Meal No. 608: Chicken in Lemon-Butter-Garlic Sauce

...served over capellini. Awfully damned good.

Meal No. 607: Multigrain Pancakes

It was late on Friday night and I drove home from a day in jail after being on the road since Sunday. Pancakes was all I could manage.

September Sticky Buns

[This blog post will give readers a chance to see the sticky buns I made back on Labor Day weekend. I just hadn't gotten around to uploading these photos and adding the usual driveling commentary.]

The Risen Sweet Dough

Knocking Down & Kneading
Getting Ready to Roll It Out

Softened Butter, Brown Sugar, Cinnamon, and Pecan Pieces

Ready for the Pan-Rising

They Puffed Up Nicely!

Hate for Any Goop to Get Away

Lovely Set of Sticky Buns
after I flipped them out of the baking dish

Smooth & Silky Cream Cheese Frosting

The Irresistible  Final Product

I Wish I Could Blog Tastes

This was Round 6 of sticky cinnamon roll buns.

Lenoir Rhyne Wants Annie's Money

I believe I misspoke/miswrote in my recent blog post that described how my interest in the Roediger family history got sparked into action recently. I mentioned receiving a postcard from Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, addressed to Annie G. Roediger (daughter of the man who built my house). What I got wrong was saying she'd been dead for over 20 years. Actually, she died over 30 years ago.

But Lenoir-Rhyne must not know that, and they have embarked on an ambitious fundraising campaign and apparently they are pulling out the stops. A young man named Fletcher stopped by the house when I was away in Florida. He left a big folder of information on the front porch, describing the start of this huge campaign, along with a nice pen engraved with "Lenoir-Rhyne University," and a handwritten notecard saying he looks forward to meeting her.

I'll have to break the bad news to him if he ever catches me at home. It gets my curiosity going again, though. That postcard had her name with '71 beside it, and that suggests alumnae status. (But she would have been almost 70 years old at that time!) Her sister Ruth, the last surviving Roediger Family member, died in 1991, although it appears she passed away in Hickory...which is where LRU is located.

Did these daughters leave money to Lenoir-Rhyne? Did their parents? Did one of them actually attend LR as a much older adult? [Some of my other history digging turned up Annie Glass Roediger in the freshman and sophomore classes of Women's College in Greensboro (now known as UNC-Greensboro)...in the early 1920s!]

More questions than answers at this point.

Roediger Family Gravesites

On a subsequent trip out to Salem Cemetery, and with the assistance of the onsite manager out there, I was able to find and photograph the four gravesites of the Roediger Family members buried there. Now I have the more official birth and death dates of the whole crew...except for Ishnee, the daughter I belatedly discovered, and the only one who ever got married.

George Roediger
February 6, 1866 - September 25, 1939
"It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35

Laura Dorothea Glass
Wife of George Roediger
February 7, 1869 - October 18, 1947
"And in her tongue is the law of kindness." Proverbs 31:26

Annie Glass Roediger
December 28, 1903 - February 27, 1981
"Deeds of Kindness"

Ruth Roediger
August 22, 1899 - May 18, 1991
"Sing Unto the Lord a New Song"

Meal No. 606: Pulled Pork Barbecue

It was a small crew on hand for dinner this past Saturday night, and I say: Here's to the return of the very delicious and somewhat more involved pulled pork barbecue dinner!

Sometimes I serve this with blue cheese coleslaw, but Saturday night I reached again for this new mac-n-cheese casserole that's already shown up quite a few times since this summer. I might add that it looked even better to me, and conjured up no small amount of sentiment, when I used my mother's old Pyrex dish for it:

I managed to pull off dessert, of a sorts: this is Nestlé's recipe for milk chocolate oatmeal cookies...

Wow...cookies twice in two days. I'm almost on a roll. And then I left town Sunday and won't be home again until Friday night!

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"Indoor Pulled Pork," by Bryan Roof. In Cook's Illustrated, January & February 2010 (No. 102), p. 6-7.

"Macaroni and Cheese Casserole," by Sarah Gabriel. In Cook's Country, June/July 2012, p. 17.

"Milk Chocolate and Oatmeal Cookies," from Nestlé. Recipe can be found online.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

For the first time in what seems like forever, I finally got around to making a batch of cookies. I guess that little buying spree I pulled off yesterday at Sam's Club had the desired effect: I got busy making cookies.

By popular demand, I went for the white chocolate macadamia nut version, which were absolutely amazing when they came out hot. The rest of the cookies got shared during Friday night's Gallery Hop, at Delurk Gallery, and then with the staff at 6th & Vine the next morning.

Please Note: This is the first use of that spatula since this notorious event.

Dearth of Fresh-Baked Cookies

Cookies are one of the mainstays in the baking realm of the Roediger House kitchen. I like making them and I seem to keep finding people who don't mind eating them. Sometimes they're made and shared when people come over; sometimes I take them to a favorite spot to share with friends on the job (such as at 6th & Vine). I used to be pretty consistent about making cookies to take with me when I travel, to share either with the educators I'm working with in schools or with students taking one of my classes from the University of Virginia.

One whole drawer in my butler's pantry is dedicated primarily to storing the morsels and chips that I use for the six or eight cookie recipes I reach for the most:

That drawer is remaining all too full, of late, because of how seldom I seem to get around to making cookies any more. And you can't really see how deep that drawer is, because of how dark it is in this picture. Trust me: I'm well-stocked.

So why I felt the need, especially with the hectic pace of time on the road this fall, to buy more bags of chips and morsels when I did my recent shopping at Sam's Club is a particular mystery to me.

Maybe I was hoping I'd be inspired to break out the cookie dough mixing bowls, the parchment paper, and the cookie sheets. If not inspired, perhaps shamed into it?

Meal No. 605: Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Meal No. 604: Beef Tenderloin in Wine Sauce

Regular blog readers know that one of my absolute favorite meals to make is this Beef Tenderloin in Wine Sauce. With the heavy travel season I've got during this fall especially, I am going to be left with precious few opportunities to have a bunch of people over for this kind of RoHo feast. But this week I only had to be out of town for two days, and I work in town tomorrow, so this Thursday evening proved a perfect convergence to put eight good souls 'round the kitchen table for some good and filling grub.

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"Beef Tenderloin in Wine Sauce" (p. 296) and "Spicy Horseradish Sauce" (p. 295) from The All-New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. Compiled and Edited by Julie Fisher Gunter. Oxmoor Press (2006).

"Layered Green Bean Casserole," a long-time Jones family favorite.

"Stuffed Potatoes: Good/Better/Best," a recipe clipping saved from Cuisine at Home, Issue 60 [December 2006], p. 23-25.

Meal No. 603: Linton Hopkins's Carbonara

Following my 4-hour pretty-easy-light-traffic drive home today from Luray, VA, I relaxed with a Bell's Best Brown Ale for a bit in my old man's chair by the fireside. Then I got busy making this delicious silky version of carbonara, following a recipe from Linton Hopkins. That's diced pancetta in there, with a yolky cream sauce served this time over angel hair pasta.

Previously, in the Roediger House kitchen: Meal No. 496, also known as the other time I made Linton's recipe for carbonara.

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"Bucatini Carbonara," by Linton Hopkins. In Food & Wine, July 2009.

Piedmont Federal Savings Bank Does Me Right

Exactly nine years ago today, I closed on the loan that allowed me to complete my purchase of this very fine Roediger House. When I was in the market for the house, and negotiating to buy it, I asked various folks around Winston-Salem about where I should go for my mortgage. Even those who worked at the big banks in town (at that time, Wachovia and BB&T) said Piedmont Federal was the right choice. They are local, they are good to their customers, and they do not sell their mortgages to other financial entities. Back in 2003, I was reasonably pleased I was able to score a 30-year mortgage at 5.75% interest.

Of course, with the housing bubble bust and the slow economy, interest rates have managed to go lower than that. I'm sure I've missed a few chances to refinance for a considerable savings, like when interest rates had dropped down to around 4%. A couple of weeks ago, thanks to a heads-up from my attorney, Kirk Sanders, I got in touch with mortgage banker Scott Bullard at Piedmont Federal. Rates had just been dropped to 3.75%. Even better: Piedmont Federal allows a mortgage customer to make an adjustment ONLY in the interest rate for a fee of one percent of the outstanding balance of the loan. The term stays the same...they simply change the interest rate for my loan.

No need to go through the elaborate, involved, and cumbersome refinancing process: in about 10 minutes, with a three-page document to sign and a fee of around $900, I've cut my mortgage payment nearly in half. Papers were signed yesterday and the savings begin with my next mortgage payment.

I'd say Piedmont Federal did me a solid. And Scott was outstanding. This is the way business ought to be done.

Mouse in the House!

The last two or three nights, Cyprus has suddenly jumped up and gone skidding into the anteroom, sniffing intently (but briefly) around the door to the butler's pantry. Whatever got her hyped up failed to hold her attention, though, so I figured it might just be an insect buzzing around. I also knew that other possible explanations might need to be entertained, but if something rodent-ary had invaded the sanctity of this home, it would eventually be outed.

Turns out the outing was tonight. Cyprus went blazing for the butler's pantry door again, and once I opened it for her, she completely fixated on the part of the cabinetry in there that was once a flour bin. I pulled it out and sure enough there was the unwelcome guest. (I also saw the attraction for the mouse: when I first got Cyprus, I kept food for her in that bin and some of it had spilled out and fallen down underneath.)

My inclination is to permanently destroy an invader like this without feeling a bit bad about it. However, I took it across the street and released it near a dumpster beside a city parking deck.

I've swept up the dog food and stuffed that hole in the drywall with steel wool. Maybe this will calm Cyprus's mouse hysteria for a while.

Meal No. 602: Chicken with Coronation Sauce

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"Coronation Sauce for Chicken," from 400 Sauces, by Catherine Atkinson, Christine France, and Maggie Mayhew. Hermes House (2006, 2008), p. 155.

Meal No. 601: Pan-Seared Tuna with Ginger-Soy-Mushroom Sauce

Meal No. 600: Pseudo-Patty-Melts

Making the long drive home from the northern-most county in Virginia and having no idea what I wanted to make for dinner, I had high hopes that the Lowe's Foods in Walkertown would give me something to work with. No such luck. I ended up with a package of ground sirloin and decided last weekend's patty melts were already a great candidate for repeating. Double layer of thin burgers, plus caramelized onions, and homemade burger sauce. No loaf bread this time, but there were hamburger buns in the cabinet. No Swiss cheese, so I substituted sharp cheddar. All in all, it was still mighty good.

I'm Feeding Everybody...

Yes, as if there's not enough to do, and as if I do not spend crazily on birdseed, I am also regularly and conscientiously cutting up extra and old bread and putting it out on my platform feeder for my feathered friends...

Perfect September Mornings

I really do love the month of September, and there have been some mighty fine mornings to enjoy coffee out on the front porch. Now that I've climbed aboard the Insta•Gram train, I'm finding new ways and even flimsier reasons to document my world.

Salem Cemetery Search

With the burst of excitement I felt when I decided I was ready to learn more about the Roediger family, I quickly recognized a critical stumbling block in not knowing for certain what their birth and death dates were. I could glean a little information on this from the public/non-paid information available on ancestry.com, and that helped get me started. When I learned on a Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago that both George and Laura Roediger were laid to rest in the Salem Cemetery, I decided (foolishly) to head out there and just see if I could stumble upon their graves by walking around.

It's a big cemetery. It was a needle in a haystack. And no, I did not find their graves. But it was lovely out there under beautiful late afternoon skies.

Bloom'n Again Azaleas Show Their Stuff

When I bought the azaleas to plant along the south property line, in the narrow strip between the driveway and the fence, I was seduced by the prospect of twice-a-year blooms. That's the promise of the Bloom'n Again azaleas I purchased, and by mid-September, they'd begun to prove themselves worthy of the name.

Meal No. 599: Kung Pao Chicken Stir-Fry

Most of my wok stir-fry dishes of late have tended toward the beef tenderloin. It makes sense, because I usually cut off the narrow tip when I'm doing Beef Tenderloin in Wine Sauce, and that's left me a steady supply to use when I've been in the mood for a homemade Asian-inspired meal.

Last night, I switched back over to the kung pao-style of stir-fry chicken, with yellow bell pepper, asparagus, and scallions. I think this might be the best it's ever been, actually.

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"Kung Pao [Chicken]" (p. 80) with Szechwan Marinade (p. 28) and Spicy Peanut Stir-Fry Sauce (p. 27). In Wok Fast, by Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison. Ten Speed Press (Berkeley/Toronto), 2002.

Meal No. 598: Patty Melts

I drove eight hours last night with only one stop for gas, to get home at a reasonable time following my week in Florida to observe a Level II Project CRISS training. Fortunately, there was some ground beef in the fridge, and spotting a few Steak-N-Shake restaurants along the route gave me the idea for last evening's supper.

I made an approximation of a patty melt, based on how Steak-N-Shake makes their Frisco Melt. I got my burger patties as flat as I could and cooked 'em in the skillet. I buttered and toasted both sides of my potato sandwich bread. I caramelized some onion. I made classic burger sauce. I topped each patty with Swiss and American cheeses. I ate until I was stuffed.

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Classic Burger Sauce
from Cook's Illustrated, July-August 2008, p. 11.

4 T mayonnaise
2 T ketchup
1 tsp sweet pickle relish
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl.

Cardinals and Sunflowers

The cast-offs from the bird feeders around the outside of the kitchen bay occasionally sprout up into, at most, medium-sized sunflowers. What I like about this picture in particular was the quizzical expression offered by the nearby cardinal when I snapped this shot, which was actually taken sometime last summer.

I do have one sturdy-looking sunflower coming up this fall, near that same feeder. This is a picture I took of it in mid-September, and it shows a healthy-looking bee taking full advantage of his sole claim to the property at his feet.