Meal No. 1769: Cheesy Chicken Rice & Broccoli Casserole

It was a great Saturday night at the Roediger House, with six around the table including a return visit by recently-departed friends David and Chris (they have relocated to Charlotte). It also turned into a bitterly cold evening with winds and mid-20s temps. To go with the warmth of friends reuniting, a casserole made sense to me. Because it was so good at the beginning of February, I thought I'd give cheesy chicken rice and broccoli casserole another go, and this time there was also Caesar salad and Parker House yeast rolls. The reviews from the crew were good.

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While I have pretty much made it my own recipe, I still got inspiration and ideas from:

• "Chicken Broccoli Rice and Cheese Casserole," by LifeAfter40 on food.com. Posted 18 March 2013.
• "Cheesy Chicken Broccoli and Rice Casserole," by Sabrina from Dinner, Then Dessert. Posted 14 December 2016.

[Very little of each recipe actually made it into my version of that evening's dish, so I think my tinkering went beyond merely adapting.]

Meal No. 1768: Glazed Grilled Center-Cut Pork Chops

Although much cooler temps have made their way back into Winston-Salem here at the beginning of March, and Thursday was a day of persisting gusts, I was drawn to the grill that evening once the air had stilled somewhat. Onto that grill I tossed salt-and-sugar-brined center cut bone-in pork chops, which were then finished with a tasty glaze. To go with it, I put together some roasted garlic and parmesan asparagus and added leftover smashed sweet potatoes.

A quick grumble: it was disappointing to get home from my Harris Teeter and find that the package of chops labeled "Thick Cut" included a half-truth:

The half-inch one was, of course, under the label and you couldn't see how small it was. When I was at the Teeter the next day, I shared this picture with Wes, the manager, and asked him to follow up with the guys in the butcher department. I'm glad I was just grilling and not stuffing them that night, or else I'd've been up in arms about that little mismatch of chops!

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"Glazed Pork Chops," in Cuisine's Celebrate the Seasons: Summertime Menus, Issue 10 (June/July 2016), p. 36-38.

"Oven-Roasted Asparagus," from swedishmilk on AllRecipes.com.

Meal No. 1767: Pepperoni Pizza

When my original plan for Wednesday night's dinner hit several serious snags, I had to back up and punt so that I could still serve up grub for the evening's guests. With the frightening storms and heavy downpours barrelling through, I couldn't abandon the kitchen and just take everybody out to dinner. I settled on homemade pepperoni pizza and we scarfed it down.

Meal No. 1766: Lamb and Mushroom Meatloaf

On the final day of February, with Mookie on hand, it was a return to the much-loved lamb and multi-mushroom meatloaf, along with smashed sweet potatoes and seasoned green beans.

Oh, oh so good!

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meat Loaf" (p. 150) and "Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128), 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.

Meal No. 1765: Weeknight Chicken Tikka Masala

When Monday night rolled around and I was short on creative ideas about dinner, I put two chicken breasts to good use in the creamy flavorful sauce of chicken tikka masala.

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"Chicken Tikka Masala," from Cook's Country, October/November 2014, centerfold recipe cards.

Meal No. 1764: Country Ham & Biscuits

Sunday night was more like Sunday breakfast, but what's not to like about my childhood favorite of country ham with rice and biscuits with grape jam?

Meal No. 1763: Chilly Night for Chili

Whew! After all these many gorgeous days in the 60s and 70s this month, it was a shock to the system when a cold front with gusty winds barreled through on Saturday night...dropping temps into the 30s. It was a good time for a big pot of beef chili and delicious sweet Southern cornbread.

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"Simple Beef Chili with Kidney Beans," from Cook's Illustrated, Number Sixty-One [March-April 2003], p. 10-11.

Sweet Southern Cornbread adapted from "Golden Sweet Cornbread," from bluegirl on AllRecipes.com.

Meal No. 1762: Biscuits-N-Gravy

With friend and colleague Jeremy down from Virginia last weekend, it called for a Saturday lunch of biscuits and sausage gravy. Yum.

Meal No. 1761: Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Paninis

Last Friday night: a deeply satisfying comfort meal of cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese paninis, following a five-hour drive home from several days working in Virginia Beach.

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

A Man and His Dog

Today marks a year since the departure of the amazing Cyprus of Roediger House, and I find myself a bit tore up.

A Frightfully Early Spring

When I drove in Friday evening from a week of working with a lot of great educators in Virginia Beach, I was a bit shocked to find the Bradford pear had burst out in bloom:

The daffodils were still strutting their stuff but two other varieties of crocus had pushed up into colorful glory:

I think I've got some confused azaleas, because three of them have pushed out one or two blooms each:

And the ever red lorapetulum are sporting their bright spring redness all too early:

It was 74°F on Thursday (a new record) and 75°F on Friday. I think we've had four record high days thus far in February. A cold front came in last night and brought temps down again: it was 31.9°F on my Indoor/Outdoor temperature gauge when I finished up an early morning shower. Brrrrr.

Up Close and Personal Hawk

Man-o-man. Back on 04 February 2017, I drove up in the driveway and realized there was a hawk sitting right there on the south driveway wall. I was able to park, get out of my truck, sneak inside, and grab my camera and long lens to come out and see if I could score some decent shots.

Regular readers know that I dig my hawk sightings at the house, and this third recent "hawk report" blog entry is because of five different days in January and February that I was able to watch and record hawk visits. On that particular day, I watched him over the hood of my vehicle for quite a while, in spite of the chilly temps in the 40s, but I wanted to get some good action, if I could.

He flew across the driveway to the rear property wall, likely because he'd spotted one of my precious chipmunks back there. He was so intent on getting that prey that he had his back turned to me...and I was able to really sneak up on him, inching my way closer and closer each time I thought I could get away with it.

While he stood on that rotting rail tie and before he turned around, I reckon I got to within five or six feet of him.

And then I just snapped away and he seemed most unconcerned with me.

This went on for a while before he jumped down...and then I really think I was only a few feet away. It was amazing. I kept clicking!

Cookie Butter Cheesecake

When a good Friday night crew was here at the house for slow-roasted pork shoulder barbecue, I figured we were due for a cool new dessert treat. I took that night as a good opportunity to serve up cookie butter cheesecake with a Biscoff cookie crust and melted cookie butter topping.

We all seemed to think it was quite all right.

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"Cookie Butter Cheesecake," from Brandi Burgess of Aunt Bee's Recipes.

Caramel Popcorn Crunch Cookies

Back in early February, on my penultimate day of training and consultation with the administrative and instructional leadership crew at North Forsyth High School, I reported for duty on that Friday morning with a batch of caramel popcorn crunch cookies in hand. I think they appreciated them.

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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.

Two Hawks on Three Different Days

It's proven to be a winter of hawk action at the Roediger House, which I dig. In this post, I'm putting up photos of, well, short-sightings! The hawk didn't hang around long enough for me to get more than just a few shots, so here they are!

04 January 2017

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10 January 2017

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30 January 2017

Lemon Shortbread Cheesecake

Last year, Taste of Home ran a contest involving recipes using Girl Scout cookies, and the first one I tried was lemon shortbread cheesecake. It was unusual and different but also really good, and the crew of regulars around here insisted that it reappear as soon as Girl Scout cookie sales started up again.

When folks reported for dinner on the first Sunday in February, this was indeed the dessert I had on hand. It treated us well enough but boy-howdy were we all stuffed.

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"Lemon Shortbread Cheesecake," by Rosalia Roger of Lincoln, Nebraska. Originally published in Taste of Home, February/March, 2016, p. 64-65.

Meal No. 1760: Barbecue Chicken & Bacon Naan Pizza

When guests were back over for Sunday night dinner last night, I tried to preserve maximum pool time while also putting a decent meal on the table. Thanks to four slabs of naan and a simple recipe from PJ Hamel at King Arthur Flour, I was able to put barbecue chicken and bacon naan pizza in front of us around 8:20 pm. We all seemed pretty pleased with it.

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"Barbecued Chicken Pizza," by P.J. Hamel. From Flourish, from King Arthur Flour. Published 06 July 2011.

Additional Inspiration from "Flatbread Naan White Pizza," by Leslie Green, The Hungry Housewife. Published 03 October 2011.

Meal No. 1759: Caesar Salad with Southern Fried Chicken Strips

Keeping in the relatively simple mode for dinner prep last night, I tried a new recipe for frying up chicken tenders to put on a Caesar salad. I liked 'em.

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"Southern Fried Chicken Strips," by Genise Krause [Sturgeon Bay, WI]. In Taste of Home, June/July 2010, p. 21.

Meal No. 1758: Juicy Burgers and Game of Thrones

After a really full week of work, including four days up in Virginia, it was nice to be home last night. I took advantage of the call to unwind by prepping burgers for grilling in order to make watching the final two episodes of the sixth season of Game of Thrones as easy as possible. And it proved to be a very good night.

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