Snowing in Michigan

Here in Michigan the weather can change literally in heartbeat. For example last Saturday (November 26, 2011) it was nearly 60°F.  Now today (November 30, 2011) it is 32°F and snowing. When I say snowing its not this nice slowly coming down snow that will accumulate an inch or two of snow; it's snowing hard where I believe that we had probably three inches of snow in like six hours.

Not that I don't mind snow, actually I like until I have to drive in it. I have a big Dodge Ram 4x4 truck, that gets around pretty good even in the snow but it still terrifies me to drive in it because I wrecked one truck in similar type of snow. So when I drove into work today and only had one small/mini panic attack I was very proud of myself.

The snow coming down...look at the pretty blue truck.

When I got the camera out to take a picture of my truck, Big-D wanted me to take (another) picture of his truck. (I have more pictures of his truck on my computer than of anything else.)

I looks so pretty. I like the neighbors lights in the distance.

Weatherman says it suppose to keep snowing on and off until about 9am and that we are to get between three to eight inches of snow. Then get some nice rain and snow mixture to go on top of the snow to make a nice winter fun mess.

Well it should be fun trying to go home from work in the morning. Be really awesome if I didn't have class either and I would totally bake something yummy.

Love ya guys,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Black Friday!

Who went out Black Friday shopping?

We went out Thursday night because the Walmart started their sale at 10PM on Thanksgiving day and Cousin Zack wanted to go and get a ping-pong table. Dude let me tell you there are some crazies at Walmart (no offense to anyone that went to Walmart). The Michigan State Troopers were there and I was like it's never a good sign on calmness when the State Troopers are called in.

Anyways, Cousins Zack got the ping pong table that he wanted, we were all freigthened and decided to go home and just go to bed but Cousin Zack is on of those crazies (okay hes not that bad just likes the excitement of Black Friday so he then sat in line at Kohl's for 2 hours in the cold).

I kind of went Black Friday shopping, bought some things for Big-D from sears.com.

Did you know that almost all the stores offer there Black Friday sales (some even do their Doorbusters deals on online as well)?

We had a dinner and a movie date last night and the movie started at 9:15PM and I was like lets go to the mall for a while. This is where my impulse buy comes in, I bought a new TV.

Hope y'all had fun with whatever you did on Friday!
Over n' out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

My Thanksgiving List

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, mainly because I can eat like my inner fat person and no one judges me for it. But this year Thanksgiving is going to be crazy, here's just a small list of things I have to do today.

Thanksgiving To Do List:

1. Get out of work at 8:00AM
2. Drive 45 minutes to home...(8:45AM)
3. Take a very long shower in hopes that it will wake me up...(9:15AM)
4. Get Big-D up when I am done in the bathroom so he can get in the shower...(9:30AM)
5. Work on Owen's project (will post about in the very near future) since if I lay down I will fall asleep and not want to get up!!
6. Leave for Grandma's house to eat Thanksgiving Lunch...(10:30AM)
7. Eat Thanksgiving Lunch at 11:00AM
8. Get done eating Thanksgiving Lunch and watch the Lions hopefully beat the Packers (12:30PM)
9. Fight over the Black Friday ads with the family
10. Leave Grandma's with leftovers in tow...(1:00PM)
11. Arrive home again (1:30PM)
12. Leave for Uncle Dave's for Thanksgiving Dinner...(2:00PM)
13. Eat Thanksgiving Dinner at 2:30PM
14. 3:00PM realize that I have been up for 24 hours and all I want to probably do is take a nap
15. Decide to play football with the cousins anyways
16. Still playing football...
17. At some point go home and pass out in the Lazy-Boy (maybe I'll post some day about how the Lazy-Boy is more often my bed then my actual bed)
18. Wake up at 5:30AM Friday morning to get ready for work

Now doesn't my Thanksgiving just sound like so much fun...nope! Sounds more like work but I still love Thanksgiving more than Christmas (I know twisted right.)

Things that I will be praying for:

1. For the Colts to win this weekend! 
2. For Peyton Manning to recover completely and properly so he can return next year.
3. For all the service men and women to return home safely.
4. For all the travelers this holiday to have a safe and fun trip.

Things that I am thankful for:

1. I am thankful that I have a wonderful man in my life, Big-D.
2. I am thankful for my job, even though I have weird and crazy hours.
3. I am thankful that there will be loads of food for me to eat today.
4. I am thankful for my family even though most days we don't get along.
5. I am thankful for my crazy friends that keep my entertained.
6. I am thankful mashed potatoes and gravy (my favorite thanksgiving food and well one of my favorite foods in general.
7. I am thankful for my brother being able to spend Thanksgiving at home, there are many service men that are not able to be home with their families.
8. I am thankful that Grandpa is still around for Thanksgiving.
9. Lastly, I am thankful for people like you that took a few minutes out of your lives to read this post.

Hope everyone has a Merry Thanksgiving! 
Love ya guys,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Remmy's Hoodie

Today Remmy got her brand new hoodie that I made for her. She looked so cute in it, other than the fact that she didn't really like the part that went over her head. She freaked out until her head came out the other side. Other then that she really didn't mind wearing it at all.

Here are some pictures of her in her hoodie.

I will totally be making more of these for her and I might try to make one for my aunt's dog as well. Next one that I make will be orange and black flannel.

Over and out,
An Engineer in the Kitchen

Finishing Touches On Remmy's Hoodie

I loved making this little hoodie for Remmy so much that I might actually make her another one. Lindsay requested one with brighter colors; any suggestions?

Here's the last little bit that I had to do to finish it up. Very excited that I get to give it to her tomorrow afternoon!!

The cuffs attached to the sleeves, decided to put the green fleece on the outside to add a little color to the camouflage.

After many swear words and fingers being poked by the needles, the first sleeve was attached. Starting to really look like something. Attaching the sleeves to rest was the hardest thing to do.

 

Both of the sleeve attached. This was the step when I realized that I didn't have that much left to do at all!

Next thing to do was sew up the sides...this step is the step that I broke not one but two needles; one for each side.

Last step was at attach the bottom cuff. (Sorry for the poor picture.)

Okay actually the true last step was to go back and trim some of seams.

I can't believe that this didn't take that much time at all (I believe all of 3 days and not even continually working on it for those 3 days; just kind of here and there.) And I am past happy with the results. Will definitely be making another one for the pooch. If only I could find something like this for my massive dogs, then I'd be all set.

Going over to Lindsay's house tomorrow so I will update with pictures of Remmy hopefully wearing her brand new hoodie.

Over and Out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Goulash

Goulash is one of my favorite meals to make and eat, of course. I like it so much because it is very simple and doesn't take that much time to make at all.

My mom use to make this all time when we were younger, and when I say all the time I mean it; at least once a week. I think she liked to make it for the same reasons that I do, its easy and we love it.

I've also had other peoples goulash and it seems to me that everyone makes it slightly different, so feel free to omit things and add others (for example mushrooms).

The thing that takes the longest about Goulash is the noodles. I always start by getting the water on the stove that way while I am working on everything else it can start to boil. I call this multitask cooking.

(Also use regular tomato sauce, the Prego is what  I get for sending Big-D to the store for me with the list and not specifying that I didn't want Prego just plain tomato sauce. Oh well it turned out pretty good anyways.)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean ground beef*
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 15oz can of tomato sauce
• 1 lb of elbow noodles
• 1 to 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
• 32oz bottle of tomato juice
• Salt & Pepper

Directions:

• First place the water for the noodles on the stove and cook noodles according to directions on the box.
• Chop up the onion and green pepper.
• Fry the ground beef, along with the onions and green pepper. Cook until the beef is no longer pink and drain.
• Once the noodles and the beef are done cooking place in large pot and mix in the tomato juice, tomato sauce and sugar. Salt and pepper as desired.

I like to top it with some mozzarella cheese or Colby Jack cheese (all depends on what I have in the fridge at the time.)

Serve with rolls and you are ready to eat.

Love
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Update on Doggie Hoodie

I have been working on the hooded sweatshirt for my friend's dog, Remmy. I have actually got quite a bit done and it doesn't seem like it has been taking that much time at all to do it. Seems like thing that took the longest was the actually cutting out of the fabrics.

I made a slight adaptation to the pattern that I bought, by adding a fleece lining. I couldn't find a camouflage sweatshirt material, all I could find was t-shirt material and I then I thought this way it could be reversible.

I first sewed the lining and the outer fabrics together (with the right surfaces on the outside).

After I sewed all the lining to the outer fabric it was finally time to work on the pattern. First thing they had me do was sew the front to the back.

Close up on the seams, then I cut a small slit at the V.  (This makes it much easier when attaching the hood to the rest of the hoodie.)

Next on to the hood; very simple to make just sewed the edges to gather.

Cousin Zack so happy that I made him try on the hood. He was so happy when I told him this was going online and that he had the Michigan State University blanket when he is a University of Michigan fan.

Next I sewed the bottom of the hood together; it looks like a hood now.

Then it was time to attach the hood to the front and back. After poking myself a million times in the fingers with the needles, it started to actually look like a sweatshirt.

Close up on the hood attachment.

Hopefully at this rate I will be able to get this finish by tomorrow morning; hasn't taken as long as I thought it would.

Over and out!
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Peanut Butter Cookies

Since I work with virtually all men (I have one fellow female in an office of 50 people) and I love to bake, I try to bring in goodies for the guys every Friday. This has become a ritual since I started working here. However, this Friday I have "the day off", I actually have to come in on Friday to work third shift so its not really a day off. However, the guys won't see me and I didn't want them to think I forgot about them. I made cookies for them a day early.

Last week the guys that work out in the lab on the other side of the plant from the office,found out that I bring in treats and since many of them don't come to the office they felt left out because they never get any treats.  Okay actually only Mike and Jeremy complained since those are the only two that I really talk to out in the lab. I see Mike every morning at 5 AM (damn farmers are really raisers aren't we) so he is about the only one that I talk to for an hour. Yesterday morning I asked him what his favorite cookies were and he first said 'chocolate chip". I replied with "but chocolate chip is boring." (I made of ton of chocolate chip cookies for deer camp last week and wasn't looking forward to making more.) I would have made them for him if that's what he really wanted though. Anyways he then said "peanut butter cookies are good too."

I  then had to look up a peanut butter cookie recipe because I didn't have one and after a few adaptations this is the one that I came up with. (This recipe contains no flour.)

First combine creamy peanut butter ( I wanted to try half crunchy and half creamy but my mother didn't have any crunchy in her pantry, so I will have to make these again and let you know they go with that combination), granulated sugar and the brown sugar.

Why is peanut butter so messy...?

Then mix with electric mixer until completely combined.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Then mix in the baking soda, vanilla extract and salt, mixing well after each addition as well.

Using the small size cookie scoop, drop the cookies onto a greased cookie sheet. If you don't have a cookie scoop (I'd highly recommended getting one)  you can also just roll out about 1 inch balls. Either way will due.

Using a fork press the crisscross pattern into the cookies.

Bake in the oven at 350 ° F for 8 to 10 minutes,until edges are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes before place on cooling rack.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of peanut butter
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 ° F.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter, granulated sugar and packed brown sugar.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
• Mix in the vanilla extract, baking soda, and salt, also mixing well after each addition.
• Using cookie scoop (or rolling balls in hands) drop cookies onto greased cookie sheet.
• Bake in oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until edges are golden brown. 
• Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then place cookies on cooling rack.

Enjoy the cookies with a large glass of milk.

Love,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

PS - I have been given good reviews on this recipe by my taste testers.

December 23rd, 2011 Update: I made these peanut butter cookies again for Mike and the shaft boys, so I made one batch with crunchy peanut butter and they loved them more then the original.

Ramen Chicken Stir Fry

Ramen Noodles are one of my favorite poor college student meals. I mean a pack only cost approximately 20 cents, I believe, and other then the fact that they have no nutritional value to them at all they are quite yummy.

I greatly enjoy trying to think of new ways to make fun and interesting meals with these Ramen noodles that I love so much alone. Here is a chicken stir fry that I have come up with that involves Ramen noodles and other things that actually have nutritional value to them.

First start with a large wok and heat up some oil (enough to cover the bottom of the wok) and garlic. While this is warming cut the chicken breast into bite size pieces.

Next fry up the chicken until it is no longer pink in the middle. Add salt and pepper as desired to the chicken. While the chicken is cooking, cut up your the vegetables. I choose to use a green and red bell pepper, carrots, celery, and onion.

While I was cutting up the vegetables, and I started to throw them in with the chicken I realized that I had forgotten the onion!

Ah that's better.

Once the vegetables are all cut up, start throwing them into the wok with the chicken. I usually like to start with the carrots and celery because they take the longest to cook until tender.

I like to stir one vegetable in at a time; I believe I make less of a mess this way. However, it really doesn't matter I am a messy cook anyways.

Starting to look yummy.

After mixing in the onion, I cover the wok and let cook for a few minutes before adding the bell peppers.

Now if you didn't want to add Ramen noodles, you could stop here. But that would be boring!

Lastly add one cup of chicken stock (or water) per pack of Ramen noodles, I used three packs of Ramen noodles. Cook until liquid is evaporated and noodles/vegetables are tender.

Ingredients:

• Canola oil
• 1 to 2 tablespoons (heaping) garlic
• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 green bell pepper
• 3 carrots
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 onion
• 3 packs of Ramen noodles
• 3 cups of chicken stock or water

Directions:

• Cover the bottom of a large wok with canola oil and add the garlic to the oil. Place over medium-high heat.
• Cut the chicken into bite size pieces.
• Once oil is warm, place the chicken in the oil, stirring occasionally and cook until no longer pink in the middle. Add salt and pepper as desired.
• Slice the carrots and celery stalks into 1/4 inch thick slices. Also slice up the bell peppers and onion.
• Once the chicken is cooked, add the vegetables. Start with the carrots, then celery, onion, and lastly the peppers.
• When the vegetables are tender, add the 3 cups of chicken stock (or water) and the 3 packs of Ramen noodles. Cover the wok and stir occasionally. 
• Stir fry is ready when the majority of the liquid has boiled off and the noodles and vegetables are tender.

I have lots of left overs of this stir fry which is a good thing because Big D is up at deer camp for a few more days and I'll need something to feed myself. (I was even eating some leftovers while I was writing this post.)

Love,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Hoodies for Dogs!

I have a slight addiction to two stores...Barnes & Noble and Joanne Fabrics. I can spend countless of hours at both stores and not even buy anything. Big D hates going to these two stores with me mainly because he knows that he'll have to sit around waiting for me.

Anyways, on Friday I went to Joanne Fabrics to start on a little something something that I am making for a friend's son (will post on that later once I start it). But when I was looking through the pattern books I found the cutest thing I have ever seen for a dog.

Hoodies for dogs!!! Now I looked at the pattern and it said for extra small to medium sized dogs...I don't think my dogs classify as extra small to medium size being that they both are black labs. Sam weighs in at approximately 120 pounds and Dakota is approximately 60lbs.

I really liked these and really wanted to make one so I thought of a surrogate dog that I could make one for...in comes Remmy (short for Remington), this is my best friend's Lindsay's dog (yes my best friend has the same name as me.)

When I showed her which one I wanted to make for Remmy, she thought it was the coolest thing as well (great minds think a like right). However, Matt (Lindsay's boyfriend) said that I could only make one for her if it was Realtree camouflage. So I am making a hooded sweatshirt for a dog that is reversible (little adaptation to the pattern); with camouflage on one side and green fleece on the other.

I will periodically update on this project. Hopefully it won't take to long to make but with my busy schedule you never really know when I will have that much time to work on it.

New Tires

I finally got new tires last night. The tires that I bought were Good Year Wrangler AT/S, which are some awesome All - Terrain tires!!

Anyways, I went to Belle Tie to get those wonderful new tires. I decided to go there for a couple reasons. One of the being those commercials I hear on the radio saying how wonderful they are at Belle Tire and the second being that I a couple months ago need to put a quart of oil in my truck while I was at the gas station, unable to get the oil cap off I saw that there was a Belle Tire next to the gas station. I ran over there and they were so kind to not only take the oil cap off for me but to also put the oil in for me as well. I was very grateful that they did this for me for no charge at all.

After this wonderful experience that didn't even involve tires at all, helped me make my decision to try them for when I actually needed tires.

I'm glad that I went there; the service was as wonderful as the commercials say. I will definitely be going there again.

FYI - I wrote this not because Belle Tire asked me too but purely so that people out there would know that what they say about Belle Tire is correct.

I locked myself out of...

Yesterday, I managed to lock myself out of my own house. Then I couldn't even find a window that I could wiggle open since I actually locked them all.

So this is what happened...

I put off actually getting out of bed until 10 minutes after I needed to get out of bed. Then as I was walking out the door to go to class, I do what I rarely do, the lock the door from the inside instead of with the key...mistake number 1.

Mistake number 2, not grabbing my keys off the counter before I closed the door behind me.

So after not being able to get a hold of Big D to come rescue me, I was finally able to get a hold of my mother who has a spare key to the house.

When it was all said in done, I missed the class that I contemplated skipping anyways.

Hope ya'll have a good laugh at that one.
Love ya,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Snicker Cookies

These are Snicker Cookies...not snicker doodles.

So one day as I bored of making just the plain ole chocolate chip cookies for Big D and decided that I wanted to make him a little something different. (Now to remind ya'll I have a chocolate allergy so I can't even eat most of what I make for him.) Sometimes I believe that I really do love him.

Anyways, Snickers are his favorite candy bar in the whole wide world and me being the creative one that I am I decided to chop them up into little pieces and throw them in the cookie. (FYI - chopping up the Snicker bars are not the easy thing in the world.)

Ingredients:

• 2 & 1/4 cups All-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup ( or 2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, room tempature
• 2 cups of chopped up Snicker bars

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 F
• Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small mixing bowl and place off to the side.
• Beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Mix until creamy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Gradually beat in the flour mixture.
• Stir in the Snicker chips.
• Using a tablespoon (or a cookie scoop) to drop onto an ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake in oven for 9 to 11 minutes, until golden brown.
• Cool on the cookie sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, then remove to cool completely on wire cooling racks.

 Well Big D and a few of the guys that I worked with loved my little experiment of a cookie and have requested that I make it again.

Hope you enjoy them too.
Love ya,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

A Cowboy Sandwich

So every once in a while I like a nice warm sandwich. This sandwich is full of goodness with a lot of meat (which Big D loves meat...more meat the better in his world).

A nice warm and tasty sandwich for the man that I love!  (FYI-this is about the only way I can get him to eat anything that closely reassembles a vegetable.)

 Ingredients: 

• 1 large sliced onion
• 1 & 1/4 sticks of butter
• 2 pounds of Polish Kielbasa sliced about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick
• Salt & Pepper
• 1/4 cup of A1 sauce
• Little bit of Tabasco Sauce
• 2 sliced Bell Green Peppers
• Tomato sliced 
• Sliced Provolone Cheese
• Sub Rolls/Deli Rolls

 Directions:

• Place 1/3 of the butter in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Wait until the butter is melted then cook the green peppers and onions for several minutes, until golden brown. Place in a bowl and cover, put aside.
• Using the same skillet, add another 1/3 of the butter and increase the heat to high. Once the butter is melted, add the Kielbasa and occasionally stirring meat until cooked.
• Decrease the heat to low and mix in the green peppers and onions. Then add the A1, Tabasco sauce, and remaining the 1/3 butter.
• Season as desired with salt and pepper. 
• Slice the sub rolls in half, butter the halves (as much or as little as desired) and place on a hot skillet or griddle.
• Place the meat, onion & green pepper mixtures one half of the roll. Place two slices of cheese and tomato on the other half.

Serve will nice and juicy and warm. This makes about six sandwiches all depends on how much you put on each sandwich.

Welcome To My Kitchen!

Hello there,

To those that don't know me my name is Lyndsey, I am about to become an Mechanical Engineer, have a chocolate allergy and a new love of baking and cooking.

I do all of this in a kitchen that is very very small (all of 90 square feet). It is what I refer to is as a one person kitchen (meaning that only one person can be in there at a time). Now Big D (aka the man of my life and the one that I do most of my cooking for) thinks sometimes when I am cooking that he needs to be in there with me and that doesn't always work out so well and I have to tell him to get out of my kitchen.

My Tiny Kitchen, yes I have two refrigerators but no one purpose. I have to use the little dorm fridge many because the big one is broken (leaks lots of water) and the landlord "fixes it" (but it still leaks) and he refuses to remove it.  The stove is amazing...not...I can't use the stove top and the oven at the same time and I can usually only use one burner at a time (sometimes if I am lucky I can use two).

I have so much counter space...actually most of it is taken up by the microwave.

My little fridge packed full with the essentials (Ranch Dressing, frozen Snickers & Reese's in the freezer for Big D, Mountain Dew) and whatever else might be in there.

That's my kitchen, its not huge but it will work until the day that I get to build my own house and have the kitchen of my dreams. (Which isn't only a few years away!!)