Hello friends and happy Sunday!
This weekend I found myself at Trader Joe’s doing what I usually do: finding a corner in the less crowded wine section to park my cart, roaming the aisles, filling my arms, and taking them back to said strategically placed cart. It’s a fetch-and-gather approach that I just invented a name for right now. While I’m on these fetch and gather missions I can’t help but be curious (ok, sometimes nosy) about what other people put in their carts. I take a quick visual sweep of the contents of every cart I pass and quickly imagine how many kids they have, how old they might be, and what special occasion they might be shopping for. It’s a whole grand life I put together in the freezer aisle.
What I’ve noticed this weekend is:
a) Everyone bought the fresh evergreen wreath – literally everyone, myself included.
b) We’re back to shopping for parties. We’re getting together. We’re celebrating. We’re baking. We’re buying all of bags of chocolate chunks and hoping the back room has more for restocking. It’s – exciting. There’s a hum in the air and it’s not just the holiday music.
c) We all buy snacks to eat in the car after shopping and Truffle Potato Chips seem to be the best and most popular option.
As I gathered articles for this week’s Sunday offering I realized that this week has had some serious weight to it though I hadn’t really felt the weight until… well, right about now. These are the four children who died in a school shooting that seemed preventable. And, it’s already difficult and expensive to be a human with a uterus but now the choices we make about what happens inside of our very own bodies is being bandied about in what feels like legislative theater and well… it makes me feel pretty enraged and I think the other emotion I feel is fear, if I’m being honest. (CBS, The Atlantic)
The offering this week is below. I hope there’s some goodness here you didn’t know you needed:
• I have felt this but have not been able to put my finger on it for years now: The escalating costs of being single in America “Single people should, in theory, be the purest embodiment of American values of self-sufficiency and individualism. That they’re not speaks to the fact that we don’t venerate the individual — we venerate the individual family.” (Vox)
• I knew in the back of my brain that Stephen Sondheim passed away but and I didn’t really understand his legacy until I listened to this The Daily podcast this morning. I was absolutely crying by the end. (Apple Podcasts)
• The Kitchn with the best way to clean sheet pans. Tucking this in my back pocket.
• A tiled, wood-burning fireplace and these gorgeous blues as holiday decors. There’s so much inspiration in this image from @colourfulhomevibe. (Instagram)
• I’ve had cheesecake on the brain for the past few week and this Triple Chocolate Baked Cheesecake (GAH!) looks incredible! I think I’m going to line my springform pans with parchment paper (Basque style) from here on. I like the security and lines it creates. (GatherandFeast)
• Caroline Schiff is on my list of people I would LOVE to bake with one day. Here’s her beauty routine on Cup of Jo (I don’t know about you but I love a beauty routine) and her first book The Sweet Side of Sourdough is available now! Mine is on order and I can’t wait to bake from it! (Instagram, Cup of Jo, Amazon)
• I love this clever and cute Flour Child sweatshirt. I have a bad habit of gifting for myself as much as gifting for others this time of year. Llife is short so, no regrets. (Overseasoned)
• A gift guide of excellent stocking stuffers has me feeling like I want to gift stockings filled with sweet little gifts this year. Woop! I think I’ve landed on a theme, friends! (OhSoGifted)
• I have no turkey leftover from Thanksgiving but it seems worthwhile to buy a turkey breast for this Turkey Soup with Sweet Potato Dumplings. (ButterBeReady)
• A few weeks ago I had a lovely chat with Brad Cramer of Foodsided.com about being a food person.
• A thing you never knew you really needed: 2022 Seemore Sausage Calendar. (EatSeemore)
• Vintage photos of legends: Venus and Serena. (Kottke.org)
My love to you today! Enjoy this day.
xo Joy
samantha campanini
OMG that chocolate cheesecake!!
Janet
Loved – and can totally relate to the article on the cost of being single.
Katie
Your interview on Foodsided.com is WONDERFUL! It’s such a great sum up of why you and your work is so amazing and why so many people love you. It was full of interesting info and stories about your life. It should really be the top link with flashing lights around it so everyone reads it. Go Joy!
Dottie
Another wonderful collection of reading material. I had read the Caroline Schiff post and I love to use my sourdough starter for breakfast breads and other quick baking projects, so I’m very interested in her new cookbook. Also, my starter might go in a version of those sweet potato dumplings. Yum! I recently posted about turkey soup with sourdough dumplings. They were yummy, but adding sweet potato to them. Mmmm. That’s taking things up a notch.
Be well.
Zita
It was wonderful to meet you in Dallas! You are truly gracious and as lovely as I knew you would be. Thank you for taking the time to speak to each guest individually. The news this week has been hard and distressing to say the least. So glad to have your Sunday offerings to look forward to. Enjoy your Trader Joe’s treat!
Cheryl
I am a single senior. Never married, no children. So I spent my life paying for everything myself. including trips(you pay double unless you can find someone to go with you) and a house with all it’s many expenses Gave lots of wedding gifts and baby gifts to so many, most who I never saw again. Never got anything back. It would be nice if seniors could at least get some sort of tax break like married with children folks do.
Chrissy
Happy Sunday! A few things:
I alternate the truffle potato chips with the salt & pepper ones. Addictive.
My friends and I have always called the cost of being single in America the #singlepersonlifetax. I’ve estimated that had I gotten married at 28 when most of my friends started, not including interest, I’d have a minimum of an extra $150K in the bank. Minimum.
Have a great week!
Rebekah Flanders
Hi Joy!
I’m so sorry this week has been a heavy one. It was heavy for me too. It is absolutely heartbreaking what happened to those children in the shooting and it should enrage us. Did you know every day in America over 2363 children brutally lose their lives to abortion. That is heartbreaking to me as well. I know that if you truly knew the details of abortion it would break your heart as well.
As a nursing student going into labor and delivery, I’ve studied this a lot. I’ve heard just about every argument for and against it. The reality is, these are children not just prices of inconvenient tissue. We must know exactly what we are supporting before we try to convince others of it. I say this because I really do care about you, I’ve read your blog since I was a little girl, used your recipes for countless family gatherings, and I really look up to you. I want you to know the truth about this issue because I see that it’s hurting you and that breaks my heart.
Neuroscientists have discovered that fetal pain is detectable as early as 8 weeks gestation, so when we chemically destroy these lives or have them torn limb from limb, the fact that they can feel it and it hurts should be sobering to us. That is what should scare us.
I’m including two links here if you want to check them out. The first is medical research over fetal pain. The second is a video of an abortionist explaining the process of an abortion.
https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-science-of-fetal-pain/
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n8eRdFznFlc&feature=youtu.be
I know you are a busy lady, especially during the holidays but I hope you find time to dig into this issue a bit more. To hear from the other side and see what the pro life medical field has to say. I’ve also been compiling a list of local resources for pregnant women and their children because I care about the life of a mother and her child after birth too. Let me know if you’d be interested in NOLA resources and I’d be happy to make a list. It’s good for women to know all their options, and know that they are not alone, there are people out here that truly want to help.
I hope this message doesn’t get taken the wrong way, I’m not here to shame anyone. I just want you to know the harsh reality of abortion because it truly is a matter of life or death for thousands every day.
I know I’m just some random girl on the internet and you don’t know me from Adam but if you ever have questions or want to hear more about this, you are always welcome to reach out.
Wishing your and your loved ones a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!
– Rebekah Flanders
Christina
What it comes down to, is it is my body and it is my choice. It should be the choice of every woman what they should do with their own body. Period. End of story. Nobody should be forced to carry a pregnancy. Ever.
Stella
Amen sister.
Allana Zacaria
Thank you! There are studies galore, but what really matters is a right to a human’s body. Men aren’t being told what they can and cannot do with their bodies. This is my body, my choice and whatever I chose to do and the consequences that come with it are mine to face.
Kim
It’s fairly arrogant of you, Rebekah, to assume that anyone who does not come down on your side of an issue hasn’t done any research. The fact is, most of us are extremely well informed and choose to have agency over our own bodies.
Kay
Just hoping that if you are opposed to abortion thatyou support politically and socially and every which way what it takes to raise those eventual babies -. Maternity leave, universal healthcare, affordable housing, affordable childcare, strong public education, strict gun laws that mean that kid won’t be gunned down in their place of education or street or movie theatre, affordable higher education….. There’s so much more to having a child than mine months and L and D and I can’t take anti abortion people seriously unless they strongly support the above issues.
Haley
Abortion is health care. It’s horrifying that a future L&D nurse is over here suggesting that women literally be forced to carry unwanted or dangerous pregnancies to term, under the guise of caring about life.
You talk about the “harsh reality” of abortion, but what about the harsh reality of abortion NOT being legal and safe and easily accessible? Women will die. Women will be driven into financial insecurity from having to pay for a birth they can’t afford. Women will suffer mental and physical trauma from forced pregnancy and delivery.
If you don’t want an abortion, then don’t have one. If you don’t like abortion, then I hope you’re actively campaigning for universal healthcare, freely available contraception, mat and pat leave, proper sex education in schools, etc.
Gail Hardie
Thank you Joy for speaking out on the school shooting. We must make electing gunsense candidates a priority in 2022. As for medical decisions – they are between patient and doctor. Tis the season t vaccinate and celebrate! Thank you Joy for your weekly reminders??
Karen B
Saw King Richard, every girl in the world should see this movie. Every girl! I wish there was a movie like this when my daughter was growing up. I will make sure both my grandsons and granddaughters see this. Never give up and never stop trying for your dream
Kim
Reading Let It Be Sunday is one of my favorite weekly rituals! This week I too, felt before I could name, the heaviness of the past week. It’s nice to not be alone in that – or in cart gawking and (maybe a little excessive) self-gifting. May you feel peace this week.
Daniele
Heavier things to contemplate this week, but I am gutted by the loss of Sonheim. Such a genius and a true cultural loss.