THANK YOU DEE!!

Oh look ... not QUITE as much fog this morning at 4:00, but it will "dense" up in no time.  We are still sitting at 43 degrees ... perfect humidity weather, just not hot.  This is expected to continue for the next nine days.  Sadly, there have been lots of accidents from people driving too fast without their lights on.  They also tend to follow too close when they CAN see another car, thinking it's not that bad.  That's when they rear end the guy.  Though my plans were to return to Q for the rest of the reservation, it doesn't look like that will happen.

I prefer to stay safe at home with Mr. Cooper.  Besides, if I move just half an inch, he wakes up with a "what are you DOING!" look.  You know the saying, let sleeping dogs lie.

But on this day, I really needed to drive up North to the gal who does embroidery work.  I promised the Veteran he would have his quilt as soon as I got back, and now that my machine is not working, it's going to take another month before it's done.  Maybe more depending on how busy the quilt shop is with quilting.  I'll be lucky if I can get mine up and running in 3 or 4 months.  The backlog is big!  Lucky for me, Mary Jo still has this particular work stored in her machine because she did the last one that disappeared, so there will be no setup.  YAY!!

I contemplated lots of stops on the way and even did a drive by Walmart just down the street from her.  I needed DEF and some groceries, but their parking lot was a madhouse.  It just boggles the mind how busy town is.  Doesn't anyone work any more?  On workdays it was always a ghost town, but now it's no different than Saturday Jammies Day!!

I did make ONE stop on the way home.  You probably guessed this one ... Panda Express.  This is a BIG plate and only HALF of the portions.  If nothing else, you can feed two people for $11.00 and it's delicious.  

When I let Kitters in, I expected her to go straight for the chair.  Instead, she went straight for the scratching post.  This is too funny!  She just LOVES this thing.  Never did I ever think she would play with anything.  She's a WILD kitty.  I thought it was over when she got so crazy it tipped over, but when I put a heavy rock grinding stone on the base, she went back at it for 15 minutes.  

That brought about a round of chair sitting, though peeking just to be sure I didn't get up.  If I do, she and Cooper both follow me like puppy dogs.

Trouble is, they both follow me right into the sewing room and I get nothing but cat hair in my mouth from her sitting two inches from my face.  Instead, I whipped up some peanut butter cookies.  I tried the new method of baking them at 400 for less minutes, but unlike the video on my phone, it did NOT work out well at all.  Never believe those videos!

I just can't believe this kid turned into such a pretty kitty with a weird white spot on her nose.  She is always up in my business and looking for pets and rubs.  Starved for affection as well as food I guess.

Big thanks go out to Dee for reminding me that meat recipe I used to have as a kid was called Swiss Steak.  It could be fixed one of two ways.  One ... Lipton onion soup mix with water, or Two ... Lipton onion soup mix with stewed tomatoes.  

I tried the second one, but let me just say DO NOT USE ROTEL!  Ooooweeeee that stuff was HOT, and I don't mean stove hot.  I only used half a can with water and it was WAY more than needed.  Note to self ... use regular stewed tomatoes.  

In the old days, when we butchered our own cattle, only because they died of something or other, the cuts of meat were not exactly the pretty ones you see in the grocery store.  One time we sent it to a real butcher to cut up, but it was way too expensive for us.  Instead, my dad just cut it up kinda sorta like he thought it should be and we froze it.  

Not having "hung" in the walk-in for a week, meant the meat was always VERY tough.  Yes, all that meat you buy is hung in walk-in refrigerators at a specific temperature for at least a week to become more tender.  The longer it hangs, the more tender and expensive it is.

This recipe .. brown the meat, dump in one envelope of onion soup mix and 1-1/2 cups of water and cook for 45-60 minutes on the stovetop ... made that tough meat much more palatable.  And I LOVED IT!!  Boy did this dinner bring back memories!!  I'll be making it again very soon from that box of 50 steaks I acquired.  

It was a nice day with the kids, made even better by knowing that it was BINGO night and I was NOT going.  BAD Nancy!!

Today I have to drive the Beast (meaning the van) to keep the battery from dying, so I'll take the long route to Wally World.  If it weren't for needing DEF, I would probably not go at all.  Here's to another nice do-nothing day!!