Believe

Love Cakes

Happy Valentine's Day :)

To my husband. My love.

And to my parents who also celebrate their 33rd engagement anniversary today.

Recipe:
110 g butter, softened at room temperature 

110 g caster sugar 

2 eggs 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

2 tbsp red colouring 

110 g flour 

2 tsp baking powder 

2 tbsp milk 

• Cream butter and caster sugar till pale. 
• Beat in eggs one at a time. 
• Stir in vanilla extract and red food colouring. 
• Fold in the flour and baking powder, adding the milk till the batter is of folding consistency. 
•  Bake in oven at 180C for about 20-25 minutes, or until the top turns golden brown. Tip: You will know when your cake is ready when you poke a toothpick in and it comes out clean. 
• Cool the cake on a wire rack. Once cooled take it out of the pan and slice the cake about 1cm thick. Take a heart shaped cookie cutter and cut of the hearts. 
• Place either one on top of the other, stacking three of them like I did. Or simply lay them out on a plate. You can also choose to add buttercream in between cake layers. 

 Have fun baking! Let me know how it goes.

Brown Matte Crisscrossed

I simply cannot get enough of this brown matte nailpolish by Faces Cosmetic. It looks wonderful.

Wonderful enough to add a little accent to a finger or two.

Caviar Highlight Nails in 3 easy steps

For this manicure I used,

Revlon - Red

Embellish - Caviar Beads

Sally Hansen’s Gem Crush - Liquid Jelly

Top Coat

Step 1: Put on a base coat in red. Paint the ring finger last as you need it wet to get the beads to stick on to it.

Step 2: Drop the caviar beads on to the ring finger. Cover your nail well. Press down lightly. Dry nail well before you apply the top coat.

Step 3: Now use Sally Hansen’s Gem Crush - Liquid Jelly and cover the rest of your nails. I used 3 coats to get some bling. Apply top coat to add extra gloss.

My Tip: Caviar beads tend to fall off in a few days. Reinforce them every day with the top coat especially the tip of your nails.

Have fun!

Brown Matte

Matte nail polish is simply fantastic. I normally wouldn't pick such shades but what the heck a girl can never have less of nail polishes. In India, Faces is a brand that I like with the other one being Sally Hansen. 

So for this manicure, you would need the following.

Faces Matte Caramel

Faces Mississippi Mud Pie

Now the thing with Faces Nail paints are that they are of a reasonable cost. But most importantly, the brush being flat makes application perfect. And they are fast drying polish, so you really don't even need to wait in between coats. 

Getting started

The brown matte polish was quite translucent, so in this case I used  four coats of the polish. 

I gave it sometime to dry before I used my cheeky plates to add the stripes. Alternatively you can use a brush and do it freehand too. 

Spicy Baked Basa Recipe

I love baking. So, here are my four simple steps to baking a spicy dish of Basa

You will need: 
500 gms of skinless and boneless Basa
3 tbsp Olive Oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp chilli powder
1½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp sugar
1½ tsp dried basil

Step 1: In a bowl, mix all the ingredients except the fish.

Step 2: Cut the fish into pieces. A 2X2 inch cube should be just right.
However if you want to use the fillet as is, you can do so.

Step 3: Into a baking dish pour a little of the mixture, now place the fish onto it
and empty the remaining contents over the fish.

Step 4: Bake in an oven for about 20-25 mins at a temperature of 150 degrees.
Serve hot.

NailsbyJo: Pink White and Glitter

Used my stamping kit for the circles. The rest is just what you see.

NailsbyJo: Yellow French Manicure

For the base I used one coat of glitter over which I used Yellow for the tips.

Pork Stir Fry

Ingredients: 
1 Kg pork, cut into big cubes
Olive Oil
Crushed Pepper
5 Kashmiri Chillies
Salt
4 capsicums, cut lengthwise
6 onions, sliced

Method of Preparation: 
Slow cook the pork for about 2 hours till tender. Let it rest for about 30 mins.

Transfer to a skillet and to the pork, add the pepper, salt and olive oil. Pepper and salt as per taste. Give the pork a healthy Olive Oil drizzle. Break the Kashmiri chillies into half and drop it in. Mix all the ingredients well and leave it to marinate overnight.

Heat a large pan with oil. Saute the onions and capsicums. To this add the marinated pork and cook for 30 mins on a low flame. Once the meat is tender saute the mix to add some colour.

Serve hot with bread.

A Chef’s Special – Paneer

Last Christmas we had new additions to the family, many of whom were vegetarians. So when faced with the daunting task of preparing a veg dish, I had to call on the expert – Executive Chef Conrad. Well he improvised a recipe on the go and it was delicious. 

Here's the recipe:

1 kg Paneer (block)

• Cut the Paneer into two inch squares and roughly one finger thick. See that you have even number of pieces as you will need to create a sandwich of sorts.
• Now onto the paste that will come in between the Paneer blocks.

The Paste

1 tbsp Turmeric Powder

1/2 tbsp Chilli Powder

½ tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste

Pinch of Salt

• In a bowl mix the above ingredients to a coarse paste. Add a little more ginger garlic paste if need be.
• Now smoothen this mixture between two blocks of paneer, like a sandwich.
• Keep aside while you work on the chutney.

Chutney

1 bunch Mint leaves

½ bunch Coriander leaves

2-3 tbsp Curd

2 limes (only juice)

A little salt to balance the flavour

• Blend the above in a blender to a smooth paste. In case you are having trouble blending the mixture, add a little water.
• Now add the paneer sandwich blocks to this mixture and let it marinate for an hour.

• After an hour remove the paneer sandwich blocks and roll them in semolina (rava) coating them evenly. Place onto a hot pan and cook for about 5 mins on each side or until the semolina starts to darken.
• Place on a kitchen towel to drain out excess oil. Serve hot.
• You can use the chutney used for marinating, simply transfer it into a bowl. 

And here's the Chef with his little girl supervising the prep.

Photos by Lovell Dsouza Photography

NailsbyJo: Review - L'Oreal 824 Flaming Sunset Nailpolish

For the first time ever I bought a L'oreal nail paint, and I must say I am not impressed.

Called the Flaming Sunset, it fails to live up to its name. 

My major discomfort is with the brush. While the wide brush is designed to make it easy to apply, unfortunately it offers a very chunky application.

For the price this nail paint comes at, it fails to live upto expectation.







I have really long nails, and you can see the result of it. I wanted to add some drama to my other plain red nail polish and it failed. These a black coat which overshadows the glitter. :(

Brush Quality: 1/5

Quality: 3/5

Value for money: 3/5

Availability: 4/5

Drying Time: 5/5

Smoothness: 1/5

Rating: 2/5

Would I buy it again: No

NailsbyJo: Black Matte Manicure

Here are three simple steps that you could use to sport a glossy tip matte manicure. I love this in black, it looks so chic.

Try it out and let me know how it goes.

NailsbyJo: A Twist to the Classic Manicure

NailsbyJo: Purple Fiesta

This funky manicure done for my cousin Em, has different techniques used.

A little bit of tape, manicure beads and studs. I love this, let me know what you think too. 

NailsbyJo: Blue and Gold Extravaganza

BakesbyJo: Red Velvet Cupcakes

For the recipe follow this link.

NailsbyJo: Orange and Black Polka

Savita's nails for the new year.

NailsbyJo: Dotted Pink Ombre

Hetal's New Year Mani.

NailsbyJo: Blue Glory

Yay my first post of 2014.

This is the first time I've used nail studs. I was sceptical about using them as was worried they would fall off quickly, but must say they going strong.

I dabbed a little glitter to the tips of my nails in order to balance out the glam on the accent nail.

Bye bye 2013. I love you.

2013 was a great year for me. It started out as a struggle and unfolded in one full of blessings.

It was a year in which I discovered my passion for baking and nail art.

It also presented the opportunity for us to go on a really long holiday to London and Scotland, one where I got to celebrate my birthday roaming in the rain and watching my favourite movie Despicable Me 2.

Well I lost my much loved Samsung S3 a day before my birthday on the streets of London. So :(

This year allowed us to spend most time with our adorable Brielle, my niece and the apple of our eyes. I got to spend so many wonderful moments with my cousin and her husband. Mariella thank you for giving us a roof in London and Conrad for the amazing food. You are truly a chef extraordinaire.

My brother too got married. So we have a new addition to the family. Welcome Priya.

And my best girl friend popped! I have a nephew too now, one who I am yet to meet but I can assure you I am going to spoil him rotten.

Finally, I got to spend Christmas at home in Goa. There aint a real celebration like how we do it in Goa. My Mama and Papa were glad to have a housefull this year with all of us down even cousins.

So yes 2013 was awesome. Thank you God for the wonderful year. I know 2014 will have it's own set of surprises.