5S audit

It's crazy stuff at work. Our owner comes over twice a year from Japan for a company update & 5S audit. 5S is a big deal. In Japanese, its an acronym for seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, & shitsuke. The American-ized translation is sorting, straightening out, shining, standardizing, and sustaining the practice. My first 2 weeks of work consisted of primarily helping prep for this event. Plants & trees were brought in, gold fish added to our conference table fish tank, everything that is white was either cleaned or touched up with paint, displays & signs created for EVERYTHING. It's a big deal! The goal is for every room to intrigue all 5 senses. So its has to look good, smell good, candies are all over so it "tastes" good, music is playing so it sounds good, and it has to have a lot of "hands on" things. All this work for 5 minute tour. Mr. Suzuki's time here is scheduled to the minute, because he is only here for 2 days. It has definitely been fun so far!

New job

I finish my last week at Shambaugh next Friday, and then get to dive into the automotive world. I'll be working for Enkei as a solid model designer & FE analysis girl. Enginerding at its finest. I'm a lil geeked about it all ready. The whole thing still feels surreal. In 2 weeks, I had made negotiations with the recruiter, been approved for the interview, prepped for the interview, had the interview, received & accepted their offer, signed the contracts & put in my 2 week notice. So crazy! Either they're desperate, or I knocked it out of the park in my interview. Either way, I'm stoked! After 2 years of "living" in Bloomington, I'll actually be LIVING IN BLOOMINGTON!

Knitting project numero dos

This one went a lot quicker than the "engagement scarf" for Adam. This yarn worked perfectly though. It was so big and fluffy, I couldn't bare parting with it. But I did, and its new home is with my sister.

Mobile blogging?!

Maybe this will make blogging easier!

You've Arrived!

If you're reading this, it means that you've successfully navigated the interwebs and found my new blog address!!!  I'm sorry for the confusion.  But it will make things so much easier for me!!!  Hope to post something interesting (& yummy) soon!

By special request

So, I'm skipping the apologies this time.  We all know my current situation, and my lack of cooking at the moment due to it, and for those of you who don't know what's going on, consider yourself lucky that you're not tied up in it.  But my intentions for this post are not for rantings, it is because I promised a follower a recipe while Up North, and have yet to carry through.  She also called me out on it on her blog.

It was a lemon themed trip this year to Petoskey with Lemon-Poppeyseed "Pound-Cake" Muffins (which may be post worthy at a later date) & Lemon Curd.  This "someone" whom I promised the Lemon Curd recipe to just so happened to be gifted a spectacular little pan at Christmas time to make the most wonderful little puffy pancakes, Ebelskivers.  And I instantly thought "LEMON CURD FILLING!" when she had shown me her new acquisition.

So Lemon Curd it was.  It's a CINCH to make.  Seriously.  I came across my recipe at SmittenKitchen this summer while I had a craving to try my hand at some type of fancy bread.  (And I'm sad to say I don't have any pictures of how much of a success that was, but my friends will tell you that they thought I bought it.  It looked that "professional".)

But I'll give you a condensed version so you don't have to stare at the beautiful bread at the top of SmittenKitchen's blog and salivate all over your keyboards.  Moisture & computers equals not good.  I only have two pieces of advice when it comes to this recipe.  1-DEFINITELY keep whisking the mixture while its thickening.  If you don't, you'll get bits of scrambled eggs in your curd.  It's not a HUGE deal, because you can just siv them out with a fine strainer, but doing so also strains out the lemon zest, and you lose that added lemon oomph. 2-The ingredients are anything obscure, so buy enough lemons to make at LEAST a double batch.  It's that good.

Lemon Curd
Adapted from Gourmet
Makes a little shy of 1/2 cup

Ingredients
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon zest, finely grated
3 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Whisk together juice, zest, sugar, and egg in a 1-quart heavy saucepan. Stir in butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubble appears on surface, about 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer lemon curd to a bowl and chill, its surface covered with plastic wrap, until cold, at least 1 hour.  Will keep in a sealed container in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Horrible me

I've been awful at keeping consistant at posting to my blog. This is another promise to jump back on the wagon. Maybe if I try to just post once a week, I'll do better. Seems like however, after I write this post, I'll feel the need to write soon after about something amazing and spectacular. Pace yourself, Jonelle. Pace.
I just read some wonderful posts about summer lists. Things people want to taste, see and do. Maybe I'll try to gather one up myself sometime. Soon, but not too soon. I do have similar goals as these people for the summer, but I have one enormous, pressing matter to deal wit before that. I can't wait to be living in Bloomington full time!