Let It Be Sunday, 296!

Hello sweet friends!

Gosh I’m glad for this day, aren’t you? 

This week was, as the world does, everything all at once.  Last weekend, as I was leaving camp in Texas I heard mention of a storm in the Gulf. In October. So far into hurricane season I did a double take.  Turns out it was a fast wollop of a hurricane that passed directly over New Orleans.  As I stood at my backdoor watching the storm and willing the tree in my backyard to hold tight, I thought… what is this feeling I have? Oh it’s plain ol’ fear because this is my first actual direct hurricane and I’m riding it out in the dark by myself.  I don’t often feel that physical fear feeling, and I’m thankful I don’t have to and also thankful it exists. 

The tree snapped and fell away from the house. The entire block came outside to check on one another during the eye of the storm, and here we are on the other side, with power fluctuating and life going on.  With power on and off, I’ve made coffee and breakfast on the back porch two mornings this week. Camp Joy skills can also be swapped for hurricane skills. Good note.

I looked down at my thick socks and kitchen clogs all week thinking about the crumpled pair of thigh-high boots laying lazy in the closet. I bought those in a moment of sheer optimism, in a moment when I thought I’d play dress up as a person who made less sensible choices and they’re have their day, or their year… I think maybe this one just isn’t it. 

I wonder how this little Sunday (or Monday) ritual of ours finds you.  What’s feeling good to you this week? 

The offering this week is below. Everything is so much these days, I’m not bombarding us with US  election stuff. I hope you find some things that make you like you know something more than you did before. Take only what you need: 

•  A chance to undo mass incarceration? This week’s long read:  Dying Inside (Reuters) 

•  This is a really beautiful listen for your weekend, please: Praise Song for the Kitchen Ghosts (Emergence Magazine) 

•  Maybe you relate to many many pieces of this like I do.  It floored me.  I’m Chronically Ill and Afraid of Being Lazy I don’t mention it often but I struggle with endometriosis and it absolutely floors me at least several days a month. (Elle) 

• Snark: How America Invented The White Woman Who Just Loves Fall. (Jezebel)  

•  I appreciate how generous Lynn Chen is with herself in this piece on Cupcakes and Cashmere: How Quarantine Changed My  Relationship With My Hair. 

•  Scrolling through my friend Scott Hocker’s column on Taste is just a pleasure. I love his food perspective: A Kitchen in New Orleans (Taste) 

•  My friend Kim will be lowkey about it but she’s  SUCH A GOOD HUMAN and makes a really wonderful podcast called Ladyland.  If you haven’t yet listened, I highly recommend.  Kim was also featured here Kim Baldwin Invites You to “Meet the Women You Think You Know”  Podcast and… I just feel like being curious about other people is such a lovely quality and Kim has it most sincerely. (Ladyland.show and Nashville Scene) 

•  Even if you think you know almond flour front to back, there’s at least one gem of a treat in this: How to use almond flour in cooking and baking (Washington Post) 

•  Our friend Amy is an English nerd and it shows and we love it: The Tell-Tale Biological Clock (McSweeney’s) 

•  My favorite mezcal that’s really lovely by the sip:  Gracias a Dios  (thankgad.com)

•  Oh friends, have you heard? I made you a holiday magazine! Joy the Baker Magazine is a real-deal, on grocery store shelves, ad-free, recipe magazine available now!  You’ll find it on shelves at most grocery stores nationwide as well as Target, Walmart, and Michaels. WHAT!? Totally crazy. All the recipes are shot by Jon Melendez and we’re just really proud of it. I hope it helps you bake your way through this weird holiday season.  I’ll have more copies for sale on The Bakehouse Nola site next week but do know that it helps me if you buy it in stores or on Amazon. I’d love to write another and buying it  in-stores will help me do that! Ok thanks for letting me say all that. (Amazon)  

•  I’m still here teaching Bakehouse Live classes if you’d like to join! No pressure whatsoever. Just happy to bake with you on Zoom if you’d like to!  Easy Homemade Pretzel Baking on a Thursday night in November and early Christmas morning cinnamon rolls deep into December! (Eventbrite) 

•  I splurged on a treat for myself from one of my favorite scent-makers. Smoke Perfume distilled my favorite flower to wear here: Magnolia Soliforte Perfume and it’s sure to have some magic. I also bought a Smoke Perfume Samples Kit for a gift If I can bear to give it away.  (Smoke Perfume) 

•  Jon made Pumpkin Conchas. A  sweet little baking adventure if you’re looking for one! (The Candid Appetite) 

•  Have you ever made my Roasted Vegetable Winter Crumble? It takes the apples and all of the other sweet and spiced things of a crumble, asks them to be savory, substitutes breadcrumbs for sugar and flour, and is completely belly satisfying.  (Joy the Baker)

Thank you for spending some time here today. I’m grateful to you. 

xo Joy