The on-going chronicle of all things related to the George and Laura Roediger House (c. 1905) in the historic Holly Avenue Neighborhood of downtown Winston-Salem, NC. More info and pictures can be found at RoedigerHouse.com. [Mobile users: CLICK TO SEARCH the blog.]
Last Tuesday's supper was another round of sous vide for a protein prepped and stashed in the freezer: southwestern-spiced chicken breast, together with some cumin-coriander roasted cauliflower. The added treat was another batch of cheddar bay biscuits, using a different recipe, and they were mighty good again. Guess that's my excuse for eating three of 'em.
"Easy Cheddar Bay Biscuits (Red Lobster Copycat)," from Amy Nash of House of Nash Eats. [Published 11 August 2023]
Indiginous People's Day was this past Monday, a day off in observance for many but not for all. We were coming off of a pretty chilly weekend, with early morning temps at 42°F Sunday and Monday when it was time to get up. That first day of the week was mostly cloudy, with strong and gusty breezes, but I persevered into it for just over three miles of walking down through the West End Neighborhood, and then tallied another three-quarters of a mile with the two dogs. The appetite was strong in this one at dinnertime, and juicy burgers on the grill seemed an excellent call. A bit of the Thousand Island dressing I had in the fridge as a stand-in for special sauce, and barbecue kettle chips in abundance, it was a last gasp of summer for a holiday evening in the cool of autumn.
"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 in 1921, 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.
A night with Amy and Gern and Kristen and Mookie is all by itself going to be a wonderful evening, and true as ever was this the case last Saturday night. Following our huge meal of beef bourguignon, I was hoping to have a dessert that respected the change in weather that weekend, which was signalling more strongly that the season of autumn was upon us. Enter a wildly adapted concoction whose one shortcut was to employ a store-bought refrigerated puff pastry crust: apple and chai cream strudel. Everything about that dessert was a variation and creation from too much ideation, stealing notions here and tactics there from past recipes I've used. The outcome was passable, albeit grander in size and scope than our already-full bellies might have otherwise handled. We were dedicated conquerors, though.
I also decided to modify a dependably delicious ice cream recipe to scale up the quantity, which meant churning it in my old-fashioned electric ice-and-rock salt ice cream maker. I looked back at recipes from my friend and colleague Donna as well as a couple passed down from family to try to approximate the right approach. In the end, we had a fine and plentiful batch of brown sugar cinnamon ice cream as a seasonal addition to the braided pastry on our plates. I've written up what I did and added it as a clickable link below, with a downloadable pdf of that modified ice cream recipe.
Speaking of that quantity of ice cream, since there was enough to share, I took a container down the street to neighbors. As I was heading back home, an unfamiliar person approached me. “You look like you're wanting to talk with me," I called out. "What do you need?”
“A friend,” she replied.
“Well," I said, "since I don’t know you, I’m probably not that person. What do you need from that friend?”
“Some help,” she said.
“I have to tell you that Spring Street is a strange place to be looking for help. The good news is: Samaritan Ministries was hoping to help you. They planned for you. Bethesda Center was wanting to help you. They also planned for you. The Rescue Mission and the Salvation Army and Crisis Control Ministries and The Dwelling were all planning to be there for you. Why did you walk past where the help is, and come to where the help isn’t?”
Twenty years of downtown living has gotten me to a place of utter befuddlement about the panhandler dilemma, but I am working through my thoughts on why it is an off-kilter and confused situation, from my perspective. Perhaps that will be some lengthy future blog post. What I am convinced of at this point is that there is not a legitimate need that drives the pursuers of the hand-out on my street or on Restaurant Row. If there were, all these organizations dedicated to helping street people would be out here giving them money. Why do you suppose they don't think that's the best solution?
Apple Filling based on "Apple Turnovers," by Sam Merritt of Sugar Spun Run. [Published 08 September 2022]
Chai-Spiced Sweetened Cream Cheese Filling loosely adapted from "Blueberry Cream Cheese Pastry Braid," from Sally McKenney of Sally's Baking Addiction. [Published 16 February 2014]
"Old-Fashioned Chest-Churned Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream," adapted by me from "Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream," from Heather Tullos of SugarDishMe.com. [Published 11 September 2015]
A Saturday night gathering of the Roediger House regulars was certifiably special enough for a grand pot of beef bourguignon, in an amateur chef's attempt at the style of Julia Childs. It was good stuff, though, quite filling for the crew, full-flavored and hearty on a night with dropping temps. I dared try a new recipe along with it, which also turned out to be well-received: cheddar bay biscuits, an imitation of what one might get at Red Lobster. We were pretty satiated, especially once a few folks ventured back for modest seconds, a gesture that the cook always finds quite pleasing.
The pair of pooches are continuing to bond and get along, which really is a treat to watch. This photo was of their side-by-side hangtime as we started last Saturday up on the third floor in the mancave.
"Beef Bourguignon (Julia Child Recipe)," from Karina Carrel of CafeDelites.com. [Published 18 February 2018]
"Copycat Red Lobster Biscuits," from Kristina Razon of TheKitchn.com. [Published 05 September 2023]
Now that I've, well, rediscovered pasta with vodka sauce, I've decided I'm kind of fond of it. For Friday night's meal, it was bolstered with sautéed spiced diced chicken. And I feel like I got the sauce closer to fine on this occasion, so it was quite a great weekend-starting dinner.
With an overdue review of the wine rack, I found that I'd harbored quite a collection of red wine dating back to 2001. With high hopes that some of those bottles might still be good, in spite of my amateur management of the collection, I reached for a bottle of 2005 Beaujolais, that served quite nicely as the accompaniment to this delicious pasta.
The new addition of Scarlett to the Roediger household continues to bring joy. Is there a period of adjustment? Well, of course! Sumner is warming to her, and they are engaging in some terrific energetic play inside and out.
I often try and fail to photographically catch his playful but menacing snarl.
Based on "Penne alla Vodka," from Daniel Gritzer, Senior Culinary Director of SeriousEats.com. [Updated 17 March 2023]
If it offers the tiniest incentive for making a batch of cinnamon buns, I'll definitely fall in line for a "National Day Of" celebration. That was last Wednesday's fun culinary endeavor, with a more basic cinnamon bun recipe that resulted in truly pillow-soft sweet rolls of which two were consumed with zero hesitation once they were out of the oven and iced with vanilla glaze. Yum.
"Perfect Pillowy Cinnamon Rolls," by Charlotte Rutledge of King Arthur Baking. See also: "Introducing Our 2021 Recipe of the Year: Perfectly Pillowy Cinnamon Rolls Are the Ultimate Soft Touch," by PJ Hamel. [Published 04 January 2021]
Once more I blame the cauliflower being on sale at the same time that chicken breast was marked down, and it led me to try a new recipe for murgh makhani that was pretty darned good, just so that I could have roasted cumin-coriander florets as a suitable side. 'Twas a most filling mid-week dinner Wednesday, with plenty in the pot once the dishes were served, so leftovers were definitely appreciated.
By early afternoon that day, I finished stacking onto the rack the rest of the firewood that was delivered the Monday before. It was also an opportune time to go ahead and lay the first set of logs in anticipation of the coming cold of winter: I do like to be ready to just strike a match and get a good blaze going!
We enjoyed beautiful weather for the opening of this past week, and that gave plenty of outside time for Sumner and Scarlett. This photo catches Sumner's stunned expression right after Scarlett snagged away the wood fragment he'd spirited away from the debris left from the firewood delivery:
"Finger Lickin' Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)," by Marzia Aziz of Little Spice Jar.
A delightfully easy and wonderfully delicious dinner was thrown together in the middle of my yard duties last Tuesday: sesame peanut ramen noodles with chicken. I don't remember making anything with ramen before, but that's what I had on hand as a substitute for wheat noodles. It was full of great flavor, more than enough at dinnertime, and likely a recipe that will return.
Sorting and stacking Monday's firewood delivery might have enhanced my appetite and my appreciation of good food.
Sumner and Scarlett are continuing to accustom themselves to one another, joining forces to be watchful and protective of the property when the squirrels are running about.
When we relocate up to the third floor mancave, it turns out that the loveseat in the front dormer is a compelling nap cave for Scarlett. She's adorable.
"Weeknight Sesame Peanut Noodles with Chicken," by Marzia Aziz of Little Spice Jar.
With Kristen and Mookie bringing the delight of their company to the house this past Monday evening, it called for a noteworthy meal. Deep into the archives I dove, emerging with a recipe I'd made only once before, back in 2014: Italian milk-braised pork loin, together with roasted broccoli and a meager mess of stuffing. We all seemed to think it was a pretty fine supper.
The new house pooch continues to settle in, and that morning showed Sumner's expanding openness to his new little sister. Their play has been high-spirited but not mean-spirited, and watching him offer up a mutual Kong bone was a bit heart-warming.
As I noted in the blog entry that went live last Monday, that day marked my 20th anniversary of buying the Roediger House. While the main original portion of this place boasts eight fireplaces, they are narrow and shallow because they were designed for burning coal. When the new kitchen was built on the back side of the house, and completed in 2009, I included a full-size wood-burning fireplace, which has brought much joy over the intervening years. Monday also marked the latest restocking of the firewood, uncharacteristically early in the season for this guy. When Bobby himself, at a spry age 82, was the one to bring the load, we chatted amiably while off-loading the split hardwood together. I was pleased about the North Carolina Tar Heels license plate on the front of his truck, while laboring hard to ignore the Trump hat on his head. (You can't spell "hate" without hat, y'know.) In my OCD fashion, I sorted the firewood and stacked it myself, because on a cold or dreary winter's day when I'm basking in a blazing fire, I want the next pieces of kindling to be right where I need 'em for the quick grab and go.
"Italian Milk-Braised Pork," by Lan Lam. In Cook's Illustrated, Number 127 (March & April, 2014), p. 10-11.
The latest "national day of" culinary event that fell in line with an accommodating schedule on my end was national homemade cookies day. Given that I grew up in a household where the favorite cookie delight was that roll of refrigerated Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough (and never any other flavor, type, or variation), the wide range of cookies coming out of the Roediger House kitchen is like a revelation. I guess, though, that the chocolate chip cookie versions have been somewhat limited: Monster Chip, which I started making over 20 years ago; DoubleTree Hotel-style chocolate chip cookies; and the tongue-in-cheek monikered WORST Ever chocolate chip cookies. After reading through a chocolate chip cookie showdown story on TheKitchn.com, I added a couple new recipes to the notebook to try, and the first of those was attempted last Sunday night in honor of that homemade cookie celebration day. Thinner than I prefer but very classic in their flavoring, the interesting addition of nonfat milk powder gave them a boosted profile on the tongue, what Ann Taylor Pittman termed "a malty-creamy-buttery-vanilla richness." I liked that about them, even if I don't see this being a go-to for this household's cookie desires.
Full disclosure: a handful of other chocolate chip cookie recipes have been attempted, showing up only one time each: Bailey's Irish Cream chocolate chip cookies, cookie butter chocolate chip cookies, and two different recipes for browned butter chocolate chip cookies (Ambitious Kitchen for one, Claire "Dessert Person" Saffitz for the other).
And isn't this a most precious matching pair in their side-by-side crates at bedtime on the first night of October?
"Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies," from Christina Tosi, chef and owner of Momofuku Milk Bar. She was the 2012 James Beard recipient of the Rising Star Chef of the Year award. Recipe found on The Splendid Table. [Published 13 April 2020]
Credit to The Celebrity Recipe Showdown section of TheKitchn.com: "I Baked the Internet's 6 Most Popular Chocolate Chip Cookies and Found the Best I've Ever Had," by Ann Taylor Pittman. [Published 26 September 2023]
After a six-year absence, skillet calzone returned to the Roediger House last Saturday night for a gathering of four. It was huge and hearty, once more reminding me that a recipe like this can be worth putting into the rotation, even though it's certainly not an especially healthy choice. I hoped to add some refining touches to it in bringing it back out from the recipe magazine cabinet, including homemade pizza dough and homemade marinara sauce. Fortunately, it's hard to mess it up too much, so it passed the test of tasters. A bit of power greens salad with shaved carrots and some homemade Thousand Island dressing helped balance out the plate.
The pizza dough I tried this time is better for a thicker-crusted pizza, perhaps, which makes sense given that the recipe's author is from Chicago. I'll have to put it into play with a regular ol' pizza one of these days, because it did have good flavor. I regret that it made the calzone a bit breadier than might have been called for.
While the dinner stuffed us to a state of near discomfort, I hated not to offer up some sort of dessert. An easy option was a dark chocolate puff pastry braid, something I'd made perhaps once before, also over seven years ago.
Before serving up the chocolate braid portions, I adorned them with a drizzle of more of my copycat Hershey's chocolate syrup from the recent batch I'd made.
That girl Scarlett, marking her 7th day in residence at the Roediger House that Saturday, was switched to a slow-feed bowl that I had to quickly order from Amazon, given how she inhales each serving. It only slowed her down moderately at best!
And Sumner just keeps guarding, and not always eating, his own food.
"Cast-Iron Skillet Calzone," by Russell Selander. In Cook's Country, December 2016/January 2017, p. 12.
"Homemade Marinara Sauce," from Holly Nilsson of SpendwithPennies.com. [Published 13 May 2023]
"Perfect Homemade Pizza Dough," by Marzia Aziz of Little Spice Jar.
"Thousand Island Dressing," which was based on a version from Graybert on GeniusKitchen.com.
Dark Chocolate Bar Braid based on "Chocolate Almond Braid," from Buzzfeed's Tasty.
The bananas on the counter were at their state of supreme ripeness on Friday and absolutely perfect as the essential ingredient for a platter of banana bread pancakes, adorned with sweet and luscious bananas foster syrup. It is a simple meal and not so hard to put together...and breakfast for dinner is always a winner.
"Banana Bread Pancakes" and "Bananas Foster Syrup," from Cuisine at Home, Issue No. 103 (January/February 2014), p. 23.
After a couple of days out in schools and on the fifth day of the new pup Scarlett in the house, I kept it very simple for dinner on Thursday night. Some prepped barbecue chicken thighs were in the freezer for this very purpose, so that I could drop them at will in the sous vide immersion circulator to cook. Then, when hunger hit, it would be easy to spread the barbecue sauce, add some bacon pieces, layer it sufficiently with thin-sliced red onion, put just the right amount of cheese, all as a bed for the diced spiced chicken.
As Scarlett integrates herself into the homestead, her cuteness and adorability are coming on at full-strength, even while she still has "puppy" dialed up to its energetic maximum. Perhaps because of the circumstance from which she has come, living with an unhoused couple in a tent, it is not surprising that she absolutely hoovers up each bowlful of food.
Sumner is still understandably unimpressed, neither with her nor with the decision-making behind her being here and remaining here. But it's nice when their brief naps offer a picture of encouraging proximity.
She's also pretty good at napping solo.
The other wild thing spotted a couple of days before was perched on the hood of the truck, with a cocked head that was not unlike the pooches' own tilts when there's a noise they don't quite understand.
On this date in 2003, I closed on the purchase of the Roediger House in the main offices of Piedmont Federal Savings Bank, accepted the keys that were handed over to me and the huge folder for the mortgage and deed papers, and happily took possession of this most glorious and grand old manse. The anniversary arrives with me in a mood of celebration but also of consternation: there remain too many unfulfilled hopes and dreams and plans for this place. And yet, it is still pretty marvelous. Now might be a good time for any readers of this particular entry to zip over to the main website for the house and tool through the galleries. Since I did a major website overhaul and redesign a few years ago, the photographic tour is much improved.
Among the national days, one shows up twice: National Pancake Day. The first of them falls traditonally on Shrove Tuesday, but in 2023 the IHOP shifted observance also coincided with sticky rolls day...which is what I chose to honor. After all, I knew another shot at pancakes was coming again in September. Last Tuesday this was celebrated with a new recipe: a wonderfully puffed Dutch baby pancake, suitably supplemented with maple syrup, and washed down with a very tall glass of whole milk. (I managed to match a meal of pancakes to that special day back in 2014, too.) Speaking of eating, the new pup Scarlett is a girl with a voracious appetite and therefore Sumner's bowl is never quite safe.
"Extra Billowy Dutch Baby Pancake," from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen. [Published 23 March 2019]
How about the marvel of what fried rice really is, in the hands of a rank amateur such as myself: it's what you try to do with leftover rice and a remaining cooked pork chop from the previous evening's meal. An appoximation of a thrown-together stir-fry sauce that hit all the right notes, diced onion and carrot sautéed at the start, an extra splash of sesame oil: for Monday's mid-afternoon meal of the day I really could not get enough of this bowl of delicious food.
For reasons I'll explain in the next paragraph, I scrapped my Sunday night dinner plan and used sous vide pork chops as the fallback, along with easy roasted spiced potatoes and broccoli florets. It was pretty delicious and a bit too abundant.
Say hello to Scarlett, who has now said hello to the Roediger House. Sumner has a sister he never knew he wanted or needed, and their first day together turned out to be pretty smooth. The following details are subject to verification, but at this point it's believed that she is about four months old and a German Shepherd and Husky mix. My neighbor down the street, who works at the nearby homeless support ministry, came along in hopes someone might be able to adopt her. We might describe this as a fateful moment to have been hanging out in the front yard! But the unhoused couple who had gotten Scarlett in a Craigslist meet-up needs to head back to Illinois and are unable to take her with them. She is a sweetie and I bet will be easily loved by all who encounter her here.
With a sufficient portion of saved butter chicken sauce, and a seasoned pounded chicken breast sealed and stored in the freezer, a saucepan and the sous vide let me create a thrown-together approximation of murgh makhani over steamed rice last Saturday night. With spiced roasted cauliflower, it warmed my soul on a dreary weather day.
Autumn arrived that Saturday, on a day where Winston-Salem was once again in the outer bands of a passing tropical system that made landfall on the North Carolina coast in the wee hours of the morning. We had some gusts and on-and-off rain throughout the day, knowing all the while that it could always have been much worse. I certainly felt bad for our houseguests and the larger Bookmarks Festival attendees whose busy agenda of authors and talks and books, and authors talking about books, was marred, or at least complicated, by the nasty conditions.
The next day’s swept-clear skies and the full sunshine to greet us made for good Sunday morning sitting and coffee-sipping with Sumner. With the season’s shift came the early indications that the trees were ready to comply: high above the driveway I noted with mixed feelings the coloring coming to one of the maple trees.
Suppertime approached Thursday night, another day out in a school working with aspiring administrators, and then weekend guests arriving soon after I got back home...and me with no plan for what ought to go on the dinner plates. That's why there are things tucked away in the freezer, including some beef taco meat I'd cooked and vacuum-sealed a while back. Laid out in a sheet pan were tortilla strips, topped with Mexican cheese and diced red onion and black beans, plus plenty of that spiced beef...and a bit more cheese. Once baked, and joined by a generous dollop of sour cream, it proved more than passable.
This was the occasion of the marvelous annual Bookmarks Festival here in downtown. (The Bookmarks independent bookstore is just up the street, half a block away.) My dear childhood friend Margaret and her own dear friend and colleague from the University of North Carolina were excited and delighted attendees, as both are avid readers who also are very supportive of authors and the arts. They made good use of their time here, fully participating in the offerings of the festival and also venturing out to the Reynolda House Museum of Art. While I've found lots of reasons to appreciate the Roediger House's location and access to so much of what downtown offers, it proved especially well-situated for just about all of the Festival's features.
After a fine day spent with a subcohort of aspiring administrators from the High Point Univerity Leadership Academy, I was rather happy to be reminded that a store-bought puff pastry was hanging out in the fridge...and that meant I could observe National Pepperoni Pizza Day with a puff pastry version. Easy to make and leaving minimal clean-up, it felt like cheating.
The last remaining portion of the previous weekend's giant round braided challah loaf found its way into a marvelous batch of French toast last Tuesday at dinnertime. The variety of ways one might tackle French toast offers tons of avenues to a finished product of syrupy goodness, but I found long ago a dedicated level of satisfaction with the recipe from PJ Hamel of King Arthur Baking. I keep coming back to it, free of regrets. It was a sugar-high meal, since some Atlantic Beach lemon pie remained from the previous evening.
"French Toast," by PJ Hamel of King Arthur Baking online.
