May 2015 Landscaping Update

Ah, Spring! The winter is behind us, the days have been sunny and beautiful, sort of breezy and mild. I am delighted to be off the road and free of work for a spell, and I'm excited to get back to my much-neglected yard.

It appears that 2014 turned out to be a great year to almost completely ignore the yard and landscaping. At the edge of the parking lot is a tray of lariope that went unplanted and eventually died, along with a bottlebrush plant that also did not get planted, along with a rosemary bush that died that did not get planted. About all I accomplished was to keep the grass cut and to spray Roundup from time to time. Oh, I did manage to dig a huge hole where the front yard meets what I like to call The Grove, while extracting a diseased cherry tree's stump. It started simple but I didn't keep it simple:

Can you see here the old wall where the driveway used to be?

I did not get any pics of how deep and wide I eventually went with this hole.

Now that I stop and think back on it, I'm realizing that working on digging out all the roots from that stump, while simultaneously telling myself I was creating a better bed for some shrubs like azaleas and rhododendron, is part of what bogged me down last year during prime yardwork season. But I also seem to recall we had a pretty wet summer. And I traveled a lot...it was a full work calendar.

And I also went into mad-crazy-subcontractors-work-on-the-house mode as we moved into summer: porch repairs, chimney rebuild, plaster repair and restoration, mantles restoration, front door refinishing, floor refinishing...and I recall distinctly not wanting to be stuck in a yard project when I wanted to watch and/or support and/or monitor all that other work going on.

Not so for 2015! I am set and raring to go and have already gotten a lot accomplished in this first week or so off the road. I distributed the last of the old mulch pile last week and got a new load delivered:

The planting bed beside the parking lot and back door was nicely weeded back in March, but it was very much in need of rebuilding thanks to how much it had settled and sunk.

But I ran into a little problem regarding my load of topsoil, delivered a year ago but left completely untouched since then: the reeds that grow wild in that back corner of my lot (and the neighboring lot) are pervasive and insidious with their root systems, and they had managed to get into and completely throughout the entire 7 cubic yards of dirt:

And that means I had to sift and screen every single shovelful of topsoil before I could wheelbarrow it either to the sidebed or to the cherry stump hole in the front yard:

The final tally approached 60 wheelbarrow loads—each and every one screened and sifted—so the city yard waste cart was very nearly full of screened roots (shown at just the beginning of that accumulation here):

I finished up that pile on May 20th, and on May 21st, the next load of topsoil was delivered:

This time, though, I hope I've got a good barrier to prevent a repeat of that root invasion: there is a landscaping weed barrier layer, along with two tarps, and I'm going out with the shovel (once the rainy weather today clears) and make sure that there is no contact between the new pile and any ground or root source!

Meal No. 1285: Grilled Pork Kebabs with Barbecue Glaze

It was another fun weeknight casual gathering at the Roediger House with five around the table, so it was a perfect opportunity to try out this new recipe for grilling pork tenderloin kebabs from the latest issue of Cook's Illustrated. We were all pretty darned pleased with the result, so I expect this will be showing up here again in the future.

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"Grilled Pork Kebabs with Barbecue Glaze," an online extra from Cook's Illustrated and based on "The Best Way to Grill Pork Tenderloin," Issue No. 134, May & June 2015, p. 6.

Meal No. 1284: Grilled Tuna Steaks with Ginger-Soy Cream Sauce

It might be awfully soon to be repeating this meal from earlier in the month, but I found myself drawn back to it (1) because it was delicious, (2) the tuna steaks looked great at my grocery, and (3) it was kindly quick to make.

I steamed some broccolini for a nice change-up and added a pile of freekah to the plates. I was unable to finish this scrumptious meal!

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Tonight's dinner was based on ideas from the following:

• "Seared Tuna with Greens and Coconut Rice," from Jamie Oliver's "15 Minute Meals" from Channel 4.
• "Pan-Seared Tuna with Ginger-Shiitake Cream Sauce," from The Bon Appétit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild, 2006, p. 398-399.
  

Meal No. 1283: Grilled Barbecue Chicken Thighs

Good Lord. I still feel somewhat nervous from a lack of experience with grilling chicken, but the Memphis Rub and the homemade barbecue sauce that were key players in tonight's grilled chicken thighs made me feel like the master of this domain. It was super fantastic, perfectly cooked, full of potent complementary flavors...all-in-all, a great Monday night dinner at the Roediger House.

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From Bon Appétit, July 2013:

• "The Definitive Guide to Grilling Crisp, Juicy Chicken," by Meryl Rothstein, p. 64ff.
• "Barbecued Chicken," by Alison Roman, p. 70.

"Memphis Rub," from ALIKAT695 on allrecipes.com, with helpful modifications as suggested in the reviews from naples34102.

Meal No. 1282: Grilled Blackened Pork Chops

These gorgeous days of May keep a burden on my heart to (1) work in the yard and (2) grill for supper. Last night, the choice for dinner was blackened grilled pork chops, together with baked potatoes and baby Brussels sprouts. Just for an extra kick to it all, I topped the pork chops with a couple of poached eggs. Pretty good for a Saturday night at the Roediger House.

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Guidance for grilling these pork chops based on "Molasses-Mustard Glazed Pork Chops," adapted by Nick Kindelsperger from Bobby Flay's Grill It! Found online at SeriousEats.com.

Guidance for poaching eggs in quantity came from Food & Wine and The Kitchn Blog.

Meal No. 1281: Porterhouse Steak and French Fries

After a pretty full and hard day of yardwork yesterday, with a lovely May evening rolling into the dusk, and T-bones and porterhouses on a great sale at the Harris Teeter, dinner had to be this:

Meal No. 1280: Linton Hopkins's Bucatini Carbonara

When it comes to pasta carbonara at the Roediger House, I most often make the version that my friend Monie Lawrence trained me to make as a simple weeknight meal. Sometimes, though, I like to go for the slightly fancier, silkier version, that I almost always reserve my bucatini pasta for. Instead of making a roux and adding cream and grated parmesan, with onion and bacon, the Hopkins take relies on diced pancetta, shallots, and egg yolks with the cream. Either way, I'm happy when it's time to chow down on it. With some friends over last night and no chance to make it to the grocery store, this was what I put on the dinner table.

After clean-up, once the guests had departed, I got inspired to make a batch of cookies. I always enjoy making cookies but haven't been getting around to it as much lately. Hence, my stockpile of various brown sugars is starting to dry out a bit and I'm having to employ tried-and-true helpful hints to restore them to usefulness.

It took a good dose of dark brown sugar to allow me to return a second time to the amazing flavors found in chai-spiced oatmeal cookies. The source recipe calls for caramel bits, which I found overly chewy, so I substituted cinnamon morsels this time and was still quite pleased at the result.

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

"Caramel-Chai Oatmeal Cookies," in Cuisine at Home, September/October 2013, p. 47.

Meal No. 1279: Pipetizer Casserole

A nearly full table at dinner last night, but it was a very casual hang, and by special request I served just the Roediger House favorite casserole known as Pipetizer. Strangely named but strangely good, enjoyed by folks who are anything but strangers here.

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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. 1278: Grilled Plank Salmon with Park Hill Maple & Spice Mustard Glaze

It's been a while since I employed my Savory Spice Shop mix known as Park Hill Maple & Spice Pepper, but it was just the call for last night's planked grilled salmon fillet, with pearl couscous and sugar snap peas. It was actually more than I could eat, so no clean plate club membership for me this time around.

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Cooking guidance from "Planked Salmon Platter," from a Better Crocker recipe clipping. Glaze recipe from the Savory Spice Shop: "Park Hill Maple & Spice Mustard Glaze," by Mike Johnston.

Meal No. 1277: Grilled Shoulder Lamb Chops

It's regularly the case that it's a small gathering of multiple mouths 'round the Roediger House table, and last night was another one of those enjoyable evenings. I depended again on the shoulder lamb chops that have been a faithfully good choice so many times before, and they grilled up just right, just before the thunderstorms hit. Mashed potatoes and seasoned lima beans completed the plates.

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Grilled Lamb Chops:
Based on the marinade ideas from:
"Pan-Grilled Lamb Shoulder Chops," from the FoodNetwork.com.
...with instructions for grilling found at:
"Grilled Lamb Shoulder Chops with Herb Aioli," by Martha Stewart. Found online.

Meal No. 1276: Scrambled Eggs on Toast

I couldn't help myself: when lunchtime rolled around and I was strangely and deeply hungry, I reached again for this satisfying concoction from my childhood: scrambled eggs on buttered-and-jellied toast. It was more than I needed to eat at mid-day but that's not what was on my mind as I licked the last of it off the knife I was using.

Meal No. 1275: Cheese-Stufffed Chicken in Phyllo

I'm no longer scared of working with phyllo dough and have really enjoyed the few times I've now employed it with dinner. I'm still not especially skilled at it but I can make do. Tonight I decided to try out another version of chicken in phyllo, a variation of what I attempted with good success back in January. This recipe calls for pounded chicken breast cutlets wrapped around a spinach and cheese filling (which I'm sure is good!), but I made it all a mixture with diced rotisserie chicken and finely chopped broccoli florets. I whipped up the homemade version of garlic and herb cooking creme to give it a saucy topping and served some buttered corn alongside.

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Recipe based on "Cheese-Stuffed Chicken in Phyllo," republished from Better Homes and Gardens, and found on recipe.com.

"DIY Cooking Creme," from Joy in My Kitchen, 25 May 2011.

Meal No. 1274: Grilled Filet Mignon & Fries

You missed a gorgeous Saturday in Winston-Salem, full of errands and shopping but short on yardwork time. This kind of Saturday evening brought to mind some great grilled beef and a mess of french fries, washed down with cold Brooklyn Brewery brown ale. And then I was pretty much done for the night!

Meal No. 1273: Chicken with Coronation Sauce

Not nearly as good as the recent version that I called the best yet at the Roediger House, but with my last full day of the work week behind me, I was on the underside of motivated.

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"Coronation Sauce for Chicken," from 400 Sauces, by Catherine Atkinson, Christine France, and Maggie Mayhew. Hermes House (2006, 2008), p. 155.

Meal No. 1272: Eggs on Buttered Toast

I guess if my arrival home from working in Virginia Beach doesn't occur until after 9 pm, I gotta make do with dinner. And this making-do done me good. Not pretty, but pretty tasty.

Peach Nehi Ice Cream

As much as peach Nehi is loved in this house, you'd think that I'd get around to more often making peach Nehi ice cream with it. It's always so good. At the end of April, I saved a few bottles of that ridiculously sweet soda and used the simple recipe for making ice cream with it. It's pretty hard to beat.

Enough to save some for later!

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"Peach Nehi Ice Cream," as detailed in the Southern Living Community Blogs online. Another version that incorporates pureed canned peaches and a little more sugar can be found here.

Nationwide Is Not On My Side

Last summer, I received an unexpected notice of homeowners insurance cancelation from the Jim Glasgow Agency. I've been covered by Nationwide (through the Glasgow Agency) on both home and autos since I bought the Roediger House in 2003. I selected that agency thanks to a recommendation from a former Wake Forest University co-worker but also because they had an office downtown, not so far from the house.

The reason for the cancelation? Not because of any claims I've submitted, because I've never submitted any on my homeowners policy. Not because I was failing to pay my premiums. Not because I was yelling at them for moving out to the awful office park known as Westgate. Nope, the culprit was Cyprus: because she is part Staffordshire Terrier, and that's a forbidden breed, Nationwide dropped me like a hot potato.

So I used the following fun picture of Cyprus along with a note to the Jim Glasgow Agency letting them know I was taking both my homeowners and automobile insurance elsewhere.

It resulted in a long and delightful phone conversation with Jim Glasgow himself. But I'm now a very happy customer of State Farm and the agency located downtown and just down the street from the house.

Meal No. 1271: Curry-and-Coconut-Milk-Grilled Pork Skewers

Here's another new recipe for the Roediger House and it was another great hit: Boston butt pork skewers marinated in a wild combination of ingredients and then grilled on skewers capped at each end with straight-up fatback. With red curry powder, turmeric, white pepper, soy sauce, fish sauce, coconut milk, and sweetened condensed milk, it's a sweet and savory and peppery and salty blend that really comes through in the finished product. I'll have to keep this recipe in mind in the future, because it's worthy of a repeat performance.

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"Curry-and-Coconut-Milk-Grilled Pork Skewers," by Kris Yenmamroong. In Bon Appétit, May 2015, p. 118.

Meal No. 1270: Grilled Tuna Steaks with Coconut Rice

For the first couple of years that I was working regularly again for Virginia Beach City Public Schools, I was housed at the Ramada at the Beach. The hotel restaurant is Mahi Mah's, and it's pretty darned good. One of my favorite dishes there is the sesame-crusted tuna with coconut rice and a soy-ginger cream sauce. I decided to try a version of it here at home tonight.

It's hard for me to say how close to the mark I got, but make no mistake: this was a fantastic Sunday night meal. I grilled the tuna instead of pan-searing it, and I left off the sesame seeds. The interesting spicing recommended by the Jamie Oliver recipe I looked at included green tea, and this made for a pretty cool flavoring. The rice did not match Mahi Mah's but the sauce dressed it up fine.

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Tonight's dinner was based on ideas from the following:

• "Seared Tuna with Greens and Coconut Rice," from Jamie Oliver's "15 Minute Meals" from Channel 4.
• "Coconut Rice," from Andy Ricker of Pok Pok. Published in Bon Appétit, January 2012.
• "Sweet Coconut Rice," from Melucy and found online at allrecipes.com.

Meal No. 1269: Cream of Tomato Soup & Grilled Pimento Cheese Paninis

I didn't make it to the grocery store on this task-list-overwhelmed Saturday at home, following a long week on the road, so dinner had to be from pantry staples. Tonight, with a small crowd on hand, that led me to ultimate cream of tomato soup along with homemade pimento cheese paninis. (Once I'd mentioned that menu as a possibility, the assembled crew would hear of nothing else!)

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

"South Carolina-Style Pimento Cheese." Recipe worked out by me, with Sharon's Palmetto Pimento Cheese as my starting point.

Meal No. 1268: Rotini Carbonara

Following a good but very long week in Virginia Beach, and a late arrival home with a tired old man's body slowing me down, about all I could manage for dinner was the quick and easy and delicious pasta carbonara. And of course, I ate too much.

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

Sprinkled Donut Cap'n Crunch Cookies: Twice!

I've talked about how the local markets do not feature some of the new varieties of Cap'n Crunch cereal, and that's a shame because of how good some of those flavors are for making cookies. I have to stock up when I find them on the road, or I have to depend on friends from other states to come bearing a resupply. One of those strange new flavors is Sprinkled Donut Cap'n Crunch:

In the picture above, you can see my first batch of these, fairly fresh out of the oven.

Just two days later, I found myself making another batch when a bunch of folks were over here for dinner and a movie, and I felt we ought to have something sweet to snack on into the late night:

That means I've now made regular Cap'n Crunch cookies (a bunch of times), Cinnamon Roll Cap'n Crunch cookies, Chocolatey Crunch cookies, and now Sprinkled Donut Crunch cookies. They're all fantastic, if you must know.

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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.

Could It Be Another Damn Cat?

We've had a stray cat in the neighborhood and my birds are its easiest meal, and there is always the fear that I won't see the cat but Cyprus will (and chase it into the street in time to get smooshed by a passing vehicle), so I needed to relocate it. Fortunately, after about three days, it finally was enticed into the Havahart® trap.

Murray's Old Fashioned Nana Puddin'

With the exception of cookies, I've not really been blowing the top off the dessert game lately. At least a couple of recent confections made it onto the post-dinner agendas, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about at least this one...

Old Fashioned Nana Pudding

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"Murray's Old Fashioned Nana Puddin'," from the Murray Vanilla Wafers package. Also found online at http://melissaannbrook.blogspot.com/2011/04/banana-and-vanilla-wafer-with-pudding.html.

Possum No. 10

Possum No. 10

I was trying to catch a stray cat, but hours after setting out the trap, I had yet another possum instead. He now lives down on the river instead of in my yard.

A couple of nights later, Cyprus went pretty nuts in the side yard, and apparently we have a candidate for a soon-to-be-trapped-and-relocated Possum No. 11:

Meal No. 1267: Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

This really is a fantastic improvement over and upgrade of the traditional 'Bama chicken that's been a favorite here for years. It takes more time and is more involved, but the pay-off is a delicious dinner of poppy seed chicken casserole. It's hard to stop with just one helping of it. That's what showed up on the dinner table here last night for a special Saturday night meal.

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"Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole," by Ashley Moore in Cook's Country, February/March 2015, p. 20.

Meal No. 1266: Sleep-Over Brunch

It was a late night last night, and a most excellent one. I do believe that the thirteen overnight guests enjoyed themselves, and I sure enjoyed them. We started this Saturday morning with an early breakfast of caramelized party ham biscuits, Bundt coffee cake, creamy stone-ground cheese grits, and coffee.

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"Party Ham Biscuits," a recipe shared with our family by Susan Brownand recorded in my recipe collection in 1988. There are various versions of this recipe, of course. Pretty popular is the "caramelized" version, such as this one: "Caramelized Ham & Swiss Buns," by Iris Weihemuller of Baxter, MN, in Taste of Home, December 2013, p. 59.

Cheese Grits made using recipe for Creamy Grits, from Luquire Family Stone Ground Grits, milled in Greenwood, SC.

Meal No. 1265: Juicy Burgers on the Grill

The Roediger House is hosting a huge sleep-over tonight and it is party city here. Pool playing, snacks, story-telling, videos, music, drinks...and some supper.

The snacks on hand included sausage queso and creamy stuffed eggs. For the evening grub, I grilled up a mess of burgers and served them with chips.

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

"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.

Meal No. 1264: Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Sage & Garlic

Update from May 02, 2015: I was wrangling one of the pork chops that night and it suddenly turned unwieldy on me when I was cooking this meal, and I ended up getting a huge plop of hot grease to land on the knuckle of my thumb, which hurt but didn't slow me down on continuing to work on the meal. But it has taken quite a while to heal:

That third shot, of the darned wound bleeding, happened right in the middle of my teaching a workshop in Virginia Beach: I looked down at my hand and it appeared to have blood all over it. I'm going to continue counting myself pretty fortunate in the kitchen, though, with a pretty tiny number of cooking mishaps. The only other good grease burn I remember was from frying up some hushpuppies back in 2012.

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"Your New Favorite Pork Chops," by Alison Roman, in Bon Appétit, March 2015, p. 35.