• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Joy the Baker
Joy the Baker
  • New Magazine!
  • Bread
  • Cookies
  • Cakes
  • Pies
  • Recipes
    • All Recipes
    • Biscuits
    • Muffins
    • Cupcakes
    • Drinks
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Fruit
    • Nuts
    • Buttermilk
    • Chocolate
    • Vanilla
    • Holiday
    • Healthy
    • Gluten-Free
    • Vegan
  • Blog
    • Baking 101
    • Tips
    • Beyond the Kitchen
    • Let It Be Sunday!
    • New Orleans

In the Stacks: my favorite things

October 26, 2011 by Joy the Baker 129 Comments

book photo

I am surrounded by stacks of books.  Well… stacks of books, semi sweet chocolate chips, and bobbypins.

I really wanted to share my books with you… mostly because reading aloud is lost on my cat.  New and old, these are the pages that currently surround me.

With the season getting more grey and brisk, I find myself sitting with these books even more.  Working out is sooooo summer.  It’s time for sweaters, slippers, and cozy book worming.

I was recently gifted Good Meat.  Gorgeous Gorgeous book!  I now know that I can make a French-style hamburger with salted herb butter.  I’m reading this book like a novel and dreaming about steaks and stews.

The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook inspired this perfect chocolate cake.  It’s a beautiful seasonal cookbook with umcomplicated recipes that inspire communal table dining.

Heidi wrote such a dreamy book.  Super Natural Every Day.  It’s full of health and quinoa.  In my dream life I eat as well as Heidi.  In my real life I just keep eating butter.

Do you have the Organic and Chic cookbook?  I’ve been talking about this book for a while now.  I love the cupcakes in this book.  The decorating is simply pretty and organic as heck.

There’s totally more…

books

I have a relationship with Dorie Greenspan’s Baking book.  My friend Michael bought me this book when I was such a poor student that the best I could do was daydream about this book while sitting with it at the bookstore.  I’ve made every single recipe.. at least twice.  Dorie’s a hero in my heart.

Food Styling is serious.  It’s no joke.  This book will tell you how to make pies and cookies and salads look right.  On the real.

Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating makes me sound like I know a thing or two about food. From coffee to aged Parmesan cheese, to balsamics, and chocolate.  This book will teach you why good vinegar is expensive, and why why why to splurge on an aged cheddar.  It’s good brain food.  Smartypants!

Steinbeck… I love you.  You write for my heart.  How kind of you.

Dave Eggers.  You infuriate and inspire me.  It’s strange and invigorating.

My Mom got me this Kitten Taming book.  Um… I think this arrived too little too late.  The Act Like a Woman, Think Like a Man book was much more topical and poignant when it arrived in my life last year.

book photo

Jilly’s book, Party Like a Culinista is filled with post-it note bookmarks.

JayZ wrote an uh-mazingly major book.  Decoded was the most inspiring book I’ve read this year.  It’s gorgeous.  It’s beautifully written and visually… everything.  Find your way to this book.

Eugene O’Neill.  You take my heart and break it.

OhMyGod Wuthering Heights.  Heathcliff.  Oh you.

Book of Dreams… for when I super stress dream about work stuff and such.

Be a girl who reads and cooks.  Come on… totally dork out with me.

Previous PostNext Post

Filed Under: Beyond the Kitchen, tips

Previous Post: « Grilled Ham, Cheese, Pickle, and Potato Chip Sandwich
Next Post: Super Simple Roasted Apples »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Heather

    November 1, 2011 at 6:48 pm

    We were just in California for vacation this past week and stopped at the Big Sur Bakery on our drive down the PCH to San Francisco. I contemplated getting the cookbook when I saw the breakfast pizza which looked amazing. Instead, we just settled for a delish turkey sandwich and vanilla cream donut. :)

    Reply
  2. Lucia

    October 30, 2011 at 11:25 am

    Joy, this is a wonderful stack of books. I can’t wait to add your cookbook too.

    Reply
  3. laura k

    October 29, 2011 at 11:11 am

    You speak to my heart here. I am, after all, a librarian. I’m on a major cookbook bender right now. I have The Heart of the Artichoke and The Splendid Table sitting on my end table, and am going to pick Tender up at the library today. I’m also reading Best Food Writing of 2010 right now, and I love it. I sometimes read things that are not food related, too. I have Grapes of Wrath on my bookshelf, but haven’t read any Steinbeck yet. You’ve inspired me to pick it up.

    Reply
  4. Kierstan @ Life {and running} in Iowa

    October 29, 2011 at 6:44 am

    A few weeks ago I have at least 15 books stacked on my nightstand. I finally had to dust and moved them all, accepting the fact that I wasn’t going to get to them. I do have to pick up Withering Heights and read it in the next week as I am totally visiting England soon!

    Reply
  5. Valerie

    October 28, 2011 at 5:09 pm

    Omg, I love it! Cooking and reading are for sure my favorite hobbies!

    Reply
  6. Nathalie

    October 28, 2011 at 4:46 pm

    I ordered the Zingerman guide when I saw it on your blog; it arrived today. Can’t wait to begin reading!

    Reply
  7. Stephie @ Eat Your Heart Out

    October 28, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    OMG I was SO EXCITED when I saw East of Eden in your stack!!!! That is my ALL TIME FAVORITE book. There is just something so incredible about the way Steinbeck creates the most perfect, beautiful sentences that I have ever read. Every time I crack open that book, I discover something new that is totally poignant for that time of my life. John Steinbeck, you can have my heart.

    Reply
  8. Alicia

    October 28, 2011 at 12:13 pm

    Joy, I LOVE YOU!!!!! (not in a sappy or creepy way, but in a way one nerd deeply appreciates the honesty of another nerd embracing her nerddom)

    Reply
  9. Mimi

    October 27, 2011 at 8:07 pm

    Love for cooking and love for reading must be a popular combination. I’m totally ready to dork out with you! Getting to teach kids about reading everyday, then coming home to make great things in the kitchen makes me a very lucky girl.

    Reply
  10. Kristy

    October 27, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    I really hope you’ve heard the song or seen the video for Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”. OMG.

    Reply
  11. Stephanie

    October 27, 2011 at 6:52 pm

    I love the printed page. I love that you love the printed page. And I love Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day and Dorie Greenspan’s Baking… so very very much.

    Reply
« Older Comments
Comments Page 8 of 8
« Previous 1 … 6 7 8

Trackbacks

  1. Books to drool on | drawn and quartered says:
    May 7, 2014 at 7:09 pm

    […] one was recommended by Joy The Baker! Can’t wait to dive into it and party the right […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

RELATED POSTS IN Beyond the Kitchen

stack of beach reads 2022
The Best Books for Summer 2022

Summer books are meant to be defiled. Pages should be smeared with suntan lotion and potato chip grease; covers should be sun faded and waterlogged, used as coasters for your margaritas, a landing pad for unwieldy ice cream cones. (Unless, of course, you’re checking your summer book out from the library. In which case, you…

Read More

Summer Bucket List, 2022!

BUCKET LIST buck•et list (noun): a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have accomplished during their lifetime.  Also, a 2007 comedic film featuring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. SUMMER BUCKET LIST sum•mer buck•et list (noun):  a list of things that a person would like to accomplish and experience during the summer months.  If done correctly,…

Read More

A Peek Behind the Scenes of the new Joy the Baker Magazine

A few years ago when I embarked on the (incredibly exciting) journey of magazine making, I had no idea just how much it would flip my seasons and try to scramble my festive circadian rhythm.  Last summer, I had a Christmas tree up in the living room for most of July and August. Yes, fully…

Read More

Primary Sidebar

Fresh baked emails, delivered to your inbox

Receive recipes from Joy the Baker and updates on events at The Bakehouse.

HI! I’M JOY!

Welcome! This has been my little corner of the internet since 2008!

I’m a baker, photographer, cookbook author and teacher.  I live laugh love in New Orleans. 

MORE ABOUT JOY AND THE TEAM

BOOKS + Magazines

JOY THE BAKER 2022 SUMMER MAGAZINE

JOY THE BAKER 2021 HOLIDAY MAGAZINE

JOY THE BAKER 2020 HOLIDAY MAGAZINE

HOMEMADE DECADENCE

OVER EASY: SWEET AND SAVORY RECIPES FOR LEISURELY DAYS COOKBOOK

JOY THE BAKER COOKBOOK

Joy the baker with dyed bandana around neck

HOW TO MAKE DYED BANDANAS

as seen in JtB Magazine!

joy the baker on facebook joy the baker on twitter pinterest-social instagram-socialbloglovin-social

JOY @ WILLIAMS SONOMA

SHOP THE CAKE LINE OF CAKE MIXES!

DRAKE ON CAKE

Passionate from miles away since 2015.

Check it out on Instagram

Drake on cake instagram.

 

FAVORITE FRUIT RECIPES

strawberry sheet cake on a plate with strawberries on top.

My Favorite Super Easy Strawberry Sheet Cake

Berry crostata topped with whipped cream with coffee.

A Single Serve Berry Crostata Recipe

fresh baked blueberry cobbler on a plate with vanilla ice cream on top.

The Secrets To My Favorite Blueberry Cobbler

POPULAR CAKES

strawberry sheet cake on a plate with strawberries on top.

My Favorite Super Easy Strawberry Sheet Cake

Slice of coconut cake on small white plate with coffee.

My favorite Coconut Cake is actually made with cake mix

A slice of lemon blueberry gooey butter cake held on a cake slicer.

Lemon Blueberry Gooey Butter Cake

Footer

Instagram

joythebaker

📚Baker and author of books and magazines
🎂Creator @drakeoncake
💁🏻‍♀️Classes with me @thebakehousenola
🍰 Products with @williamssonoma

joythebaker
My EASIEST Strawberry Sheet Cake is also my absolu My EASIEST Strawberry Sheet Cake is also my absolute favorite. Get into a box of white cake mix and fresh 🍓🍓 purée! Topped with a thick layer of strawberry cream cheese frosting - this cake is a little pink dream! ⁣
⁣
The Easiest Strawberry Sheet Cake recipe linked in the bio for you! 💋
Our resident reader, @tobyfels shares my favorite Our resident reader, @tobyfels shares my favorite list of the summer on Joy the Baker this year: The Best Books for Summer 2022!  As a person who reads Beach Reads all year long, this is IT! With titles by @ashleymcoleman_ @anarasong @annleary @bonnie_garmus_author @heyashposton @annabelmonaghan @greerhendricks @sarahpekkanen @shelbyvanpeltwrites @marilynsimonrothstein @@misterosman and @kirstin.chen. The guide to your bookworm summer linked in the bio!
Over here testing the limits of “you are what yo Over here testing the limits of “you are what you eat” and will soon be taking my final form as a summer tomato. ⁣🫠🍅
⁣
This Mediterranean Feta and Fresh Tomato Tart is an absolute show stopper with a buttery crisp, press-in crust, whipped feta, and layers of fresh tomato, cucumber, onions, and olives. I’ll leave the recipe linked in the bio - it’s really very special. Join me. We are 🍅🍅.
Here are my two best kept secrets for getting thro Here are my two best kept secrets for getting through this summer.  I’ve never been much for secrets so I’m letting you right in! ⁣
1.	I’m committed to folding crumbled chewy brownies into the easiest homemade no-churn ice cream.⁣
2.	I’m shopping for all of my baking and summer entertaining essentials, wine and cheese at the new @aldiusa stores opening across the Gulf Coast! Wait… you’re as obsessed with ALDI as I am, right? The shopping is always easy and affordable and I always come home with a fun treat among my essentials. Hit up my stories to see my grocery haul (and the chips I ate in the car on the way home) and head to your nearest ALDI for your summer essentials!  #ad⁣
⁣
I’ll leave the recipe and your #ALDILove grocery list linked in the bio!
Let’s just make one! ⁣ ⁣ One Single Berry Cr Let’s just make one! ⁣
⁣
One Single Berry Crostata just you for. Double the recipe (🔗 in the bio) only if you want to share. ⁣
⁣
#joythebaker #berry #crostata #smallbatch #dessert #foodblogfeed
The freezer is packed with ice cream treats from h The freezer is packed with ice cream treats from here on out, and that’s a promise. ⁣
⁣
Find this Milk and Cereal Ice Cream Bar and loads of other semi-homemade ice cream treats linked in the bio! 💓🍦🫠
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2022 · Joy the Baker
All rights reserved. Violators will be whupped and sent to bed with no dessert · Privacy Policy

Scroll Up