Meal No. 3541: Mexican Street Taco Pork Nachos

When I couldn't find what I was hoping for at the grocery, I had to default to a simple dinner choice last Tuesday evening. Not especially well-suited to it being the official Mardi Gras night but it was well-suited to my tummy and tastes: Mexican street taco pork converted into cheesy sheet pan nachos, with black beans and corn kernels, a generous smattering of onion, and lots of that delicious shredded pork. It was mostly filled with Mexican cheese but I did shake out some sharp cheddar on top, given that it was National Cheddar Day. All that and lime crema too? You betcha.

February 13: also the date I saw the earliest of the yard's daffodils beginning to bloom, as shown above.

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Sheet Pan Nachos loosely inspired by "Loaded Sweet Pork Sheet Pan Nachos," from Elyse of Six Sisters Stuff. [Published 14 March 2018]

"Easy Lime Crema," from Lisa Bryan of DownShiftology.com. [Published 22 April 2020]

Meal No. 3540: Weeknight Chicken Tikka Masala

Monday night was a bowl of goodness, a shortcut version of chicken tikka masala with pre-prepped spiced diced chicken first cooked via sous vide; then, a well-simmered tomato sauce with extra attention to its own collection of spices, smoothed out with a bit of heavy cream, was the luscious cover so that it all might sink into fresh-steamed brown rice. I had low expectations for it, frankly, right up until the moment I tasted how good it was.

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

Mardi Gras King Cake

For the third time now, I've indulged in the passionate mystery of making a Mardi Gras King Cake. The version I made last year had a lot of promise even if I didn't have a lot of skill, so it was an inviting challenge to take up again. That's how I spent some of the rainy Sunday as last weekend was wrapping up.

I'm still not great with technique and styling but I must say that the oversized slice I ate instead of having any dinner that night more than satisfied.

Once I get better at this, I'll make better seals and won't lose quite so much of the brown sugar-cinnamon filling. Nonetheless, the beatiful risen dough and the colorful ham-handed decorating and the spirit of Mardi Gras here on Spring Street: it was an abundance of gifts.

I'm also a bit torn on what we really ought to call this. I mean, "King Cake" is what's known as and yet it is very much a sweet enriched yeast-risen bread, no? I'm glad for the warm spirit and glorious scents, though, as a most essential salve to the drear of that day.

Scarlett still found her window seat time on the new cushion to be a joy.

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"Mardi Gras King Cake," from Amy Nash of HouseofNashEats.com. [Published 22 January 2022 / Modified 19 January 2023]

Meal No. 3539: Brioche French Toast

Keeping it straight and simple and syrupy at the Roediger House last Saturday night: brioche French toast, with a tried-and-true recipe that suits us just fine.

It was uncharacteristically warm—mid-60s, before rain showers moved in early evening—so it was a pretty pleasant four-mile walk mid-day. But it sure is nice to return and be enthusiastically greeted by pooches like these (pictured above, from morning hang-out time that day).

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"French Toast," by PJ Hamel of King Arthur Baking online.

Meal No. 3538: Skillet Pan Pizza

As the fullness of a grey Friday played out to wrap up last week in downtown Winston-Salem, the chance to observe National Pizza Day was enticing enough to make an accommodating supper menu. This is one of three of these days devoted to pizza: both cheese pizza and pepperoni pizza have their own days at other times of the year. For my tastes the other night, I did like the sound of pepperoni with a homemade NY-style pizza sauce, all on that thick and tasty pan pizza crust, with no shortage of both cheddar and mozzarella cheeses (and perhaps some grated parmesan snuck in there as well).

I might at last have worked up a good appetite with the chores of the day. It took me far too long to address it, but I finally got the shop vac out and also set up my pump and hose so that I could get rid of most of the standing water in the cellar. That was a huge task.

I also found time for yard work, too, doing a bit of mid-winter weeding from the kitchen garden plot, cleaning up around the daylilies, and getting up a lot of the remaining leaves. Then I fired up the older lawn mower so that I could knock down all the monkey grass, almost too late in the winter but it was needed. Then it was time to break out the blower and clear off the driveway before the coming rains arrived. It was enough to tucker me out...and to wolf down that pizza pronto.

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Pizza Crust based on "Fool-Proof Pan Pizza," by J. Kenji López-Alt, culinary consultant for SeriousEats.com. [Updated 30 March 2023]

"Homemade NY-Style Pizza Sauce," by J. Kenji López-Alt, culinary consultant for SeriousEats.com. [Updated 17 February 2023]

Meal No. 3537: Roast Beef Cheddar Melts

It was mostly simple Thursday night for dinner at the Roediger House. Onions slowly caramelized, a special sauce whipped up, and the remainder of a peasant loaf ready for buttering and griddling...the final strips of deli roast beef, some hearty slices of cheddar, and two hands to hold it all: roast beef cheddar melts on homemade bread with a specialty sauce to boot. It was good enough to blog about!

I'd also made some dessert: Vietnamese coffee ice cream. A tad icy this time but still very much a sweet treat!

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"Beef & Cheddar Melts Sauce," a Roediger House creation.

"Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream," by David Lebovitz. In The Perfect Scoop. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press (2007), p. 35.

Meal No. 3536: Fettuccine Alfredo

I try on occasion to get direction for meal planning by playing along with the "National Day of" calendar, so my menu on Wednesday evening was set by the grand observance of National Fettuccine Alfredo Day. Not a pasta dish that I make all that often any more, so its reappearance as the central feature was more special for its rarity. And as long as I was blowing through the guardrails of my weight maintenance efforts, why not also whip up ridiculous garlic breadsticks? I'm just glad Bradley Phillis wasn't here to do a running count of the number consumed.

Speaking of counting, I'm still counting myself pretty lucky that I was able to track down this fine new automobile that I found myself stopping to admire again as I was returning from rolling the trash cart to the curb that night.

There's something new for the pooches to enjoy as well, also in a fine shade of blue: a new long window cushion that allows both of them to sit up in the pool table area's huge window and watch the world go by.

Or just soak up the sun. Or nap up on high (it is on the third floor, after all!).

In the last couple of days, I've noticed the earliest push of the forthcoming tulips by the back door, which means that the trials of winter may not be so great as to make me utterly nuts. But that doesn't mean Winston-Salem was entirely free of other kinds of nuts:

The great man struck down by an assassin's bullet in 1968 is a far cry from the loon who inherited his name and none of his good sense!

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"The Best Homemade Alfredo Sauce Ever!" by Alyssa Rivers of The Recipe Critic. [Published 18 February 2016 / Updated 02 May 2023]

"Copycat Olive Garden Breadsticks," from Tessa Arias of HandletheHeat.com. [Published 13 December 2013 / Updated 18 January 2023]

Meal No. 3535: Chicken Fried Rice with Broccoli

Last Monday I was lost in my own dinner-planning fog and could not settle on what should be made. I had chicken breast and some leftover rice, and that sealed the deal: chicken fried rice with crisp broccoli florets, plus a sexy stir-fry sauce to bring it all to another level. Turned out to be a tad heavy in my stomach but it sure tasted good!

I still had one dessert surprise up my sleeve, thanks to the scraps I'd saved when making croissants the week before. Rolled up like a pinwheel, brushed with a bit of whipped egg white, and coated thoroughly with cinnamon and sugar: this unique take on a croissant really impressed...and was helpfully boosted by a couple of dollops of eggnog frosting alongside!

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Based on "Classic Chicken Fried Rice" [Published 26 October 2015 / Updated 04 May 2023] and "How to Velvet Chicken for Stir-Fry" [Published 24 March 2020 / Updated 27 June 2022], from Bill Leung of TheWoksofLife.com.

Supplemental Stir-Fry Sauce inspired by "5 Easy Sauce Recipes that Will Make Everything You Eat Taste Way Better," by Sophia Roe on Well + Good. [Published 09 January 2019]

Meal No. 3534: Cream of Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

National Homemade Soup Day was last Sunday, and I celebrated with one of my all-time favorites: ultimate cream of tomato soup, along with grilled cheese sandwiches on homemade peasant bread.

Roasted tomatoes are the centerpiece of this pot of goodness, but when the peasant bread comes out very nearly perfect, one might find the sandwiches to be more centerstage than the soup.

And let's not overlook how nice it is to still have peasant bread to help out the late afternoon hungries (as happened last Tuesday), when nice thin slices are turned into cinnamon toast:

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

"Easy Same-Day Peasant Bread," from Jenny Rosenstrach of the CupofJo.com blog. [Published 02 February 2022] Adapted from Alexandra Stafford of AlexandraCooks.com. [07 November 2012 / Updated 06 January 2022]

Brown Butter Oatmeal Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies

Last Saturday was marked as National Carrot Cake Day. With only three at dinner and other things on my list of chores, I chose to execute instead what might be called an homage to carrot cake, in the form of brown butter oatmeal carrot cake sandwich cookies. And lordy, were they mighty fine: delicious soft and nicely spiced cookies and the magic of cream cheese vanilla frosting inside. For my tastes, although it might look a bit like a standard oatmeal creme pie, à la Little Debbie, these were stupendous in their fresh flavor, even if the cookies themselves came out thin.

Back in May of 2020, one of the slips drawn from the quarantine task jar was for making cookie sandwiches. Although that night I made peanut butter-oatmeal cookie sandwiches, they were actually my second attempt of the day. You see, I experienced failure with a first choice: brown butter oatmeal carrot cake sandwich cookies. The cookies were absolutely amazing in taste...but oh my! how thin they did spread. I'm wondering if I erred in using some of my better butter, when run-of-the-mill sticks would have worked better. Or maybe the recipe is a bit off, as might be suggested from a comparison with other similar recipes. This most recent attempt did not involve any corrective action on my part but they weren't too thin to follow through on the whole production. With the previous weekend's vanilla sweet milk ice cream not all used up yet, it was a grand balancing act of complementary tastes.

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"Brown Butter Oatmeal Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies," from Kristie Pryor of TheSweetandSimpleKitchen.com blog. [Published 09 April 2020]

Meal No. 3533: Pan-Seared Pork Medallions in a Ginger-Shiitake-Soy Cream Sauce

Last Saturday night was movie night and dinner at the house, so I made a scrumptious menu of pan-seared pork medallions that were supplemented with this amazing ginger-soy-shiitake cream sauce. Spiced roasted potatoes and garlicked whole green beans were along for the ride. Once the plates were almost licked clean, it was then to the third floor for Crimes of the Future, an odd film that still pleased the audience.

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

Meal No. 3532: Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Croissants

With little more to go on than imagination and the rough guidance of a smattering of recipe websites for how to prep and cook my creations, I thought I'd use the other half of last week's croissant dough to make savory stuffed versions. With caramelized onion and bell peppers, the shortcut of deli roast beef, and slices of American cheese, these rolled-up Philly cheesesteak sandwich pastries were an odd product that worked strangely well.

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I didn't use all of the remaining laminated dough to make those Philly cheesesteak stuffed croissants: I had also saved out two portions to make pains au chocolat for that evening's unnecessary dessert. Riffing on things remembered from recipes read previously, and pulling back to mind some of the process from my two previous makings of these pastries, they were more than I could handle after so large and filling a supper. Still, it was worth it to struggle and persevere.

Meal No. 3531: Bacon & Shallot BBQ Puff Pastry Pizza

Once more caught late in the afternoon without much of a dinner plan and no desire to run to the grocery, I came up with a quick do-able option for the Thursday evening meal: bacon and shallot puff pastry pizza, with a barbecue sauce base, with a mix of cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. Suitably speedy and perfectly delicious, it made for supper sufficiency that evening.

And how about this photo earlier that day of that spry happy imp, Scarlett, excited as ever just to be amongst her crew?

Meal No. 3530: Korean Beef & Broccoli Bowls

Ready for something a smidge different, I adapted a Korean beef stir fry on the final day of January, added roasted broccoli, brought out leftover rice to make it even more substantial, and kept tinkering with the ginger-hoisin-soy sauce until it was just right for serving. It wasn't stupendous but it satisfied.

With a couple of Zoom sessions on tap that Wednesday, which for me occur in the North Parlour, I never could quite shake a chill. We did not break out of the upper 40s here, so before I started on dinner prep I struck a happy match to the fire I'd already laid. Scarlett and Sumner were happy to nestle in nearby as well, as that potent heat from yet another raging blaze made us all feel so much more cozy. This was Fire No. 93 since the wood-burning fireplace was included with the new kitchen on the rear of the house.

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Based loosely on "Korean Ground Beef Stir Fry with Gochujang," by Rika Agustini of Posh Journal. [Published 27 June 2019]

National Croissant Day

A kitchen endeavor long on my wish list became a marvelous fait accompli when a few days off work and National Croissant Day converged earlier this week. A variety of suitable croissant recipes has been tucked away in my yuge yeast bread binder, but this moment of adventure and truth required the confidence-boosting stress-mitigating guidance portioned out by the folks at King Arthur Baking.

I started studying it over morning coffee in the pre-dawn dark of Monday, and undertook the bulk of the prep at a leisurely pace that evening. That set me up to be ready to finish up and bake these beauties in time for joyful observance of National Croissant Day on the final Tuesday of January.

If it's true that my intuitional technique has marginally improved with more bread and pastry and dough experience these last few years in particular, the endeavor still was populated with plenty of "clearly-the-first-time-for-this" fumbles and missteps.

Fortunately, no flaws proved quite fatal—that even when steps occur out of order or the dough is handled a bit roughly, a forgiving magic still occurs when yeast and flour and water and a smidge of sugar and the heavier hand of salt, and a couple of enriching eggs and a full pound of Amish butter, all labor in concert to be better in sum than I made them in crudely mashing together their parts. Not so far from entering my seventh decade on this earth and now I can stake a fresh claim: I made croissants.

Might the dear reader here permit me an expression of unbridled and reckless honesty, where I confess that it was stunning how incredible these were? That the fullness of their buttery indulgence, the angelic flakiness of those layers, the crisped crackle of the egg-washed crust, the tender folds that might color the cheeks of a certain Ms. O'Keefe: this was an impassioned ecstasy of pastried perfection and a self-absorbing moment of indulgent triumph for this nattering novice. I promptly ate four from the cooling rack.

With that generous amount of gorgeous laminated dough, I was able to play around a bit and produce variations beyond the standard croissant. More about that to come in subsequent blog entries!

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"Baker's Croissants," by Susan Reid of King Arthur Baking. See also her accompanying blog post, "Making Baker's Croissants: Capturing Butter Heaven," published 21 February 2011.

Startled by a Single Starling

Monday morning's trek up to the third floor for the usual round of writing and reading and coffee started off with a small dose of surprise: the noisy flapping and furniture hopping of an invasive starling, now the third time one of these nasty rascals has gotten into the attic mancave. In the photo above, you can see where he'd tucked in where the tight fit of a loveseat has been achieved in the center front dormer window bay. Ah, but how easy it was to trap him under a tall stadium cup for transport to the place of his ultimate disposition? It was a no-do-over cinch this time, and I ain't complaining that a fuss need not have been kicked up.

Death by Chocolate Cake

This past Saturday was National Chocolate Cake Day. So I made a chocolate cake. But not just any chocolate cake. This one's called "Death by Chocolate Cake," and it's a well-earned and suitable moniker for this monstrosity. Clocking in at three hulking layers of deeply chocolatey cake, moist and potent in their fudgy grandness, and adorned all over—inside and out—with a luscious complementary chocolate buttercream, this cake gets a small but essential boost with the addition of homemade hot fudge sauce, added within the layers but also offered in a dollop on the side. As our crew of six returned to the kitchen post-dinner, and after time to hang out and visit upstairs, this was a sensational send-off Sunday night and well-suited to a birthday celebration.

I should add: the side-sitting scoops of classic vanilla sweet milk ice cream were indispensable, both for the fullness of the experience and also for the sheer mechanics of masticating and swallowing that nearly-overwhelming cake. Sweet cold dairy was a consumptional aid (I wanted to write aide but the dictionary discouraged it).

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"Death by Chocolate Cake," by Ashley Manila of BakerByNature.com. [Published 15 September 2016]

Adapted from "Hot Fudge Sauce," a recipe shared with me by former neighbor Jessica Atkinson.

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