Google SketchUp: 2 Versions of Turrets and Towers

I am a self-proclaimed software junkie, and fairly consistently recognized as one of the more speedy SketchUp users within my program.  Do I know how to do it all? Of course not.  But I am pretty good at getting where I need to be.

Last semester we had a huge SketchUp model to do in a class, and there was a building downtown with a turret on top.  I loved the building.  I HAD to do this building.  It took a lot of time the first round, but it helped me develop a good system for both round and square towers and toppers.  Square is ALWAYS simpler, which I imagine is true for building as well.  But if you have a little patience you can do either.

Start by making a small square from one corner of your building back towards the center.  Use the end point on that square as the beginning of a larger square directed away from the center of the building.  You will likely need to type in the dimensions on the second square if you cannot get it to hover out on the right axis.  I used a 2'10 square for the small one and about a 5' square for the larger.

Use the Push/Pull button to bring the square to the bottom of your building.  Next, use Push/Pull to bring the square up an extra 5' or however tall you want this particular thing to be.

Starting with a back corner, use the rectangle tool to draw a 3" or similar width rectangle around each side.  This will help make a ledge.

Next, use the line tool to draw an X from the corners of the top square to make 4 triangles.

Using the push/pull again, bring the ledge out a couple of inches to form the base of the top.  Using the eraser tool, erase two of the top corners (I do ones next to each other not across), which should eliminate all but one side and one top triangle.

 Using the line tool, start at the point of the remaining triangle and draw down to the corner of the interior top square (not the corner of the ledge).  Do this on 3 sides.

Erase the top triangle and remaining vertical side, and your final panel should be under it. 

Additionally, not shown in this picture, you can use the offset tool to create details in each triangular panel.  This can be really interesting visually, and if you are modeling a real building may be essential. 

Finally, add color as desired and remaining features for your building.

Here is the finished little building with a basic flat roof.

Next we will work on a round turret.  Start out using the circle tool.  From the corner of the building at the top, pull a circle towards the center of the building, however large you want the tower to be.

Do not erase the lines within it yet. 

Using the push pull tool, pull the circle down to the base of the building to create the tower.

 Under "Draw" you will find "polygon".  Click the polygon draw tool and type in "12" and hit enter to make the system draw a 12 sided polygon. This is what I use for tops that I want to look kind of close to round.

Pulling along one of the sides of the building, draw the polygon so that there is a little overhang.  This will create the base for the ledge.

Draw a very small (I used 3 inch) second polygon on the corner again, dragging the same direction as the larger polygon.  This will ensure that your lines line up in the end.

Using push/pull, pull the sides of the large poly up a few inches. Erase the lines in the ledge made by the sides of the building after the pull.

 Erase any extra lines within the small polygon and pull it up as high as you want the top to be.

If you want there to be a part of the top sticking out above the panels you will put in, use the line tool to draw all the way around the top of the pole as far down as you want the top of the panels to be.

 Draw from the top down to the base of the ledge, it should snap to an "endpoint".  Make a second line down from the next connection of the top and then add a third line to complete the panel. 

This does leave a sliver of space between the bottom of the panel and the ledge (due to the tower being circular and the ledge not) but this is easily hidden with paint.

Keep making the panels all the way around, add color and remaining features, and enjoy your cute little turret.

I completely love SketchUp and have had a BLAST learning how to do different things in it.  My best advice if you are trying to tackle something you are unsure how to construct is to just break it down into its basic shapes and go from there.  Every complex feature is a series of very simple ones, you just need the right combinations.

Happy crafting!

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Jungle Baby Shower Cake

So this will be short and sweet (hah, cake, sweet, how clever).  We did this baby shower cake this morning using edible images, fondant leaves, and green scrolling for vines.

We used a leaf cookie cutter and then used scissors to cut small sections out of the leaves.  I came through with a writing tip and drew all sorts of vines coming down from the top of the layers.  It really gave some added character to the monkeys to make them look like they were swinging!  How fun.

Asymmetrical vines keep your stress levels down and the cake fun and interesting the whole way around. 

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Super Soft Almond Cookies: Chobani Coco Loco Flip Cookies

Ingredients:
-1/2 C sugar
-1 container Chobani Coco Loco Flip plus 1/2 container of plain Chobani (I used the rest of my 2% carton)
-1/2 C Almond meal (aka pulverized almond dust, I bought almond meal at Trader Joe's for a great price!)
-1/2 C AP Flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 egg
-1 tsp vanilla (almond extract if you have it!)
pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 375 and grease a couple of cookie sheets.  Mix all the ingredients and drop by spoonfuls onto the sheet.  For once, I did not even use my Kitchenaid.  Bake for 8-10 minutes (8 if dark nonstick) until the edges are just starting to brown.  Remove from the oven, let them rest a couple of minutes, and transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

I would highly suggest tossing in some coconut for extra texture if you just happen to have it.  These come out with a texture like a cake or pancake but in a completely mobile cookie form.  And they are DELICIOUS!  If you don't want them to come out so thin, you might try it with 3/4 C AP Flour and only 1/4 c of almond meal. 

My bag of almond meal says you can sub almond meal in for up to 50% of the flour in a recipe, but with something like a cookie that doesn't have a pan that holds it shape it would be worth considering subbing a smaller amount.  I personally did not care if they were thin, but some people are particular about their cookies.

Not I.  If it is a cookie, I'ma munch it regardless of size.  YUMMY.

These are delicious, but addicting.  So be prepared to tell yourself that they are cookies and you probably shouldn't eat the whole batch.

I just reminded myself that Greek yogurt is healthy every time I needed an excuse to grab another one ;).

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Space Saver: Vertical Plates

I have been considering this for quite some time, and I finally found just the right contraption to make it happen.  Now, let me just say I am not the queen of organization at ALL.  But every now and again I have a moment like this that offers me a glimmer of hope that it may some day be something I am better at.

Anyway, I found a pot lid rack at Meijer for under $2.  That is my kind of price range.  It allowed me to put my plates vertically instead of stacking them.  Since I have a mix of square and round plates, and only my round ones fit my microwave, a single stack of plates is not an option for me. 

Inevitably I would always end up not having the plate I needed or it being a hassle when I was putting dishes back up.  So until this point, I have had my square plates on one level and my round ones on another.  That made my bowls have to move to a completely different cabinet.

NOW, however, I have all my plates plus my small guys on this shelf, and my bowls fit with plenty of room to spare on the shelf above. It is basically a sigh of relief.

So no, this might not necessarily be considered a craft to some people, but it is one of the darn craftiest ideas I have come up with in a while.

And it was cheap, did I mention that?

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Dinner WINNER: Crispy Skillet Fried Chicken and Fettuccine (using my homemade sauce!)

First off, meet one of my very favorite oils.  This stuff is absolutely delicious, and one of my favorite things to fry with.  Keep in mind my version of frying is a skim of oil in a skillet, not deep frying...that stuff is dangerous.

Ingredients:
-1 Chicken tenderloin
-1 egg
-1/8 C milk (not stringent, I basically just like to make a thick batter of mostly egg)
-2-3 TB Panko Bread Crumbs
-2-3 TB Flour (larger tenderloins may need a little more, mine was small)
-Meijer Sun-Dried Tomato infused oil
- Pasta and sauce

First off, you can find my homemade skinny fettuccine sauce recipe on my blog from a few days ago, found here http://greenzebra9.blogspot.com/2013/04/homemade-skinny-fettuccine-sauce-on.html

I dropped my pasta in boiling water and put asparagus and tomatoes in a skillet with butter and seasoning salt, added a little water, and put a lid over them to steam.  Then I started prepping my chicken.

Put your chicken on a cutting board and pound it thin with a meat tenderizer (I used the spiked side).  Thin chicken gets done a LOT faster.  It also makes a tiny chicken tenderloin look a lot bigger.  Salt your chicken.  I literally always forget to do that.

I started pounding out chicken a lot after my mom ordered chicken di pana at Cheesecake Factory.  It is a very thinly pounded piece of chicken which you can mimic by cutting a chicken breast in half and pounding out to make two thin pieces.  I highly suggest cutting chicken breasts in half regardless, as it is a sneaky way to make meat last longer.

When you have it thin you want to dunk it in an egg and milk mix in one bowl, and then transfer it to a mix of the panko and flour in another bowl and coat on both sides.  I used whole wheat flour this time, it really did not change the flavor.  But I was curious!

Heat a skim of oil on medium heat, you will want to turn it down later if it begins to pop.  When it is hot, drop the chicken in it and fry until golden brown, flipping minimally.

The oil gives it SUCH a tasty flavor, and you can easily rev it up more with the addition of some basil and rosemary to your flour and panko.

I made way more than I could eat, of course, so I just chopped up all my remaining things and put it in a bowl with the leftover pasta.  This will make for some tasty alfredo leftovers for tomorrow or Friday!

So to recap, frying in a flavored oil is an excellent idea and a little goes a long way, cutting chicken breasts in half or using one pounded tenderloin per person might be a good option for saving money or cutting back, and leftovers are a delicious part of life.

And Meijer had that honey oat bread in the background, which perfectly capped off my Cheesecake Factory inspired meal. 

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Countdown Calendars: College Survival

So being a college kid for about 5 years now, I have learned that the final semester of any school year is when you have to do the most planning if you want it to go smoothly. 

This has helped me out a lot since I started cooking at my apartments and dorms and similar.  I have a feeling I would use before vacations as well.

Basically what I do is I take an inventory of everything in my freezer, and sometimes the stuff in my fridge.  I rarely have a problem using up what's in my fridge, though, so I usually stick to figuring out what meat and similar I have and need to use. 

For this calendar I have what meals I want to make for the month, the critical assignments for school, and I have grayed out the weekends I have things planned.  In bold I have things I will probably use as crafts of the day.

As you can maybe guess, I do Meatless Monday as often as possible (no I don't count seafood as meat).  I have to plan for a night class on Thursdays, so I try to account for leftovers and having something to eat for that day as well with my Wednesday plans.  I actually had more stuff in my freezer than I will likely use throughout all this, which is exactly why I highly recommend doing this before you are leaving for an extended period.  I probably would have bought more chicken if I had not realized how much I had versus how few days I needed to cook.

If you are really prone to forgetting things, make it your background for that month.  You may not be able to see everything depending on how cluttered your desktop is, but it will serve as a reminder that you need to get things done.

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Homemade Skinny Fettuccine Sauce on Trader Joes Garlic Noodles

Every now and then I like a store so much my inner 3 year old just wants to skip through it.  However, being a very reserved human, I just have to skip in my head.  All through Trader Joe's, I was definitely skipping in my head.  It was my first trip since the one in Louisville opened, and it will definitely not be my last...

Thank God I found a paid internship, right?

Anyway, we were perusing the store as I wanted to get some almond meal for future macarons until I get my food processor.  I would like to take a moment to call shenanigans on Rainbow Blossom (another natural food store in the area) for wanting to charge TWELVE DOLLARS for SIXTEEN OUNCES of almond meal.  Trader Joe's had it for four bucks.

Point is, I went there for almond meal and I came out with noodles, a super cute reusable bag, almond meal, and a newfound store love.

When I opened the bag of noodles my sense of smell was met with a strong but fantastic garlic and herb profile.  I knew that a cream sauce was just the ticket, and had been at my sister's house a few weeks back when she made fettuccine using Greek yogurt. With AMPLE amounts of Greek stocked in my fridge, I knew I had just the right set of ingredients to make it happen.

Ingredients:
-1.5 TB butter
-1.5 TB flour (aka, heaping TB)
-3/4 C milk (I always use vitamin D milk)
-3 ounces Chobani Plain 2%
-1/4 C parmesan cheese
-Optional dash of garlic and similar if you are putting these on plain noodles
-Salt to taste

Melt the butter in a pot on a mid range heat setting.  When it is nice and melty, pop in the flour and stir, stir, stir.  If it starts to get all bubbly just take it off the heat for a second while you are stirring it and turn your heat down just a touch.  Add in the milk, parmesan, and seasonings and continue to stir.  Let it cook for a few minutes, stirring, until it starts to thicken.  Remove it from the heat, add in the Greek yogurt, and stir well.  You do not need to put it back on the heat.  You may find that you need just a touch more milk to thin it back out, as Chobani Greek Yogurt is incredibly thick and luscious.

Give it a taste and add a little more cheese or salt if needed.  Also consider sprinkling on more parm after you have mixed this in with your pasta noodles.

And of course, I topped mine with fresh cracked pepper.  My father, the scorner of all "pepper dust" and true lover of pepper grinders, would be proud.

I used the sprinkly parmesan cheese dust that you find near the cold cases of pasta sauce, and I would just like to recommend using a real version of parmesan.  Like perhaps the grated stuff.  This was just all I had on hand at the time.

This recipe makes probably enough to top about 2-3 servings of pasta, depending on how heavy you load your sauce on.  With the amount of sauce I put on my noodles as you can see in the picture, I could have gotten at least 3 if not 4 servings out of the sauce.  The rest is currently in my refrigerator and will likely be used on some tortellini this week for lunch time. 

From what I know about sauces, it should freeze just fine as well if you have leftovers and don't want to use them just yet.  I freeze a lot of my sauces in ice cube trays and transfer them to plastic bags when they are set.

But between more pasta, white pizza, and a dipping sauce for breadsticks, there should be absolutely no trouble in going through the rest of that container.

You can use fat free Chobani if you like, just be aware that you may need to add a little more cheese or seasoning to get it exactly where you want it.  Either way, there is a SIGNIFICANT drop in calories from using a heavy cream based recipe.

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