Scritches
bitsy
Tidbits
Mmm… another Reuben. We’ve pretty much settled on an assembly standard: The corned beef, sliced just so, homemade sauerkraut, and cheese all warmed in a skillet – adding the cheese only when the beef and ‘kraut are warmed through. The rye slices are started in the toaster when the cheese goes on. The thousand island dressing goes in a small bowl to be used as a dip – this helps to keep the sandwich intact because it is not soaking through the toast. Pickle spear garnish is optional but encouraged!
We’ve been seeing a lot of rain, 10 inches in the last week, and rivers and creeks are overflowing. Whenever we get high water one of the obligatory stops on the gawking tour is this municipal band shell at the aptly named Riverside Park. The Big Muddy River (actual name!) is a tributary of the Mighty Mississippi, it enters a few miles below Grand Tower, IL.
An access road loops around the park. It would be visible below the shell but for the high water. Right now we are kinda “meh” – we’ve seen it higher. All bets are off should the rain come back. Crews are sandbagging the big levee along the Mississippi just in case and they are keeping a 24 hour watch.
We’re using those naan loaves for pizzas, and here is one replacing a tortilla in a vaguely Tex-Mex hodgepodge with rice, beans, chicken, cheese, eggs, and a salsa verde.
Another selfie with Bitsy that I’ve run through the Prisma app. This is using the Heisenberg filter. My favorite filter is the one they call Gothic.
Time for another pineapple upside down cake! I used dark brown sugar in this one rather than the light brown I usually go with. Pour melted butter mixed with brown sugar in the bottom of a pan, this one was made in a 9-1/2″ x 12″ hotel pan with 3/4 cup of butter and 3/4 cup sugar. I drained the juice from a can of pineapple tidbits and used about half of them in the recipe. Use the pineapple juice to replace some of the water needed for a yellow cake mix and pour the prepared mix over the pineapple bits. These baked at 350 for 20 minutes and were not quite done so I added 10 minutes to the timer and reduced the temp to 325 because the top was browning nicely. If you would rather go from scratch this recipe should work fine for you.
These are a favorite and this surely won’t be the last one you’ll see here. We are just getting warmed up for those summer garden tomatoes.
Tidbits
Bitsy is a fan of boxes but she deemed this one too small.
It’s really too soon for B(E)LTs but I was in a hurry and they make quick lunches. I made do with a Kroger tomato. They can leave the vine on, connecting a half dozen tomatoes, and call them vine ripened but that doesn’t lean for a minute that they taste good.
We have puppies too! 
A trio of picnic side salads. A bog standard potato salad on the left, a copy-cat slaw on the right, and a mish mash of a bean salad in the middle. My usual recipe calls for chick peas but I was out of them and subbed in great northern and black beans. I though it needed more color so I sent Mrs J to the freezer for corn. She said it was white corn but it might do, so we tossed those in as well. It didn’t hurt it.
Beans! I made a double batch because I figure we are heading into peak container garden planting season and they would go well with the other stuff.
Kittehs! A brand new batch.
A sloppy dog, now with extra slop.
Bitsy
I have a rotating image background on my Windows machine, it cycles through pictures I’ve taken over the years since I’ve had a digital camera. I noticed Bitsy looking up at herself a moment ago and whipped out my phone for a shot.
Bitsy
Tidbits
Here’s a photo from the archives. I like the symmetry.
Kroger had a sale on strip steaks. They needed some trimming but were still a pretty good value. I did this sous vide, setting the water bath to 130 degrees for a couple of hours. They finished in a smoking hot cast iron skillet in olive oil and butter, deglazed with white wine and chives for a simple pan sauce.
Sloppy joes for lunch the other day. This one has American cheese and a few dill pickles. The potato salad looks like it has the traditional dusting of paprika but it’s really Creole seasoning. It adds a bit of a tang to it.
BBQ chicken! I’ve taken to cooking these leg quarters in the toaster oven using the slo-cook setting. I did this on the high setting for two hours, no particular reason to choose that time – it’s the default for the high setting. Set it to low and the default is four hours.
I snapped this one of Bitsy lounging atop the sofa, prompted by the play of sunlight through the slots of the vertical blinds.
Hot dogs! I’m not sure how long these buns have been offered but I’m liking the slit on top rather than on the side. These are Pepperidge Farms brand.
I’ll wrap up with some soup. This one uses the broccoli left over from that steak dinner, a bit of smoked pork, rice, and three kinds of cheese in chicken stock and milk.
Tidbits
A friend brought by a stick of his deer sausage the other day. He’s big into smoked and cured meats, going so far as to build a smokehouse in his backyard. He makes his own bacon, butchers his own beef, and is a general handyman. On top of farming and working a full time job at the local electric generating plant.
This is the last of that over cooked chicken that was left too long in the smoker. It was smokey enough that the flavor came through even with the generous addition of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce.
I’m a little slow getting this new coffee brewing stuff up, TaMara’s new coffee machine reminded me I needed to say something. We replaced our old coffee grinder with a better one. This one has a more consistent grind, and the grind timer is good enough to use its settings instead of a separate measuring spoon. The Bunn pourover brewer will be familiar to anyone who has ever ordered coffee in a greasy spoon.
Bitsy is doing some thinking, outside of the box. Sorry, LOL
A couple of shelter kittehs, a momma and her boy. She came into the shelter with four kittens, this is the last to be adopted. You, too, can has a Ginger kitteh!
What you did there…I saw
What's 4 Dinner Solutions 
