Simple cupcake liners

Sometimes it just takes a small spark to start me off the beating a path through the weeds to see where I will come out on the other side. I love a challenge and will take just about any chance to ply my cooking brain to the puzzle.  In the last couple weeks I have had challenges both stated and implied tossed my way and I love it.  I have been slightly obsessed with the creation of the perfect hot wing sauce along with knocking off the rough edges of my meatloaf all due to a few people pressing my competitive buttons.

Well today I got inspired in a totally different way, I made a field trip to Sur la Table in Cincinnati. You see I was consoling myself over the  separation from my Ladybug who is sick and had to stay at the MINI dealer to allow them to determine her ailment. What better to do to take my mind off my car issues than a trip to cooking eye candy land!  It’s like a siren’s call for me when ever I pass by that store, calling louder and louder to me to enter and feast upon the wears within.  I had been doing really good at avoiding the call by plugging my ears or turning up the music in Ladybug…that is until the H.N. asked me to run an errand for him on my last trip to Cincy in December.  I blame H.N. for all this.  I told him I was NOT responsible enough to be allowed in said store without adult supervision let alone with a fully loaded credit card.   Well that trip I was well disciplined…that trip.  This time with no one to pull on the reins it was a free for all. I was like a crack addict in a DEA warehouse with no one to stop me.

I justified my visit today by saying I needed cheering because of Ladybug’s issues.  I justified my trip today by saying I would just LOOK…*no* buying,  just looking.  That lasted all of maybe 10 minutes, if I stretched.  I was NOT a good girl in there today.  I justified my purchases by saying it was my birthday present from The Husband. Oh so many tools oh so little time to look, how does one whittle down the hundreds of choices?  Well to protect you from the sensory overload I took one for the WikiJan team. Yes I put myself in the line of fire to protect you, my loyal followers, from the dangers and pitfalls one encounters when occupying a wonder land of the likes of Sur la Table.

What does all this have to do with inspiration? Everything.  You see when I go into a store like Sur la Table all these ideas start formulating in my brain. How I can use this item in a way that is not normally used.  If I pair this time with that application would I get the end result I think should happen? Or the inspiration of something as simple as a pretty cup cake liners and how it will look with a completed desert in it.  I have a thing for pretty cup cake liners (Hi my name is WikiJan and I love cupcake liners). Then there are all the totally cool serving dishes which I can picture completed WikiJan posts displayed. Le Creuset pans which lead me to braising hunks of cow or stewed lamb. Then there are the knives and pizza stones.  The Microplanes and totally cute aprons. Oh the ideas that filled my mind when I saw all the different sizes and shapes of tart pans!

So what am I saying? Go out there and find some inspiration, get out of your rut, look around you and apply what you see.  Buy one piece to add to your cooking collection…be it a cookbook of your favorite cook,  that piece of cookware you have been longing for,  a good knife, or a simple cupcake liner.  When you go looking for a game changer they just jump out at you from every direction. My inspirations from this field trip…new cookie sheets, muffin tins, and cupcake liners…it always comes back to the cup cake liners.

Now go play with your food.

WikiJan