Tuesday's To-Dos

Good morning, my friends. I wasn't just kidding when I said it would be a kitchen day yesterday. It was after lunch time before I finished the things I wanted to make ahead. On the bright side, dinner was finished for last night and for tonight. Mike will be smoking and cooking a brisket (our brisket is actually a tri-tip) to make burnt ends. My contribution will be a sauce I'm going to make this afternoon, and the Dill Potato Salad I made yesterday. Easy peasy for me. A little more work for him.

Before I got going in the kitchen, though, I stitched up what was in my embroidery hoop. 

While I was stitching that, Smitty took up a position in the shade on our patio. He was in a stand off with a squirrel. You can see the squirrel in the upper left corner of the image below.

The squirrel looked at Smitty.

Smitty looked at the squirrel.

I'm not sure what happened after that, but the next time I saw Smitty, he was loving on Eliza. He really likes it when we quilt.

Two more quilt blocks are quilted now. There are three embroidered blocks left to quilt. Those might get finished today. These are the two from yesterday. 

When I turned around in my chair, I saw that Smitty was keeping a look-out on the landing outside my door. It's good to have a purrtector when one is distracted by one's quilting.

As for last night's dinner, I started some Tex-Mex chili in the slow cooker yesterday morning. We like to top ours with chunks of avocado, shredded cheddar, onion, and sour cream.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I was trying a copycat recipe for Red Lobster Chedder Bay Biscuits. This recipe is from Damn Delicious. I can't say if they taste like the ones from Red Lobster because I can't recall ever having theirs. In any case, these were very tasty, and easy to make.

The recipe calls for an optional 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne. I added the cayenne, and it gave the biscuits a barely perceptible bit of heat. I'd use it again. Also, it said to knead the dough a little until it comes together and then roll it with a rolling pin. My dough came together when I mixed it with a rubber spatula, and then I just formed it into a rectangle with my hands. The rolling pin was unnecessary. I was able to get 12 biscuits by reshaping my scraps. For the 12th, I had just some random hunks of dough left. I set the biscuit cutter on the counter and then stuffed it with the hunks of dough, kind of squishing them together to make a nice shape. 

Okay, so that was yesterday. I'm meeting my friend Sue for breakfast this morning. She's buying me breakfast for my back-in-May birthday. (We were traveling at the time.) After breakfast, I'm going to try to snag some annuals for my flower pots. After that, I'll pick up whatever grocery items are on my shopping list, and then I'll come home. When I get home, I'll need to make the sauce for our burnt ends dinner tonight. It's a busy morning and day ahead, but I believe I can still find time for some quilting this afternoon. I'm hoping to finish quilting the embroidered blocks for the Blackwork Baskets quilt. 

So there's plenty to keep me out of trouble today. What are you doing to stay out of trouble? It's comfortable here, but we're expecting some warmer temperatures over the next few days. You folks under the heat dome...stay hydrated, please. And try to stay cool.