Meal No. 3697 and 3699 and 3701: Grilled Chicken Salads

When I grilled chicken for Alice Springs Chicken for company, a week ago Saturday, I also grilled an extra breast in anticipation of the next night's dinner: Caesar-dressed mixed greens. That wonderfully seasoned grilled chicken and that nicely garlicked Caesar dressing were tasty ways to bring a great weekend to an end. (And what was especially great about that weekend? A blog post will show up soon, and all shall be revealed regarding completion of another long-hoped-for project.)

On Tuesday night, I grilled more fresh seasoned chicken breasts, and on Thursday night I put prepped seasoned chicken tenders into the sous vide. Those salads were dressed with homemade Thousand Island dressing. Once more, mighty good, with that dressing being a particularly winning concoction.

The third round of salads had a sweet conclusion: homemade sugar cookies. Film students from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, who were here for a blocking session, wrapped up their meeting just as I was ready to serve them up. It was music to my ears when they found them delightful, when they readily accepted seconds, and when one said: "Wait: you made these from scratch?!"

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Based on "Easy Lemon Caesar Salad Dressing," by Kim Hardesty of lowcarbmaven.com.

"Thousand Island Dressing," which was based on a version from Graybert on GeniusKitchen.com.

Based on "Mardi Gras Sugar Cookies," from Kelly of AmericanCupcakeAbroad.com. [Published 20 February 2012]

Meal No. 3696: Simplified Alice Springs Chicken

Almost six years ago, after the local paper covered a blue ribbon recipe from the Dixie Classic Fair, I tried a rather involved recipe for making Alice Springs chicken. That blog post says it was awesome, but I've only ever made it that one time. Fast forward to last Saturday night, when dear friends Amy and Gern were here, and I was hankering to bring it back but without quite so much effort! A simplified version popped up in a quick search online, and I thought: why not? I cooked some thick strips of Applewood smoked bacon on the grill, pounded those chicken breasts, prepped the honey mustard sauce (with some of the precious remnants from the now-defunct Colony Urban Farm), and grated Monterrey Jack cheese. We thought it was decent enough and didn't mind the mushy roasted spiced potatoes as long as the roasted whole green beans were solid second sides.

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"Copycat Alice Springs Chicken," from Marjorie Pilley of Dinner-Mom.com. [Published 21 September 2022 / Updated 22 February 2024]

National Coffee Ice Cream Day

Back on September 6th, the Roediger House celebrated National Coffee Ice Cream Day with a batch based on a recipe from David Lebovitz: Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream. I've been making this specific version since 2010, and it always comes through for us. Cold, sweet, creamy, easy to put together, and just enough unburnt coffee flavor punch so you don't think you're at Starbucks.

With a second freezer container of that coffee ice cream remaining the following day, when Amy and Gern were here for dinner, I made a vanilla cake pan cake with a ganache-resembling mocha buttercream frosting so that it might be a grander dessert offering. That single-layer yellow cake is simple to throw together, and then I did sort of an amalgamation of ideas to try to pull off that mocha frosting: one-third cup each of butter, strong-brewed coffee, and unsweetened cocoa, along with a heaping teaspoon of vanilla, a pinch of salt and a pinch of espresso powder, and almost three cups of confectioner's sugar. I added some coffee extract on hand because my initial taste tests revealed insufficient brewed flavor potency. Once all elements were combined at dessert time, they proved edible.

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

"Vanilla Cake Pan Cake," from Molly Marzalek-Kelly of King Arthur Baking.

Meal No. 3695: National Cheese Pizza Day

As we cruised through a glorious first week of September, on that Thursday we found ourselves face-to-face with National Cheese Pizza Day, and what could I do but celebrate it with a new pizza crust recipe? While my own version of this dough did not behave like that found in the YouTube video that inspired my experiment, I have to confess that the final product (for me, delightfully nestled into cast iron skillets) was really pretty tasty. The proof, as they say, was in that tasting, even though I spent much of the afternoon certain of catastrophe, given how inexpertly I managed the process.

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"Easiest Actually Good Pizza Dough," from Brian Lagerstrom via YouTube.com. [Posted 20 June 2024]

Meal No. 3694: Maiden Voyage to Smashburger City

My latest novel experiment was to jump into the smashburger craze, which occurred on September's glorious first Tuesday. Given that eating out is a rare thing for me, it was only recently that two different lunch meet-ups with colleagues brought me into a pair of our newer burger joints downtown and I sampled them first hand. I like ‘em. I watched videos. Then I tried ‘em out, in the cool of a late summer afternoon when everything about the day said: you oughta grill something.

Since these are quick cookers, I actually did try to have everything in place and ready to go. I'd already invested in a few new essentials: a Lodge cast iron griddle for the grill; a burger press; an extra wide steel spatula/turner. I toasted and buttered brioche buns, mixed up some seasoning and spices, boosted my burger sauce, opened up the sleeves of Kraft Singles, and had sufficient pats of butter to help at every stage of the process. These were plain Jane cheeseburgers, with no add-ons like onions or lettuce or pickles...I've always preferred 'em stripped down anyway. And deliciously perfect they were, leaving me ready to put this gameplan back into play as soon as I can find the right combination of lies to tell myself about why it is important to do so.

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Making no claim that these are the right steps for you, but as long as I've recorded them for myself, I thought I'd make a recipe sheet available should anyone like it: "Simple Smashburgers," from the Roediger House. [Published 04 September 2024]

Meal No. 3693: Smothered Pork Chops with Onion-Thyme Gravy

Having guests over Labor Day Weekend, and hoping I'd be prepared for an extension of their time or a rumbling of their appetites, I'd overbought at the grocery store so I'd have what I need on hand. That included a package of pork chops, and those were the main feature on Labor Day proper, in the form of braised smothered pork chops with an onion-thyme gravy. This recipe has been a consistent winner for dinner since the magazine featuring it arrived here in late winter 2011. (I did try a slow-cooker version that first year but have returned every other time to this one.) I roasted Yukon gold potatoes, with plenty of spices, and also roasted whole green beans with a nice garlic and herb rub on them. The meal was terrific, if I can so profess, and gave me the sustenance required for that evening's 5.5-mile downtown stroll.

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"Smothered Pork Chops," by Erika Bruce. In Cook's Country, April/May 2011, p. 22-23.

Meal No. 3692: Ribeye Beef & Cheddar Melts

The Labor Day weekend experiment with beef chow fun resulted in an extra leftover ribeye steak. That got a nice coating of seasoning on the first day of September, before it went onto the grill to achieve a nearly-perfect medium rare result. I buttered buns to get a quick toasting on the grill as well, before flipping them to melt thick slices of sharp white cheddar. I'd caramelized a huge mess of sweet onions at the front end of this process. With a healthy smear of homemade beef & cheddar melts sauce, these were assembled into atrocious monstrosities for rapid two-handed consumption with clean plates achieved in a matter of minutes. Yum.

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

Meal No. 3691: Beef Chow Fun

As long as I'd pulled a particular 2018 issue of Cuisine at Home from the shelf, after our random dinner decision dice roll a few weeks ago, I thought it might guide me for a second night in a row over the Labor Day Weekend. That Saturday night, which was also the final day of August, I substituted ribeye for flank steak (gotta go with what's on sale!) but otherwise was pretty faithful to this first-time attempt of Beef Chow Fun. Those 'round the table said it was good, but I'm pretty sure it took a lot more work than my other stir-fry and wok meals and was not as good as those others. I won't expect to see this one show up again, but you don't know till you give it a go!

Since it was a Saturday night with out-of-town guests, and we are all the stay-at-home types, a movie was called for. In this case, it was A Quiet Place: Day One. But I also had to have dessert, you know. A homemade peach cobbler plus homemade vanilla sweet milk ice cream were an ideal combo as we trudged slowly into the final weeks of summertime.

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"Beef Chow Fun," in Cuisine at Home, Issue No. 128 (March/April 2018), p. 10-11.

"Old-Fashioned Peach Cobbler," by Patty Catalano on TheKitchn.com. [Published 06 August 2024]

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

Meal No. 3690: Saffron Chicken Tagine

On the occasion of my second dice roll for dinner options, chance settled on the March/April 2018 edition of Cuisine at Home. My rule is to try to make something from the recipes I'd already identified as interesting, and with friends Mark and Jeremy here for the Labor Day Weekend—and knowing they'd be willing to be experimented on—the dinner from that issue was saffron chicken tagine. Lots of Mediterranean-style spices coated cubes of boneless chicken thighs, and a broth-based simmer was enhanced with additional flavorful add-ins, resulting in delicious bite upon bite. I also adapted a recipe for couscous from that same issue, modifying it to our tastes and using quinoa instead. A quick need of a second side meant I used canned green beans as a fall-back option. We all rather liked how it turned out.

While the easier schedule that August has permitted me means that weekend weather variation is unlikely to complicate things, I did feel for the folks who'd had high hopes for a hospitable holiday break...but it started a tad rough with storms on the Friday before Labor Day. We dodged that storm bullet on Saturday until late night, when it was a raucous line of thunderstorms that rolled through. Sunday mostly righted itself, with the barest intrusion of light showers. There was plenty to do inside, as is always the case!

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Adapted from "Saffron Chicken Tagine with Peas & Artichokes," in Cuisine at Home, Issue No. 128 (March/April 2018), p. 56-57.

Adapted from "Honey-Raisin Couscous," in Cuisine at Home, Issue No. 128 (March/April 2018), p. 57.

Meal No. 3689: Chicken Tikka Masala

It was a distinct pleasure on the final Wednesday of August to welcome friend, colleague, and former grad student Bradley Phillis back to the house. He's joined the faculty at Appalachian State University, just about 90 minutes from here, and is therefore much closer than when he was at the University of Southern Mississippi. This is very good news. He was willing to come on short notice and was gracious about the meal I threw together that night: prepped spiced chicken from the sous vide, a simmering pot of tomato sauce with Indian spices and herbs, and fresh-steamed basmati rice. We had some roasted asparagus spears as well, and I also attempted garlic naan, with mixed results.

We deserved a light and refreshing dessert after all that, which is what led me to make a lemon meringue pie on a homemade crust. I'm still a frustrated baker when it comes to blind-baking these DIY pie shells, but we were all still reasonably okay with the slices of pie that were served up.

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

"Garlic Naan," from Chef John Mitzewich of the FoodWishes Blog and AllRecipes.com. [Updated 02 February 2024]

"Lemon Meringue Pie," based on a classic and common recipe.

"All-Butter Pie Crust," from King Arthur Test Kitchen of King Arthur Baking. See also "Butter vs. Shortening: The Great Pie Crust Bake-Off," by PJ Hamel of King Arthur Baking. [Published 23 November 2013]

Chocolate-Mocha Pots de Crème

The final Tuesday of August was National Pots de Crème Day, which is all the excuse I needed to try another fine recipe from Chef John: chocolate-mocha pots de crème. Simple to throw together, rich with a fresh-chopped bittersweet chocolate, boosted with espresso powder and a double-dose of egg yolks...topped with fresh whipped cream because it just had to happen...this was quite the conclusion to an exceptionally hot August day.

And that homemade whipped cream: all on its own, it was pretty outstanding.

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"Chocolate-Mocha Pots de Crème,"," from Chef John Mitzewich of the FoodWishes Blog. Published in AllRecipes Magazine, December 2022/January 2023, p. 59. [Online Version Updated 01 December 2022]

Meal No. 3688: Roasted Salmon & Broccoli

As the intense heat and humidity of summer made a triumphant return during the final week of August, I found myself turning to indoor pursuits, including an ill-fated effort to sort and organize the storage in the butler's pantry. This did not go well. But I still had a fine appetite for an early supper, and with a joyous heart I put together another round of roasted spiced salmon and the beloved roasted broccoli florets alongside. It seems like this can never be the wrong choice for me.

A Duo of Delicious Ice Creams, and a Dud

We blazed into the second half of August with high humidity, a mix of sun and clouds, some bouts of rain, and more than our fair share of mosquitos. But the cicadas were in full song, at last, and I found myself thinking intently about how ice cream belongs in this kind of scenario. Not quite a decade ago, I came across a recipe for brown sugar cinnamon ice cream that's always been well-received, and I put together a batch and churned it one weekend, and then stored it away for the right moment to bring it out. That finally occurred on the final Monday of August.

The other ice cream has been sampled only once before here, back in 2015, and failed to make much of an impression. I tried to up its game with a fuller coffee flavor and a more rounded sweetness. It's still not a top-tier player in the ice cream game here but, well, it's still ice cream, and it will find its way. I whipped it up, set aside the base to chill over that same weekend, and then churned it as we started the week of August 19. Unfortunately, perhaps because my ice cream bowl needed more freezing time as it ages, but it didn't set up quite right...and yet the flavor was still pretty much on point!

And finally, reaching back two weekends ago, as we awaited some heavy storming to roll through, I thought I'd finally get around to trying a recipe that felt a bit dicey to me...and I was correct to be wary. I'd gotten some Steen's pure cane sugar syrup just to try it out, and this was one of the recipes for doing so: chocolatey cereal squares. It wasn't uninteresting but wasn't especially edible, so it will not be repeated. Perhaps it was the lingering aftertaste, likely thanks to this heavy molasses-y bent of that particular kind of cane syrup. Anyway. I tried it, and now it's dead to me. That also was the verdict of neighbors with whom it was shared, with one saying: "Don't do that again."

Update: Some of the brown sugar cinnamon ice cream got stuffed into the final remaining waffle taco shell I'd made for choco tacos recently; then I whipped up a cinnamon shell sauce to roll it in, awkwardly. Our Labor Day Weekend guests got to split it, and it passed muster with them.

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"Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream," from Heather Tullos of SugarDishMe.com. [Published 11 September 2015]

"Coffee Heath Bar Ice Cream," from Elise Bauer of SimplyRecipes.com. [Originally Downloaded 12 May 2015 / Updated 16 February 2021]

"Chocolatey Cereal Squares," from jimmie4 on SteensSyrup.com. [Published 16 May 2021]

Meal No. 3687: Hamburger Supreme

August's final Monday night was a default dinner choice, mostly because it could be quickly assembled from on-hand ingredients: the marvelous Jones family favorite of 50 years or so we call hamburger supreme. A small pile of corn was nice but the main feature was a pleaser all by itself.

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"Hamburger Supreme," from the late Mrs. John T. (Glynn) Johnson of Buies Creek, North Carolina.

Meal No. 3686: Beef Tips in Mushroom Madeira Gravy

The quest to pare down the stored proteins in the overstocked freezer continued this past Sunday, giving me a chance to pull out the meaty tip of a whole beef tenderloin I’d bought a while back on a decent sale. My intention was to use it for a beef stir-fry but, with leftover sour cream and chive mashed red potatoes from the previous evening, and some broccoli florets ready to be roasted, the meal plan turned into the marvelous beef tips in a mushroom Madeira gravy. It was huge and heavy, more than I ought to have done, but doggone that deliciousness!

About three years ago, to get a handle on the pull-out spice rack at the kitchen island, I invested in uniform-sized spice jars that came with a ton of pre-printed labels plus some blank extras if I needed to label some myself. This really helped me tighten up the space and also to find things pretty quickly. More recently, the challenge has been obtaining spices, herbs, and seasonings in bulk from a couple of fine purveyors of such: Penzy’s and Savory Spice. I had a mix of hard-to-store bags and bottle sizes and it was getting out of hand. But there’s an easy source to solve issues like this, even if it becomes all too easy to turn to Amazon and those well-stocked warehouses, from whence cameth my help in a nice mix of spice containers. That was my project that Sunday, after washing them out and giving them time to dry. This also inspired me to sort, toss, and reorganize a few shelves in the kitchen cabinets and in the butler’s pantry, so it was victory on multiple fronts.

Homemade Choco Tacos

Back on August 24th, some people thought the occasion of National Waffle Day ought to be celebrated with, you know, waffles. Belgian, American, Liege, Eggo, or whatever, but surely served with plenty of precious maple syrup, a hefty pat of butter, and perhaps bacon or sausage. Not at the Roediger House, buddy. Instead, the occasion was transformed into a waffle of a different sort: the kind that is the starting point for an ice cream cone or, in my case: the waffle sugar cone taco shell for homemade Choco Tacos.

Would you just look at those? I made them, and they turned out pretty good! Here's a telling photo of how that was achieved, thanks to a waffle cone maker, an excellent recipe, and a bit of parchment wrapped around that beautiful Roediger House carving board gifted by dear Oklahoma friends:

Let me be clear: choco tacos are not my thing. It's a discontinued product and its disappearance apparently made some people sad, but not only was I not in line for choco tacos when they were still being manufactured, I'm not even that much of a fan of any kind of ice cream cone. I was always the guy at the ice cream parlor who asked for his scoops in a cup. Since that Saturday night was another great gathering of the most regular crew of regulars here, though, I thought: why the heck not? It was an imperfect exercise but not the failure I had feared. The waffle shells were a bit delicate, the ice cream was a bit on the soft side, and the chocolate shell I made may also have been a bit thin. I did a poor job of adorning them with crushed peanuts. The real question we should ask ourselves, though, is: was it a fun sweet treat that night? Absolutely. Messy as heck, but nonetheless quite likely to get a repeat performance here...and a successful adventurous maiden voyage of another variation from the norm.

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

Waffle Cone Taco Shell based on "Homemade Choco Tacos," from Lexi Harrison (with Beth Sinclair) of Crowded Kitchen. [Published 16 June 2024]

Meal No. 3685: Baked Herbed Chicken Thighs

Saturday a week ago, it was a delightful night of good food and fellowship with Amy and Gern and Kristen and Mookie. I was in the mood for a standard meat and two sides, so we had oven-baked herbed chicken thighs, roasted hoisin whole green beans, and red-skinned mashed potatoes with sour cream, chives, and bacon. It was a full enough plate with thighs bodacious enough that we each only needed one...but that's the key to partaking of more of those mashed potatoes, right?

Earlier that day, we got to witness the dismantling of the tower crane that had been central to the construction of the new Fourth and Green apartments, about a block from the house. Having been erected on another picture-perfect day, in early May 2023, I guess its 15-month tenure on the westside skyline has now ended.

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"Oven Baked Chicken Thighs," from Joanna Cismaru of JoCooks.com.

Meal No. 3684: Grilled Garlic Chicken Cheese Sandwiches

That recent evening of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches left me with an extra loaf of peasant bread, so Friday's meal was a strange twist on a classic griddled sandwich. With well-buttered slices laid down in the skillet, onto which I placed American cheese, the center layer this time was garlic-herbed pounded chicken breast cooked in the sous vide immersion circulator and sliced thin. More cheese on top of that, with a complementary buttered bread slice on top: this was a heartier grilled cheese and every bit as tasty as you might imagine. (And more of that bread was used for a most enjoyable batch of cinnamon toast later that evening.)

Meal No. 3683: Herbed Chicken Leg Quarters

Last Thursday night, it was a return to the sous vide to help abate the build-up of prepped foodstuffs in the freezer. This time I pulled out a pair of chicken leg quarters that I'd stored away from some recent value pak I'd purchased. With leftover smashed red potatoes with sour cream, chives, and bacon, and fresh-roasted broccoli florets, it was a fine feast for a weeknight, especially comforting after an unseasonable and chilly start to an August morning:

All this time at home during August, with plenty of opportunities to make fun things in my kitchen, has meant a serious loss of ground against the ever-present weight management battle. I've been skirting much too near, much too often, to the upper limit that I allow myself. So that Thursday, my punishment was what I'll call the "College Tour": an intense mid-day walk, starting from the house, and taking me through all five colleges/universities here in Winston-Salem (made possible because Wake Forest University has a downtown campus that I walk past or through all the time!). So yes: I walked past the WFU downtown campus and Medical Education complex; then it was out to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive so that I could walk through the campus of Winston-Salem State University; then I trudged down Rams Drive which ends at the back entrance to Salem College and Academy, which is a lovely shaded campus (and a sentimental journey as well, since I attended six weeks of Governor's School there in the Summer of 1982); then I headed south to traverse the campus of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts; and from there I could swing slightly west after heading north to come through Carolina University (formerly Piedmont International University). It was 7.5 miles round trip, and I was a bit tuckered by the time I got back to the house.

Meal No. 3682: Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup

Tuesday a week ago, the homestead was graced with yet another delightful dinner and visit featuring the marvelous Kristen and her betrothed hanger-on Mookie. These dear friends are central to the warm vibes and happy times of the Roediger House (as are our other regular and favorite couple, Amy and Gern!). When they arrived, we gathered at the table to begin the evening with dinner, featuring ultimate cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches on fresh-made peasant bread. It was all pretty darned satisfactory.

That was also National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day, and I thought I had just the recipe for the occasion. With a homemade all-butter crust, and a great full dose of chocolate flavor, this take on that dessert is less about the sticky corn syrup and more about an egg-and-sugar filling with all those pecan halves and their tasty crunch. My plan was for the pie portions to be generous, but lordy: sometimes when I make this the filling just does not set up. We still dug into it, but with spoons instead of forks. I wish I understood why I end up with this failure from time to time!

Let me add one other thing, taking us back to Monday, August 19. Marred only by a few minutes of half-hearted sprinkles late in the afternoon, it was a gorgeous late summer day and it concluded with the marvel of a Super Blue Moon rising over the city that night. With cool breezes, lots of cicadas, and wonderful temps, I lit a mess of citronella incense sticks (I've been buying these for years in bulk from TheDipper.com), brought out my Bose bluetooth speaker, and enjoyed the slow rise of that gorgeous moon. I was glad to rest a spell; that was a day when my evening stroll tallied 8.2 miles.

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

Peasant Bread adapted from "My Mother's Peasant Bread," by Alexandra Stafford of AlexandraCooks.com. [07 November 2012 / Updated 06 January 2022]

"Chocolate Pecan Pie," a Jones Family favorite since at least 1980, if not before. Also known as "Blender Pie," the recipe came from the late Lib Keith, whose hair-cutting business at her house was where our hairs got clipped for quite a few years.

"All-Butter Pie Crust," from King Arthur Test Kitchen of King Arthur Baking. See also "Butter vs. Shortening: The Great Pie Crust Bake-Off," by PJ Hamel of King Arthur Baking. [Published 23 November 2013]

Meal No. 3680: Filet Mignon and Smashed Red Potatoes

When I decided I was hungry for some steak Sunday a week ago, my mind entered a second irresistible track that took me once more into the sentimental recollections of a side item often ordered on my many visits to the now (mostly) defunct Darryl's restaurants: loaded smashed sour cream, bacon, and chive red potatoes. The steaks were pretty tasty, pulled from the freezer where they'd been stored away, already prepped and vacuum-sealed to be ready for the sous vide; then they were finished on a very hot grill outside. But those potatoes! Lord have mercy, one might be on a starch-and-dairy overload, pushing right up against that dangerous line where medical attention was barely averted. Almost more add-ins than the potatoes could carry but going for seconds like a programmed automaton, once they demonstrated their gustatory amazingness, was a mindless joy with a huge pay-off.