mighty good, that.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meat Loaf" (p. 150), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2011.

"Sauce Poivrade alla Marsala or Madeira," from More Than Gourmet.

"Layered Green Bean Casserole," a long-time Jones family favorite.

"Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping," from Southern Living Slow-Cooker Cookbook. Birmingham, AL: Oxmoor House (2006), p. 234-235.

"Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars," by Cindy Mushet. In Bon Appétit, June 2010, p. 96.

Meal No. 1117: Homemade Pizza

Meal No. 1116: Patty Melts

I've been gone since Sunday, which itself was a tough day because of having to clear out the disaster that was my study. Coming in from a full and long and good week of work with Virginia Beach City Public Schools, I was ready to get back into my kitchen, even if it meant serving dinner as late as 9:30 at night.

It couldn't be too complicated, and patty melts just sounded right to me.

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.

Refinishing the Upstairs Bedroom Floors

Ricky and Nubee Sneed of Clemmons Flooring, LLC, have been tackling flooring, mantles, wainscoting, and trim in the house on and off for the last few months. You've had a chance to spot their handiwork in the following previous posts:

• The Fantastification of the Front Doors
• Floor Refinishing: The Upstairs Hallway
• Refinishing the Master Bedroom Floors

That's not all they've done at this point, and there's more for me to post to the blog in the future. Today's entry will catch you up on the rest of the upstairs floor refinishing.

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The Wyeth Bedroom

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After plaster restoration and before floor sanding and refinishing.

Ricky and Nubee Sneed doing the initial sanding.

I wish you could smell how amazing this was.

Putting down the primer coat.

The finished product sure is pretty.

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The Dali Bedroom

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Before plaster restoration and before floor refinishing.

Close-up of Dali bedroom floor.

First sanding of the Dali bedroom floor.

First sanding of the Dali bedroom floor.

The mark of an errant ember or coal shard from long ago that, fortunately, did not burn down his beautiful house.

The finished product in the Dali bedroom.

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The Van Gogh Bedroom

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After plaster restoration and before floor refinishing.

The perimeter has to be hand-sanded.

Ricky and Nubee trying out different shades of stain to match newer replacement planking (on the right) with older boards.

Applying the primer coat.

The gorgeous finished product.