Glorious Strawberry Pie with Fresh-Picked Strawberries

The delightful neighbors down the street took their toddler on another round of strawberry picking the weekend before last and once more generously shared some of their bounty with me. It was perfect for making that good ol' Shoney's-style all-too-sweet strawberry pie, from the recipe that is credited either to my mother or my older sister Janice. Anyway: it's really good stuff and I had not made it in quite a while. But with fresh-picked strawberries? Now, that's some pie!

If I weren't rushed and harried because of having to leave home for a work week out of town, I would definitely have also made some whipped cream to go with it. It didn't need it, mind you, but let's not dismiss the potential benefit of added bonuses too quickly.

Meal No. 2848: Beef & Broccoli Lo Mein

For the last two weeks, I've been up working in an elementary school in the District of Columbia Public Schools. When I was home for the weekend in between, I tried to squeeze in some good meals and decent desserts. That even occurred last Sunday, before I hit the road for the nearly 6-hour journey back up to where I was staying in Silver Spring. Wonderfully tender beef tenderloin medallions with roasted broccoli florets in a ginger-soy glaze over lo mein: that was a pretty awesome send-off!

Meal No. 2847: Peruvian-Spiced Split Chicken Breasts

A week ago tonight, as I enjoyed a brief weekend at home between work trips to DC, I brought out split chicken breasts, gave 'em a good spicing and seasoning, and let the sous vide work its magic on them. The tender juicy morsels I cut out as I skinned and deboned them were delightfully accompanied by the last of the garlic-lime aïoli I had made. The previous evening's potato salad and more roasted broccoli elevated it to feast proportions, with the accompanying guilt of overindulgence.

Meal No. 2846: Grilled Burgers for the First Post-Pandemic Gathering

When the Roediger House regulars came over last Friday night for supper and pool and hanging out on the third floor, it was the first time we'd gotten together inside the house in 14 months and a day. We are all vaccinated now, post-gestation, and it felt so good to have the crew back in the house once more. Sumner was very excited. I'd been out of town that week for work, so I kept supper simple: juicy burgers on the grill with chips and homemade potato salad.

Boy howdy, was it nice to get back to some pool playing!

Naturally, there had to be a dessert, and a long-time and oft-requested favorite seemed called for: chocolate eclair cake. Yum.

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Adapted from "Juicy Burgers," originally from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks recipe magazine, July 2003, p. 52-53. After Pillsbury was purchased in 2001 by General Mills, home of Betty Crocker (founded 100 years ago this year, mind you!), it basically ceased to exist as a company and lives on just as a brand. I guess that's why a Pillsbury cookbook recipe from 2003 is now only found on the Betty Crocker website.

Potato Salad loosely based on "Best Ever Potato Salad," by Michelle, who blogs at the BrownEyedBaker.com. [Published 06 June 2016]

Guidance for Hard-Boiled Eggs from "Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs," by Jill Winger of the Prairie Homestead [Published April 2016]; and from "Instant Pot Recipes Everyone Should Know," by Alina Bradford from c|net.com. [Published 17 May 2018]

"Chocolate Éclair Cake," a common and popular recipe.

Sumner, the Well-Treated Pup

He might as well be considered the Mayor of Spring Street, or at least this block of it, for all his faithful watching and monitoring but especially because of how happy he is to see people going by on the street and sidewalk. Sumner is possessed of such a sweet and well-behaved disposition and there are lots of regular passers-by who make a point to stop and speak to him and maybe give him a rub or a kiss. But he's also got some special friends and neighbors who love to give him a treat or two. One of those is DeeDee, who lives about three blocks north but (at least in the good weather) she makes quite a few trips up and down the lane. Sumner gets so excited when he sees her, throwing his hips back and forth ridiculously with the biggest, most sweeping tail wags. DeeDee loves to treat him, and this example (from May 2nd) was a multilayered concoction that Sumner had to work to figure his way through.

Sour Cream Pound Cake with Fresh-Picked Strawberries and Sweetened Whipped Cream

Speaking of Cindy Coulson (see yesterday's blog post), she's also the reason I initially tracked down the McCormick Company's recipe for sour cream pound cake loaf, made with an old flavoring (vanilla butter and nut) that has since been rechristened as Cake Batter flavor. 

Thanks to dear Spring Street neighbors Lori and Cody, we got a batch of incredible strawberries from a weekend picking excursion they made to a strawberry farm. 

I finally decided they'd be best highlighted and allowed to shine when featured with warm-baked pound cake and freshly-made sweetened whipped cream. On this, I was quite right.

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"Sour Cream Pound Cake," from McCormick. Found online and, formerly, on the original Vanilla Butter & Nut flavoring's packaging box.

"Failproof Sweetened Whipped Cream," by Morgan Bolling in Cook's Country, June/July 2021, p. 26-27.

Meal No. 2845: Chicken Breasts in Sour Cream

In the late 90s, as a pretty regular getaway from Charlottesville, and then through a good chunk of the early 2000s, because of lots of teaching and consulting in the area, I made lots and lots of trips that included stays with my friends Cindy Coulson and Harley Knowles. So many meals eaten at their table, and so many recipes that I walked away from those visits with! I should have made a label/blogpost tag for Cindy a long time ago to easily find all the meals I've made that have a connection to her or to my visits to Winchester, VA. Anyway: a pretty regular dish we enjoyed and that I made a lot after I permanently moved to Winston-Salem was chicken breasts in sour cream. But alas: I have put it aside for nearly 11 years now, having only made it once, for Meal No. 39, since the kitchen addition was completed and the tracking of all meals was initiated. I brought it back Sunday a week ago, along with layered green bean casserole and the last of the broccoli I'd bought, roasted to a nice charred perfection.

Quite a few things are included in blog entries, not so much because I think the blog's small but faithful audience has an insatiable desire for all tidbits large and small...but because it really helps me with my inclination to record and document. Dinner may have been especially good to me that night because I'd once again headed out for a circuit around Salem Lake on my bike (my fourth time), and then also included taking the spur trail down to Quarry Park (the second trek there) as well. 

Round trip came in right at 24 miles, and I still managed to get in a 3-mile walk with Sumner (at an under-15-minute-mile pace, at that!). So, food tastes awesome.

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"Chicken Breasts in Sour Cream," from Ann Lafferty via Cindy Coulson, 13 July 1997.

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

Meal No. 2844: Chicken Tenders and Avocado Ranch Salad

The Saturday night before last was ripe for ripe avocados that needed to be employed in something worth indulging in, and I found great appeal in returning to the creamy avocado ranch dressing that showed up here over the winter a few times. Generously herbed and whipped into a well-combined tasty topping for power greens, the salads that night did their jobs grandly, with pan-seared seasoned chicken tenders making it complete.

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"Creamy Avocado Ranch Dressing," by Traci Antonovich of TheKitchenGirl.com.

Limoncello Creme Cake

Desserts are by definition a treat, but not all desserts are treats. And every wild once in a while, I find myself trying out a recipe that initially makes me angry at the dessert developer until I realize that I'm the sucker who fell for a kitchen freakshow and rode it like a jackass through all three rings of its circus.

The week before last, I made a very bad decision about the next recipe I ought to try. It was a lengthy unnecessarily overwrought process, complicated and expensive and with a stunningly disappointing result. The recipe: limoncello creme cake. While it seems to have enjoyed tons of "shares" from the recipe website, and an oddly uncritical mass of favorable comments, I appreciated that at least one person commented: "There are so many things wrong with this recipe that I won't bother to go into them all."

An 8-yolk lemon curd, mixed into THREE containers of mascarpone cheese, various tablespoons-full of lemon extract and limoncello, plus a recommendation that you zest, like, 6 or 8 lemons...but a freakin' box mix for cake and an insistence that you find Cook-and-Serve lemon pudding...for the love of all that's holy: I am a moron for choosing to try to make this ridiculous absurdity that was a physical disaster but an interesting nod toward a different kind of lemon cake. The recipe printout has been tossed in the rubbish bin.

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"Limoncello Creme Cake," from Kathleen Hagood and posted to JustAPinch.com.

Meal No. 2843: Salmon Croquettes with Chili-Lime-Garlic Aïoli

The pattern is becoming well-established: when I return to my much-loved roasted salmon, I'll cook extra so that soon thereafter there can be the deep indulgence in the new-round favorite, salmon croquettes. Thursday before last, with the addition of the perfect chili-lime-garlic aïoli, and the slight variation of roasted Brussels sprouts, I overdid it with a double serving on my plate.

I talked myself into that overeating, though, because that afternoon I took the mountain bike out for a good long ride, marking my third trip all the way around Salem Lake. Total ride: 22 miles.

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Recipe adapted from "Salmon Burgers" (p. 396) and "Herb Sauce" (p. 395), from Denise Austin, Shrink Your Female Fat Zones, Rodale Books (2003).

"Chili-Lime Aïoli," from David Wald of Princeton, NJ, May 2009.

Old Fashioned County Fair Funnel Cakes

I suspect this counts as a wild hair: Tuesday a week ago, after I cleaned up from an early salmon supper, I decided it was high time for me to try making funnel cakes, just like you'd get at the fair. And boy howdy, were they delicious. This was not the occasion to go all crazy with hot fudge sauce or homemade whipped cream; instead, I kept it at the bare minimum of powdered sugar and ground cinnamon. Fried dough is a terrible health choice but a glorious nostalgic tongue dance.

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"Classic Funnel Cakes," from Chris Elizondo on JustAPinch.com.

Meal No. 2842: Roasted Salmon and Broccoli

Perhaps two weeks is long enough for me to go without my much-loved slab of salmon, roasted to a perfect temperature and quite regularly accompanied by perfectly roasted broccoli florets. That's how the Roediger House marked a rainy and stormy May the Fourth. It might have seemed particularly good that night because I'd snuck out between storms to get in a bike ride of just under 12 miles, which proved a sufficient workout to make me extra ready for dinner.

Meal No. 2841: Thick-Cut Pan-Seared Pork Chops

Oh, my gosh: on Monday a week ago, I used sous vide to cook thick-cut boneless pork chops again, finishing them in the cast iron skillet, and they were simply amazing once more! So very tender and juicy and still full of flavor, and that extra step of searing them on the cooktop in a hot pan is the perfect finishing touch. I slow-roasted potatoes almost to a crispy stage but also had whole green beans as well. The plates were cleaned.

Eddie's Apple Torte

UNC Graduation on Mother's Day 1987

At the risk of getting a bit gushily sentimental, let me begin with a bemarveled expression of ongoing gratitude that life has dealt me a lot of pretty good cards. There is much that I find myself thankful for and grateful about. I suppose over the years I've well beaten the drum of delight at the happy home and life I've settled into here in Winston-Salem. Thanks to an errand that involved a recent trip to the campus of the University of North Carolina on the penultimate day of April, a flood of glorious happy memories washed over me as I relished the joy and treat of being back in Chapel Hill, even briefly. I had such a terrific undergraduate experience.

 

2002 Project CRISS National Trainers Conference
San Antonio, TX
L-R: Sheryl Cohen, Me, Janelle Weathers, Evelyn Maycumber, Julie & Tom Estes

Finding myself at the University of Virginia in the Fall of 1996, at the front end of my PhD studies, proved another amazing and incredibly fulfilling journey in so very many ways. I was gifted a range of opportunities that to this day continue to influence my career directions but also provide phenomenal ongoing dividends. Charlottesville was an awesome place to live, and UVa was very good to me and for me. But I don't think I can convey well enough how much the relationships with many of my professors there has been among the greatest treasures of that time...and I delight that many of those bonds remain unbroken. I'll focus here on one of those: Tom Estes (at far right, above), who profoundly impacted my professional work and understanding of scholarship especially in content reading and literacy. He gets frequent mentions and tributes when I'm teaching or delivering professional development.

 

As an outgrowth of bringing me and a fellow doc student named Kathy onboard for training he was doing in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1997, our crew became a movie club, regularly gathering at Tom and Julie's house for a meal and film. This practice continued for a brief while even after I'd graduated and moved down here to Winston. At semester's end in the Fall of 1997, Tom shared with us a dessert he called Eddie's Apple Torte, a delicious treat but one that also brought back memories of a dear friend of Tom and Julie's. As best I can tell, I have made it exactly once, in the Fall of 2001, during my first semester on faculty at Wake Forest University. 

Nearly 20 years later, I have finally made it again. A simple crust gets a layer of sweetened filling reminiscent of a light cheesecake, and sugar-and-cinnamon-coated apple slices sit atop all that.

Once it's baked and cooled somewhat, one might argue that it is best served with homemade vanilla bean ice cream.

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Recipe for Eddie's Apple Torte shared by Thomas H. Estes, Professor Emeritus of the University of Virginia, on 09 December 1997. His closing comment on that email is as follows: "Please think of Eddie and all other victims of the AIDS epidemic when you enjoy this recipe."

"Vanilla Ice Cream" (p. 35-36), from Bi-Rite Creamery's Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones, by Kris Hoogerhyde, Anne Walker, and Dabney Gough. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press (2012).

Meal No. 2840: Grilled Filet Mignon

A picture-perfect breezy and bright sunny day back on Sunday May 2nd proved to be a powerful draw to get on my bike again for what I thought would be my usual quick downtown circuit. My legs were sort of burning from the get-go and I felt sure I'd be too much of a punk to push myself. Alas, I ended up back at Salem Lake again, and did the full trail around the lake and a pretty good added distance when making my way back home again. The total mileage, according to my watch's fitness tracker, was 22 miles.

After all that, who wouldn't want a grilled medium rare filet mignon, with roasted and garlicked asparagus fatties? I was ready to eat a cow, so, yeah, that'd be me.

Setting Up for the Summer Season

As we rolled on into the good days of early April, following Easter, with the blessing of good weather and sunny days, I was able to indulge in some outside activities that bring on the giddy vibes of warm weather. The first of those was a much overdue scrubbing of the 2005 Toyota Tundra.

While I knew it was looking neglected, I didn't realize how awful the tree drip and staining was. It took better than three hours, with a few well-spaced breaks, but I was reasonably pleased with the result, given that it's a vehicle that's over 15 years old.

Wanting to wash the truck got me to initiate the first phase of setting up the irrigation system for its cycles now that winter is over. I flushed the main lines that day so that I could hook the hose up to one of the yard hydrants I installed.

Phase Two for prepping the system to return to operation was flushing the zones and cleaning all the sprinkler nozzles. It was closer to the end of April before I got that done.

With the sprinklers back in operation, I spread new grass seed, especially for filling in patchy spots, and also fertilized. Then I put the Rachio controller schedules into play so that a regular watering schedule could occur automatically. So far, it looks like my do-it-yourself irrigation system is still fully and properly functional following its winter dormancy! One might consider it especially appropriate—a bon mot, even—to suggest I'm pumped.

Finally, that early-to-mid April time was glorious for the azaleas, and while I was doing all my outdoor chores, Sumner took up a happy lay spot amongst them, and it sure felt like we were doing senior portraits.

Squirrel: 1. Transformer: 2. Roediger House: Zero Power.

Just as I had stepped into the bathroom after rising last Sunday morning, there was the pronounced "boom" that we often think of as a transformer blowing (in reality, it's more likely a cut-out fuse). The power blinked off simultaneously. Once I'd dressed, I went out to investigate and found one very dead squirrel and one very stunned squirrel at the base of the pole that feeds the power line to the house. I put in the call to Duke Power and a lineman was on scene in short order. Alas, he needed a second lineman with a bucket truck, who arrived according to a much more casual schedule, country-music-blasting and initially shirtless. But power was restored before 10 am.

Two important take-aways from this minor disruption of the joyous routines of Roediger House living: (1) I really did struggle that morning without my coffee and found an almost immediate return to good health and humor once the first cup was brewed and consumed, so the addiction is full and real; and (2) Let's not argue about whether there is something unseemly about Sumner's squirrel abatement activities. I'm of the view that it is a necessary element of a negotiated balance for the living creatures in and around 316 N. Spring Street.

Meal No. 2839: Peruvian-Spiced Chicken Breasts

Friday night a week ago, I dug again into the freezer trove and came out with Peruvian-spiced boneless skinless chicken breasts, prepped from a value pack I'd bought a while back that was on a good sale. The sous vide set-up cooked 'em to a perfect tender temperature but I still thought I'd add a quick free-hand batch of Alabama great white sauce, as well as garlicky roasted whole green beans. I thought it was going to be a plain and understated meal but it actually turned out pretty darned great.

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"Alabama Great White Sauce," from Smoke & Spice by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Boston: The Harvard Common Press (2003), p. 362.

Lemon Blueberry Bread, Take Two

After the pleasing result the week before last when I tried out a new recipe for lemon blueberry bread, and with plenty of blueberries still on hand, I thought I'd give a trial run to the other recipe (for that kind of sweet loaf!) that I had printed out. Oh, but this proved to be rather a disappointment when I made it Wednesday before last. Not bad enough to throw the bread out, but I definitely am not keeping that recipe. That was the intended sweet treat on Wednesday a week ago.

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"Lemon Blueberry Bread," from Glory Albin of GloriousTreats.com. [Published 30 March 2016]

Meal No. 2838: Pan-Seared Chicken Tenders on Caesar-Topped Spring Mix

On Wednesday a week ago, it seemed at suppertime that salad was called for, so I seasoned and pan-seared a mess of chicken breast tenderloins that were then diced and put atop a spring mix salad and then dressed with my homemade creamy Caesar dressing. Adding roasted sunflower seeds is a favored indulgence.

Best of Breed Dog Biscuits

As we neared the end of winter, Sumner had a brief bout of loose bowels, which led me to search out recipes for homemade dog food to help get his system back on track. In the process, I also came across one from the much-loved King Arthur Baking folks for a peanut butter and whole wheat biscuit that was a cinch to whip up. I only made a half-batch, because we really don't live in a treat-heavy estate with our sweet pooch.

I made the peanut butter from scratch; well, from peanuts, actually.

When I offered some to Sumner, it dawned on me that peanut butter was probably a brand new experience for him, and it took quite a while for his tongue to become manageable and controllable again.

Even with only a half-recipe, there were more than enough of these peanut butter biscuits to share with the sweet couple down the street, and apparently their two dogs liked 'em pretty well. As for Sumner, he approached it with his usual caution but now he is very much a fan. Guess these will be made again before long.

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"Best of Breed Dog Biscuits," from KingArthurBaking.com.

Old-Fashioned Banana Pudding

It's been a while since I made a batch of banana pudding, so it was a welcome return a week ago tonight. My neighbor Miss Heidi loves green bananas, and I try to grab some for her when I see them on my grocery runs. She had a bunch that had been delivered from Publix that sat on her counter and just stayed green. It proved a highly annoying mystery to her and eventually, in her great frustration, she gave them to me. After about a week on my own kitchen counter, they finally began to yellow a bit but they were incredibly tough-skinned—almost leather-like. The good news? The fruit within was perfectly ripened for the banana pudding I used them in.

And true old-fashioned nana pudding would have a lightly toasted meringue on top, but I reached for the Cool Whip instead.

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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.

Meal No. 2837: Pa Arley's Tacos

Last Monday night, by special request, it was a return to an approximation of Pa Arley's famous tacos. I based the taco meat on the approach from Hilah Johnson, although I deviate liberally, and I took a shortcut by buying crispy tostadas shells instead of frying corn tortillas in grease in the cast iron skillet like Pa Arley would have. With fresh tomato and onion, and an unhealthy dollop of sour cream, it proved a delicious evening meal in the late afternoon sunshine, with Sumner at my feet.

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Taco-Style Meat Based on "Crispy Beef Tacos," by Hilah Johnson. From HilahCooking.com.

Seasoning was based on "Taco Seasoning I," from Bill Echols on AllRecipes.com.

Cycling to Quarry Park

This old man is doing the best he can with his late-in-life rediscovery of the pleasure of a mountain bike, and it sure was a treat to once again head out for a slightly grander quest last Monday when the weather turned picture-perfect yet again. I'd finally looked up the city's greenways and trails to get a better handle on my options for reasonably safe bike rides, and I saw that there was a path connected to the Salem Creek Greenway that branched off to Winston's relatively new Quarry Park. That's where I went on that beautiful day, huffing and puffing for the uphill portions but happily achieving a worthy end to that quest.

I'm finding yet another reason to love the benefits and features of downtown living, because it's relatively easy to get from home to a biking/walking trail without a lot of time on busy city streets. We'll see if the hot weather of summer curtails my efforts as much as I fear they might, but for now I think I'm off to a good start with getting out and getting healthier!

Monday involved another important milestone: I got my second dose of the Pfizer COVID19 vaccine. So I'm counting down the two-week last-stage gestation period so that I can re-enter more regular life...and get back to work!