Food Diary

Hello dear friends!   Thank you for your patience with me this holiday weekend. I’ve been away from my computer celebrating my birthday on the coast of South Carolina this past weekend.  I’m officially very full of barbecue and good wine so… birthday dreams do come true. Hopefully this day has you extra restful, extra thoughtful, and looking forward to a boatload (maybe even literally) of summer adventures.  As part of that extra thoughtfulness, here’s 10 Things To Remember About Memorial Day from Mental Floss. Continue reading Let It Be Sunday, 173! at Joy the Baker.

Brownies and blondies are always crowd-pleasers, and while you might think of them as lunchbox snacks, I often bake them for more “grown-up” gatherings, as well. These Salted Butterscotch Coconut Blondies are loaded with flavor, with a great brown sugar and vanilla base and just enough salt to give them the perfect salty-sweet contrast. Butterscotch is a caramel flavor that has a combination of brown sugar and vanilla. The blondie batter uses light brown sugar and a nice splash of vanilla to give it a strong butterscotch flavor. I added butterscotch chips – which can be very sweet on their own, but work very well here – to fortify that flavor and make the bars feel richer. The bars also have a generous amount of sweetened, shredded coconut in the mix. The coconut gives the bars a nice chewy texture and makes them feel a bit heartier as you’re eating them. To me, this means that you have a little bit more time to savor each bite as you much your way through them. Don’t forget to spri

Banana bread, or banana loaf cake, is probably the first quick bread that comes to mind when you think of making a loaf using lots of fruit. This One-Bowl Strawberry Bread is a quick bread that is inspired by banana bread – and I mean that it uses pureed strawberries in a recipe where you would more typically see mashed banana! The loaf is easy to make and loaded with strawberry flavor. It’s a perfect brunch or dessert treat to make during strawberry season. I always use fresh strawberries in this recipe. In fact, it’s a great recipe to use up berries that are slightly past-their-prime or less visually appealing than your average strawberry. Save those perfect berries for strawberry shortcake and toss the imperfect ones into your blender or food processor instead! You can use fresh strawberries to make this recipe, but they should be defrosted and drained of excess liquid) before you puree them. Even though I’ve called this recipe “one bowl,” there are actually two options for putti

We’re approaching the steamy time of year in New Orleans where all I want to eat is cucumber slices, Pimm’s Cups, and various chips and salsas.  It’s not for the faint of heart… mmkay? I was thinking we’d go ahead and call this our summer-vibing Hot Dish.  The kind we bring to our friend’s pool parties. This is totally a summer casserole, don’t you think?  Something to pile all those salsas on top of. Continue reading Chicken Enchilada Bake at Joy the Baker.

I posted a photo of this in my insta stories a few days ago as part of the meal prep I do for another family. So, per request, it will live here too. This is an older Ina Garten recipe that I changed by adding more vegetables and herbs and using a lighter hand with the dressing. My aunt used to make Ina's version for parties and showers and it was such a hit. The leftovers keep well and go with just about any grilled protein you'd like to add to round out the meal. I like my vegetables to pasta with a 3:1 ratio, so I'll dish this up for myself over some arugula to make a pasta salad-salad. I added a few other notes on alternatives in the recipe headnote.  I have had quite a few inquiries about meal planning, and a request for more tips on that. I'm thinking of taking on a bigger project along those lines, so stay tuned! But I hear you and I'm totally with you on wanting an easy plan to keep dinners simple, healthy-ish and tasty. I've gotchu... things just take

I have to admit that I had my doubts about this recipe. While I was coating each avocado wedge in almond flour and sesame seeds, I couldn’t help but think that it was a waste of time (and two ripe avocados) to bake it when it tastes perfectly good au natural in a salad. We’ve done some previous baked avocado experiments and even if some of them were pretty good, they were honestly just as good raw. But David had his mind set on these. He said that “They will almost look like fried chicken wings” which made me exactly zero percent more keen on the idea. But when we took out the tray with golden crusted sesame avocado wedges from the oven, they did actually look pretty good. The texture is really key here. The crust is firm and crunchy when you bite into it and the avocado inside almost melts with softness. The almond flour gives the crust a sweet nuttiness. And since we wanted to keep this recipe vegan, we tried aquafaba (chickpea brine) instead of egg to bind the coating to the av

A traditional pineapple upside down cake has a layer of caramelized pineapple sitting atop a sponge cake or a vanilla cake. These relatively “plain” cakes are a great base to show off other flavors, including pineapple, but you don’t have to limit your upside down desserts to only one type of cake, as extra layers of flavor are rarely a bad thing. This Pineapple Upside Down Banana Cake is even more tropical twist than your average pineapple upside down cake, with a sweet layer of banana cake underneath a topping of caramelized pineapple pieces. I always describe the cake batter as being the “base” of an upside down cake because it is the base when the cake is served. When you are assembling the cake, however, a layer of butter, sugar and pineapple is placed into the pan as the literal bottom of the dessert. That mixture only becomes the topping when the cake is turned out for serving. The topping mixture of butter, sugar and brown sugar helps to caramelize the pineapple pieces as the

Hello dear friends! I’ll tell you what – if you dream of hosting a pop-up bagel shop in your backyard one day, all it takes is many MANY batches of this bagel recipe , a very early wakeup call, several batches of homemade flavored whipped cream,  a few friends to help you bring all of your inside furniture out to the backyard, a portable speaker with a Drake playlist and BOOM – you’ve got yourself a bagel shop. Continue reading Let It Be Sunday, 172! at Joy the Baker.

I’m so proud of my gardenias. After just two years in my backyard, under my well-meaning intentions (that are sometimes neglectful, sometimes plain confused), they’ve flowered into the grand finale of a gardenia fireworks show.  My Spring backyard is showing gratitude for the one time I fed it and the eighteen times I half watered it this past year and I am (admittedly) more proud that I should be.  I’m back there, spinning around in circles with my arm open singing about all the plants I haven’t killed yet. Continue reading How To Make A Kitchen Altar at Joy the Baker.

Hello dear friends!  Happy Mother’s Day.  Please take some time to honor the woman whose ear you screamed in for years on end.  And if you’re that woman, you deserve all of the flowers and thanks and solitude. Bless you.   I recognize that this day might not be the easiest of holidays.  As the years go on, as we tumble around in the world, we’re made to tuck all kinds of change and hurt away. Continue reading Let It Be Sunday, 171! at Joy the Baker.

On the long list of things that sparkle this season is the fact that my back porch smells like gardenias.  The closed blossoms have a new, green perfumey smell that only deepens as the flower blooms to bright white and ages to yellow.   The beauty is so present these days, the young greens, and the flowering trees – it feels like, if we’re paying enough attention we surely have an embarrassment of riches on our hands. Continue reading Strawberry Pie Bars at Joy the Baker.

So, you fried a big stack of thin green pancakes (aka spinach crêpes) for dinner last night and still have a few left in the fridge. How can you make the most of them? Here are three ideas: 1. Add mustard, lentils, sliced tomato and cheese, fold the pancakes, bake them quickly until the cheese melts and serve with a lentil and melon salad. 2. Roll them up with sweet potato, spinach, feta, yogurt and za’atar. Then slice them into rolls and bring on a picnic. 3. Make a banana split pancake bowl with some cream, yogurt, raspberries, nut butter an chocolate. We are sharing all of these recipes below. They are not vegan but if you use our vegan chickpea pancakes as base, you can easily modify the fillings to suit a vegan diet. Hummus, pesto, ajvar or coconut yogurt are excellent creamy toppings on vegan pancakes instead of yogurt and cheese. The recipe for the batter comes from our Green Kitchen at Home cookbook and we share it in the bottom of this post. They are the most easy fl

A single scoop from Thrifty was just over a dollar. The ice cream scoop was kind of a rounded cylinder shape, and it made a "click clack" noise when the attendant would release your chosen flavor into the sugar cone or cup. It was more like a scoop and a half, really. I consistently chose apricot-mango (why, young Sara?) and my sister, rainbow sherbet. It was located inside a Rite-Aid that was both across from the city library and in the same center where we went to a weekly math tutoring program, so we were frequent visitors. It may have been dinner some nights? My mom has never liked cooking and we lived to tell the tale so no sense in fretting too much about that. My mom would also get a scoop every now and then, likely something better and chocolatey because she was older and wiser. I have a snapshot memory of the three of us sitting outside the automatic doors, against the taupe-y stucco walls, eating our treats, me complaining I didn't like my flavor and preferred

Key lime pie is a wonderful summertime dessert that I always enjoy making. Not only is it easy to put together, but the zesty and creamy filling is completely satisfying with every bite, thanks to its combination of sweet and tart flavors. These Key Lime Pie Bars are a little bit easier to make than a traditional key lime pie and are the perfect option for a summer treat when you’re entertaining. Key lime pie is often served in a graham cracker crust . The only problem with graham cracker crusts is that they can get soggy more quickly than some other types of crust, so I opted to use a shortbread for the base of these bars instead. The buttery shortbread is made with brown sugar and cinnamon to bring in some extra flavor and contrast more with the key lime filling. The base could easily be used for other bars, too, even when you’re not baking key lime pie. Although I made a slightly less traditional crust for this recipe, the filling is very traditional. It combines sweetened conde

There is always a case for chocolate cake.  It’s as simple as that.  When I set out to make a chocolate cake, I’ll freely admit I use a perhaps unexpected recipe straight from Hershey because… well, the proportions are spot on and it makes for the most straight-forward delicious chocolate cake.  It’s exactly what I want it to be.   But… since there’s always a case for chocolate cake – there’s also always a case for trying something new. Continue reading Sweet Laurel’s Grain-Free Chocolate Raspberry Cake at Joy the Baker.

Hello my friends! I’ve had one of those once-in-a-lifetime weekends in Louisville Kentucky at this year’s Kentucky Derby.  It’s such a unique, cultural tradition that I’ve celebrated with my dear friend Whitney in Los Angelesfor the past seven years and it felt really special to be in Kentucky for the real deal.  The horses are gorgeous, the jockeys are so strong. The hats were HUGE, y’all, and the rain was real. Continue reading Let It Be Sunday, 170! at Joy the Baker.

A mint julep is a classic cocktail that has become one of the symbols of the Kentucky Derby, largely because it has been the official drink of the race for nearly 100 years. The cocktail is made with bourbon, sugar and mint, and it comes in a silver cup that is packed full of crushed ice. The finished cocktail is not unlike a very adult sno-cone – but one with a real kick to it. Juleps were originally made with a wide variety of spirits, including gin and brandy, but bourbon is what most of us associate with them because of the Kentucky Derby tradition. The drink is so simple that all the elements in it are equally important: the mint and ice make it cool and refreshing, the sugar takes the edge off the bourbon, while the bourbon provides a kick. It was served in peweter or silver julep cups, which have a foot at the bottom and a tall rim. These cups allowed the drinker to hold the cup from the very top or bottom while displaying the frosted sides of the cup. The julep was considered

Hello dear friends and happy festival season from New Orleans!  Down here we celebrate… well just about everything with cocktails and music but this time of year there’s something special in the air.   It’s my absolute favorite time of year here in New Orleans, the magnolias are in bloom, the crawfish are boiling, the humidity hasn’t ruined our hair juuuust yet, and with Jazz Fest this week, there’s literally music in the air everywhere! Continue reading Frozen Moscow Mules at Joy the Baker.

I came across this quote from Rob Bell via my friend Stacy's blog  : You and I were raised in a modern world that taught us how to work hard and be productive and show up on time and give it our best... We learned lots of very valuable skills, but we weren't taught how to be here, how to be fully present in the moment, how to not be distracted or stressed or worried or anxious, but just be here, and nowhere else - wide awake to the infinite depth and dimension of this exact moment.  As someone whose work and personal life come with an extreme amount of overlap, I have a tough time enjoying things for what they are. My husband is also my work and parenting partner. I feed my family, but testing and writing recipes is also my job. When I am with the kids, I feel like I should be working on something - often irritated because I know I have to hustle for my own living. Or if I am working, I feel like I am missing moments with my kids. I don't know any of us come equip with

Brown sugar can become hard when exposed to air, making it difficult to measure and to incorporate into recipes. As delicious as it is, you don’t really want to find a chunk of unincorporated brown sugar in your next cake or cookie! Brown sugar’s high moisture content is what keeps it soft and that moisture begins to evaporate when exposed to their air, causing the sugar to harden. The sugar granules in brown sugar are coated with molasses – that’s what gives it its color and flavor, if you want to try making your own – and as it dries, that coating becomes very sticky, creating the clumps that you just don’t get in white sugar. Fortunately, there are ways to keep brown sugar soft and fresh until you’re ready to use it. How to Store Brown Sugar The best way to store brown sugar is in an airtight container, which will trap all the moisture in the sugar and keep it soft. I like to transfer mine to a more solid container from the plastic bag that it comes in, as the bags are suscepti

  It’s that time of year when we get to welcome a gorgeous new crop of cookbooks onto our shelves! If you’e been over to my little Bakehouse, you know that there are stacks of cookbooks on every flat surface.  I think of each one as a restaurant I’ve visited, a friend who wrote the book, or a chef who I admire.  Suffice it to say – I’m working on building a library. Continue reading 12 Spring Cookbooks I’m Excited About, 2018 at Joy the Baker.