Hello friends!
Happy Sunday! Happy Mother’s Day!
It’s been a week. It feels like some folks are diving back into normal socializing, normal life, and I feel distinctly not ready. In the same way that we all talked about how to work from home, how to socialize from home, how to cope at home… we’re also going to need to talk about how to merge back together because it doesn’t feel like the same world. And murder hornets? Are you kidding me!?
Let’s decide to make today sweet even in the smallest ways. An extra splash of cream in our coffee. A long stare at our neighbors flower patch. Let’s find the deepest breath we’ve taken all week.
If you’re a mama – wow today’s your day for that weird but sweet breakfast in bed thing little kids do. I hope your day is free of dishes and dishwashers. Wouldn’t that be a small miracle these days? You all have my love and admiration always but especially these days.
The offering this week is below. Please take only what you need:
• This will be very difficult: Ahmaud Arbery Should Still Be Alive. (Rolling Stone)
• This is incredible: This Is Your Brain on Motherhood. (The New York Times)
• I listening to Brene Brown’s Unlocking Us podcast this week about apologizing while waiting in line and shopping at Trader Joe’s and I was SO DEEP into this conversation that I’m pretty sure I was talking aloud at the podcast but in public which… I guess is my new pandemic activity. (Brene Brown)
• I’ve also been FULLY immersed in the You’re Wrong About Podcast episodes about the OJ Simpson Trial. I was 13 years old, growing up in Los Angeles when these murders and this insane media circus took place. This podcast’s take and attention to detail and storytelling is FOOD. (Apple Podcast)
• My dear friend Cara Nicoletti is revolutionizing the sausage industry with Seemore Sausage. I’ve seen how hard she’s worked over the last two years to bring her vision to life. Her sausages are innovative and DELICIOUS and Cara is the kind of person who can keep all your secrets because she keeps all of mine. Not that I have any. How the sausage gets made: This butcher wants people to eat less meat. (Today)
• If you’re wondering why there have been far fewer @drakeoncake posts please take in these words that have articulated what I haven’t been able to put my finger on: Outgrowing Drake Is The Generation Gap We Didn’t Predict. (Medium)
• Alison Roman ran her mouth and it wasn’t great, it was actually quite uncalled for. Here’s the thing:
people always reveal themselves. It’s our job to pay attention. (The New Consumer)
• Absolutely went down a Gua Sha Facial rabbit hole on YouTube this week and I’m happy to report I have a new passion project – my face. (YouTube)
• One of the sweetest and most authentic people on Instagram is Emily Schuman of Cupcakes and Cashmere. She’s and old friend from long ago and I just admire her business growth, motherhood, transparency and genuine sweetness. (Instagram)
• This month I’ve partnered with organic sweetener company Wholesome Sweeteners. To help us with all of our quarantine baking, Wholesome is offering Sweet Relief Baking Packs, which include organic cane sugar, organic light brown sugar, organic powdered confectioners sugar, and organic raw unfiltered honey – all the sweets we need. What I love most is that proceeds go to Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund, as I’ve been a big supporter of Feeding America Second Harvest Food Bank here in New Orleans for years. Consider purchasing a Sweet Relief Baking Pack for yourself or send one off to a long distance baking friend. It really is a sweet win/win.
• This week I re-introduced myself to my Small Batch Granola recipe for the sole purpose of putting it on ice cream and that’s that. (Joy the Baker)
Happy Mother’s Day!
All my love to you.
xo Joy
36 Responses
Thank you for the gua sha facial link! I appreciate getting the instruction from an authentic source. I have a gua sha tool and all the tutorials I’ve seen so far are by white ladies who provide no context or regard to the origins of the practice.
Oh snap. Thanks for linking to the Drake article. That was great writing! Fingers crossed it will inspire Drake too!!
This wasn’t the point of the “This is your brain on motherhood” article, but one sentence really jumped out at me: “Funding for women’s health research can also be tough to come by.” How incredibly frustrating.
Joy! I have been reading your words for years (since I was a baby college student who jogged in NYC parks while listening to your podcast with Shutterbean). In this very weird universe, I wanted to say how thankful I am for this honest, creative, and positive space you have made and shared. Your recipes from here as well as your books are constant favorites (My 3 old loves to read the “pretzel cake book”). Thanks for all the work you do that makes me smile.
Working hard to practice gratitude these days – so sending some your way.
Also thankful that your words inspired a trip to New Orleans this year in January with my very best ladyfriend! Cheers! Stay safe out there!
Joy, just want you to know you are BELOVED. Don’t ever change.
I shared your blog in a fb group (awesome inclusive food peeps to follow right now), and so many others chimed in to share their love for you. You make a difference and you set the bar high. Thank you.
Seeing the internet turn on AR over the past few days has been so interesting. I think I first became suspicious of her when she decided she deserved credit for the combination of chickpeas + coconut milk + turmeric and lashed out at anyone who questioned her. What is most interesting to me about the interview (beyond her decision to target two WOC for the crime of being successful) is the way she blatantly associates moral virtue with artisanal craftsman goods that are only accessible to the most privileged among us and denigrates products marketed to mass audiences. This feels especially tone deaf in a moment where we are all just trying to survive and literally can’t find toilet paper. Also the lazy misinterpretation of Marie Kondo’s philosophy drives me bananas. Curious to see where her career goes from here.
She obviously hasn’t even read Marie Kondo! Too bad for her.
AR isn’t innovative, clever, thoughtful, self aware or kind. Her jealousy let all of her worst self out for the world to see. She has some work to do. I wish her luck with that.
I’d never heard of gua sha till today and that video was so relaxing! Now I want to try it too.
I really appreciate these posts Joy and look forward to them every weekend. Thank you for posting them so consistently and for all their variety! (Lots of diff emotions from other links but the gua sha was my favourite. ^_^)
I just adore these Sunday posts, and I have to tell you the line “take only what you need” has truly become my favorite :) And I JUST placed my order for Seemore Sausages – thank you for all of the truly lovely things you curate for us each and every Sunday. I force myself to not read emails over the weekend, so this is always my treat on Monday mornings, now more than ever. I have a cup of good coffee, get my kids started with their (new) homeschool, pull up my emails, start my work day and start by reading this. Thank you for bringing us Joy ;)
Hot dang, that Brene podcast was REALLY good. I haven’t listened to part 2 yet, I’ll put that in the queue for later! If ““When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” isn’t sound advice, I don’t know what is. Great offering this week, I’m off to make small-batch granola.
I disagree with the Alison Roman interpretation. I think she was trying to be honest in an awkward way. Sometimes getting your point across in an interview is tough. I didn’t see her as mean, I saw her as trying her best to get her point across. Maybe she was being a little creepy, but maybe she was having a bad day. This pandemic has made everyone a little tense, including me, so judging someone on one interview and saying nasty things about her seems so wrong. I hope everyone will give people another chance especially in times like these. We are not all perfect.
To me it’s the string of poor choices she made AFTER the interview that are so telling about who she is as a person
Karen,
But it’s a whole lot more than just this one interview.
https://medium.com/@ravenbrunner/dont-let-alison-roman-tear-down-two-women-and-then-pretend-it-s-about-capitalism-8c33957008be
https://www.pajiba.com/celebrities_are_better_than_you/alison-roman-and-the-exhausting-prevalence-of-ethnic-erasure-in-popular-food-culture.php
Also, if Joy Wilson has an opinion about this, I’m willing to bet it’s the right one. She knows these folks a lot better than we do, although I now feel like I know Alison way better than I would wanted to.
I agree!
You’re Wrong About is such a treat, week after week and Alison Roman’s unmasking was so disappointing. Thanks for keeping us balanced Joy!
Thank you for these Sunday posts Joy, I look forward to them every week! Have you watched the show Normal People on Hulu? I loved it. Hope you have a great week!
I don’t remember how I found You’re Wrong About, but I absolutely love it! I remember the trial as well as someone who was in high school at the time could, and their deep dive on it is fascinating and eye opening. I also got pulled into Confronting O.J. by Kim Goldman, and oh man. What an emotional ride that is.
The You’re Wrong about podcast is so very good. I was not interested in rehashing the OJ case at all but since I enjoy the rest of their work I thought I would give it a listen. I am hooked! I get so excited when I see another OJ installment show up in my feed. Such an intelligent, thoughtful, funny, well-researched take. Love them!
Wow, thank you for sharing that Alison Roman article. I recently started following NYT Cooking, discovered her, and thought she seemed so down-to-earth…boy was I wrong. The thing that gets me the most though, even more than her ill-chosen words in the interview, is her handling of the matter on social media in the wake of the backlash. She comes across as sarcastic, bratty, insincere, and thoughtless. I will be curious to see what the future holds for her.
Agree – so disappointing!
Agree. Never heard of her before this apart from the wrinkled cookies (which I’ve been making for years from the original pan-slamming recipe by Julee Rossi and Sheila Lukins in their excellent The New Basics cookbook), and I am glad I was introduced to her this way. Funny she says she wants to do a bunch of things then slams others for doing the same. Whatever, bye…
I couldn’t agree more. Words matter. There was so much about reading the Alison Roman article that made me sad. It also made me remember how different people’s online personas can be from who they are in real life.
Thanks, Joy, as always for your Sunday posts. I hope you and your family are doing well. xx
Agree. She has always struck me as a meangirl, though. I saw her in person, and that impression did not dissipate with that talk. I am not surprised by her bashing women of color while upholding whiteness, but I am surprised that the gatekeepers (NY Times and Bon Appetit) have stayed silent. Also surprised it took her so long to be unmasked.
I’ve known about Alison for a long time and Oprah has it RIGHT: when people show you who they are – believe them.
When you say you’ve “known about” her… does that mean you’ve had a personal run-in with her? I’m just curious to know what people who have met her think. But also, I totally understand not wanting to address it.
I agree. Thank you for sharing…confirms thoughts I have had after reading or hearing many interviews with her, but always wondered how she maintained a platform with BA and NYT.
The negativity which she shows toward people in her field is horrific. We should hold each other up, especially as women. Spreading kindness is not overrated.
Joy thank you for a being the article on your friend Cara and her sausage making career. An extremely well written piece and an incredible journey for her! Bravo to both of you maker ladies!
Xo,
Jessica
I read the Alison Roman thing too, and it made me want to throw her book in the trash! I felt like she was telling to highly successful Asian women that they were doing it all wrong. Somehow it’s okay for Martha Stewart and Ina Garten to grown beyond cookbooks and use their name as a brand, but not two women of color. (I love Martha Stewart and Ina Garten, this isn’t about them.) And it really did seem like she was mocking them in an Asian accent when she said “please to buy my cutting board”. Her explanation that this is just a joke she uses with her friends made it even worse! I actually followed Roman and never followed Chrissy Tiegen, but I unfollowed Roman after this.
I was so, so disappointed by Alison’s words this week (and her non-apology apology… she needs to listen to that Brene Brown podcast!) I’ve been a fan of her recipes for a while and have enjoyed following her on IG, and just… UGH. Everything she said was just so unnecessary. Why choose that attitude when being kind and inclusive costs you nothing at all? Bleh.
Agree so much. She needs that apology work!!
Also, imagine if she had said kind and uplifting things? Imagine if she gave credit to the cultures that created her recipes?
Thank goodness for genuinely kind and inclusive voices! Christy and Marie and Joy forever ??
I love your Sunday posts!!! Today, the Gua Sha tutorial cost me a bundle, but I cannot wait for my products to arrive!!!
Just saw the Seemore Sausage video, and my stomach yelled out for a sausage breakfast. I’m going to jumped in my car and drive over to my nearest Whole foods store and buy myself a pack.
Finally I have time to read this post on sunday again, this means that maybe we’re slowly going back to normal life?
*comingle
Whoa, can’t wait for that sweet bundle to arrive. Appreciate the tip and another one of your thoughtful, illuminating LiBSunday posts, Joy! Totally agree about not being ready to relax on the stay at home thing — very few areas of America are prepared, for one reason, so we know it’s not really safe to get out there and coming Le yet. Be well, be cautious! XOXOX
Oh yes, I’ve started facial gua sha too! Lockdown is the perfect opportunity for self care and time to learn new things! I find it so relaxing, love it. I just hope I can keep it up every night once ‘normality’ returns, although I expect that is awhile away still!