August Was the Worst, But Jon Stewart Is Back!

Let It Be Sunday

I made this chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream, chopped toffee, and sea salt…. and then I shrugged my shoulders. ย It wasn’t very good…. a personal shame that I’m willing to share with you. ย I actually think that making a bad chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream is a crime in some states.

I should have just eaten the toffee and skipped the cake. ย I did, of course, eat all of the toffee off the top of this cake before placing it in the refrigerator to forget about until late next week. ย I’m sorry. ย I’m a work in progress.

I hope this finds you enjoying an extra mellow Sunday morning with perhaps more coffee than usual. ย I curated some of the Internet for you. ย It goes a little something like this:

โ€ข ย Was this August really the worst month ever?ย  Social media studies can give us the answer. ย The answer: ย kinda yeah. ย ย ย 

โ€ข ย This week I listened to a Fresh Air Podcast from earlier this summer: ย Kidnapping Is a Lucrative Business for Al-Qaida, Documents Show with host Terry Gross and journalist Rukmini Callimachi. ย It’s a testament to how important and how dangerous foreign reporting can be. ย Really interesting.

โ€ข ย Jon Stewart is back and THANK YOU!

โ€ข Have Twitter and YouTube become the editors of the information we receive? ย The New Editors of the Internet. ย 

โ€ข ย The Emmys were last week which means red carpet madness, juice cleanses,ย designer dresses, jewels for days and… what on earth is a mani-cam?ย Why we should ask women about more than their dang dresses!ย What are we even doing…. for real.

โ€ข ย Louisiana… we’reย Losing Groundย and that’s a fact. ย 

โ€ข ย Southern cuisine has its nuance and you best get it right. ย I’m learning day by day. ย The Real Reason Sugar Has No Place In Cornbreadย 

โ€ข ย What would James Bond drink in New Orleans, from writerย Sarah Baird and bartender Abigail Gullo.

โ€ข ย I’m starting the bookย & Sonsย next week. ย I’ve read as much as I could in the Amazon preview and I want more. ย Classy, right?

โ€ข ย Fromย Grad School to Jail. ย Too real? ย Too real.

โ€ข ย On a scale of 1 to totally weird, where are we on this Crystal Skull Shotglass ?

โ€ข ย These Super Power Vegan Collard Wrapsย looks healthful and super delicious! ย I definitely want to make my own version. ย They’re the opposite of doughnuts and I love it.

โ€ข ย Favorite recent podcast discovery: ย Slate’s The Gist.ย ย Informative and funny smart-talk.

Get all up in this day!

xo Joy

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I Made This

Questions

39 Responses

  1. Joy, thank you for not just being a kick-ass baker, and hilarious podcast-maker, but also a woman with conviction who isn’t afraid to share information on these mega important issues in the world. As a woman who both loves the kitchen and is a super NPR nerd/political junkie, I saute you!

  2. I fell in love with your blog many, many years ago because of my obsession with baking, but I’m loving it even more lately because of posts like these. You’re sneak-peek at what you’re reading and listening to show what an intelligent and conscious brain you have!

  3. I think cornbread is a lot like gumbo – you like whatever your grandma made and that’s just how it is (except that I argue with my grandmother over gumbo, so perhaps I’m just contrary by nature). But I love a little sweetness to my cornbread. In fact, I recently had cornbread made with Steen’s at Toups Meatery in mid-city and now I have a new perspective – why use sugar when you can have cane syrup?!

  4. Thanks for being so honest! I really appreciate when bloggers let you know what doesn’t work as well as what does. Anyway, I’ve seen a lot of other beautiful recipes on this website that I’ve been meaning to try :)

  5. Crazy Cake (a super dense, moist, chocolate cake) with peanut butter frosting is a birthday party staple in my family. Super Awesome! I could give you some pointers if you’d like ;) (I kid, I kid!! I’m a super novice baker!! :) )

  6. Make another cake, do a vanilla butter cream then in the center filling place chopped miniature peanut butter cups ice rest of cake using chopped heath bars on top. Now I am hungry. Paulette

  7. Looking at your links I can’t help but think – you’ve become a lot more serious since moving – or were you like that but I just haven’t noticed? I like it, though!

  8. Sometimes a ‘meh’ cake is okay when you just need a chocolate and sugar hit. Sometimes it is a disaster. Like my less than stellar, and then crumbled on the floor, bundt cake last week. These things happen.
    Also, I am an Amazon preview reader too. I love knowing what I am getting myself into before I add it to the basket.
    Hope your Sunday was lovely, from the future here in Australia Monday is pretty good too :)

  9. The cake looks gorgeous. Thank you for your meaningful “outside the food” posts. And thank you for admitting even the most talented bakers sometimes have the occasional baking fails.

  10. A great collection this week. The grad school to prison article was powerful – will be sharing with my high school students and I love The Gist recommendation – adding to the playlist. I think my favorite though was the Jon Stewart piece. Perfection.

  11. Jon Stewart has a way to get his point across like no other. Happy he is back from vacation.
    I love the variety of topics you choose to explore. Great job!

  12. I stopped by The FIrst Mess to see the collard green wraps – they are beautiful and her post is nothing short of amazing. Thanks for directing me that way! And I agree – definitely need to try that recipe!

  13. Hi Joy —

    Just wanted to say I only recently started following your blog and I’m so glad I did! You have a way of saying things that makes me smile. Especially enjoyed the 11 Things post last week. Basically what I’m saying is, rock on!

  14. I love Sunday mornings. Especially days like today when there are blue skies and a nice breeze. The cake looks delicious, sorry the taste buds didn’t agree. The Grad School to Jail article was really interesting. I always enjoy your weekly round up of articles and news stories.

  15. Happy happy Sunday and last day of August! Bring on September and that cake you posted, it looks delicious! Oh and I have to totally agree with you about the sugar in the corn bread, it has no place there!! I’m from Alabama and my grandmothers never put sugar in their corn bread.

    everydaymadefresh.com

  16. Coulda fooled me with that cake!

    I beg to differ with the cornbread guy on sugar. I’ve lived in North Carolina (the South) for most of my life, and I’ve baked a lot of my own cornbread and eaten a lot of other people’s cornbread. There are 2 chili events I participate in every year, and there’s always lots of cornbread to choose from for your chili. (In this town, a lot of older folks put broccoli in it. What they hey?!) Most of the “old-fashioned” recipes are dry, crumbly and flat-flavored (salty, corny). The cornbread that people always rave about is the recipe I use, and it’s moist and sweetish because of sugar. Because corn has natural sugar in it, I think adding a bit of sugar enhances the corn’s flavor. It doesn’t taste like dessert–if it did, we wouldn’t ladle our chili over top. But it’s even more heavenly slathered with Tupelo honey.

    1. PS: Have you seen the movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”? Clementine cake figures prominently throughout. Wonder if you’ve made it.

  17. Eh, it happens. Kind of nice to know that it happens to everyone, huh? Although I’m sure PB and chocolate couldn’t go too wrong :)

  18. Joy, I so appreciate that even though your site has an obvious theme and point, you still post these links about other things going on in the world. Sometimes I look at other blogs that are about food and fashion or whatever and it seems like the person is existing solely on planet Perfect and one wonders weather that blogger ever looks away from their expensive outfit or home furnishings to see that there are legit important things happening on this Earth that deserve attention and discussion.

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