Pin Project 4: Once a Cheetah, Always a Cheetah

I read an article a few months ago which stated that 2010 was the biggest resurgence in the at-home manicure, with nail polish sales soaring higher than they've ever been. This was attributed to the change in the economy, stating that many people were cutting back on recurring unnecessary expenses. Like manicures.

From Julep

I have not had a professional manicure or pedicure since I got married in June of last year.

That doesn't mean my feet are funky or anything--I use a pumice stone regularly, trim and file my nails, and use hand/foot cream whenever I can. Favorite for my hands and elbows? Deep Steep's Rosemary Mint Body Butter or Pacifica's Body Butter in Tuscan Blood Orange or Island Vanilla (we carry Pacifica at the store). For my feet: Arbonne's Pampermint. I could eat that stuff.

I take care of my skin and nails, and I've absolutely fallen in love with nail polish.

And not the kind of nail polish you collected as a tween/teen. This stuff is lush. Vibrant. And not $2 a bottle. Not to sound like a snob, but if it's not at least $7 a bottle, I don't want it. And I've spent as much as $14.

And you know what?

It's worth it.

The colors, the creams, the sheer ease of spreadability and chip-resistant quality.

The cheetah look, believe it or not, is very easy. My original pin for Julep's cheetah tutorial is here. You may be more familiar, however, with this one from "the beauty department" blog.

It's even easier than both of these blogs state, I've found. I did buy a dotting tool, but now wished I have been brilliant like Chalkboard Nails.

Duh.

What I did do right (or better, according to me, because it was easier...but it wasn't cheaper) was buy a black nail art pen from Cina (at Sally's). It was a heck of a lot easier to create my border lines, but you're limited to the lines being slightly chunkier and having only the color you purchased for 8 bucks.

But still. It was way easier.

Products used:

• Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat by butter LONDON
• Glenn by Julep
• Sand Tropez by Essie
• Nail Art Pen in black by Cina
• Hardwear P.D. Quick Topcoat by butter LONDON

And then I got a little impatient putting my topcoat on. My ring-finger nail is smeared.

But you didn't even notice, right?

Pinterest Verdict: This is so easy. I'm not even kidding. And it looks awesome. There's no excuse not to try this out. And if cheetah's not your style, look at all the other little pretty nail projects I've pinned on my Nail Art board. 

Pin Project 3: The Lazy-Man's Indian Cuisine (a.k.a. Slow-Cooker Tikka Masala)

I, like many people I know, have a lot to do.

A lot. As in, wicked busy.

So when one of my favorite cuisines (Indian) was presented to me via this pin (cooked in a slow-cooker), I jumped at the opportunity to make it. Really, I jumped up and announced to my co-worker whilst waving the printed recipe in her face, "I'm making this tomorrow! I love Tikka Masala, and I AM MAKING THIS TOMORROW!"

Image from Cooking Classy

And since we've boycotted our previously favorite Indian restaurant for shorting us on take-out five times in a row, Husband was down as well.

The author of the recipe claims that this is so easy, and so good, and you cook it on low for 8 hours or high for 4. Sweet! Knowing myself as only I do, even if I got up early to go get the ingredients, I knew I wouldn't get it started till at least noon.

Try 2.

:30.

I got it going at 2:30, which means, of course, that I'd be cooking on high for 4 hours.

Easy, right?

Hmm.

• Spot of trouble: no Garam Masala. Not at Fred Meyer, not at Winco (I tried there because they have an awesome bulk section). I could have gone to Ashland and tried the Co-op or Market of Choice, but I was already in Medford, so blah to that. I ended up going with a new McCormick spice blend, which had nearly all the same ingredients as Garam Masala.
• Minor alteration: While I diced the onions as finely as possible as per Husband's request (he's a tad onion-phobic), we both like extra garlic, so when the author said "4," we knew she meant "6."

At this point, it was smooth sailing. Everything happened according to the recipe.

Look! Look! I use a grapefruit spoon to seed my jalapenos! Aren't I smaht?

What you don't see here is that after I got squirted in the chin by some onion juice, I put on my big faux BCGs (military-speak for "birth control glasses") that I've never worn in public but my inner hipster thinks I will. At any rate, the glasses protected from potential squirting, but not vapors (I cried).

Don't have one of these bad boys? You should. Go get one. Right now. And it has to be metal. We sell them here.

Most importantly, they prevented me from making the colossal mistake that has only ever happened once, but I am in constant fear of it happening again: rubbing my eyes after dealing with all of these hot, capsaicin-filled ingredients.

Isn't that pretty?

It smelled wonderful while it was cooking, and seemed really promising. 

Smells good, looks good, it is good. Right? RIGHT? Aren't those the qualifiers?

Notsomuch.

"Baby, this is not one I would put in the rotation." --Husband

To be fair, it has promise. I've found that in Indian cooking, when it calls for plain yogurt, that may not be the best thing. Husband's biggest complaint was that it was a little sour. I prefer the descriptor of tangy. In my favorite curry recipe, I always substitute plain yogurt for honey yogurt. It's much smoother and lacks that puckering tang. The sweetness also helps to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes, and it rounds out the spiciness to make it more deep and complex, rather than a simple flat hot. 

Second complaint: dry chicken.

Chicken is not supposed to be dry.

And I didn't buy cheap chicken. 

The chicken being dry may have been a result of cooking on high for 4 hours instead of on low for 8. I wonder if the author has ever prepared it in four hours. The other reason may be that she called for only chicken breasts, when a little dark meat in Indian food goes a long way...and keeps its moisture much better.

Pinterest Verdict: "The reason why Tikka Masala takes so long to make on the stove is because it should." --Husband

Wise words, sir.

Pin Project 2: Veganism, I am Your Father

...or mother. That just got a little weird.

Back on track! Today's pin project is actually a combination of two pins:

Click on the photo for the original pin.

Vegan Chocolate Cake

and 

Click on photo for original pin.

Star Wars Silhouettes.

One of our employees has a birthday on Valentine's Day, and he happens to be--you guessed it--vegan. My birthday is the day after his, so for a few years, we've gotten cakes at work on the same day because scheduling just fell that way. And yes, we, much like characters on The Office, get the cake we like on every birthday. It's pretty spectacular.

Joe's haven't been so spectacular. The first birthday we celebrated together, I got a beautiful black and white cake, and Joe got...vegan bran muffins. Poor guy.

This isn't due to a lack of availability. We work in Ashland, Oregon. To describe this town adequately with only a handful of words, "granola" as an adjective wouldn't miss the mark. We have three specialty/health food stores in our town of 20,000--one of which is a five minute walk from work.

The problem is expense. Why on earth is a cake that has less expensive ingredients more expensive in its baked form? Seriously--where regular cakes have milk, butter, and eggs, vegan cakes have water, oil, and vinegar. Is it because they're "specialty" cakes?

So I decided Joe was getting a flippin' chocolate cake this year. With Darth Vader on it. (Why not?)

What I did right:

• I used parchment paper rounds in the bottoms of my Fat Daddio's cake pans. These guys are so awesome. Gone are the days of tracing your cake pan on a sheet of parchment paper . 24pk for $4.95.

What I did wrong:

• I only did it for the first two cakes.* (I decided to make a third layer after I'd finished the first two because I wanted it to be bigger. I am from Texas, after all.)

Here we go.

Pre-mixing dry ingredients is a must.

The batter is syrupy and has sort of a translucent quality to it.

Line those pans!

Since I wasn't going to decorate until the next morning, I left the cakes out with a slice of bread on top. Yup, that's another pin.

I don't know why I didn't take pictures of the frosting. Maybe because it was almost identical to the batter. The recipe is here, and it didn't stand as well as I'd hoped. I used almond milk instead of soy, and since it was also kind of translucent, I decided to make it chocolate. Oh, and it needed way more sugar than the recipe called for. I think to get a fluffier frosting, instead of mixing it with the melted margarine, you should let the margarine cool to room temperature. You know, like softened butter?

I got the Darth Vader Silhouette from Older and Wisor. I just blew it up to the size I wanted.

Then I traced it on a parchment paper round and cut it out. I almost messed it up, too, because as I was tracing, genius sleeping dog gave a huge discombobulated bark because a character on the TV said "NO!" But, my hand stayed steady.

I had to hold the more detailed spots in place on top of the cake as I liberally (because it was so moist) dusted with powdered sugar.

Viola. 

I wanted to do some rosettes around the edge, but like I said, icing = ooey gooey. I settled for dusting cocoa powder.

I brought the cake in on my day off to celebrate Joe's birthday early. I hear it was a hit.

So big of a hit, in fact, that in Joe's candle-blowing excitement, he blew powdered sugar all over a co-worker.

Sorry, Melissa.

Pinterest Verdict: Not my style, but a great vegan cake. The frosting needs some work. And dusting on this type of cake is maybe not the best idea. Powdered sugar had to be reapplied twice.

Vader rocked.

*The third cake got stuck to the bottom of the pan even though I greased it with Baker's Joy. Vegan cakes are incredibly sticky, so going without parchment paper is just a bad idea. This repaired cake layer went in the middle. No one noticed.

Pin Project 1: Key Lime Cupcakes

I love to bake. Cookies are my thing, but I can make a tasty cake too, especially pound cake. What I've started to dip my nib into is making my cakes/cupcake more aesthetically pleasing. Not necessarily cake design--I haven't messed with fondant yet--but I'm not too scared to pipe my cupcakes.

Before I decided to start this blog, I actually had decent luck with some butterbeer cupcakes (I got the recipe here). They were pretty. But since I didn't take too many pictures, I'm not going to talk about them now.

I am going to talk about these little dream cups. The Key Lime Cupcake (yes, it deserves capital letters).

Original pin:

Photo and recipe from mymadisonbistro

Doesn't that look amazing? I simply had to make these. What I really liked about them was that they called for cake flour. The last cupcakes I made used all-purpose flour, and they came out great, but the texture isn't nearly as smooth and fluffy as with cake flour.

Here's what I did wrong:

• I didn't sift my flour. I also was talking while I was measuring, so I'm not entirely sure it was the right amount.
• I didn't pay attention to what should be chilled and what should be at room temperature, which resulted in a lot of shouted "Crackers!" (only I didn't say "crackers") and slamming of the refrigerator door as I replaced my butter and took out the buttermilk.
• I didn't buy a good zester. I bought this cruddy dull one from Wal-Mart (seriously--click on the link to see what you should avoid). I should have bought a Norpro zester we carry at the store, but I forgot to buy it the day before and it's still sitting in my cubby waiting to go home with me.
• I didn't used food coloring paste. I used the drops...which is fine...buuuuut I only had neon colors.

I started off well. This is the cleanest my stove-top has been since we moved in. And it's staying that way!

The batter smelled amazing--and it was so fluffy.

And it tasted amazing. So amazing, in fact, that these guys went with me to the couch to keep me busy while the cupcakes baked and I watched an old episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

This is just under what I should have filled the cupcakes to.

This is how full I actually filled them. Dur. I thought later how a simple solution would have been to fill a small baking dish. I'm smart, I promise.

Into the oven they go! The heart dish was for me to split with the husband--the rest were destined to go to work.

Now. Here is my final mistake. I decided that I wanted to use my ginormous coupler to make the frosting pretty. I didn't think about the fact that my frosting (delicious) had key lime zest in it. Guess what??? Zest clogs decorator tips. Even the big ones.

Soooo...I ended up slathering the frosting on. Hey, sometimes taste simply has to make up for presentation. And oh my, did they taste gooood.

Next time they'll be prettier.

Pinterest Verdict: Totally worth it. And so yummy.

Let's Get to the Point

Pinterest is wonderful. If you're like me, your mind goes 100 mph (or 1 million, depending on how much you like to exaggerate), and this online pin board is the perfect tool to organize all of those inspirational photos, quotes, etc. and all of those recipes and DIY projects you'd like to try.

The problem here is that Pinterest is so addictive, that it's really easy to lose sight of the whole point: TO DO.


So here is my proposal, a la Julie from Julie, Julia, but slightly more sane--I am going to actually do those projects and follow those recipes, and then I'm going to tell you what works. Once or twice a week. I mean, come on, I work full time too, folks.

Qualifications?

Of course I'm qualified.

I'm a painter, a baker, a chef, a writer, a reader, an embroiderer, a visual aesthetics expert, a crafter, and an all-around anal-retentive perfectionist who wants to learn everything and loses sleep at night if I misspell something on Facebook.

Bam. Let's do this.

A Semi-Formal Introduction

My name's Katie. For those of you who don't know the store I call a second home, Paddington Station, I'll introduce you:

• Paddington Station was founded in 1973 in Ashland, Oregon.
• The store is part of the J.P. Dodge Building, which was built in 1904 (we've got lots of character).
• Ashland is the place for Shakespeare this side of the Atlantic. As in, three quarters of a century of Shakespeare. Check it out here.
• We have three levels and over 8,000 sq. ft. in downtown Ashland.
• We sell everything from fashion accessories to garden decorations to stationery to kitchen supplies.
• We're kind of awesome. Actually, more like definitely awesome.

If you're in the area, we'd love to see you. If not, you can find us on our website, or in the more relaxed atmosphere of Facebook. Oh hey, we're also on Pinterest, which is the whole point of this blog.