Monday, Monday

Monday, Monday, so good to me
Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be
Oh Monday mornin', Monday mornin' couldn't guarantee
That Monday evenin' you would still be here with me.

Oops, sorry--reminded me of the Mamas and Papas lyric.

So hope you had a good weekend.  It was fairly quiet around here though I did a bit of running around.  I had fasting lab to do ahead of my routine MD checkup this week and had just walked back in the door when Jane called to see if I wanted to run over to the Ashville House Quilt Shop with her and stop for a bite to eat.  Our friend Aline is laid up right now due to a recent accident so we stopped to see her on the way.  Well, on the way back too since she asked us to pick something up that the shop had set aside for her along with their block of the month patterns.  Aline has asked me to finish the assembly on her D9P for guild since she will be unable to sew for a bit.  Not my favorite pattern-- hers either now that she has done one, LOL--but I do want to help out my pal.  The blocks are done so just put them together and double border it .

I paired up some more block pairs for Charming Boxes on Friday but took a break from sewing for a couple of days.  Worked on my knitting-- I should be able to get this one finished and one more out of the ball.  I have ran errands, made some Taco Pasta Salad*** (recipe will be posted below though I didn't exactly follow it this time!) , balanced the checking account---some silly errors and omission of entries will mess you up every time, won't they?  Basic home stuff but no cleaning.  I'm still having a bit of trouble with the vertigo.  After looking for Oscar under the bed, I realized afresh that I should NOT do stuff like that right now!


Saturday the Postal Service had their annual "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive.  Since I was not sure I would catch the carrier, I took my donation stuff into the local post office instead.  Then on to the recycle bins on my way down to Golden Springs Baptist Church as they were having their bi-annual Car and Quilt Show.  Antique or classic cars for the guys out in the parking lot and quilts set up inside the gym area.  I've got some pictures on my camera that I'll probably post later.  Ran into some quilting buddies there, of course.  They were also having Lick Skillet Days in downtown Oxford and I think that guild was doing quilting demos but I passed on that.  Circled through Zaxby's on the way back and headed for home.

Yesterday afternoon I headed back to the sewing machine.   I had picked up a couple batik charm packs at the quilt shop the other day and said "this looks like the ones you used on your block, Jane."  She said she would let me use her leftovers and dropped them by the house so I used them in 3 more of the blocks and sort of a matching one to her block but down lower and reversed the block orientation.  When the dust settled, I found I only had 2 more blocks to make.  I was trying to decide on what colors to use in the last row and repositioned some more blocks so let it rest for a bit but later paired up what I needed.  Put those together this morning so this is the final layout.  I got them stacked in rows and pinned together so I am NOT going to be tempted to tweak this any further!!  I scattered the colors the best I could as there is quite a bit of blue in here as it turns out.  Purple in every row and a cream/yellow too, red/pink as well.  It will be fine.

I'll go back in the sewing room in a bit to get started.  Oscar is making going outside indications so I will heed the whining and stretch both of our legs.  THX for stopping by---------

****
Okay, this time making this instead of another dish was a last minute plan SOOO I had to used petite diced canned tomatoes instead of chopped fresh Roma ones.  I also did not have any shredded cheese so I chunked up a couple oz, of Velveeta instead and tossed that in with the warmed noodles.  I like that better as the cheese got all melt-y in the rotini swirls as it would when you make tuna mac salad.  I will do that again.  (There are two things from growing up that I still eat routinely--grilled cheese made with Velveeta and PBJ sandwiches)  I realized I had accidentally gotten chopped black olives instead of sliced.  I used some of the can but WON'T do that again, LOL.   It still makes a ton of it and I put half of it in the freezer.

Taco Pasta Salad

It makes a big recipe and even halved it made up about 12 cups of salad.  I added about a 1/2 can each of drained fire-roasted corn and black beans, rinsed as I like them--a lot.  I would also add some chopped green onion or recommend browning some diced onion with the ground beef.

This is for the larger amount.

16 oz. container of rotini, cooked and drained

1 lb. of ground beef,  browned and drained 

1 envelope taco seasoning

3/4 cup water

8 oz. shredded Cheese---I used Mexican blend****

4 oz. sliced black olives, drained

1 chopped tomato

chopped green pepper

chopped onion---I cooked mine with the meat

chopped avocado might be good on this too but I used some corn and beans instead 

16 oz. bottle of Catalina dressing---I used Kraft Light and dialed it back a bit

Prepare the rotini--toss in a tad of the dressing to keep the noodles from sticking. Prepare the meat adding the taco seasoning and water till the liquid is reduced as you do in making tacos.  Combine the two and refrigerate for a hour or so.

I just mixed all the veggies and then added them to the rotini and beef.  Toss with the dressing.  Add the cheese before serving.   ****See my note about the Velveeta substitution.