Meal No. 3463: Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

As last weekend came to an end, under chilly fall skies and clouds aplenty, soup was the only answer to the dinner question. The full flavors and hefty punch of bacon cheeseburger soup seemed the best of all possible options, and on this I was not wrong. This recipe is a dependable winner anyway, sort of hard to blow it, but that Sunday evening it was especially compelling.

I had more energy that day than I expected, given that the night before I'd driven over to Fuquay-Varina for my 40th high school reunion which, once again, was really a terrific time. A core cluster of very dedicated classmates who are mostly still in that area really put incredible effort into pulling it off every five years, and we were a present and happy bunch. It was a late night drive back to Winston-Salem and a short night of sleep, but I rode the high of those good times throughout the day.

---

"Bacon Cheeseburger Soup," from Catalina Castravet and Holly Nilsson of SpendwithPennies.com. [Published 01 March 2018]

Chocolate Tres Leches Cake

Last Friday's dinner was an occasion to try out a new recipe for dessert: chocolate tres leches cake. Wowzer, was it a tasty concoction. Chocolate sponge cake spiced with a bit of cinnamon, the classic three milks, and a rich sweetened chocolate whipped cream on top, adorned with a drizzle of homemade chocolate syrup: I feel like I could have had three slices if it weren't for the embarrassment in front of so many witnesses.

---

"Chocolate Tres Leches Cake," from Cuisine at Home. Issue No. 121 (January/February 2017), p. 48-49.

Meal No. 3462: Pan-Seared Pork Medallions with Ginger-Soy-Shiitake Mushroom Cream Sauce

A long-time favorite dish of the Roediger House reappeared after an absence of about 20 months: pan-seared pork medallions dressed finely with a ginger-soy-shiitake mushroom cream sauce that's pretty out of this world. (Memory is not serving me but I might have started making this recipe even back in the old kitchen, pre-2009. I see that it was Meal No. 6 once the new kitchen was built and ready.) Anyway: that sauce is terrific either over tuna steaks or pork loin or, as I most commonly do, over these pork tenderloin medallions. When there were three of us gathered for that Friday the 13th evening hang, with television fare chosen for so fortuitous a date on the calendar, that supper made it seem a tad more special. And less scary.

---

Based on "Pan-Seared Tuna with Ginger-Shiitake Cream Sauce," from The Bon Appétit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild, 2006, p. 398-399.

"Company Mashed Potatoes," a Jones Family favorite.

Meal No. 3461: Pepperoni Pizza

The previous day's observance of National Sausage Pizza Day propelled me to make some fresh dough, but that recipe results in two dough balls. The next day, Thursday, was therefore another good new pizza occasion at the Roediger House, and this time it took the form of an easy cheesy pepperoni pizza. The first bites were reminiscent of a better Domino's slice, and it only went up from there.

Cookie Dough Caramel Swirl Ice Cream

A very nice young lady is a next-door neighbor in an apartment in the old house beside the Roediger House, and when she went through the misery of wisdom teeth extraction recently, she strongly suggested that some RoHo cookie dough ice cream might help her heal. I was not speedy enough but she was willing to feign a slower recovery just so the medicinal magic of just such a concoction could meet the moment. I prepped a sweet milk ice cream base last Tuesday night and churned it Wednesday morning. I'd never made edible cookie dough, so that was a nice new endeavor, with heated flour to make it safe and an overnight rest in the fridge to firm it up. Once I'd portioned it into tiny morsels, that cookie dough went into the freezer. As the ice cream was finishing, I stirred in the cookie dough. Then it was time to dig out some bourbon caramel sauce I made a while back, and I also added in my homemade copycat Hershey's chocolate sauce. By Wednesday evening, it had all firmed up enough to offer out the first servings, to make sure it had turned out okay before sharing the to-go container promised to the neighbor. Cookie dough ice cream is not what I was ever known to order if I happened to be at an ice cream parlour, but boy howdy was this an amazing treat that night.

---

"Edible Cookie Dough," from Jaclyn Bell of CookingClassy.com. [Published 09 September 2018]

"Bourbon Caramel Sauce," from Ali Martin of GimmeSomeOven.com. [Published 31 August 2019]

"Sweet Milk Ice Cream," published in the King Arthur Flour catalogue some years ago, but no longer available on their website.

Meal No. 3460: National Sausage Pizza Day

After trying a new pizza dough recipe for the recent skillet calzone meal, I wanted to see what I thought of it for a regular pizza. Since last Wednesday was National Sausage Pizza Day, I had my incentive. Here's my take: it is a full-flavored dough, tasty all on its own, but also thick and bready. I bet it would appeal to quite a few people, but it can't be my go-to, where my own preferences are concerned. Still, with tasty sweet Italian sausage, a quick homemade herbed tomato sauce, and just the right amount of mozzarella cheese, this was a nice pizza night at the Roediger House.

---

"Perfect Homemade Pizza Dough," by Marzia Aziz of Little Spice Jar.

Meal No. 3459: Spiced Chicken Breast

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]

Meal No. 3458: Juicy Burgers on the Grill

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.

Apple & Chai Cream Strudel with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream

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.

The Latest Panhandler

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]

Meal No. 3457: Beef Bourguignon for the Crew

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]

Meal No. 3456: Penne alla Vodka

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]

National Cinnamon Buns Day

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]

Meal No. 3455: Murgh Makhani

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.

Meal No. 3454: Weeknight Sesame Peanut Noodles with Chicken

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.

Meal No. 3453: Italian Milk-Braised Pork Loin

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.

National Homemade Cookies Day: Chocolate Chip All the Way

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]

Meal No. 3452: Skillet Calzone

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.

Meal No. 3451: Banana Bread Pancakes with Bananas Foster Syrup

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.

Meal No. 3450: Barbecue Chicken Puff Pastry Pizza

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.

The 20th Anniversary

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.

Meal No. 3449: Pillowy Dutch Baby Pancake

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]