If things don’t improve, I MUST get one of those!
I beg to differ, dear Swampy. I am much more annoying than you.
To wit:
My thought on baked beans:
Leaving aside the whole conundrum about baking soda in the soaking water, after years of soaking my own beans I arrived at the conclusion that prepared canned beans were just as good and a lot less trouble.
This is from memory:
Starting from plain old canned beans, do the following. Cut up slices of apple-wood smoked bacon appropriate to the amount of beans you want to ‘bake’. Put the bacon bits into your bean pot on low and start them rendering while you dice up a big onion. Sweet Vidalia onion, or whatever those ‘sweet’ onions they grow down in Jawja are called is preferred here, but not absolutely necessary. When the bacon has rendered a lot of its fat, toss the onion in and sweat them until they are translucent. You can add some minced garlic at this point if you want. Just cook it for a few seconds. (~30) At this point toss in the canned beans and tomato sauce.
Now to flavor those beans. I usually used molasses, brown suger, mustard (NOT dijon), apple cider, (or some kind of) vinegar, and sometimes barbecue sauce. Depending on the flavor of the tomato sauce, I would sometimes add some catsup too. 
Worsterchestershire sauce is okay to put in too. And of course salt and pepper.
Cook for an hour or so, tasting and adding flavorants periodically.
That’s what I used to do. Nowadays I just buy Bush’s beans. They’re good. And a lot less trouble.
(Although I have been known to add things to them at times.)
While I’m in mansplaining mode, Swampy’s eyetalian chicken is indeed good. I have done it in my very own kitchen.
We’ve been invited to a cocktail party sorta thing this afternoon, featuring Moscow Mules, which we make ourselves at home quite often, so we’re interested to see how other non-bartender people do it. However, Wifey has a whole list of places to stop and get stuff along the way, so we need to get around and get going.
Ta!
wordy, found 'em! I shouldn’t have called them candy. They’re dry mouth drops. They contain xylitol, which is, I take it, the magic ingredient. Anyway, they work way better than hard candy and, unlike hard candy, won’t make overlymom thirsty. They’re a little pricey, but they really are effective.
Our dentist used to give those out. They do work, and don’t taste too bad.
It’s my baby sister’s birthday today, so I just got off the phone with her after doing my dutiful (poor) rendition of the birthday song. My baby sister is 41!!
Read much, retained little, so best to all, {{ }} as needed. Onward!
Now, let’s go see if my finish is cured. Much of my day has been literally watching paint dry.
Oh, thank you! I’ll have to get her some of those as soon as possible!
That’s reassuring. Hopefully she’ll find some relief. Thank you!
Apologies to those who actually bake their beans! No insult was intended - do it the hard way if you must! 
I feel similarly about using box mix vs. baking a cake from scratch. As I see it, the box is full of ingredients that I could have measured out myself - big deal! Same with pie crust. I know how to make my own, but my time is much better spent on the filling. I’ll unroll the crust someone else made, TYVM! 
However, cookies must be made from scratch. Period. No cutting up a pre-made roll of dough or adding water to a mix and calling that baking. Them’s the rules. Look it up!
FCD has gone to his meeting. If he doesn’t get home too late, we’ll go out to eat. If he’s running late or is tired, I may just order for delivery. We’ll see when he’s on his way.
I had to debit A PENNY today.
Got some groceries, had a gift card. Total was $0.01 over the gift card. I had a penny - hell, I have lotsa pennies! - but nnnnoooooo there’s a shortage of quarters → no cash at the self-kiosk → need debit.
For my remaining balance.
Of one cent.
Evenin’ all.
The scorchio weather is just in the process of turning all wet and lightningy. Of course, it’s doing that tomorrow too, when I’m off… I am not complaining about the temperature drop though. I’m irking Firday this week- and please don’t let me forget that, I swapped a shift- which should be the soggiest day of the week though.
My main news of the day is that I’ve decided that all this adult job malarkey is overrated, so I’m going back to skool in September so I can lern more betterer. I’ve not worked out all the practicalities yet, but I got the offer today. I was pretty sure I was going to get in; I knew they were low on applicants, and I’ve already talked to the course lead and went through some details online a few weeks ago, but I wasn’t quite expecting it to be that fast- from getting the ‘We have received your application and are processing it’ email to getting the offer email was under an hour.
Shoe I hope you had enough in the account to cover it!
I have never baked beans from scratch. I like Bush’s Beans but now that I am a man of leisure I am upping my cooking game and willing to give it a try. I have also seen a few recipes for Bean With Bacon soup. We like the canned stuff but I bet it is a lot tastier from scratch.
Retirement tastes real good here in flyover country
I got my second dose yesterday!
from the weather pop up on my pc :
111°F
Sunny
Expect partly sunny skies. The high will reach 111° on this breezy day.
FEELS LIKE 109°
WIND 4 mph
VISIBILITY
9.9 mi
HUMIDITY
6%
PRESSURE
29.82 in
DEW POINT
25°
Regarding xylitol, you should be aware that it’s HIGHLY toxic to pets. If you get this product, be sure to keep it where your pets cannot possibly get hold of it. Many animal hospitals and vets say one bit of it can kill a dog or a cat. I also know how pets can get into things so I try to keep xylitol out of my house. This requires reading labels as it is becoming common as a sugar substitute in all manner of things. It has even been spotted in peanut butter.
Late afternoon, all. Pretty much another day of sloth, albeit without a nap (yet). Puzzles in the paper are all solved, it’s 87F outside and got a telephone reminder of my appointment tomorrow. They asked me to call when I got there, but since I don’t own a cell phone I’ll have to call before I leave (less than 10 minute drive).
shades, that is in the ‘damn hot’ category, reminds me of my days in Abu Dhabi. Take care.
EG, good news on the shot records…I’d like to bet that the average for the MMP being fully vaccinated is higher than the national average (and much higher than my state of Ali-bama).
I’ve never cared much for beans (outside of green beans), so cannot offer anything on that matter.
Nut, hope the schoolin’ works out well for you.
Shoe, never had a penny charged, but I’ve been below a buck a few times. And yeah, about half the self-checkouts in Wally-World won’t take cash, which bugs me, being an old fogey, cash & carry guy.
VanGo, congrats to lil’ sis.
OK, need to start dinner. Everyone have a fine evening (or for our Brits and Swiss, a good morning).
EG , good news on the shot records…I’d like to bet that the average for the MMP being fully vaccinated is higher than the national average (and much higher than my state of Ali-bama)
My national average, or yours?
(Sorry for incorrectly quoting, can’t recall how to do it.)
So they replaced the kitchen faucet, now I can do dishes in the kitchen again. Having a Sazarac(hoping a French Quarter cocktail will help the French Canadian hockey team tonight. 
).
Yay! 
Happy 41st, VanSis. Now get off my lawn.
Thank heavens, yes, the AC got fixed. I had to rest extra for a week to recover from sitting around without it, panting and whining the whole stifling while. Took a full 24 hours to get it down to 76 inside the house.
And there is the lamentable fact that I don’t do nearly as much as any of you. Just reading about junior vestrying, pushing the vacuum around or walking errands, much less showing up for work-work and heaving makes me chagrined. Sundays I wrangle Hattie, Mondays I rest from that. The other days I’m doing good if I accomplish one adulting thing. Yesterday was renewing the 3 kitty licenses online. Today we went to the grocery store, two banks and I took myself to the pharmacy to get a TDAP booster ahead of my grandson’s arrival at the end of the month. The groceries got carried in and the bags set down. The two refrigerated things got put away. The rest may not til tomorrow. I’z tarhed and just want to drink my Coke Zero.
With any luck my youngest son and his sweetie will call me from Ann Arbor and I will get to FaceTime with them for a while-my imitation of nellie’s rich phone life. Next month they move into a bigger apt and can get a long awaited doggie so I’ll be sure ask about grand dog progress.
So, no mumper is missing anything~Boo isn’t doing anything. Historically I’m in survival mode all summer. Read, sip coffee and iced drinks and pet kitties. The sum total of my ambition.