English
4+
LGBTQ
Baking
Historical Figures
National Coming Out Day
summary
My next installment of #AbramsDinnerParty posts is for a reason that impacts my life on a daily basis, and that’s the ability to get married and have it recognized by the government. This is possible because neither of us are disabled, which I don’t have the time or caption length to get into, but is an issue that further marginalizes folks and keeps them from accruing savings or too many monetary resources if there is significant help from the government in terms of disability payments.
It’s also because I’m privileged enough to be out. I got to have a wedding day and invite those we both care about for a giant love party bbq in the sand dunes of cape cod. But even if you aren’t out, you’re still a valid member of the LGBTQ community.
Two Grooms on a Cake (Little Bee Books) is a picture book about Michael and Jack, who got married in Minnesota in 1971 and were the first same sex couple legally married in the U.S. It follows their relationship and subsequent fight to be recognized as married in the eyes of the law. In the back is a timeline of marriage equality, and some photos of Michael & Jack on their wedding day, their marriage certificate, and a photo of them in 2015 when country-wide laws were passed. Spoiler alert: they’re adorable.
So you might be wondering, Corrie, why donuts? Well, several reasons. One is the Nailed It! (Abrams Books) cookbook. I liked how for the decorated donut recipe there was a choose your own adventure option, based on how much time and -ahem- talent one might possess for yeasted donut dough and deep frying. I chose to make pizza dough donuts. Getting the pre-made dough is a huge timesaver and let me make donuts without holes in different sizes.
Not content to recreate the flamingos from the book, I tried to think about what theme I could make out of the decorations. Lee and I actually didn’t have a cake for our wedding, we got a bunch of different miniature Portuguese pastries with a mountain of malasada, fried dough rolled in sugar. So it seemed fun to try and do my take on the picture book combining all of these factors.
If you haven’t seen Nailed It! on Netflix, Nicole Byer is everything. This cookbook is a compilation of recipes from the show with photos of some…creative…attempts at recreating them. There are also contestant profiles. I had fun doing this today, and who doesn’t want an excuse to post a picture of their wedding??
These books were kindly sent by the publishers, but all opinions, decisions to pair, and donut scraps are my own! Two Grooms on a Cake is also a contender for the #Bookstagang_BestOf2021 list, out on December 3rd!