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Good Taste: Brunch is so gay

I was tempted to make this week’s column into an ode to the salad, since I feel like I’ve ingested more culturally sanctioned fat and sugar in one weekend than I’ve eaten in months – and maybe you have too – but that’s un-seasonal silly talk.

Instead, I’m going to lift us out of the November-December tunnel of mixed-emotions holiday hoo-ha by focusing on something that’s always un-loaded, festive, and fun: brunch!

Yes, brunch – perhaps the queerest meal there is. Take otherwise staid “breakfast” and “lunch,” slap them together to make a whole new meal, give it a cute nickname, and add fruity, fizzy mimosas.

Who could forget Sasha Baron Cohen, as Bruno, cross-examining “gay converter” Pastor Quinn on whether brunch is a homosexual sin or not: “If you’re eating brunch with Christian friends, and there’s no one else around that’s gonna seduce you into sin, that’s OK,” Pastor Quinn avers sagely. (The rest of the clip is hilarious, too.)

This is Tori Truscheit, of Brooklyn-based Kitchentop Catering. She was gracious enough to answer some of my questions, and has contributed a scone recipe.

She also offered to send a batch of her home-baked brownies to one lucky AfterEllen.com Good Taste reader. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below with your favorite Good Taste moment, or a suggestion for an upcoming column idea. We’ll pick a name out of a hat and the winner will get a box of Tori’s brownies! Lucky.

Tori popped up on my radar when she catered comedian Kelli Dunham’s Bad Habit Brunch at the LGBT Community Center in NYC. Kelli is one of the founders and co-producers of Queer Memoir, a monthly storytelling series that also takes place in New York City, and she also tours with the Famous Lesbian Comedy Roadshow. The Bad Habit Brunch was a combination performance/party/brunch in celebration of her 15-year anniversary of leaving the convent.

The scones were a huge hit. “Well worth leaving the convent for,” said Kelli. And you have to love a caterer who has the following NSFW item on her menu: Red Velvet Vulva Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting.

Tori recently answered a few of our questions.

AfterEllen.com: How did you get started in the catering business?

Tori Truscheit: I’ve been informally cooking for queers I know for a long time, and it’s just now starting to turn into a major project. I love baking for people, and if my badass radical friends are going to eat, I want them to eat real food made by a real person, from her heart. My goal is to provide homemade food that gets people excited about eating!

So many of us ignore what our bodies tell us, and we end up eating mindlessly. I grew up doing that, and I think it’s revolutionary to make thoughtful choices about food. That includes listening to my body’s cravings for lentils or for chocolate-whiskey cupcakes, whichever might arise.

AE: What was the most popular thing you served at the Bad Habit Brunch?

TT: The cranberry-orange scones went over really well. I make them a little less dense and a little more buttery than traditional English scones, and the Americans seem to like them that way! I served those with orange curd, which is like lemon curd but with orange.

AE: How does your identification as a femme relate to your feelings about cooking and baking?

TT: I’m a femme, and I like to bake, but I believe our gender identities shouldn’t define our personality traits or hobbies. I know butches and men who are baking fiends, just as I know femmes who love motorcycles. That said, historically, many women were forced into cooking, but I choose it, just like I choose femme, and I find that subversive. And I think 1950s-inspired aprons are really hot.

Tori Truscheit is available for events and baking for a crowd in the (tri-state) New York area. Her catering is vegetarian, and she can feed up to 75 people at one event. You can find her on Twitter @kitchentop.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

5 tbsp cold butter (vegans: use Earth Balance)

3/4 cup milk (vegans: use rice, soy, or almond milk)

2 tbsp orange juice

1 tbsp orange zest

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Cut in butter, using two knives or a pastry cutter, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a separate bowl, combine milk and orange juice, and stir into crumb mixture until just blended (dough will be soft). Fold in dried cranberries. Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead gently a few times. Shape into a ball. Pat dough into a circle and cut into eight wedges. Freeze scones, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for at least 1 hour and up to a week. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove from freezer, separate wedges, and place 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with additional sugar. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

What brunch is complete without cocktails?

Leah Houghtaling and Amelia Sauter are partners who also co-own Felicia’s Atomic Loungein Ithaca, NY. (You can read their meet-cute story in Amelia’s essay in Dear John, I Love Jane.) Leah mixes up all sorts of wild concoctions, based on her own epiphanies and the desire to use local and organic ingredients. Amelia governs the front of the house and writes the Felicia’s Speakeasy blog.

Substitutions for Teetotalers: I am aware that a lot of people have given up the sauce, or just don’t like it. My slightly lushy self wholeheartedly salutes you. In order to make these cocktails into mocktails, substitute club soda or tonic water for the champagne, depending on your preference. As for the bourbon, you can substitute a dash of non-alcoholic vanilla extract.

In order of easy to labor-intensive:

1 part mango juice

1 part orange juice

2 parts champagne or sparkling wine

Pour the juices into your glass, and swirl it around. Tilt the glass and slowly add the bubbly. Stir gently.

1/8 ounce sweetened lime juice

1/2 ounce Pomegranate juice

5 oz. champagne or sparkling wine

orange twist

Pour the lime juice and pomegranate juice into a glass. Tilt the glass and slowly add the bubbly. Stir gently. Add the orange twist.

6 oz brut champagne or sparkling wine

½ oz Knob Creek bourbon

1/8 ounce sweetened lime juice (Don’t use Rose’s! Click here for our own sweet lime juice recipe)

1 pomegranate

2 champagne glasses

Pour ¼ ounce of bourbon and a dash of sweet lime juice into each glass. Cut pomegranate into eighths. Remove the seeds from one eighth and divide them between the two glasses. Remove the seeds from another eighth and smash them with the back of a spoon before dividing them between the two glasses. Pour 3 ounces of champagne into each glass.

750 ml bottle of champagne, sparkling wine or sparkling cider

20 ounces fresh beets (2 large)

20 ounces water

3/4 cup maple syrup

3/8 tsp cinnamon (1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp)

1/4 tsp cayenne

1 pinch of mace

Roast beets:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pierce beets six or eight times with a fork or knife and wrap in aluminum foil. Place foil-covered beets on baking sheet in center of oven. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven and allow beets to cool fully in the foil.

Spiced beet syrup:

Unwrap beets and shred with food processor. Place shredded beets in sauce pan, including all of the juice. Add enough water to cover beets (about 20 ounces of water). Cook uncovered over medium heat for 15 minutes. Do not boil. Add maple syrup, cinnamon, cayenne and mace. Simmer uncovered over low heat for another 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool fully.

To make cocktail:

3 ounces champagne, sparkling wine or sparkling cider

2 1/2 tablespoons spiced beet syrup

twist of orange peel

Pour sparkling wine into a champagne flute. Slooooowly add spiced beet syrup. Garnish with orange twist. Serves 8. Beet syrup will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

“Ridiculously fabulous but a little labor-intensive,” Amelia forewarns us, “The Spiced Beet Bubbly is shamelessly loved by beet whores and non-beet whores alike.” (I have to try this out, because beets are one of the very few things that I don’t like. Could it be that Leah has created a way for me to enjoy them?)

Enjoy the recipes, endure the holidays, and don’t forget to leave a comment below to enter the Kitchentop Catering brownie giveaway. Until next week.

Candace is the co-editor of Dear John, I Love Jane: Women Write About Leaving Men for Women (Seal Press, 2010), and Ask Me About My Divorce: Women Open Up About Moving On (Seal Press, 2009). She is currently working on a memoir-with-recipes for Seal Press called Licking the Spoon. Candace is also the features editor at Mothering magazine, mama of two, and enamorata of smarty-pants Laura, her live-in recipe tester. Follow Candace on Twitter @candacewalsh.

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