Perfectly Imperfect

THE ACE OF CAKES IS ON IRON CHEF.

OMG, I CAN'T EVEN.

Update: AND HE'S GOING UP AGAINST IRON CHEF MR CLEAN*! *FLAILS*



*That's Iron Chef Michael Symon for those who aren't me.

Guess who got a super nice KitchenAid mixer complete with paddle, whisk, and dough hook thingy today for $45?

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME, Y'ALL.

(Okay, so it's leaking grease a little bit, BUT the internet says that's a common problem that's easily fixed and youtube has a video that walks you through the entire thing. I still win.)

1. So, apparently it's National Coming Out Day. A couple people on my flist know I've been having a bit of a sexuality crisis for the last few months, but for the most part it's been such a low key thing that I hesitate to even mention it. I've always been of the opinion that personality is the most important thing when it comes to choosing a partner, but since I've pretty much always been attracted to men, it's a principle I've applied more to other people than myself. I've come to the conclusion that I still tend to be more attracted to men than women in general, but there are too many women that I'm equally attracted to to keep calling myself really straight. So I'm...flexible? Open minded? Opportunistic? I'm still figuring that part out.

2. I have such a crush on Chef Andy Bates. He has gorgeous eyes and his pie recipes are delicious.

3. Yesterday was National Cake Decorating Day and the day I finished my certification class for cake decorating. Awesome unintentional timing is awesome. :)

4. I accidentally wrote a tiny piece of gen RPF for Seamus Dever and Jon Huertas that is 110% Jen's fault. Because these things are always Jen's fault. (It's why we love her. ♥)

( Boys being boys. )

5. Speaking of Jen, Jon, and Seamus, she pointed me toward some pics I have to share.

( Oh, boys, who puts together your outfits? )

I choose to believe that these are set in my French Girls verse. They're obviously from a day when Javier woke up, rolled out of Kevin's bed, and got dressed in the dark so as not to disturb Kevin. They are boys in love. Sometimes wearing your boyfriend's clothes just happens and it's just Javier's bad luck that his boyfriend has horrible fashion sense. *chinhands*

6. I'm not getting all my notifications from LJ about various things in addition to being laid up for most of the day with a heinous migraine, so I'm slower than usual about answering comments. Sorry! I'll try to get everything answered before I turn in for the night.

7. I'm certain I had another thing to talk about, but now I've forgotten it. :(  

1. My fabulous apron that starscythe bought me arrived today! Guys, it's even better than I imagined. Pics are coming when I manage to track down some batteries. Thank you again, honey!

2. Every time the preview for Warrior shows up on my television, all I can do is pause and stare helplessly at the screen with longing for THardy's shoulders.

1. Got into a knock down, drag out screaming fight with mom first thing this morning. Apparently I'm an unappreciative, flaky child with no say in my own future. Awesome.

2. Spent a good chunk of the day with my friend Whitney, who I've known for over ten years. I love that girl to pieces. We wandered around window shopping and picking up job applications for most of the afternoon and she let me talk her ear off about everything that's been going on. It's good to know that there's at least one person who I know in real life who is supportive about my leaving music for cooking. Also, she gave me a bra she'd bought that didn't fit her right. Hurray for getting brand new bras for free!

3. While mom and I were out this morning, we stopped at one of the local health food stores and I asked the owner if he was interested in selling locally made gluten-free baked goods. He said yes and I'm going to take in some samples of what I can do later this week. If all goes well, I might have my food on his shelves before too long. Cross your fingers and pray, everyone!

4. Hilary Swank's face bugs me. I don't even know why. It just really, really does, y'all.

5. This is a random picture from my Happy folder, because I'm determined to be more positive from here on out.

ETA: SO THIS JUST HAPPENED. The cats are both curled up on the back of the couch with their butts smushed together. I came REALLY close to saying 'Aww, they're butt buddies' out loud to my parents. Potentially awkward, anyone?

1. Heaven forbid I tell anyone else how to do their shit *snort* yeah, I would never do that, but if your header makes me literally lean away from my laptop, tilt my head to the side, and sing out 'Bizaaaarre'  in a lovely major 6th that wasn't quite low enough at the end to be a rip off of the NBC theme song--COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. BULLET. DODGED.--then chances are that you are Doing It Wrong. Seriously, honey. I don't expect you to be wonderful and flawless. I do expect you to give your header at least a cursory once over so that you aren't posting when it's only partially filled in or just plain baffling.

2. I started watching Suits about an hour ago. I'm all of ten minutes in. I get so freaking embarrassed on fictional characters' behalves (behalfs? behalves? bee haves?) that a lot of the time I have to leave the room until the scene is over. THIS DOES NOT TRANSLATE WELL TO WATCHING IT PRERECORDED, WHERE I CAN PAUSE AND EXPLORE THE INTERNET INSTEAD. I'll finish it tomorrow. For those not in the know, I have a Suits fic in the works right now. It's an AU where Mike is a stripper who is having financial problems and Harvey is one of his regulars. I am super excited about it!

3. I started a new community for recipes. Not everything will be gluten-free, but most of the recipes will be presented that way with a note telling you it's okay to substitute whatever weird flour I'm using if you want to use regular. Where applicable, that is. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I'm doing. ANYWAYS, it's called commfornoms and I hope to see some of you guys over there. I'm going to make some pasta tomorrow if I have time, so that'll go up, and at some point I'll put up recipes for the two cakes I posted pics of the other day. Right now all that's up are some old posts from this journal, but they will not be lonely for long!

4. I feel the need to clarify that I am 100% sober right now.

5. I wrote a fisting drabble for the Castle fandom yesterday. From the response, I can only assume that the Castle fandom is utterly BEREFT of fisting fics. That's just sad, guys. :(

6. I feel horrible about this, especially concerning people who paid for charity fics and still haven't gotten them, but pretty much everything I was working on before my grandmother died is on a momentary hold. I'll try to get back to it as quickly as possible, but right now I just need a little bit of distance. I hope you guys understand and, again, I'm so sorry for the long wait. Sometimes the things you need to write the most are the ones that are the hardest to produce.

*I know it's 'a lot'. Also, I am probably not actually a monster. Probably. Maybe. I can't verify that at this time.

Since several of you have expressed interest in the gluten free recipes I've mentioned, I've decided to start blogging some of my baking adventures.

First things first. If you're going to do gluten free baking, then finding the right flour mixture is essential. I have a couple different ones that I like to keep at the ready, but the one I use the most is the featherlight mix that I found in The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods cookbook. I make a lot of quick breads and, as I've mentioned before, they actually come out better with this flour than 'real' flour.

( Featherlight Rice Flour Mix )

Now for a recipe.

We tend to buy more bananas than we can eat before they go bad, as evidenced by the three inedible ones I found this morning, but since brown bananas make for good baking that's usually okay. Banana bread is pretty much a staple, but I've never been a huge fan of it. I decided to try something a little different, so I hit up the internet and found a banana cake recipe that looked like fun.

( Thai-style banana cake recipe )

Mom's been making jokes since the 4th about my possibly becoming an army cook--both her and dad are ex military and my sister is currently enlisted as a specialist--and when she made one tonight after tasting the gluten free apple cake I made her this afternoon, I told her about how miserable I've been, which shouldn't be surprising since she's been asking me if I'm depressed every few months for a couple years now, and about how I've been looking into local culinary programs. Dad's gone out of town with my sister on a trail ride while she's visiting, so he wasn't there for the conversation, and mom isn't totally on board yet, but I think I might have her in my corner on this. At the end of the day, I really do have parents who just want me to be happy and I'm so ridiculously lucky for that.

It's looking more and more like this might happen and it just feels like a huge weight is being lifted off my shoulders.

ETA: Mom's already hinting at how much she'd like for there to be a gluten free restaurant in town--she has celiac with the really rare, bad neurological side effects--and topetine and I have discussed opening an bakery. She will use it as her base of operations for crime solvey stuff and I will keep her supplied with delicious diabetic friendly treats. :)




Oh, and for those of you who friended me for fanfiction, and I do know that's most of you, I have been working on stuff, it's just longer I've got 17k so far of an Inception fic in which nothing is happening, wtf, and am also finally making good headway on my long overdue charity fics, which is why there haven't been any drabbles or shorts lately.

I've come to some conclusions over the past couple of days after realizing that I hate, hate, hate my major--I love singing and always will, but studying it is quickly draining all the joy out of it--and the thought of going back to school in a month makes me feel physically ill. Basically, all I want to do with my life is make delicious baked goods that make people happy, sing songs that people think are pretty, and write stories that make people want to keysmash with glee.

All this to say, I'm seriously considering abandoning my music degree after this next semester and enrolling in the culinary program at a local technical college for a semester or two to see if I'm less miserable doing that. I've taken cooking classes in the past and, unlike with music, I actually enjoy learning all the little technical things that make it work, and there's something satisfying about making something tangible that I can taste and know whether or not it's shit, unlike with singing where I'm never satisfied with the results.