Making Goals and Sticking to Them

I have plans, plans to make plans, and old goals I want to finally meet. I really dislike the idea of setting up super specific resolutions at the beginning of the year because I know I'll fall short as life inevitably happens. Like this post, for example—it's almost February!


Setting my personal goals aside, I have some ideas for Hippopotamuslee. Close to the top of my list, and most painfully obvious, is to post more. This is a promise I make nearly every year but in 2013 I stuck to it, and I hope to build upon last year. I have a spreadsheet filled with ideas for future blog posts that I’m excited to start working on. But what I most want is to engage with you! I'm really curious, what would you like to see from me this year?



Please let me know in the comments, or feel free to email me (I finally realized my blog email was at capacity—sorry about that!). You can also reach out on twitter. ☺

Get the Look from Beyoncé's "Haunted"

In this installment of I'll Never Be Bey But That Won't Stop Me From Trying I try my hand at the beautiful metallic, high glitter, smokey eye accompanied by a blood red, high shine lip in Beyoncé "Haunted":


BEYONCÉ "HAUNTED"

My version is dialed down with less glitter and foiling action simply because I don't own many glittery products. You could easily play up that effect by using Stila's Magnificent Metals Foil Finish Eyeshadow in Titanium and/or Metallic Cobalt if you have $32 to blow on a single eyeshadow, or NYX Roll On Shimmer in Onyx and/or Platinum for a more affordable $3.99. I tried to make up for my lack of glitter by distracting you with wannabe red carpet finger waves. Did it work?

Beyoncé's eyes are rimmed with heavy black liner which I promptly rubbed away after applying. Some things I'll never be comfortable wearing and black liner on my waterline is one of them! On my lips I layered Beautique Lip Crayon in Blackberry, Maybelline Color Sensational Vivids in On Fire Red, and Bobbi Brown Clear Lip Gloss.

Products Used:
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Black Bean
Stila In The Light Palette
Lancôme Color Design Eyeshadow in Drape
MAC Eyeshadow in Electra
NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in Silver Pearl
L'Oréal Voluminous Butterfly Mascara in Blackest Black (GARBAGE)
Jordana 12-HR Made To Last Liquid Eyeliner Pencil in Black Point
Anastasia BH Brow Powder Duo in Dark Brown

Step 1: Apply black base (Black Bean) onto eyelid and outer 1/2 of lower lash line.
Step 2: Apply white sheen (Drape) to outer crease through brow bone to tear duct.
Step 3: Pat blue silver shimmer (Night Sky) on eyelid with an eyeshadow brush.
Step 4: Pat black (Ebony) on outer 1/3 of of eyelid with an eyeshadow brush.
Step 5: Build black (Ebony) in crease, and blend upward with a blending brush.
Step 6: Pat silver frost (Electra) onto center of eyelid with finger.
Step 7: Pat silver pearl (Silver Pearl) onto center of silver frost (Electra) with finger.
Step 9: Apply blue silver shimmer (Night Sky) to lower lash line with a pencil brush.
Step 10: Smudge outer edge of lower lash line and blend upward.
Step 11: Tightline upper lash line with black waterproof eyeliner.
Step 12: Line waterline with black waterproof eyeliner.

Smoked out eyes like Beyoncé's look from "Haunted" are still relatively new to me. I like that it's a sickness veil (sort of) because I don't think you can tell I was totally under the weather in these photos. Or can you?? Either way, I hope you dig it and try it for yourself. Sick or not!

Fresh Pasta and Vegetarian-Friendly Carbonara

Though this winter has been particularly brutal, leaving me to almost exclusively hibernate, I've awoken from my slumber to cook because obviously I require delicious noms in my life. After a trip to Eataly during its opening week (yikes!), I decided it was time to finally make my own pasta from scratch. When I spotted powder-fine "00" flour lining the shelves I excitedly picked some up.


I found a lot of varied recipes online. It seems most people's ratios differ, which lead me to believe there's basically no wrong way to make pasta (if there are any Italians or pasta aficionados reading, please don't kill me for saying that!). I finally settled on fettuccine's ratio of one egg for every 100g of flour. Four eggs, 200g of all-purpose flour, 200g of doppio zero flour and a pinch of salt later...


Too scared of making an eggy-flour mess of my counter/kitchen/entire life, I decided to use my stand mixer. This was where things went a little wrong. I didn't get to feel the dough in my hands as it was forming, and allowed my mixer to run until all of my flour was incorporated. Needless to say, it ended up drier than I'd hoped.



After kneading for what felt like forever, and then kneading some more, the gluten was sufficiently stretched, the dough had a nice elasticity to it, and most air bubbles were squished out. We all took a short 30 minute nap then got to rolling! I don't own a pasta rolling machine so Andrew and I went old-school and took turns using a rolling pin and patience. Now that took forever.


So what did we do with all of that pasta? Vegetarian carbonara! Replacing pancetta with halloumi, which I pan fried with garlic, shallots, and a bit of white wine, was pretty much the best food decision I've ever made.


I can't even tell you how deliciously creamy and salty all of this was when combined with the Parmesan and Pecorino Romano. I freshened up the whole thing a bit by adding a squeeze of lemon and a small amount of lemon zest at the end. The pasta itself had a great bite to it and only took, like, 4-5 minutes to cook.

Moral of the story: Pasta isn't that difficult to make and my love for halloumi knows absolutely no bounds.