-Let It Be Sunday, 233!

Hello friends!

We’ve made it here together!

I’ve been in The Bakehouse kitchen this week testing recipes for the site (so much cake!) and recipes for a big writing project I get to share with you this fall.  I thought I knew chocolate chip cookies (and I do) but I tested my little heart out this week to make the best of the best, the most clear recipe, the most chocolate filled.  I’ve found that the best chocolate ‘chips’ for cookies are these Guittard Baking Wafers and there’s no going back.

I’m also trying to add some color to my bedroom and I’ve been sitting with paint swatches across my dining room table all week.  Decisions will be made, I’m fairly sure.

There’s lots of promise in this week. Chocolate, color, and cakes.  Lots of reading too.  The offering this week is below. Take what you’d like.  Also be sure to take a rest today and eat as many french fries as you’d like.  Make your own dreams come true, you know?

•  24 hours inside San Francisco’s homeless crisis. With more than 8,000 homeless people in the city, this feels desperate and debilitating with small glints of hope.   (San Francisco Chronicle)

•  This week’s long read is more from California.  Gone:  Decades of greed, neglect, corruption, and bad politics led to last year’s Paradise fire, the worst in California history. It should never have happened. It will happen again. (The California Sunday Magazine)

•  It feels like there’s a necessary reckoning or at least a questioning taking place and I think it’s important.  And no, you won’t ever find me at CrimeCon: Victim’s, Families, and America’s Thirst for True-Crime Stories.  (The Washington Post Magazine)

•  Leaving this here for anyone who needs it: Quit Your Terrible Job. (New York Times)

•  We’ve explored homelessness and now we’re transitioning to open-house gazing.  Life is full of all things and I found sweetness here: Finding myself in strangers’ homes. (Curbed)

•  This is wild and highly motivating: This college dropout was bedridden for 11 years. Then he invented a surgery and cured himself. (CNN)

•  Part of my morning routine is putting on a podcast while I make coffee and get ready for my day.  Here are two I enjoyed very much this week:  Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations: The Best Relationship Advice and One Part Plant Podcast: Making Space For Difference. (Stitcher and Jessica Murnane)

•  I don’t play tag, b*tch I’ve been it.  Lizzo’s Tiny Desk Concert is everything we need.  And I did go down a bit of a Tiny Desk rabbit hole and this is still one of my favorites: Joseph.  Burn the white flag. (NPR)

•  Billie Eilish and the triumph of weird – I loved this, every bit. (Rolling Stone)

•  If you’re also in your 30’s, this list will serve as a reminder of how grateful we are to not have to listen to Smash Mouth anymore: 40 Best Singles of 1999. (The Ringer)

•  This week was my assistant Sydney’s birthday which was exactly the excuse I needed to make Everybody’s Birthday Cake.  This time I made the cake with browned butter, sour cream instead of buttermilk, and whipped cream instead of chocolate frosting.  Let’s call it the summer version! (Joy the Baker)

•  This really is the most flattering summer dress I’ve found: Cotton Weave Picnic Dress.  It’s definitely something comfortable and casual enough to sit on a blanket in the grass in.  And the cotton is such that it won’t be a wrinkle mess.  (Everlane)

•  I took a really honest look in the mirror this week and found myself simultaneously dialing the dermatologist.  Your girl (that’s me) is aging so we’re back on our retinols and we’re going strong with the best sunscreen in the game: EltaMD. (Amazon)

•  Here’s what we’re not going to subscribe to:  licking our cats. Tron would claw my very face off.  An Offbeat Approach to Bonding With Cats. (The Atlantic)

I’m so thankful you’re here.

Enjoy the day!

My love to you,

xo Joy