But If I Had the Chance to Go Back, I'd Rather Stay Right Here...I'm Turning 30

Yes, you're correct, I've already turned 30. That's how Ophelia and I came to be. I love every anniversary with her, but this post isn't about me, it's about my bro's GF, M. Now, M is a trooper -- she hangs out with my family a lot. Enough said. ;) And M. likes chocolate. A lot. For a little girl, she has an awesome appetite. I appreciate that about her.

Now, M. turned 30 this week, and so for this week's cake, I told her I'd make her any cake she wanted. She requested a fruit and chocolate cake. This is the best one I make, but after having screwed it up this summer, I was a little hesitant. Ophelia said it was because I didn't use her. She said to give it a try. So we did. It turned out pretty good.

The last picture is M. on her 30th birthday. Isn't she lovely? She's just as kind and sweet as she looks. My brother is a lucky guy. Happy 30th, M!

More on Sunday!

Love,
M&O Productions

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

All I Want is to be Home

Well, these posted backwards, despite my best efforts, but here goes nothing.

We're finally home -- back in the Upper Midwest, Ophelia and I are. We are SO happy. It's cooler. It's lush. I walk out my back door and I see a Bluff in the distance. This is all pretty awesome.

Since we got to NC, our goal was to get back. We're here now; we're home. And we're lovin' it.

Finally, after a week, the kitchen is set up, and Ophelia was ready to roll. Her first project were these cookies, also known as cookies to die for. They are seriously that good. Like "take the last cookie and I'll hunt you down" good.

Apparently the recipe is from a book called Beat This but I got it from my cousin Dan. I ate three of them. Don't judge me.

What do you think of our new kitchen digs? Ophelia loves that she has a little counter all to herself. She's made friends with the recipe box, so no fighting there for attention. They work well together.

We're still adjusting, but hey, we're here! Looking forward to more baking in this space!

M&O Productions

Kick, Push, Coast...

In honor of moving, my blue girl and I have been listening to some Lupe Fiasco. Ok, so we have no idea what that has to do with moving. We just find him pretty awesome. We love us some "Kick, Push" and that's exactly what we're doin' -- Kick, Push, and Coastin' our way outta here!

So, we're on the move again. Ophelia is glad I kept her box -- she feels snug as a bug in there, see pic. No, that beefy hand is not mine, although it really could be, at the rate I've been taping and lifting boxes these days. Nope, that's V., the infamous Dad who has come to drive the truck back to WI. He's also the reason I didn't get an "Ophelia moving action shot" -- and I quote -- "what the heck are you doing? Taking pictures of your mixer? Dumbest thing I ever heard. Go pack a box." I told him I was telling Ophelia's minions he said that. Let him know what's up the next time you see him.

So, complete with a "Fragile" sticker (we big girls always are :) ), Ophelia and I are ready for the next adventure in our lives. So long, NC -- it's been real, and it's been fun, but not real fun. Wisconsin holds a lot more snow, cakes, and pies for both of us.

Much love, and more as we move!

M. and O.

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...

We're Back (Sort of)

Boy, has Ophelia been feeling neglected lately. And, the neglect continued with the cake T. and I decided to make Saturday night.

This story actually begins Friday evening, when I was commissioned to take my friend M. up to Midway to fly out to see her friend in Mississippi. We're half-way up to Chicago, when M. turns to me and says:

M1: Hey, Mom has been looking for updates on Loving Ophelia -- what gives?
M2: (Drama Queens out) I'm an idiot and broke my camera a couple of months ago, and so haven't been able to take any pictures, and figured without pictures, what's the use?
M1: Oh

A few seconds go by...

M1: Um, dude, don't you have an iPhone with a camera on it.
M2: Shit.

So, here we are -- have figured out how to upload photos from the iPhone (which still needs a name -- suggestions?), and we're back in business. Unfortunately, Ophelia didn't make an appearance in this concoction, but that's ok -- she's just happy the blog is back in business.

As you can see from T.'s Vanna White impression, instead of going to the concert that we thought we would, we stayed home and baked a cake. A dulce de leche cake, to be exact. But, we figured several things out in this process:

1. Cakes that use eggs as levening agents suck.
2. We don't have enough patience for a cake you can't mix and dump in a pan.
3. We'd rather drink wine and eat cheese and order chinese food.

So, the final outcome of the cakes was that we baked them, looked at them, and eventually threw them away. What a waste. I tasted them, though, and they were awful. I'm not sure what happened, but man, they were bad. Tasted like a cross between cardboard and styrofoam. Yum.

Ophelia claims that it was because we didn't involve her in the process that the cakes didn't turn out. She may very well be right.

I also included some gratuitous shots of T. with wine, and T. with wine and greek cheese from Chicago (that's how good of a friend that girl is:). That's how we spent our weekend. It was AWESOME.

More later, I promise, now that I've got the iPhone thing figured out (thanks M.!). Shout out to M's Mom J.! I'm back!

Love,
Hibbs and Ophelia

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!