Friends, hi hello!
If you keep up with me on Instagram, or if you’re my neighbor across the street in New Orleans, you may have noticed that I’ve moved half of my life and all of my heart from New Orleans to Houston. I’m headed back to big city (Houston is huge, y’all – I know because I get lost ALL THE TIME) for, well… LOVE and all the big feels that comes with it. I’ve done my fair share of moving but, moving halfway is a particular brand of chaos. While I’m ready to plant roots in Houston, I’m not quite ready to leave New Orleans so I’ll keep a foot planted firmly in each city until it makes sense not to. There’s something still so special to me about New Orleans and it’s just a few true crime podcast episodes down the road.
If you’ve been around Joy the Baker for a while, you baked in more than a few kitchens with me. In fact, you know All The Kitchens I’ve Lived In probably as well as I do. Now that I’m halfway home in Houston and I hope you’ll belly up to the little kitchen island as I figure it all out. By “it” I mostly mean kolaches. I really need to figure kolaches out.
Transitions come with lots of feels and lots of questions – the internal sort that are reflective and gosh often so weighty. The question on my mind as I pack and unpack kitchen boxes these past few weeks has been:
What is the foundation of a good kitchen?
What are the cornerstones of a cozy kitchen space that have nothing to do with a gas range and dishwasher (though yes, I appreciate those creature comforts so much).
I have lived my entire life in the kitchen. I gather my people for life’s joys and retreat to the kitchen with life’s heartaches. With all those experiences tucked away, here are the 5 Foundational Elements of a Comfortable Kitchen.
Morning light that inspires coffee and evening light that inspires a glass of wine while cooking dinner (or while ordering take out). I put more weight on a light and bright kitchen than most, but natural light is both fundamental and luxurious. I looked at enough New Orleans houses and Houston apartments to know that natural light is mostly a luxury, to be sure. Even a splash of natural light in the kitchen sets the mood for the day, making that space one I want to pitter and work in for hours on end. I need my food to glow so you know just how delicious it can be when you set off to make recipes in your own kitchen. Light is one big part of the heart of my kitchen.
I will, in fact, be eating over the sink. Listen, we all just have to be who we are, right? I’ve worked in enough restaurants to have ingrained this very particular habit into my life. Even at rest, at home alone with no one else to feed, I take comfort in eating scrambled eggs over the sink like I’m a short order cook on a double shift with five long tickets to fire. I don’t revel in this urgency but I do like that any crumbs fall into the sink. Key to a few meals over the sink each week is this cushy under sink mat which also makes washing dishes a bit more bouncy.
Can I lean on the counter, cook, and chat with friends at the table? Don’t close me off in the kitchen corner, I’d rather order Papa John’s pizza. The kitchen, and what we’re doing in it, is the main event mostly because I don’t want to miss any of the gossip. Pull up a stool, grab a lean at the counter, or sit at the table while I manage splattering oil on the stovetop. If I’m in the kitchen and you’re in my home, we’re in this meal together. It’s a community once you pass the threshold.
The countertop is for pie crust. Unless it’s for sitting in the early afternoon with a cup of tea. Either way I need a few unobstructed feet of smooth counter space. Let there be enough just space to make a mighty delicious mess.
A sink deep enough to hold a dirty dutch oven and dinner plates for four. Now, The Bakehouse New Orleans is a home for baking classes and dinner parties. Big ol’ Friendsgiving gatherings and classes with eight pies in the oven. The sinker cypress table (incidentally my prized possession) was meant for many. Every kitchen has its capacity plus a few. My current kitchen has a capacity of 4, plus another 4 if we’re feeling snuggly. Foundational to this kitchen space is a sink large enough to soak my gumbo pot and and stack at least 4 sets of dishes.
Other important elements include, a stool for my friends’ kids to help me bake, a rug for Tron to stretch out on, and a place on the countertop for my kitchen altar.
Those are the cornerstones (+1) of my current Houston kitchen space. A kitchen isn’t about the fanciest appliances or countertops filled with gear. It’s about how you want to feel in the space, sipping coffee as you stare out the window. It’s about how you want people to feel, dropping by for dinner – like there’s always space for them to just be and then leave dirty dishes in the sink.
To christen the space, I made a batch of Dad’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies and I’m looking forward to settle into this baking season with you here with me.
More from Houston soon, friends!
xo
82 Responses
So glad you’re here with us in Houston! Can’t wait for JOY the Baker Houston events, hopefully this holiday season! Can I secure my spot now?! :)
This Houston Kitchen is reminding me of the Palm Springs kitchen from your retreat with Tracy years ago. It’s the pie crust counter.
So excited for the recipes that’ll come out of your new Houston kitchen! And ESPECIALLY excited for the inevitable JtB guide to road tripping through Louisiana and Texas.
Best of luck with your new(er) kitchen and home in Houston. Having been in long distance relationships before I fully understand how the heart pulls you. I too adhere to guidelines of having a kitchen/entertaining space with light, counter space for gathering around and room to dance. Gotta have a danceable kitchen.
Welcome to Houston! Hope you’ll do some fun things around the city. I would love to meet you!
What a beautiful kitchen. I love the island. Best wishes for a wonderful experience in your new halftime space. I look forward to seeing and reading about what you are cooking in it.
This is WONDERFUL! The space is beautiful and glowing (you are, too) and filled with potential. I’m so happy for you! Can’t wait to see what you create. xoxo – Jessica from Boston with a piece of her heart in NOLA
As someone who recently moved from Houston to Boston, I miss it constantly and am so excited for all the great food you’re going to eat.
In your quest for kolache mastery – if you could do me a favor and find a way to replicate the bacon, egg, and cheese kolache from Kolache Shoppe I’d literally cry homesick happy tears. No pressure though!
How lovely, Joy!
Enjoy your beautiful kitchen and Houston’s food scene.
I’m still hoping we’ll get together for that coffee and beignets when I finally come back to New Orleans even if for a visit.
I must agree that natural light is so amazing in any and all parts of the apartment but looking outside my balcony and seeing deer eating apples straight off the apple tree and the view of the bay is pretty priceless and keeps me content right now.
Sending lots of light and smiles your way from Nova Scotia!
Hi Joy! Oh what fun to move for love but also to decorate a new kitchen!!! Have you seen the new Holiday preview that just dropped from Anthro? There are some Italian cookie and Black and White cookie ornaments that really belong on a Christmas tree in your new place this winter (assuming a cute, sneaky, and determined feline won’t want to paw at them, haha). Enjoy some new adventures in Houston!
You should come up to Yukon, OK for the Czech Festival on October 1st. Tons of kolaches and little old ladies that would be thrilled to show you how to make them!
THANK YOU for the nod to eating over the sink. I do that sometimes too. Well, once at week at least. I always feel bad about it like I should sit at the table but NO! I’ll feel shame no longer. :)
No shame in eating over the sink. No shame whatsoever.
So excited for you!! Welcome to this chaos that is the big city! There is a lot to offer for sure. Cheers to cooking and making memories in a new kitchen!
Another welcoming you to H-town! We are thrilled to have you! And can’t wait to see what inspires your kitchen creations as you explore the food scene!
Congratulations on your move and welcome to TX! I’m more than sure that you’ll love Houston (the food scene is The Best)
Thank you! I’m just scratching the surface of all the amazing food! It’s really exciting!
Mazel tov! Your new kitchen is gorgeous, and I hope you will make many wonderful dishes there and many wonderful memories.
Thank you so much! Alene is my middle name, spelled just like yours!
Congratulations Joy! Love is the very best reason to move. Thanks for sharing your space with us. xox
Thank you my friend!
HTX is so thrilled to have you Joy!! Looking forward to you teaching us how to make kolaches – I’ve been here since 2004 and have never mastered them!
Hahha I’m hoping I get the hang of kolaches – it might take me a minute but I’m patient. For now I’ll just eat as many as I can get my hands on.
Joy, good luck in Houston! You have a lovely kitchen and I agree, I need some natural light beaming in to feel more alive. Having lived a few years in an apartment, I didn’t realize what I was missing until moving into a home with a big kitchen window that I could look out onto the world and watch/listen to the birds. It is glorious! You certainly have a fondness for cities near (or under water) Venice, CA, New Orleans, LA and now Houston, TX (rainy season). I do you will make this place a home. Enjoy.
Hahhaha near or underwater. You’re so right – I feel like I need to be near water always. Landlocked makes me feel claustrophobic. And I’m happy for your kitchen window – it really is a quiet luxury.
Please, no PJ pizza. :(…
Welcome to Texas!!!
Joy, you need to try the kolaches in West, TX. It’s where a lot of Czech’s settled (central texas).
Good note and noted!!
To add to this… try the shops that are NOT Czech Stop. While the kolaches there are good, the original bakeries a little further off the main interstate are much better!
Love your LOVE (of home, kitchens, Will, Tron, etc). Congratulations on the move to Houston. Wishing you all the best.
Welcome to Houston, Joy! You were one of my first guides through the kitchen for baking back in the day (back in my college days!), and it has really become a part of my life. Your thoughts on what makes a kitchen a kitchen is spot on – I’ve baked my way through a few kitchens this past decade or so and you’re right. What ultimately makes it feel right is a little bit of space and people to enjoy the the fruits of your labor with.
Houston is where I’m at, so perhaps we may run into each other. There’s so much good here (and lots and lots of food), so enjoy!
It’s so lovely and happy! I hope that you make all sorts of wonderful memories (and food!) in your new kitchen. Do you know and are you willing to share info about your backsplash tile?
“Let there be just enough space to make a mighty delicious mess.”
Beautiful words here. ??
Welcome to Texas!
Where’s your cat?
He’s happy here in Houston with me and he’s a good car kitty so he’ll be going back and forth with me.
Agree 100% Kitchens are where it happens and it needs to be cozy and full of things you love for the people you love
Welcome to Texas you make us proud ! Bake on ….
Ah what a nice thing to say!
Kitchen rule number one! Put your stove top and oven, I you can, on your kitchen island. That way you are never cooking with your back to your guests. If you are from Louisiana or ever lived in Louisiana, you know, the party is in the kitchen! The most friendly and lovely of kitchens invites people in to laugh, love and share!
That’s a fantastic rule if you can swing it! The party is always in the kitchen!
I LOVE your description of your kitchen essentials. My husband and I built our home 40 years ago with 4 children, and all of the essentials you listed. So 4 stools around the kitchen counter. Eight chairs around the big oak kitchen table . Who knew that I would now be baking bread and cookies ? with grandchildren an this same counter! (Well actually it was Formica when we built the house, I got my blue Pearl granite for my 50th birthday). Sorry your leaving NOLA, but definitely for the right reason! Follow your heart, ?lWe will be making both the cc and apple oatmeal this week. Keep sharing Joy!!
Big love, Betty! I love this
Welcome to Houston! Had been our home for more than 3 decades.
Thank you for the warm welcome!
Yes! Please figure out kolaches. Love them. Welcome to Houston!
Welcome to Texas! I’ve moved a few times myself so I know it takes a while to get comfortable and familiar with new digs. I’m from Houston and now live just north of the big city on Lake Conroe. Enjoy the grocery stores!
Welcome to Houston! We’re tons of fun here. In my imagination we could be friends!
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2022/09/13/gator-tow-truck-texas-hln-vpx.hln
Oh my goodness…just be careful when out and about in Houston!
Any Pizza but PJ. Google him.
Absolutely.
Yay!!
Welcome to Houston!
Always bring a sweater with you because we love our air conditioning cold and our food delicious!!
I grew up in The Woodlands, left for about 12 years and am now in Tomball. We have some great local places in our part of the Houston area. At least coming from New Orleans the humidity won’t be a shock to your system.
I went from never moving in my life, to moving 6 times in the last 7 years, many of which were international, and I am so ready to be back in my kitchen full of natural light and counter space galore. I always make a roast chicken as the first meal I cook, but I want a breakfast that’s “first morning back”. I was thinking baklava sticky buns (which I think came to me in a dream), and was hoping you might have a recipe or feel inspired to come up with one since your pecan sticky buns in Over Easy are my go to recipe.
Girl you must be in love. I don’t know what it would take to get me to move out of that house in NOLA! Do what’s best for you, I know you will. And we’ll all be here cheering you on!!
Thank you Alicia! That means a lot to me. :)
Quick Houston Kolache story: Many moons ago on a morning flight, I traveled out of Houston on one of our company’s small corporate jets. The deal was, if you sat by the door it was your ‘role’ to open a special drawer and hand out the fresh kolaches for breakfast.
I’ve been baking up your Dad’s Sweet Potato Pie and your chocolate beet cake here in the Houston Heights for several years. Looking forward to more. Welcome to Houston!
Congrats Joy!!!
I’m in Houston! This means I have seriously increased my chances of a Joy sighting. You’re going to love it here, such a food city and every culture of the world is represented – along with truly top-tier performing arts and museums. Welcome!
Oh my gosh if you see me say HI!!
I just relocated back to nyc for my partner’s job/his sick family members. The kitchen here leaves so much to be desired and I’m mourning the loss of my old happy (and huge and renovated) boston kitchen. None of the above elements sadly in this new one. Here’s to hoping rentals are temporary. Hope you love texas!
Ah Sarah I’m sorry this sounds like a challenging season. I hope you ease through it and get back to a good kitchen when you can.
I am so excited for you! I love all the natural sunlight in your kitchen. We just bought a new house, and what you said about how it makes you feel rather than all the fancy gadgets resonates with me. I am hoping to create a space that *feels* like a cozy, warm home. Thanks for the inspiration, I adore your blog!
Thank you, Maria! Congratulations on your new house! How exciting!
Joy – I’m excited to follow along with your bi-urban lifestyle. I moved from Chicago to Salt Lake City 2 years ago, and both places have some exceptional qualities as well as some truly exhausting qualities. My vision is to be able to split time between the two. This country is enormous, but no one city has EVERYTHING from my perspective. I am looking forward to seeing how you flourish on your journey!
Here’s hoping you find a way to split your time!
Word of advice from a random longtime follower who is now an ‘old’ single lady ~ don’t sell New Orleans. Keep it as YOURS, forever. Just sharing from down the road of life…
100 % agree!!!!
I agree.
Joy, II rememebr when you hinted a major life decisiona and I just happened to guess it was the purchase of the BakeHouse. I know it must have beed exciting, rewarding, personally satisfing and grounding making that place a true home.
Keep it if you can…perhaps rent it to a perfect tenant who will le it and care for it as you do.
I wish you the best in Houston
Preach Annie
Thanks Annie! I fell in love but I didn’t lose my good sense.
There goes my dream of bumping into you on the streets of New Orleans and chatting about how many times I’ve made your red velvet cupcakes. Good Luck in Houston.
Way back when (probably like 2011) I took a baking class you taught in Santa Monica. We made bouche de noel and it was so much fun. That feels like a lifetime ago. I hope you’ll teach some classes in Houston!
That certainly was a lifetime ago Lacey! I hope to teach a few classes here once I get settled!
I hope you love your time in Houston! I truly enjoyed my 7 years there–Miller Outdoor Theater with a picnic from Central Market or Rice Epicurean, dropping in at the fine art museum for free Thursday afternoons, writing classes at Inprint Houston and wandering around the Menil Collection property, bike rides with Tour de Hood and sandwiches from Green Seed Vegan, bagels in Meyerland, High Fashion Home and fabric and a banh mi across the street, happy hour dinners after work, the jazz service at Trinity Episcopal where I fell in love with my husband and later married him, little kid birthday parties at the River Oaks park with the Cinderalla carriage, and I’m sure much, much more in the 9 years since I’ve been gone.
Oh the outdoor theater! I’m taking notes – thank you Whitney!
Congrats! Excited for you! And kolaches are on my to-do list so I’ll definitely be hitting that recipe up!
What an exciting adventure to embark on in this next step of life and relationship! But yes – Houston is a bit overwhelming. I lived in the sprawl between Houston and Galveston from 2002-2005, and I never could quite get the hang of navigating the roads in the city.
Thanks for sharing some first glimpses of your beautiful kitchen!
I lived in Houston for 6 years. It’s such a foodie town. I miss my favorite local restaurants like Paulie’s, Local Foods, Coltivare, and Torchy’s anytime I’m eating out in my new city. I hope you find inspiration in your new 2nd city!
also just moved to Texas for love (and doctoral things!) greetings from Waco :)
You’re just down the road HI HI!