Meal No. 278: Filets and Fries

When it comes to grilling steaks, for me there is nothing better than a good medium rare filet mignon or beef tenderloin. And I was antsy to give steaks another go after being a little underwhelmed by those I made recently (even though the Asian BBQ sauce that night was amazing). That's what led to last night's meal here at the Roediger House.

The earlier part of last evening involved a joint birthday celebration, just up the street at the Old Fourth Street Filling Station. But that was not where I got my dinner. With the hot water heater serving the main floor of the house back up and running, I was anxious to get back to cooking a meal here at the house. And I did.

For the first time this spring, I broke out the deep fat fryer so that there would be french fries. In spite of the rain.

The filets cooked up beautifully on the grill out on the front porch.

Both the steaks and the fries were just about as perfect as they can get. And the Abita Turbodog in a cold bottle helped wash it all down.

Hard Deeds Done by a Creep

My minor cat problem has already been discussed in the blog. Today, I took the surprisingly hard steps necessary to resolve it.

For the last two or three weeks, I've been putting out food and water at a specific place on the front porch, where it wraps around to the north side. The damn cat has gotten used to this, it seems, and has conducted herself with a fairly healthy appetite.

Finally, last night at around 2 am, I assembled the Havahart® trap I bought a little while back, settled the food and water into it, and left it to do its deed.

Six hours later, when I got up around 8 am, I found the damn cat locked up tight in there. And if I thought she was wild and feral before, it became more convincing watching her in her initial fight to get out of that trap. And then came the next hard part:

I loaded her up in the back of the Tundra for the drive up to the Forsyth County Animal Control shelter. No local cat rescue place here takes feral cats, and I am not going to set her up to be a catch-fix-and-release cat to continue causing trouble 'round here. There's no indication she was bound for much of a life, except for the part where I would have been the one to keep feeding her.

She was marking her territory, though, it seems, as shown in this photo of my grill cover. I am not at all happy about what had to transpire today and feel rather rotten inside.

Todd Kelly Visits the RoHo

Roughly from 1976 to 1979, my best friend in those key middle school years was Todd Kelly. And it's been over 15 years since I last saw him. But he was up from Atlanta on a business trip and made time to stop by the Roediger House for a visit.

Here's another occasion where I had every intention of cooking, but with the hot water heater on the fritz, we were left to walk downtown and sup at Noma Urban Bar & Grill, which was good eating.

But I'd rather have made dinner here.

We had a good long visit, and I doubt it will be another 15 years before we get a chance to catch up again.

Slash the Trash (Trees)

Along the way, I've made mention of the problem of trash trees that took root some years ago when the house had fallen into neglect. Since they chose to take root up on the back retaining wall, the resulting damage has been significant.

There is no question as to whether they must go: that is definite. I'm just hoping the thunderstorms popping up in this period of unsettled spring weather patterns do not manage to bring down any of these—or the wall itself with them—before I can get them cut down.

Still, I know this will create a huge change in the landscape for my birds and squirrels, and for that I'm mighty sorry.

I've also got the dilemma of a sizable tree on the south (or left) side of the front yard. This is the remaining half of a pair of mighty maple trees that stood guarding either side of the front walk. The other had been removed before I bought the house. This one is going to have to also be removed, because it is slowly dying.

Thanks to my finally getting around to joining Angie's List, and narrowing down the search for tree services, I can report that these trees are entering a period of numbered days. I got three bids from three very well-rated firms, and the good news is that the low bid was also one that filled me with confidence. I do not think I could have gone wrong with any of the tree service people I contacted.

So, right now, I'm waiting to hear back about scheduling the start of the work.

This should make the folks in the property behind me happier, since we had already discussed how these invasive trees were getting mixed up in the power lines.

And frankly, I'll also be glad to get rid of them because of how much debris they manage to shed, as noted in this previous blog post.

Hot Water Heater on the Fritz

Talk about things that you take for granted...

I am all about time in my kitchen and I truly look forward to trying to make some good food and having people over to enjoy it. But it takes hot water to make that happen. And I've got trouble with the hot water heater that services the downstairs, including the kitchen, the master bathroom, the powder room, and the laundry room.

I was really looking forward to a long-overdue visit from friend and colleague Robb Warfield, with whom I first worked when the Simon G. Atkins High School Complex was opening several years ago. He's been out of the country for the last three years as a missionary in Africa. When our mutual friend Bradley Phillis decided it was high time we all got together, I offered to cook up some dinner.

I had noticed that the power vent was running continuously before I left for Richmond County but just assumed it was trying to catch up on processing the gas exhaust from this hot water heater. But alas, it seems that the power vent is stuck in a running mode, which means it thinks it still has fumes to dissipate and discharge, which means that the hot water heater's element will not fire up and make more hot water.

In the original installation of this massive gas hot water heater almost two years ago, they ran into this problem: my hot water ran out and it turns out that the power vent was not completing its cycle and allowing the heating element to kick back on again. Then, about a year ago, I had the problem again, but it self-corrected by the time the plumber who installed it got around to returning my phone call to him about it.

So at this point, there's barely even luke-warm water coming out of the faucet. Thank goodness it's a separate electric hot water heater that services the upstairs bathrooms, because showering and washing hands and such continue unabated.

But I hate being at home and not being able to get my cooking on.

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UPDATE [Monday May 16, 2011]: After a second call to Jamie's Plumbing, the original installer, two crew members came out at around 10 am Monday morning. They worked with it for about 2½ hours without fully resolving why the power vent stayed stuck in its cycle. So, $225.00 later, I again have hot water and am psyched to get back to my kitchen proclivities.

Meal No. 277: Pipetizer Casserole

After a few days of work in Richmond County, to wrap up the 2010-2011 school year there, I came home and got busy in the kitchen for an evening dinner party. Tried to keep it simple though, and dusted off the recipe for the Pipetizer Casserole that had a run of popularity back in the winter.

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"Pipetizer Casserole" is an adaptation of "Tailgate Casserole," from The Big Book of Casseroles, by Maryana Vollstedt. San Francisco: Chronicle Books (2000), p. 120.

Saying Hello to Angie's List

During a beautiful spring evening when there was a relaxing stretch of visiting and chatting time up on the upstairs porch, conversation turned to the long list of "things" that still need to be done to the house. I've had two years now since the substantial end of the major addition and first phase of renovation to make quite a list of the untackled stuff.

I was all set to get moving on the big things of plaster repair, painting/wallpaper, and hardwood floor refinishing, back last summer. I got bids for everything and just needed to get Dwight Love, my would-be plasterer, to get cranking. But he kept putting me off and delaying, and then the travel season kicked in again, and I wasn't able to get him on the job.

It occurs to me that my schedule doesn't really lend itself to putting all the mini jobs together, anyway. What I need is to get myself another general contractor who can take care of it all.

And then I thought about Angie's List, which advertises heavily on NPR. And I joined. And I looked up general contractors and tree services and made contact with three of each. I've gotten bids from and now chosen a company to remove those terrible trash trees on the rear retaining wall.

And I've met with one general contractor, am scheduled to meet with another, and am still waiting for a call back from a third. Interested in the lengthy list? Click here.

Meal No. 276: Poached Salmon with Baby Bok Choy

Here's a description worthy of a Susan Phillis rebuke: white-wine poached wild-caught Alaskan salmon fillet with a chilled rosemary dijon cream sauce, along with ginger-sesame-soy-glazed baby bok choy and garlic-sunflower seed quinoa. That was the late afternoon meal yesterday before I hit the road for three days of work down in Richmond County, NC.

Meal No. 275: Interesting Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

This afternoon presented a chance to go see the new movie "Thor," so I wanted dinner to be simple since I wouldn't get home until around 7 pm.

I decided to make a couple of plus-size grilled cheese sandwiches. This first one is thin-sliced roast beef, gorgonzola, caramelized Vidalia onions, asiago cheese, and extra sharp Vermont white cheddar.

The second one is a little more standard, with a slight twist: it's bacon between tomato-basil feta, extra sharp Vermont white cheddar, and asiago cheese.

Both were made with soft sourdough bread, and both were pretty darned delicious.

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Recipe idea from "Roast Beef with Cheddar and Blue Cheese Butter," in Great Grilled Cheese by Laura Werlin, 2004, p. 50-51.

Meal No. 274: Chicken with Tarragon Cream

I reached for a crockpot recipe for last night's Sunday evening meal, in preparation for a nearly-full dinner table. This is chicken with a tarragon cream sauce, a choice made based on the really cheap price for split chicken breasts at the Harris Teeter this past week.

Among the places at the table, two were occupied by Roediger House regulars Amy and Bradley. I think the meal was well-received.

It helped that the Hershey cookbook version of hot fudge cake came out all right.

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"Chicken with White Wine, Tarragon, and Cream," from Slow Cooker Revolution, from America's Test Kitchen, 2011, p. 80.

"Hot Fudge Pudding Cake," from 100 Years of Hershey Favorites, 1994, p. 8.

Meal No. 273: Grilled Ribeyes with Asian BBQ Sauce

I do feel like I'm a bit out of practice on grilling steaks, which I always considered myself quite good at, as much as I've done it over the years. And to keep last night from being a run-of-the-mill (meal?) steak night, I decided to add one significant twist: an Asian-inspired barbecue sauce, adapted from Australian chef Pete Evans. It turned out to be a frickin' awesome sauce, too.

Last night I kept it more simple and steamed some fresh broccoli and added some leftover three cheese pasta bake from the Friday night meal of honey-glazed pork ribs.

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Guidance from and adaptations made based on "Rib Eye Steaks with Pete's Barbecue Sauce" in the June 2011 issue of Food and Wine, p. 128.

Komen Race for the Cure 2011

What a glorious and gorgeous Saturday morning it was in Winston-Salem today. And it was time for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K race, which again included North Spring Street as part of its route.

Last year I celebrated but also did a bit of minor belly-aching about it, because the street gets closed and residents are not warned ahead of time. And last year, it just so happened that my street got closed for Komen on Saturday and then for downtown bicycling on Sunday.

I did enjoy seeing several people I know as folks walked or ran by. It was also mind-blowing how many people came out for this race. Quite a few nice remarks were made about how beautiful the house looked, which I appreciated. And there were several funny passing comments too, like several times when walkers or runners asked if I had beer or breakfast for them. One guy asked if I was keeping a careful count.

A great cause, and a lot of fun people out to give me my morning's entertainment. I love downtown.

Meal No. 272: Honey-Glazed Babyback Ribs

Yet another new meal for me to fix: Thai-inspired honey-glazed grilled pork ribs.

I really do not like food you have to work at, including assembling (i.e., fajitas) or disassembling (i.e., crab legs or peel and eat shrimp). I just want to sit down and eat. That's why, in part, I've never been a big fan of ribs: too much effort rewarded by small chews of food, and a heckuva lot of mess (something else that ain't so thrilling to me when I'm trying to eat).

But man-o-man, the flavor was awesome. And it all came together nicely with another batch of the three-cheese pasta bake and (not pictured) baked beans.

Meal No. 271: Cedar Plank Grilled Salmon & Quinoa

Grilling mode continues: this evening's meal was grilled salmon with quinoa and baby Brussels sprouts.

Electric Spied: Jason Lanier Returns

A lot of good came out of the work done and overseen by Peter LaRoque, my general contractor. One of those was connecting me with Jason Lanier of Lanier Electric, who sub-contracted the wiring for the addition. I also solicited from Jason further work in the original part of the house, which he and his fellow crew member Cory handled expertly.

While it's been waiting almost two years, I got those guys back over here today to do another whole laundry list of electrical things. A few of those related to corrections or adjustments to his original work from two years ago (i.e., a couple of outlets had come loose as the construction lumber dried and seasoned).

Two years is a lot of time to figure out what else one might want or need, or changes one wishes to make in how things were originally done. One of the tasks I asked Jason to do was to put the dining room chandelier on a dimmer switch--it's been awfully bright in there at night when there have been special meals.

I had also, in the meantime, secured a new fan and light-kit for the Wyeth guest bedroom, and a new light fixture to replace the broken fan in my (future) study.

I also wanted a couple of outlets installed on either side of where the bed goes in the Van Gogh guest bedroom.

Since the county electrical inspector didn't like the sconces I'd wanted to go on the wall above the pedestal tub (saved from the demolition of the old main upstairs bathroom), we had left them off so that the house could pass and be inhabited following the completion of the addition. Jason and Cory have now put those back up on the wall, and they look mighty good.

New Platform Feeder

Let's see: currently I've got three bird feeders and a finch thistle sock hanging in the cherry tree/pear tree grove in the front yard, and three feeders outside the kitchen bay window that I can see from my old man's chair in front of the fireplace in the kitchen. There is also a double seed/nut/corn block hanging from a dead limb directly across from the kitchen sink window, with a wire cage for the top one and a squirrel block hanging on the bottom).

But something we rigged up for my mother when I was growing up in Buies Creek was a platform feeder just outside her upstairs kitchen window (the house was a split-foyer home, with a partially below-ground first-floor). This allowed her to put scraps out when she was doing meal clean-up, and that also put the birds and squirrels right up close where we could enjoy watching them.

I picked up a platform feeder at Lowe's not long ago and got it put up on a post a couple of weeks ago. Now I've got a place to dump stale bread and crackers and such, as well as some additional seed for birds who like it that way.

My biggest customers so far have been the grackles. But the blue jays also really like it, and occasionally a cardinal or a titmouse. It hasn't drawn the finches and sparrows yet, that I can tell.



While I've been at the kitchen window washing dishes or doing meal prep, I've watched the yard squirrel studying this platform feeder intently. There's a dead branch that extends out towards the window, from one of the trash trees on the back wall, and I know he's really been mulling over how to get at it.

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Update: A few days after I wrote this original post, I found that he had finally decided he can just climb the post and then leap off the kitchen windowsill to get up on the feeder. I've only gotten this one quick shot of him so far. And I've now greased the pole with Vaseline as a short-term fix.

Damn Cat: Murder One

For those of you giving me heck because you think I need to take in / adopt The Damn Cat [Next Generation], I am going to put forward more of the evidence that, while cute, she is going to be a nuisance.

Below, you see what used to be one of my birds. Now, if I'm lucky, she got ahold of a mourning dove, which is fine with me because I don't care for them.

But right now, there is another patch of feathers over in the grove of cherry trees, where she got another bird, and I do not think it was a mourning dove.

And still she hangs around...

Balcony Gutter Re-Installed, Partially

One of the phases of the renovation project dealt with replacing the flooring of the exposed upstairs balcony over the front porch. While on most other elements of this project, my general contractor Peter LaRoque was diligent about integrating all the relevant and related aspects into whatever he was working on. But for some reason, he refused to arrange to have the LeafGuard gutter reattached after his crew completed their work on that balcony, and it has been a sticking point for us ever since.

Without that gutter being reattached, I've had two years of run-off from that balcony, which has led to peeling paint on the fascia boards above and below, as well as bubbling and eventual peeling of the new paint on the porch. It also made it extra icy in the wintertime. Here are two pictures from February 2010 that show the dripping and bubbling of the paint.

Now, in May 2011, the paint is coming off like gangbusters:

My last exchange with Pete about this went something like this:

Me: Pete, the paint is peeling up on the porch.
Pete: That's because you haven't reinstalled the gutter around the balcony.
Me: I wish you had done that when you completed the balcony.
Pete: I told you you would have to arrange for that.
   PAUSE
Me, with feeling: I wish you had done that when you completed the balcony.

There's an additional hitch that he and I are going to have to find some way to work out: the way he attached that rubber roof, it allows a significant amount of water to catch and pool at the front edge, just above the front porch steps. I expect that to have a deleterious effect on the integrity of the rubber roof there, over time, and I also expect it to hasten the rot of the porch railing supports that sit in that lingering water.

Now, I think I have a guess as to why he didn't want to oversee the reattachment of the removed section of gutter himself: it looks like the way he attached the rubber roofing cover to the fascia board is going to make it very hard to re-gutter around the balcony. That's the determination of LeafGuard of Asheville, the outfit that did the original installation of the LeafGuard gutters before I bought the house.

They came here at the beginning of the week (I was off working in New Orleans) and reinstalled the missing gutter portion. But after the rains on Tuesday, I found that there was still a drip on the steps of the front porch. When I looked at how they'd reinstalled the gutters, I saw that there was as much as a half-inch gap between the fascia board and the back of the gutter. Which means they do not really work as gutters.

So it's one step closer to have the gutter back up on the house instead of leaning against the side of it. But I've got to get Pete and LeafGuard together so they can resolve how to get the gutters and his rubber roof to work together. Right now, I'm caught in the middle.