Meal No. 301: Babyback Pork Ribs

Tonight had been set aside for a bunch of us to gather for Trivial Pursuit, a game that I do not like very much, so I simply offered to be the chef and left every one else to the competition. With babyback pork ribs on sale this week at half price at the Harris Teeter, it helped make my decision for me. I'd been wanting to try ribs again, since I'm new to that as an entree, but I wanted something other than grilling them. This recipe involves the CrockPot for the majority of the cooking time.

Alongside I had some more of that mac-n-cheese dish called "Three Cheese Pasta Bake," and some creamy stuffed eggs based on a recipe I got from good friends Jim and Barbara Huneycutt up in Charlottesville.

Thanks for reading the blog, folks!

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"Sweet and Sour Sticky Ribs," from America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution, 2011, p. 147.

Three Cheese Pasta Bake, from Anna Olson on LifeStyle FOOD.

Meal No. 300: Chicken Vesuvio

The momentous occasion of the 300th meal in the newly renovated kitchen and addition of the Roediger House has now presented itself. And a tightknit group of good friends were on hand to celebrate this milestone.

On the menu, a dish called Chicken Vesuvio, served with red potatoes and garden peas.

And the dessert: my first time of making brownies completely from scratch, thanks to the gift of good chocolate and a perfect recipe for it from the always delightful David Wald and Everett Kline.

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"Chicken Vesuvio," from America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution, 2011, p. 83.

"Chocolate Brownies," by Claudia Fleming at Gramercy Tavern.

The 299 Breakfast Special

I couldn't help myself. Since tonight's meal was the 299th in the new Roediger House kitchen, the menu was chosen just so I could title it The 299 Breakfast Special.

Of course, there are many of us in this world who think it's awesome to have breakfast for supper, so it was not hard to give in to this blog-name-opportunity compulsion. With sizzling country ham, biscuits, rice, cheesy scrambled eggs, grape jelly, and a tall cold glass of milk, I was one happy resident of the Roediger House.

And since dinner seemed a long time coming, I had to have a mid-day pomegranate berry smoothie, which was exceptionally tasty today.

Meal No. 298: New Year's Day Meatballs

Years ago, over the Christmas holiday when the Jones clan was gathered at Mother's house in Buies Creek, we sat down one night to the most delicious meatballs, which back then were not normally my kind of thing.

Perhaps because it's the official name, or perhaps because it was New Year's Day or thereabouts, that's the name that was given to them. I've now made them for the second time. Tonight's meal fed a crew of us who then went up to the Grand Theatre to catch the amazing new J. J. Abrams film Super 8.

Great goshamighty. These were gloriously good.

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

Brian Hamill Artwork: "The Listener"

I popped into Urban Artware a week or so ago and found myself drawn back to the art on display there from the work of Brian Hamill. I had previously taken note of it and really liked it, and this time around I decided to come home with one piece.

This is "The Listener," and I love its haunting look and its powerful colors. I've placed it in the stairwell, and it is a great complement to the other two paintings (by Justin Holm) already hanging there.

Mysteries & Wonders of Mid-June

While I was in Richmond last week, an item mysteriously appeared in the small patch of sideyard on the north side of the house. This is right outside the dining room bay and the new eating nook/bay of the kitchen addition. Someone dropped off an old gas grill.

I guess I should send word to the Winston-Salem police department, in case someone reported a grill as stolen. But I have a feeling some local renter or, perhaps, a downtown baseball stadium-goer, might have reached a point of no longer needing this grill. The tank is gone and I've not inspected it. Only photographed it, because that's what you'd want me to do to keep you well-informed of the Roediger House happenings.

Also, I was pleased to see that the day lilies are getting set to show themselves off. Here's the first bloom of the year:

Sunday Afternoon Play Date

Cyprus has turned out to be a most awesome addition to the Roediger House. I am very, very happy to have her take up residence, and she has settled in superbly. Cyprus is just amazing.

Sunday afternoon was a chance for a playdate, and the following pictures show Cyprus playing with Max, who's older but also much more gregarious. She did seem uncertain about him at times, but they got along very well and seemed to enjoy playing.

Meal No. 297: Cajun-Seasoned Pimento Burgers

This is a weekend of easy meals, because I got home Friday night from Richmond, but at the moment, I am penning this blog entry from outside Atlanta, in DeKalb County near Stone Mountain. That means I needed something easy this afternoon that I could make and clean up and then make the drive down to Georgia.

Since I had made some pimento cheese this past week, and used it in grilled cheese sandwiches before hitting the road last Tuesday, I thought I'd let it make a reappearance today. Today's burgers on the grill were spiced with the Cajun-inspired seasoning that was used in Friday night's beef stroganoff meal, and I also added a thick spread of my pimento cheese.

Gosh, it was good.

Meal No. 296: Rotini Carbonara

Oh, Monie Lawrence.

How glad I am you introduced me to, and shared your recipe for, spaghetti carbonara. It is such a good and tasty meal but it does not require too much of me when it is time to fix it. Today, I decided to go this easier route because it has just been too darned hot, and I really wanted to avoid going out to the grocery store. This dinner was do-able with what I had on hand, and now I'm once again feeling miserable, because I ate more than I needed. I think it was as good tonight as it's ever been, frankly, at least for the versions I've tried to make. Monie still beats me, hands-down.

Meal No. 295: Skillet Beef Stroganoff

Came in this evening from three days of a CRISS training in Richmond, VA, so I made a meal that allowed me to take it somewhat easy. This is skillet beef stroganoff, and I managed to make it with a bit of a kick, so it was extra good.

Toy Story

You know, when you demolish part of a house that was built in 1905, you'd have high hopes that amongst the debris would be found treasures and artifacts. The closest to that was the discovery of a small bit of newspaper from the 1930s that didn't have much to it.

But somehow, once the dust had cleared, I ended up with this toy car, and I have no idea exactly where it was unearthed from. Perhaps it was in the old crawlspace up under the former kitchen, although it never managed to catch my eye previous to its appearance beside the piles of demolished wood and brick.

So, no old jars or bottles or plaques or window frames or coins or unique tools or anything. No dead bodies, no boxes with small trinkets or treasures, no old Pepsi can that you'd have to use a can-opener on. Well, I do think the guys said they found a mummified rat carcass, but shouldn't everyone hope for that?

Just a not-so-old toy car. Care to go for a drive?

Meal No. 294: Grilled Pimento Cheese & Bacon Sandwiches

The Tuesday night meal at the Roediger House was grilled homemade pimento cheese and bacon sandwiches with some fresh-cut tomato slices on the side. Since I had to then drive up to Richmond afterwards, I drank some Pepsi Throwback instead of one of my usual beer selections.

A side-note: Cyprus had her first vet appointment yesterday and, while anxious and rambunctious when she first got there, she did great. Although the look on her face when her temperature was taken was priceless.

Meal No. 293: Nashville Hot Chicken

Last night was another night to break out the deep fat fryer, but I was not all that pleased with the results. One of my cooking magazines featured the spicy hot fried chicken recipe from a Nashville restaurant, and I think I did a nice job of following along with the instructions and directions for prepping and cooking it.

But it wasn't that spicy, it wasn't that hot, and it wasn't really all that tasty. So this recipe has been pulled from my notebook and tossed in the SimpleHuman step can. Buh-Bye.

Meal No. 292: Not So Cajun Chicken

I haven't gone back to look at all my old blog entries, but I probably regularly and religiously point out that Not So Cajun chicken was the first meal I made once the new kitchen was up and running. And I still reach for it from time to time, because it's so good.

With chicken tenders on sale at the Harris Teeter, what else could I do but go back to this great favorite? Hence, last night's delicious and filling meal, with the added bonus of always hitting the spot.

Meal No. 291: Pork Medallions in Ginger Shiitake Cream Sauce

It's been a while since I've fixed a pork tenderloin, and with tenderloins on sale at the Harris Teeter this week, it was a good excuse for dusting off an old recipe. This seemed to make Bradley Phillis happy, because he insists that the dish I made earlier this evening (well, yesterday) is the one regular feature on the kitchen table here that he had not yet sampled. It was great to also have his brother Benjamin along, as well as a friend of theirs who is new to the Roediger House, Emily Satterfield.

This is pork tenderloin medallions with a ginger soy shiitake mushroom cream sauce, along with fresh steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes.

I was told in no uncertain terms that I'd better have a dessert this evening, so I made a Texas sheet cake. It was quite the chocolate overload, and I think it made the dinner crew happy.

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"Pan-Seared Tuna with Ginger-Shiitake Cream Sauce," from The Bon Appétit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild, 2006, p. 398-399.

"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. 290: Ribeyes and Fries

I was up working at the University of Virginia center in Richmond the last few days but I got out early enough Friday afternoon to scoot on home (in spite of a construction-related traffic delay of 50 minutes) and grill ribeyes and cook french fries in the deep fat fryer. These ribeyes are thinner than I like, normally, and I cooked them more than I should. But they were still mighty good eating.

Cy-prus-shus

Apparently, as great as the Roediger House is, what it's been missing all along is a precious dog:

Weekend of Pies

The ideas I had for desserts over the long and good Memorial Day weekend didn't exactly come to fruition. But I did get a couple of pies made to go along with the Saturday and Monday night meals.

The first is key lime pie:

And my fridge has been so stuffed I actually had to chill the key lime pie in the wetbar cooler, which normally is only graced with beer, wine, and sodas:

The second is that irresistible chocolate cream pie published to the Food Network website by Emeril Lagasse:

David Wald and I put the chocolate pie together and then he had the good sense to adorn it with some of the fresh-made whipped cream.

Meal No. 289: Spring Frittata Quiche

A recipe that's been in the rotation for a long time, that would normally show up with the brunch meal that I made this past Sunday, is a spring frittata. But I like quiche and want the crust to go along with it, so I converted this from being just a frittata. I had trouble with my first two crusts, though, and David and Everett had to hit the road before I could serve it up to them. I brought out the leftover creamy cheese grits and this made for a nice breakfast yesterday.