Foursome of Fannies

Good morning, my friends! We're nearly halfway through the month. How's everyone doing out there? It's been a busy weekend here, and we're not finished yet. The kids are coming for dinner tonight, and so I've been busy in the kitchen. Before I did anything else yesterday, though, I spent some time with my slow-stitching. I'd missed it the day before. Now October's block for "Joy in the Ordinary" is finished. 

I'll add that one to September's block, finished a few days ago. Both blocks need borders before they can truly be called "finished."

So that means I'll start on the sixth block for Grandpa's Bridges this morning. I made this one up before we left on our trip, and it went along for the ride. I never opened the box while we were on the road, and so it has been waiting a while for its turn.

These are the other blocks I have for this quilt so far:

Okay, so then I took a walk on the treadmill, and then went to work in the kitchen. On yesterday's list was to make a Seven Layer Salad. I suppose everyone has their own way of making this salad. I make it the way my mother did it, using this recipe. It's one of Erik's favorite salads. Since we're celebrating his birthday, he gets what he wants.

Also, I asked Mike whether he'd rather have Dilled Potato Salad or Tangy and Creamy Macaroni Salad. He chose the latter. This is a good macaroni salad. The ones I get at the grocery store deli always disappoint me, and so I'm happy to have a mixture that I like. 

With that done, I could finally get to my sewing. It was late in the day by then, and so I was only able to finish one more lady, her bag, and her flip-flops.

Here are the four ladies I have so far.

There is still one more to make. I don't know if I'll have time to get to it today. There is more cooking to do. I'm baking an apple crisp for our dessert, and a batch of cookies, just because. We don't exchange gifts in our family any more, but I usually make some kind of something to pass along. Also, I'm making a appetizer dip and some barbecue sauce for our main dish of burnt ends. Oh yes, and I decided to make a sangria. It's one I've made before, but I'm usually the only one drinking it, and so I haven't made it for a while. Mike told me he'd drink some with me, and I expect the kids will too.

For last night's dinner, I tried this recipe for Jerk Chicken Meatballs with BBQ-Pineapple Glaze. This was so yummy, and very easy to make. It's easy enough to do in the RV, which always gives a recipe bonus points in my kitchen.

They didn't have ground chicken when we were at the grocery store, and so we went with ground turkey. In my experience, ground turkey is less expensive, and there's almost no difference in flavor. Also, the original recipe called for "Jamaican jerk seasoning paste." I couldn't find anything like that in our grocery store, and I looked all over the store. I finally settled on this bottle of Caribbean Jerk marinade. I figured I could use it as a marinade if it didn't work in the meatballs.

It's more like a sauce than a paste, and so it made the meatball mix a little too wet for shaping. I doubled the amount of breadcrumbs in mine, and that worked out fine. It made 12 meatballs, and so there's enough for another meal. We had ours over rice, and that was a good way to soak up that delicious glaze.

So here's my adaptation of the original recipe. If you can find the Jamaican jerk seasoning paste, just know to use two tablespoons, and then add just half the amount of breadcrumbs listed here:

Okay...there's plenty to do today. I'm going to get any early start. Hopefully, I'll have some time for sewing today.