Good, Good, Good, Good Intentions...

Well, O. and I started out with good intentions. We made a carrot cake, earlier than the deadline we gave ourselves for the year-o-cakes. Then I ran out of time to decorate it, so we thought we'd wait and make another. We thought we'd bookend with cakes we knew we were good at. So, our second was a chocolate and peanut butter cake. Yum. And these were pretty good, although it's clear we are still getting used to the new stove (which burns SO hot, whoa). But, again, we ran out of time for decorating. Why? Well, let us tell you.

Painting. Painting takes SO long. Well, so long when you're not exactly color adept and think you keep your paint swatches straight, but you so don't. And since we've moved in, we've painted four rooms, one of them twice. The sheer stupidity of that astounds me, but we're both much happier with the second kitchen color, which you'll see in the next post.

These cakes were good for our first cakes in our kitchen. Some new colleagues got to taste both of them, and they seemed to like them. I am still having a thing for the cookies, however. Oh those cookies, those sweet, chocolatey cookies...

We'll tell more in our next post -- we've been making cakes, just not writing about them! Sheesh.

Love to all,
M&O Productions

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!

We're Running So Fast to Keep from Falling Behind...

Holy production, Batman. I've been so busy baking that I haven't been able to do any blogging. What is this world coming to? It's coming down to me trying to get a job, which has seriously curtailed my free time. Whose bright idea is it to have a job market that whose process is over 8 months long? Do they not understand that I have cakes to make and a life to have? I mean really -- job or devil's food cake? Job or peanut butter cake? Did someone say cake? I'm sorry, the cake wins every single time. Anyone want to back me for a new bakery? "M.'s Morsels." or "Morsels with M." I like them both -- any other suggestions? I'm giving serious consideration to this alternate employment future.

Anywho, as you can see from the pictures, my photography skills have also been lacking -- no action shots, Ophelia is being ignored, general havoc and mayhem have overtaken the kitchen. Ophelia is pissed. She's become a faceless workhorse. I will have to remedy that, and soon. No need to have her angry with me, too.

So, starting in order of the photos, first came my friend M.'s birthday cake. It was also my first foray into decorating with color. Cake = awesome. Frosting = divine. Decorating = D+ for effort. It looks distinctly like I first had a lobotomy and then attempted to to decorate the cake. Apparently writing with colored frosting now looks remarkably similar to learning to write in cursive in third grade, completely with the mis-matched scallops that I was convinced would make the stupid thing look better. Poor M. At least the cake tasted good. I cut the cake to transport so M. didn't have to see the completely monstrosity that was her birthday cake.

Next, we had the peanut butter cup cake. Literally, it was an inverted peanut butter cup. Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. I love peanut butter frosting. I love peanut butter. No, I do not have all kinds of peanut butter frosting my fridge that I have been eating on and off for the last couple of days. No, I have not gained 20 pounds since Ophelia came into my life. Please stop spreading those nasty rumors. I could sue for defamation, you know. If Brit can do it, so can I. Moving on -- the peanut butter cake was a hit. A. and S. came over for dinner last night, and this was the treat. We had a great time, although I learned that I don't get nearly the sports channels that I thought I did. With a little help from A. and S. and K. and P., the cake is already gone and out of my house, which is how I like things.:)

Next came a peach galette. This came about this afternoon because I had peaches that had to be used up, like, whoa, yesterday. Not wanting to make a pie, I made the galette instead. It looks great, but I made a huge mess with it. It leaked (well, because I shoved too many peaches in it because I wanted to get them all used up) and while I realized that this would likely make a mess, somewhere in my head I didn't think that the sugary sauce would burn. My logic defies all, well, common sense. No, M., sugary sauces don't burn when you stick them in a hot, hot oven, not at all, and when they don't burn, they don't set off your smoke alarm and won't make your house smell like you set your hair on fire. Not that I would have any idea what that smelled like, either. Anyway, it was a mess. But, the galette itself didn't burn, so I sent that off home with my celebrity taste testers (well, with K. -- poor P. was at class). It looked good, but I just wasn't that interested in it.

Finally, the apple tartlets. Now, what would possess me to try to make these little buggers tonight? Well, in trying to patch the galette before it went wicked out of control, I had to hack into another pastry to do so. Rather than waste it, I decided to make these. For no recipe, and just winging it, I think I did pretty good. I actually ate one of these tonight, and it was quite yummy.

Up next for Ophelia and I -- a spice cake and a maple cake!:) Stay tuned!

Decisions, Decisions...

Sometimes, Ophelia and I just can't decide. So, instead of deciding, we just go for it. Tonight, we went for it, indeed.:) Two of our specialties -- Barefoot Contessa's Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars, and my mother's Dutch Apple Pie. Both have undergone some revising, but Ophelia and I aren't telling.:) Like we said before, we have to keep some secrets, or we'd lose our fan base. Yes, we're crazy like that.

Now, I must admit that my mother and I are known for this pie all over the place. She's been making it since I was a little girl. You don't need to know how long that is, for both our sakes. People far and wide in MN know this pie -- people ask for it at get-togethers. She gives it as birthday presents, and makes it for any major holiday. I absolutely love this freaking pie. It's like a little slice of home for me. I've been making it since my last full-time teaching gig in Iowa when I figured out that hey, I like to bake, and I'm not too shabby at it, and thus can have a slice of home wherever I am. Plus, then I get to share a little bit of my Minnesota with others, too. So, I have a wide range of fans for this pie. The peanut butter bars are more recent, but Ophelia and I have perfected them. Plus, we're obsessed with The Barefoot Contessa. Ok, I'm obsessed about Ina Garten and Ophelia has to listen to me talk about her all the time while we cook. I fawn over her cookbooks and her show. I will make any recipe if it comes from Ina's kitchen. When I grow up, I want to be Ina Garten. I think, if I could make money doing this for a living, I totally would. For now, I'll have to stick with gushing over Ina and creeping my friends out with my strange obsession for this woman I've never met. Whatever.

I've also found that peanut butter bars and apple pie are just the ticket when you've had a "God Damn Mongolians" day. To understand what I mean, see here: South Park's "God Damn Mongolians". I love South Park.

The Magic of Peanut Butter

Since I was a little girl, I have had an affinity for peanut butter. Perhaps it was watching my father make the only thing he knows how to make in the kitchen (peanut butter sandwiches with enough peanut butter to choke someone), or perhaps it was watching my Grandma M. make peanut butter cookies from scratch with no measurements. Anyway, I loves me some peanut butter. The more I can do with it, the better.

So, when I found this recipe for a peanut butter cake with a peanut butter frosting, I jumped at the chance. Ophelia had been on vacation for a little while, because of the start of school and all, so she was rested and ready. I was a little nervous, though. The frosting was unlike anything I'd made before, and I wanted to decorate it nicely (when I get out of hell, er, school, my first action is going to be to take a cake decorating class. Ok maybe my second, but certainly my second). Plus, with my love of peanut butter, I didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize the wonder that is peanut butter.

So, here we go. Now, the recipe had me cheat a bit -- I was to use a box cake mix. Now, I wouldn't normally do this, but since it was my first time with this recipe, I followed it step by step and will mess with it later, depending upon how it tastes. I'll post on that later. *Update* YUMMY! It's ok to have peanut butter cake and diet pepsi for breakfast, right? Right?

Recipe (from allrecipes.com)

Cake:
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c peanut butter (I doubled this to a c. because, well, I love peanut butter:)
1 box butter cake mix
2/3 c. water

Frosting:
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. peanut butter
4 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. heavy cream (I found I had to use more, like almost 2/3 c to get the frosting to spread correctly)

For cakes: Mix first two ingredients for cake in your mixer (go Ophelia, go!) with the paddle attachment until fluffy and creamy. Add cake mix and water intermittently until mixed. Grease two 9-inch cake pans. Split cake mix evenly into the two pans. Smooth off top and bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 min. until done. Cool for 10 min. in pans, remove from pans and cook completely on racks.

For frosting: Cream together butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and cream (use cream sparingly just until frosting is spreadable) in small doses until combined.

Frost cakes when cool, with one layer of frosting in the middle. Chop peanut butter cups for decoration.

SO yummy, also very rich! Ophelia says enough with the peanut butter already, so we'll be moving onto something else (perhaps some bread) this weekend/week!