Meal No. 879: Kale Pesto Pasta

Interesting and different for me, and edible. But unlikely to be repeated. Say hello to Saturday night's kale pesto pasta with lime-peppered chicken:

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"Kale Pesto Pasta," in Cuisine at Home, Issue 102, November/December 2013, p. 16-17.

Meal No. 878: Standing Rib Roast

Ah, it's the holiday season, and good meats are on sale and I'm in the right mood and it's a time to have people over and this was a fine meal.

Looks a bit like the State of North Carolina!

Resting after the long roasting period.

Ooops! A tad overcooked, darn it.

But tasty as heck.

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"Standing Rib Roast," in The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, compiled and edited by Julie Fisher Gunter. Birmingham, AL: Oxmoor House (1999), p. 235.

Meal No. 877: Grilled Leg of Lamb

Just a simple weeknight dinner, with another batch of homemade mashed Yukon gold potatoes.

Pretty darned perfect, with a very nice red wine, shallot, and herb sauce to go with it.

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"Grilled Butterflied Leg of Lamb," from SimplyRecipes.com.

Possum No. 7: A Big 'Un in my Cat Trap

While I continue to try to trap the last of the neighborhood's feral cats that wander into the back yard, occasionally I'll inadvertently draw in other wild creatures of the neighborhood. Possums are the ones most often encountered in this way. Here's the one that fell into temptation tonight. I'll release him down by the river tomorrow.

Meal No. 876: Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Mustard-Cognac Sauce

If Sunday's dinner was a disaster, this one was a triumph. My full belly at bedtime tonight was due to a delicious pan-seared filet that was then simmered in a skimpy sauce of butter, garlic, thyme, and rosemary. But that skimpy sauce was then enriched with shallots, port, brandy, chicken stock, and dijon mustard. Homemade Yukon Gold mashed potatoes and some sugar snap peas rounded out this evening's weeknight feast. Hoo-boy!

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"Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Mustard-Cognac Sauce," from Bon Appétit.com.

Super-Incredible Eggnog Frozen Custard

So, over the weekend, I made this great batch of eggnog. I drank some but then I put a fair portion of it into the counter-top Cuisinart ice cream maker. What came out was some of the most amazing ice cream I've ever made.

Meal No. 875: Red Curry Shrimp & Butternut Squash

Well, this meal was pretty crappy. To the dungheap with this recipe!

It's very unusual for me to find a Cuisine at Home recipe that I do not like. This one had a high yuck factor.

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"Red Curry Shrimp & Butternut Squash," in Cuisine at Home, Issue 102, November-December 2013, p. 8-9.

Delurk's December Gathering at the RoHo

Tonight the Roediger House played host to members of the Delurk Gallery crew, for a casual December gathering of food and games and hanging out. Here's what I brought out of the kitchen at various points through the evening:

Sausage Queso

Sausage Queso, in action

Creamy Stuffed Eggs

Rotel Cups

Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms

Homemade Eggnog

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"Chunky Sausage Queso," in the Southern Living Slow-Cooker Cookbook. Compiled and Edited by Jane E. Gentry. Birmingham, AL: Oxmoor House (2006), p. 23.

"Creamy Stuffed Eggs," a recipe shared with me by Barbara Huneycutt of Crozet, VA.

"Rotel Cups," a recipe passed around on Facebook. Two online versions that match up to the recipe I used can be found at NormalCooking.com and RealHouseMoms.com.

"Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms," inspired by an appetizer at the Woodstock Cafe.

"Homemade Eggnog," by Beverly Sims. In Cuckoo Cooks from Gilboa Christian Church in Cuckoo, Virginia.

Meal No. 874: Grilled Tuna with Cajun Cognac Cream Sauce

It's not customary for me to do much inventin' in the kitchen, but I sort of made up the sauce for tonight's quick cajun-spiced grilled tuna medallions, sitting atop creamy grits.

December Baked Delights

Friday December 6. I try to make something each month for the first Friday Trade Street Gallery Hop, to drop off at the Delurk Gallery on 6th Street. This time around, it was a double batch of Cap'n Crunch cookies, and they turned out mighty fine.

Sunday December 8. The east coast was hit on Sunday with a massive blast of arctic cold air at the same time a system of moisture was headed up from south and west of here. The newsfeeds were blowing up with winter storm watches and warnings about ice accumulation. I started a fire early in the morning and kept it going all day, as temperatures hovered around 32°F. Feeling closed up, I got busy in the kitchen. I ended up making the Jones family recipes for a couple of holiday-centric goodies. The first of those was date nut balls:

Then I went ahead and also made a white wine coffee cake (using a recipe my mother got from Barbara Taylor and Lib Tripp). This I planned to take with me on my travels to Virginia Beach this week to work. I lost my grip on it when I was flipping it onto the plate, so I got it kind of smushed.

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"Cap'n Crunch Cookies," found online at The Capitol Baker, with credit going to The Sugar Plum Blog for inspiration and the source of the adapted recipe.

Decorating for Christmas 2013

It's been a long, long time since I've gotten Christmas decorations up. I've had the meager offering of my Moravian Star and perhaps the wreath on the upstairs porch railing. But the stand for the Christmas tree has been missing ever since the renovation and addition project in 2008-2009, and I just found it, at long last.

The fall of the United States from its position of global power at the hands of Chinese aggression will not be due to any armed conflict. It won't even be the sudden cashing in of all the notes of debt that they have against us. It will be the way our nation slowly goes insane as it seeks to unravel the kaput strings of lights on the intricately pre-lighted Christmas trees that suckers like me have bought over the years. My tree is now 10 years old, and the other big reason I've not put it up in a while was because I knew that I would have to replace the dead strands of lights. I kid you not: it took about an hour to remove each individual strand that was no long working. I have replaced them with 1400 lights: seven strands with 200 lights each. It took two days just to get a lighted tree erected.

But it sure is purty.

And Cyprus enjoys settling in right next to it...

...while each evening I enjoy sitting in the north parlour drinking hot chocolate by the tree, in a nice Christmas mug given to me years ago by friend and former teaching colleague Mary Jones.

The stockings and stocking holders have been hung by the chimney with care.

This old pair of carolers that I received from my mother's estate has been placed on the sideboard in the anteroom.

It's looking very much like Christmas time is here!

A Very Black Friday

For this gorgeous stray feline who wondered into my Havahart® trap over the Thanksgiving holiday, I suppose it turned out to be a very black Friday. Regular blog readers know what typically follows for the wild, feral, and unclaimed wildlife stalking the neighborhood. Sorry, DWS.

Caged Furry

Speaking of unfortunate demises, I feel like if birds had their own CSI, they'd be investigating two suspicious deaths outside the kitchen bay window. I spotted one little peeper who was butt-up dead, laid out on the top grill of one of the heat pumps. Then, in the days following the grand RoHo Halloween Party, when I'd left the ice tub where beer was kept out on the patio pad, one of my birds mistook it for a hot tub. It wasn't just his sorrows that drowned.

Birdbath Wrath

Meal No. 873: Pipetizer Casserole

One more meal before I hit the road for Virginia Beach for a week of work with administrators there:

This is the Roediger House comfort casserole known as Pipetizer Casserole, named in honor of friend and former neighbor Jon Piper. It's mighty hard to beat this one. It was filling and good last night after a long day of cold and occasionally freezing rain here in Winston-Salem.

Speaking of this cold winter-like weather: since it kept me cooped up inside all day, the fire I started early in the morning was kept going all day long.

Fire No. 21

It even took a third satchel of firewood, a new record here at the RoHo:

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"Pipetizer Casserole" is an adaptation of "Tailgate Casserole," from The Big Book of Casseroles, by Maryana Vollstedt. San Francisco: Chronicle Books (2000), p. 120.

Meal No. 872: Steak Burgo with Mushrooms

I'm generally a straight-up "grill-that-steak-with-kosher-salt-and-pepper" guy, but last night I fell to the temptation of a mushroom and sauce adornment for the massive porterhouse that was on sale at the grocery. With another round of the lemon-garlic baby Dutch yellow potatoes to go with it, and a smattering of mushy Brussels sprouts, and a couple of Bell's Best Brown Ale, let's just say I went to bed satisfied and bloated.

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"Steak Burgo with Mushrooms," in Cuisine at Home, Issue No. 102, December 2013, p. 20-21.

"Lemon-Garlic Baby Dutch Yellow Potatoes," from Melissa's/World Variety Produce, Inc. Recipe on bag of potatoes. Alternative link for recipe can be found here.

Meal No. 871: Chicken Leg Quarters with Shallots & Spinach

This was a mighty comfortable and comforting Friday night meal last night. I don't do enough with spinach and I do love shallots. Makes for a nice combo.

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"Chicken Thighs with Shallots & Spinach," by Genna Johannes of Wrightstown, WI. In Taste of Home, September/October 2013, p. 27.

Meal No. 870: Ginger Beef & Bok Choy Stir-Fry with Sushi Rice

Hey, here's a new recipe that I took for a test spin last night:

And it's a keeper. Delicious, filling, a bit spicy, full of good flavor, and extra interesting because of the rice vinegar sushi rice on which it sat.

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"Ginger Beef and Bok Choy Stir-Fry with Sushi Rice," in Cuisine at Home, Issue No. 102, December 2013, p. 12-13.

Meal No. 869: Penne Carbonara

I feel like I'm running behind all week, which has been exacerbated by not getting ahead on kitchen clean-up and also trying to get all the Christmas decorating done, which has not gone smoothly. So it's been great to be working locally this week and to have time to fix meals and enjoy my kitchen. But I'm not really knocking the menu socks off.

Here's a return to a faithful favorite. I sure manage to get heavy-handed with my pasta sauces, and last night was no exception.

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"Pasta Carbonara," a recipe shared by Monie Lawrence of Raleigh, NC.

Meal No. 868: Soy-Glazed Grilled Pork Chops

Last night's dinner was spot-on: soy sauce, brown sugar, and rosemary for both marinade and grilling sauce on center cut bone-in pork chops, along with quinoa and some seasoned green beans. Yum.

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"Grilled Rosemary Pork Chops," by Steve B. From AllRecipes.com.

Meal No. 867: Crispy Beef Tacos

I had the right amount of meat and leftover taco shells, so yes: I had tacos again already. With a later afternoon working over in Guilford County yesterday, I chose to have an easy go of dinner.