And after a long, long hiatus...

We're back! Literally. We're coming back to the Midwest, we're meaning me and Ophelia. So much has happened since we last wrote. It's been quite a year for both of us. I got a job. Ophelia and M. and I made cakes for a wedding celebration. I got to see K finish his dissertation, defend it, and then celebrate K&P's adventure to Texas. I finished and defended a dissertation. Ophelia and I moved to NC. I started and finished my first year as an Assistant Professor. Ophelia has two new BFFs -- Hermoine (a really nice risotto pot) and Pippi (a very cool 2-in-one flame colored stock pot and skillet), courtesy of two very thoughtfully amazing gift-givers (K&P). I hosted my first Thanksgiving for T&A, A&D&W. K & I were hooded in December. I went on the job market. I landed a new job. Unfortunately, in all the hubbub, Ophelia has been pretty bored, to be honest, and I've been pretty, well, crazy. I've been in the NC now for almost 11 months. And I'll be moving away in just under 12. I have a little more than 2 1/2 weeks left here, and then we are bound for Wisconsin. Beer and cheese, baby! And SNOW! Ah, snow. Ok, no snow right now, but there will be snow, which is music to my ears. Plus I have a garage, so it's all good. :) Oh yeah -- I also bought a house -- yes, me! I have a house! It's cute. Nothing big, but it's mine, and I can't wait to get in it. I knew it was the house when I walked in, looked at a nook in the corner of the kitchen counter and said, yep, that's where I can put Ophelia. It's perfect. She can't wait.

So, in celebration of this new job, and being close to my given family, and having some great new colleagues, and getting this job which has kind of always been my dream job, Ophelia and I have decided to embark on a new task for ourselves. Modeled after All Cakes Considered, we are going to bake a cake a week, starting August 16th, 2010. We're going to try some new recipes, do some new decorating, and get the hang of this new kitchen that we'll hopefully be in for a while now. She and I are both sick of moving. Honestly, we're a couple of big girls to jostle around like that all time. :)

So, stay tuned for the inaugural cake at my new house in Wisconsin. Until then, here is a pic of Ophelia's latest work. I f-ed this cake up but good when I visited my dear friends K&P in Texas a few weeks ago. I almost cried, I was so frustrated -- it's labor intensive, and since I don't see them much anymore, it really sucked to mess it up. So, I had to try to figured out what I did to it. While baking this one, I realized I didn't use enough chocolate with theirs. Explains a lot, and lesson learned. Now I owe them a cake.

Happy 4th of July! I'm feeling like we have lots to celebrate...

No Pictures, but a Quick Update

Happy New Year (wow, we're late -- our bad). So, as you can see, things got a even more hectic after Thanksgiving. I got a little busy, between prepping for interviews, travels to MN and then to CA, add in a few Christmas celebrations, ringing in 2009, and trying to get some work done on my dissertation, Ophelia has been wondering if I forgot she existed. And, then when I did remember, and actually baked something, I couldn't take any pictures because I broke my freaking camera. Awesome.

But, life update -- I did, indeed, fly, and was fine. Took enough Xanax to anesthetize a horse, which might have also helped. It was pretty entertaining. I am fairly certain that I may have passed out on the plane home. I say fairly certain because, to be honest, I don't remember a whole lot about that flight. Probably a good thing. I really liked San Francisco, although the hills left a little to be desired for this fat girl. I do recall climbing up Lombard, looking up at my friends K&P and my brother, and thinking that the interviewing won't matter, because I may die of a heart attack right here. But, obviously, I did not die, so all was well. The brother and I did some really hilarious stuff -- rented a "Go Car" -- almost didn't make it up a hill, and spent a couple of hours in a helmet. Am going to make the brother send pictures of that. You really must see it. Ate LOTS of great food, especially seafood, and saw all kinds of things. I had never been to California before, and I really enjoyed it, even with the interviewing. Stayed up on Knob Hill (will save the hotel story for another time), and it was lovely. All in all, though, I'm glad it's over, to be honest. Now, I'm just back to working on the diss. Aargh.

So, long story longer, I have actually been doing a bit of baking -- did some cakes for my friend A.'s wedding shower (they turned out pretty well -- one 3-layer and one 4-layer), one for D.'s graduation, and just did two in the last couple of days for fun. Made Martha Stewart's banana cake, which was a hit with my good friend P.:), and made a amaretto toffee chocolate cake that I thought was pretty good. I think I am getting really good at frosting -- not so much the decorating, but making tasty frosting. I made this cream cheese one for the toffee cake that was quite good, if I do say so myself. Also snuck some peanut butter and jelly bars and some chocolate chip cookies in. So, all in all, with everything going on, Ophelia actually hasn't faired so badly. Just her glamour shots have. Going to try to work on that soon.

Tomorrow, I tackle some rosemary bread. I think I'll make some soup to go with it. Stay tuned -- we'll try to do better with posting!

It's Been a Long, Long Time... (or) The First Thanksgiving

Wow. What a whirlwind fall it has been. Job market stuff, teaching courses, working on the dissertation, trying to cook, not being very successful, obviously. I think Ophelia has shunned me, and is now looking to outsource herself to try to save her job. The guilt abounds.

Anyway, a by-product of the busy that is the fall this year, I decided not to head home for Thanksgiving. This is the first Thanksgiving in 30 years that I have not been home with my family. Boy, do I miss them. Right about now, I would be at my brother's house, rocking out to some Rock Band, or watching he and my cousin-in-law duel it out on some game that I completely don't understand but is very entertaining to watch. Or, we'd be playing some game called "Killer Bunnies" or something of the sort. I'd be getting my ass kicked, but loving it, because there is nothing quite like hanging out with my crazy awesome family.

This is not to say that Thanksgiving here isn't going to be freaking amazing. I get to spend time with some great friends. Plus, K&P's dog B is awesome, and I love hanging out with him. So, it will be a great day. K & P are smoking a turkey, making potatoes, rolls and salad (YUM and YUM), so I am in charge of stuffing, veggies, pies. As you can see from the pictures above, I'm on it. It's the night before Thanksgiving, and I have a pie, shortbread (yes, apparently the Scottish got in on the Thanksgiving act), cornbread (for stuffing), and stuffing bread cut up, ready to be made tomorrow. In true Hathaway fashion, I freaked out and worried that I wasn't going to have enough to feed everyone, so went a little overboard with the stuffing bread. However, this stuffing bread is the shiz. I got it from Great Harvest Bread Co. It was a hoot, actually -- I went in once Tuesday and bought a bunch of stuff, and then had to come back for the stuffing bread when it came out of the oven at 1. We got there around 1:10, and I got 3 of the last 8 loaves. Apparently, people are serious about this stuff. I'm stoked to try it. I had my aunt send me her recipe. We'll see what happens. KSH is coming over to help cook in the morning, so I had better get to bed. I just had to post, since it had been so long. Will take more pics tomorrow during the creation process.

Oh, the chocolate pictures are Martha Stewart's brownies. They are awesome. Sometimes, though, I want to forgo the brownies and drink the melted chocolate. Is that normal?

Everyone, wish A. a Happy, Happy Birthday!

Today is my good friend A.E.R.'s birthday! YEA! If you see her, make sure to wish her a happy birthday! Apparently, Ophelia and I have decided that we only get our shit together for special appearances for people's birthdays these days. So, if you have a birthday, maybe let us know? That way, we'll bake more. Ophelia has been so upset with me that pictures of her have been absolutely out of the question. Um, also pictures of the kitchen, and most of the rest of the house, and me, and my car, are also completely out of the question. Yeah. That's how the job market and dissertation stuff have been going.:P No need to ask.

As you can tell from the photos, things didn't turn out exactly as we had intended them. Is anyone surprised? For weeks now, I've been planning on making A. a CubbieCake, since she is such a huge Cubbies fan. As someone who understands very deeply the connection with sports teams, I was all for this. A. likes cakes that aren't chocolate heavy, so I was going to make a white cake, dye it red, and then put the logo on the top. Um, yeah, that was what I was going to do. Instead, I couldn't get the cake to be red, so it turned out pink. I didn't want it to taste crazy weird because of the food dye, so I had to stop. A. isn't exactly a "pink" person, so that was strike number one. As you can see from previous posts, I like to make things that remind me of the people who I am making them for, so I tried to do the best with what I had. Initially, as you can see from the photos I had intended to do balloons or flowers or something on the top. But, that's just not A. If you know her, you know what I am talking about. She's smart, funny, kind, has a ton of energy, is hard-working, but most importantly, is unique. You'll never meet another person like A. I love her company, and the company of her fiance and two loveable dogs (one of whom we joke is my biological daughter the way she is all over me when I'm there:). With A., it's very easy to go from 0 to silly to serious to silly again. I just couldn't put standard flowers or balloons on her cake. She's anything but standard. So, what happened is my attempt to capture A. in a cake -- colorful, bright, complex, unique, wonderful. Can't wait to have some soon! Happy Birthday A. -- I'm so glad to know you!

Today is K's Birthday -- Hip Hip Hooray!

About a month ago, Ophelia reminded me that my BFF K's birthday was coming up. And, since K and his awesome wife P are how Ophelia and I came to be, Ophelia wanted to do something special for K on his birthday. We decided that for Ks birthday party, we'd make cakes. Two, to be exact, with some peanut butter bars thrown in for good measure at the beginning of the 7 days of K. Why celebrate once, Ophelia says, when you can celebrate for a whole week? I agreed.

Now, K and P appear on this blog, and in my life, often -- we have lots of fun times together, going to movies, eating good food, watching pretty people with problems, playing games, witnessing Bruchi's antics, and most importantly, looking in our mirrors. It's unfortunate for them that they have to spend so much time with me, but since I bake lots, including cakes like those pictured above, I hope they feel like they break even. Of the cakes, actually of all the cakes I've made, the dark chocolate raspberry one is K's favorite. It's a complex cake -- in fact, it's one of the most complex things I've ever made. There are many parts to it, but it is worth the work. Initially, it's a little bittersweet, followed by a prominence and constant of full-on sweet and fruit. Its texture is highly unique, as well -- a crackly, crunchy crust that easily falls away into a softness that melts into the center of every bite. That complexity is what makes the cake as good as it is -- the unexpected surprise it holds makes every single taste exciting. I can see why K likes it; in many ways, it reminds me of him, although a cake could never embody his sense of humor. G.D.M.;)

I wish for everyone they could have a friend like K. I don't have words to explain what that means, but if you're lucky enough to know him or to have a friend who is a good friend like he is, you'll understand what I'm saying. In my humble opinion, the best way to celebrate someone's life is to tell them how much you enjoy and appreciate them, and to eat cake. Here's to you, K -- I hope you had a great birthday, my friend! I am glad to know you. Enjoy your cake!

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Free...

Now, I'm not sure what the peaches in the PoUSA song represent, but in this case, I really am talking about peaches, my friends. I am finally, finally making good on my promise for a peach pie.

My mother was so upset she couldn't be here for it. She loves her some peach pie. Plue, it was the first peach pie I'd ever made. It was also my first attempt at a lattice topped pie. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. Well, for a first try, anyway. My celebrity taste testers agreed.:) I thought it was ok. It wasn't great (would have been better had the peaches been more ripe).

The pie itself was fairly easy -- I blanched the peaches first to get the skin off, and then sliced 10 peaches fairly thin. Mix that with 1/2 c. white sugar, 1/2 c. brown sugar, 1/3 c. flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, my secret ingredient (which you'll notice in my cast of character's photo, I turned around -- a girl has to keep some secrets:), and a tablespoon of cornstarch. Put into unbaked pie crust. Put lattice on top, wash with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 for 45 min.-1 hour (mine was closer to one hour). I also left the pie in the oven when I turned it off at an hour to make sure the sauce thickened.

I also made candy today (caramels). I love caramel. Between caramel and butterscotch, I could be set for life. It was also a simple, simple recipe. To be posted later.

Serve the pie with ice cream, for sure!

Ophelia was a little sad she couldn't participate in today's fun, but she understood. Sometimes she just has a little too much power for what is necessary.:)

I'd Just Like To Try Some Carrot Cake and Wine...

Ah, love me some Stereophonics. I also loves me some good carrot cake. So, tonight I combined the two. I think Wednesdays and Saturdays are going to be my baking days. I know I had said I was coming down off the cake, but for some reason really wanted to make a carrot cake tonight. It also could have been that I had some carrots to use up. Whatever.

Now, for carrot cake you have to shred a ton of carrots. I didn't want to do that by hand, and then remembered that K and P, in addition to orchestrating the appearance of Ophelia in my life and the awesome party that came with that appearance, also gifted me an attachment for Ophelia. An attachment that shreds things. Carrot like things. Ok, carrots. And fingers if you're not careful, but mostly carrots and other various veggies, fruits, etc. It is the coolest thing in the world. Well, next to Ophelia. Don't tell her I said that.

So, in the various pictures above you'll see some shredding, some baking, and some frosting. I think the frosting on this cake didn't turn out as well as the last cake. I used a recipe that was a little bit different, and I don't like it as well. It's fine, but not amazing like the one from the chocolate cake.

Also, you'll see in the pictures that I invested in a new product. This is a Wilton product, and Ophelia and I are doing our best Vana White's in showing it off. This was before I tried to pry the cakes out of their pans. What a waste of 5 bucks. 2 of the 3 cakes broke trying to get them out of the pans. The product claimed that it would greased and flour the pans all in one, just to put a bit in the pan, brush all over, and go to town. Answer: false. This did little other than to create headaches for me and ruin my pretty cakes. Now, before I go completely blaming the product, it may have a been a user fault. I didn't place parchment because I thought the cake goo (aka Wilton product) would take care of it. My bad. However, I am getting really, really good at putting cakes back together.;)

Will update later on the turn out. Notice that I'm getting less and less funny as the semester goes on. I have a feeling December is gonna be something else.;)

On Leaps, Longings and Lemons...

So, my super duper awesome friend D. has had a lot of changes in these past months. She has a new job, a new house, and a new car. She'll soon meet lots of new people, and experience lots of new things. She's no longer a graduate student. She's Dr. D. now. I admire her so much, and as you can see from previous posts, I'm so, so proud of her, and proud to be her friend. I'm thrilled, as well, to have been lucky enough to watch her leap and succeed. It's no small feat, I think, to follow a dream through, to have the ability to work hard and get what you've worked for. So, to celebrate, D. and M. are throwing a housewarming/celebration party, to welcome the changes in their lives and to celebrate with the people around them.

I'm SO happy to celebrate these accomplishments and changes with them. As we speak, I'm making lemon bars to take to their party. More on that later. I have to say, though, that I find myself tinged with a little bit of sadness, as well. Any change is like that, really. Lots to celebrate, and lots to reminisce about, along with some sadness about letting go of one thing to follow another. This will be the first year of my Ph.D. I have gone through without D. My first orientation without her there. We have done this together for so long that, sometimes, I find myself unsure how to do it without her. Any project, any conference presentation, any major or minor detail, we did together. So much of our stuff intertwines that I often forget what's hers and what's mine. I will miss her presence at school. Of course, we will still work together and help each other, because we can and she isn't moving across country, in fact she is staying very close. I am lucky, as often this is not the case. This isn't to say that I don't have many wonderful friends and people at school. I do. But, I will miss her presence, the daily of our routines. I will miss her as she moves into this wonderful, new position in her life. I know she will do great. She always does.

And, so, I make lemon bars. I thought they were appropriate -- plus, D. loves them. A lemon bar can be truly unique -- the lemon, initially, tart and bitter, but eventually sweet, the reward of the sweet far outweighing the initial tart bitterness. And, they leave you wanting another, and another, and another. I know it will be that way for D. -- the difficulties of starting anew now will give way to the sweetness of being a professor, of living somewhere with space and breathing room, of driving a trustworthy car, of having achieved something that seems so unattainable in these limbo years of our lives.

These bars are easy to make, really. It's a recipe from a town cookbook, a tried and true easy Midwestern recipe. We do love our cake mixes. Ophelia beat this filling like a champ. Boy do I love her. Plus, how can you go wrong with blue and yellow?:)

1 box yellow cake mix
1/3 c. oil
1 egg

Mix until crumbly. Remove 3/4 c. from mixture, and press the rest into 9x13 pan. Bake for 12 min. at 350 degrees.

1 8oz. pkg. cream cheese
1/3 c. sugar
juice of one lemon
grated lemon rind (to taste)

Beat until smooth. Add to top of hot baked crust. Sprinkle with reserved crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 min.

Enjoy!

Ace of Cakes I'm not...yet

Well, folks, this was our first attempt at a multi-layered cake. Ophelia and I are quite proud of ourselves, if we do say so. As you can see from the pictures -- success! More on that later. You see, P.'s parents are in town this week, so I wanted to have them over to celebrate and enjoy. I'd met them last night, and they are a hoot! I really enjoyed them. I can see now where P. gets her sense of humor and all around good/sweet nature. Her dad reminds me of many of the members of my family (tonight he taught us all about the new "Air Car," not to mention the fact that he rocks socks with crocs), and her mom is just as sweet as can be (she made me an amazingly cute apron -- what a perfect gift! Ophelia and I are totally decked out now). They made homemade applesauce yesterday and gave me some (YUM, eat your hearts out!), we worked on crochet (that's a story for another time, I am such a bad crochet teacher -- thanks for bailing us out, T!), went out to eat and tooled around for a while. So, tonight I wanted to welcome them to my home with a very heart-felt welcome and with many thanks. And how do Ophelia and I do that? Yes, that's right, with food. But not just any food -- something special.

That's where this cake comes in. It's called the "Perfect Party Cake" -- Ophelia and I, of course, wanted it to be the perfect party, so that's what we chose. It was a day of firsts for us, Ophelia and I. I'd never done a 4 layer cake. I'd also never made a true buttercream frosting before. Ophelia was as green as I was. If she was nervous, though, she didn't show it. What a champ. And thus the challenge began.

First, the cake -- it's a lemon-ish white cake, made with cake flour, lemon zest, butter, egg whites, baking powder. As you can see from the pictures, they turned out really well. It was much easier to deal with these cakes as opposed to the chocolate cakes I made for D.'s defense. I am sure it is because these were much less dense. So, while the cakes cooked, I began the buttercream frosting. In a double-boiler, I cooked 4 egg whites with 1 1/2 cups sugar. The directions told me to cook it for 3 min. or until it looked like shiny marshmallow spread. I likely cooked it for 5 min. because I wanted to make sure it was hot enough to actually cook. And, I also really like to put stuff in a double boiler. I have no idea why. I mean, whoever thought to do that kind of stuff?

So, once I did that, I was to let Ophelia at it. Ophelia was to beat the mixture for 5 min. or so until it almost tripled in size. Man, is she good at her jobs. I wish I was that competent. I think she likes that I'm a tad bit jealous of her strength and abilities. Notice she let me photograph her today. I don't think that the ego boost and the photograph is a coincidence. Just sayin'. Then, comes the butter. I almost had a coronary just looking at how much butter went into this frosting. I don't even think I can admit it here. Let's just say that Paula would be proud, very proud. And, I feel like I am doing my part to support the dairy farmers here in the Midwest. So, it's ok, right? Right?

Then, the final test for Ophelia -- just beat the shit out of this frosting for like 10 min., aerate it to the point of doubling, and then you're ready to frost. Ophelia handled it like a trooper. Sometimes, I swear I hear her whisper "bring it, bitch." It would figure my mixer would have an attitude.

And, then came the part I was dreading -- separating the cake layers. Now, I had never done that before, and considering how difficult the chocolate cake was to deal with, I was very, very afraid. But, then I figured if nothing else, I had ingredients to still make the brownies I had on hand as my backup, so I just went for it. Surprisingly, it was fairly easy to separate the layers. You can see that in the photos, as well.

Now, where the recipe divulged a bit from the original was with the frosting. It was to be a lemon buttercream frosting. Well, I made it a raspberry-lemon buttercream. Why, you may ask? Well, yes, Ophelia and both do enjoy pink very much. We also thought it looked very nice with the raspberries. And, while we could lie to you and tell you that's why, lying's really not our style. We let our crazy hang all out there.

I screwed up. Bottom line. I got the jam for the middle layers too close to the outside and knew that if I tried to spread that white buttercream frosting on the outside, I'd end up with pink streaks that were obviously not meant to be there. So, instead, we opted for a pink frosting that we made just by mixing in a few tablespoons of seedless raspberry jam.

Now, I will admit that this cake, for all the butter, is actually very light in taste. In fact, I might have liked a little bit heavier (in terms of weight and sweetness) buttercream. But, all in all, quite the party, and quite the party cake. Ophelia is sending me to an orchard tomorrow to get some apples and peaches, so stay tuned!

"Call Me" Blondie Brownies, or She Was What We Called a Suicide Blonde Maple Blondies

Well, as I am wont to do, at about 10:15 tonight I decided I wanted to bake something. I surfed the net for a bit, and found a recipe for Blondie brownies. Now, that spurred me to want my favorite dessert -- Applebees' Maple Blondie Brownie. I have no words to describe that dessert. My friend Janelle and I were having birthday lunch at the Applebees in the mall in Rochester, MN the first time I had that dessert. We'd had a Mucho Margarita fest, which commenced in a new sport (drunk shopping), which I only participated in once. I was, however, very good at this particular sport. My bank account didn't appreciate my greatness, however. Anyway, back to the story about the Maple Blondie. Janelle and I were known for enjoying food, so we went for it. The cold vanilla ice cream mixed with the creamy maple butter sauce with the decadent blondie was almost too much to handle. It's really the only other thing I remember about that day, thanks to the margaritas. I know Janelle and I had a good time, we always did, and the taste of that Blondie has stuck with me since that moment in 1998.

As you can see from the pictures, I decided to try to tackle it. I took some pictures of Ophelia, but she wasn't cooperating tonight. Sometimes, a star just won't be photographed. She might also be angry with me about a failed roll attempt yesterday, in which I had to throw some dough away that she worked very hard on. I apologized, but it might take a day or two. I don't blame her, I was pretty mad myself.

So, anyway, hoping I would come through for myself, I went hunting for white chocolate chips. In all my foresight, I had stocked some. I must have known this night was coming. And thus, the baking commenced.

Blondies:

1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp. vanilla

1/4 c. chocolate chips

Cream together wet ingredients. Sift together dry. Combine the two together and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Press into 8x8 greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cut while warm.

Maple Butter Sauce (yes, of course this is low calorie -- do I make anything that's not?)
1/4 c. unsalted butter
1 8 oz. package cream cheese
1/4 c. sweetened condensed milk
1/4 c. white chocolate chips
1 tsp. salt
Maple Flavoring to taste

Melt first three ingredients in sauce pan, but do not boil. Once combined/melted, add in chocolate chips, maple flavoring and salt, off heat, and allow to melt. Serve hot over blondies.

And, now both Debbie Harry and Saul Bellow's heads are spinning around as I type. Enjoy!