Ok so a couple of blogs ago I mentioned how I was nesting a little bit and how a big part of that is that my partner and I were in the process of trying to buy an apartment. I didn’t talk much about it at the time because things were still VERY up in the air and I didn’t want to jinx things.  That said, things are now much, much, much more solidified and I feel like I can talk about it publically.  I’m beyond excited that we are buying an apartment, it’s really a dream come true for me to own our home, and the place we are moving into I absolutely gorgeous!

As expected things over the last week have revolved pretty solidly around everything that is happening with purchasing this apartment. It's funny we've both become pretty addicted to playing online Tetris and 'making the pieces fall into place' which really serves as a larger metaphor for how well the process of home buying has gone so far.  We've been so blessed with how quickly and smoothly this whole process has gone for us. This week brought lots of big changes, officially signing the contract, and writing the BIGGEST check either of us have ever seen, the seller signing the contract and returning it to our attorney, interviewing/getting quotes from movers, our selling date being completely set by all parties, our move in date being confirmed by all parties, and hiring our movers. We’ve also been doing lots of packing, and have listed our apt. In Harlem several times and shown it to a few people---no one has bitten yet but were' hoping that soon we'll have the place re-rented.  We’ve started packing and our living room is not so slowly being overtaken by boxes and boxes and boxes (of course I’ve not even thought of starting to pack my clothes). Closing has been scheduled for June 25th and we’ve scheduled our move for June 26th!

Now, I’m sure you are all wondering about how this home buying business relates to femme blogging. Let me assure you, there is so much femme potential about this and it’s not just because we’re moving to Brooklyn where all my NYC femme friends have been trying to get us for years, but there are two very good and very concrete reasons why our new apartment = femme dream come true for me:

Number 1:  CLOSET SPACE!!!!!
At our current apartment my partner and I share a closet- I have the lower half (so there is more room for my shoes) and Kestryl has the upper half.  I’m sure that I don’t need to tell you how excited I am at the prospect of having my own closet! The closet that is mine even has built in interior shelves that will be ideal for storing my hats!

Number 2: FLAPPERS!!!
Yes I said flappers. Our new apartment building just so happens to be a restored 1920’s hotel!!!! I of course already have plans for writing lovely historical fiction stories about 1920’s high femmes and passing butches *swoon * Obviously the building has changed quite a lot since the 20’s but there is something completely breathtaking about the building lobby that just feels phenomenally femme to me- when you walk through it you can almost hear the clicking of flapper heels!  I can hardly believe that in just over a week and a half it's going to be our home!

On our anniversary in March, Dana and I went across the bridge to a little downtown shopping district and found a mom-and-pop bookstore. The only thing I bought that afternoon was a book called Small Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos. She gives instructions on how to assemble your own small baking containters out of aluminum cans and explains how medium size eggs are better for her recipes. I fell in love instantly! You see I have a little habit in the kitchen of making too much of a recipe and having so much leftover that we both stuff ourselves silly, or the excess simply goes to waste. This book was the perfect solution. The recipe I used was actually called Orange Spice Layer Cake but I improvised a little (per the usual!). I had no oranges, but I did have lemons and pineapple juice and that sounded pretty damn delicious together Small changes will make this recipe vegetarian or vegan. I use small silicone baking pans that I got from our local $1 store.

Ingredients:

4T unsalted butter (or vegan margarine)

1/2 c all purpose flour, sifted

1/4 c buttermilk (I used 1/8c soymilk, 1/8c pineapple juice)

yolk of one large egg (or equivalent in egg substitute)

2 t grated orange (lemon) zest

1/2 c sugar (i used 1/3 c)

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/4 t salt

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t ground nutmeg

1/8 t ground cardamom (YUCK! I used ground cloves)

1/8 t ground ginger

You will need a baking sheet and two single serve baking pans such as these square pans or this heart spring-form pan.

Preheat oven to 325F. Lightly grease and flour the insides of your baking pans and tap off excess flour. Place on a baking sheet and set aside. Combine the milk (and pineapple juice), egg yolk and orange (lemon) zest in a small bowl and wisk to mix. Place the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom  (clove) and ginger in a medium size mixing bowl and wisk to blend well (I just sifted all of these ingredients together). Add the butter and the milk-egg mixture. Beat with a hand-held mixer (i'm sure any mixing method is fine) on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 45 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl (very important because you are making a smaller batch so it could throw off the math if you don't scrape thoroughly with a silicone spatula - I got those from our $1 store too!) Spoon the batter into the prepared pans, dividing it evenly between them. Bake the cakes until a toothipick inserted comes out clean, 30-35 minutes. Cool in a wire rack for 15 minutes, then run a thin, sharp knife around the edge of each pan and invert them to release the cakes and allow them to cool completely.

Problems: My cakes came out really crumbly - the top half was cooked perfectly and the bottom half fell apart. I have several guesses as to why. 1. Perhaps my substitutions caused the mixture to be unstable. 2. Perhaps my oven is the wrong temperature (have had that problem with other ovens before!). 3. I forgot to flour the pans, I only greased them. 4. did not allow them to cool completely because Dana was coming home and I wanted to feed her a lovely cake! Phew. I should really start following directions, don't you think?

Frosting:

4 oz cold cream cheese (or vegan cream cheese)

2 t unsalted butter at room temp (or room temp vegan margarine)

3/4 c confectioner's sugar (I used 1/2 c + 2 T)

1 t grated orange (lemon) zest (or just toss in the rest of what you grated)

1/2 t pure vanilla extract

1 T thawed frozen orange juice concentrate

(rather than the orange juice, I put in about 1T fresh squeeze lemon juice and 1T pineapple juice)

Place the cream cheese and butter in a medium mixing bowl and beat with a hand-held mixer on medium until blended. Add sugar, zest, vanilla and beat to mix. Add juice and beat until fluffy. Use right away or chill (then let stand 1 hr before using).

The lemon pineapple frosting is by far the best frosting I have ever made in my entire life! The book recommends cutting the cakes in half through the middle and putting a layer of frosting between the cake layers. Top with nuts, more lemon zest, sprinkles or whatever! Baking is all about having fun and improvising. All great food is made when someone says, "I wonder if this and that would go nicely together?"

I'm still trying to perfect my small-batch homemade mac and cheese - I'll let you know when it shows up!

Technorati Tags: baking, comfort foods, culinary comfort, food, foods

So, I'm off on a bit of a rant...again...about how impossible it is for me to get my Lesbian Erotica and Female Bisexual Erotic published. You may remember my previous rants:
Well, Screw That People
Writing Lesbian Erotica...
(I'm getting quite tired of complaining so hopefully you will forgive this one last instance)

Most of you who know who I am also realize I am multi-published in erotica (I'm not making enough moolah to make the mortgage, but the car payment is officially covered...) and that I usually write BDSM erotica of the M/F or M/M or M/M/F variety. But no one usually asks about my F/F stuff, which BTW is piling up like last weeks laundry. There's a shitload of it on my harddrive...
Unsold.
Unpublished.
Enough to make me want to cry.

I also have a stack of wonderful rejection letters, mainly in the form of revision requests, asking me to make my F/F story a M/F, just change the gender, right, it's still the same story...
Who in the hell said that? Yeah, that would be one of my editors.

The other big request has been that if I insist on keeping it F/F, at least add a man...make it a menage...because menage sells...granted M/M/F menage sells better, so if I could just turn one of the F into a M and then make it a menage...

Seriously.
This is what I deal with. Every. Day.

Here's an excerpt from today's rejection letter: "The work was very well written, and I enjoyed reading the sexual elements, straight and lesbian. All were very well done. However, the work on balance is not a good fit for our erotic romance profile."

This time I was not asked for a revision, so I have no way of knowing whether they would have liked it better if I'd menage'd it or M/F'd it, but I would almost bet cold hard cash that it was one or the other.

I said I wasn't going to cave under pressure...but today I am leaning toward an avalanche. I think I'm going to menage PornStar which is a story so near and dear to my heart, I want to have sex with both F/F's in the story...and I desperately want it published.
Sadly, there is also a hunky ex, very alpha male in the story I'd also have sex with...but only if I got to wear the strap on because I think he's a real jerk who needs it up the a** a time or three...but who my other editors love so much they want him in on part of the action. Dear Goddess, I cannot believe I am even considering it...

Here is the ONLY reason I am considering it...
I want my F/F writing read. Period. If a menage scene or two will get it read I'm closer than I was yesterday to selling a full F/F manuscript. Yeah, yeah, I know...there are lesbian publisher's out there. But they won't even consider looking at PornStar because my heroine is Bisexual and does it with the hunky ex...

There's my rant for the day...please support Lesbian and Female Bisexual Fiction by buying!
Buy lots!
Prove there is a market.

*Want to thank Calico for allowing me to use this photo I found at Callico's Gallery earlier today! And BTW I also saw she asked a very interesting question over at Filthy Gorgeous Things, an awesome ezine if you haven't already checked it out...

Technorati Tags: bisexual, erotica, lesbian erotica, rant