Food Diary

Hello my friends!  Can you believe that these gorgeous hibiscus flowers bloom for one day, bring all of their shine and beauty, and then wilt the next?  All that effort and beauty for one day.  It’s incredible.  It blows my mind every time I see these flowers. It inspires me to make the most of my day … and maybe put on some pink lipstick, too.   How has your week been?  Real question, though you can also just answer it for yourself as you reflect on the week on what I hope is a day of (at least some) rest for you.  Does that work as a sentence?  I had a photoshoot for a paper towel company as well as a private cooking class at The Bakehouse this week! Continue reading Let It Be Sunday, 228! at Joy the Baker.

Pound cakes are always a crowd-pleaser. They are known for their dense, tender texture and are a great option for just about any occasion. While vanilla is my go-to pound cake flavor, it isn’t the only choice out there. This Brown Sugar Bourbon Pound Cake is a delicious alternative to traditional vanilla – and it never lasts long in my kitchen after I’ve baked one. I have a feeling that it will be a hit in your home, too! As the name suggests, this Brown Sugar Bourbon Pound Cake is made with quite a bit of brown sugar. You can use dark brown sugar for a stronger molasses flavor (and I do that sometimes in the winter), however I prefer the more subtle flavor of light brown sugar for a more versatile cake. The brown sugar is combined with butter, eggs and flour – ingredients that you’ll find in any cake, of course – along with a generous splash of bourbon. The flavor of the bourbon, with notes of vanilla and toasted wood, works very well with the brown sugar. There isn’t enough alcohol

Hello friends!  It’s that time of year again!  Time to make our Summer Bucket List!   BUCKET LIST buck•et list (noun): a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have accomplished during their lifetime.  Also, a 2007 comedic film featuring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.   SUMMER BUCKET LIST sum•mer buck•et list (noun):  a list of things that a person would like to accomplish and experience during the summer months. Continue reading Summer Bucket List, 2019! at Joy the Baker.

Mochi is a Japanese confection made from sweet rice that is pounded into a fine paste and molded into a shape. You have probably encountered mochi filled with ice cream, as it is a popular Japanese dessert that is also available at many grocery stores. A popular Hawaiian dessert is known as Mochi Cake, a baked cake that is made with the same sweet rice flour used to make traditional mochi. The cake is soft, chewy and very different than traditional butter cakes. The unusual texture might not make mochi cake everyone’s favorite dessert, but it is absolutely delicious for those who love it. Recently, Trader Joe’s introduced a Mochi Cake Mix that allows you to easily make your own mochi cake at home. The cake mixes up very easily with just the addition of butter, eggs and water. It has just the right sweetness and bakes up to be dense, chewy and quite delicious. While I admit that I haven’t made a mochi cake from scratch before using this mix, the consistency was very similar to some of

Something happened last week back home in New Orleans.  I realized I am far more thirsty than I am hungry which means that summer is here (and it is unrelenting) and it’s now time to swap food for various forms of liquid.   I’m entertaining smoothies.  I’m here for cold coffee.  I’m here for summer water and Pimm’s Cups.  What else can we drink?  Gazpacho?  Sure sign me up.   Aside from liquids, I’m also entertaining vegetables (and sure… anything chocolate). Continue reading Veggie Egg Roll Noodle Bowl at Joy the Baker.

Hello friends.   I’m back. We’re back.  We’re in it!  Summer snuck right up at me the last few weeks.  I spent a few good days in Toronto recently and wow TORONTO – you’re wonderful. Such nice people.  Such good food.  Such chic restaurants.  I’m smitten.     I’ve got a boatload of Joy the Baker plans coming up the next few months which means more travel – I’m packing up to come see you and bake together.  It’s a hair-brained Bakehouse idea that’s really come to life, see the eighth link below.   This week I’m testing a dozen or so summer recipes, light and fresh, that will make their way to this space over the next few weeks.  All things I want to enjoy by a pool.  Incidentally I called a meeting with my contractor next week where he’ll likely tell me that I’m stone-cold crazy for wanting to put a pool in my modest backyard.  Im content with the pool vibe snacks.  That’s much more reasonable. Continue reading Let It Be Sunday, 227! at Joy the Baker.

Here is a beautiful and hearty salad for summer parties and family gatherings. It's colorful, packed with flavor and has a nice chewiness to it.

Forget the medicine cabinet – I really love a good snoop around someone’s refrigerator.  You can really learn a lot about a person in knowing how many different kinds of mustards they have tucked away on the condiment shelf.  I have between four and seven different types at any given moment along with at least one cake and three containers of something or other that are well past their prime.   More intimate though is… the freezer – where good intentions go to freeze indefinitely.  Don’t even talk to me about all the leftover pasta sauce I’ve suspended in my freezer.  It’s packed with things I can’t even bare to admit.  Until now.  Until these mega brownie ice cream sandwiches.  I’ve made just enough room in the freezer for this tray of ice cream treats and they’re sure not to be forgotten – they’re just too good.  They may even help me work through the pasta sauce and the plethora of other forgotten item collecting there.  We’ll see.  These will be gone by week’s end.   Let’s. Co

Hello dear friends! Welcome to another fine Sunday! When I started writing this very post the ‘T’ key on my laptop keyboard was not working (even with light touches and full on smashing).  I couldn’t coax a T to save my life.  I took to google, watched a video or two, removed the key and cleaned it, and SOLVED MY OWN PROBLEMS.   A pat on the back to all of us who solve our own problems on the regular.  And while we’re being generous with gestures, a firm handshake to my last boyfriend who said I was hard to be with me because I didn’t need anything.  Good day to you, sir.  Good day.  I think I’ve got the T up and running, but if you see any missing from the words below, can you be gracious about it? Continue reading Let It Be Sunday, 226! at Joy the Baker.

Oatmeal cookies are always comfort food in my book. They are one of the first cookies that I baked on a regular basis and they remain a favorite to this day. These Cherry and Pecan Oatmeal Cookies were inspired by cherry pie, packed with toasted pecans and dried sweet-tart cherries. Cherry pie is also a comfort food classic, so combining the two desserts makes the finished cookies even more delicious. The cookie dough is a buttery mix of sugar, brown sugar, flour and spices. I like to pair allspice with cherries because it has a slight pepperiness that really brings out their natural sweetness. I used dried tart cherries in this batch of cookies, but dried black cherries – which tend to be a bit sweeter – are also a great choice. Make sure that you’re getting real cherries and not cherry-flavored cranberries (good, but different), since fresh dried cherries are plump and packed with flavor. The cookies are perfect when they are fresh from the oven, as the cherries will be especiall

Gosh – if you’d told me ten years ago that I’d be putting the words ‘cauliflower’ and ‘milkshake’ in the same recipe title I would have told you you’d lost your mind.  And yet here we are – working cauliflower into a dang milkshake. The thing is, I think you trust me.  I’ve given you enough Dark Chocolate Pistachio Cookies and Browned Butter Banana Bread to let you know that I like things that taste good and really I’m not going to sacrifice on taste because life is short.   But still, I do need to explain myself because… well, I’m asking you to drink cauliflower.  Usually in my kitchen, I’m roasting cauliflower until it’s tender and browned around the edges.  I’ve also like to work cauliflower into the creamiest soup .  Lately I’ve found myself buying those frozen bags of finely minced cauliflower and trying to convince myself (rather unsuccessfully) that I’m eating rice.   But I have found a successful use for frozen, riced cauliflower.  I’m inviting it into the blender alon

Friends hello!  I’ve been traveling for the past week and I can’t be too sure about what day it is.  I’m sure that it’s not Sunday and for that I apologize.  I’ll share my travels soon, but please take in this picture of baklava and the offering of links below.   It’s officially June which means it’s time to work on the Summer Bucket List and I’m finding inspiration from years past: Summer Bucket List, 2018 .   I hope this finds you easing into the week.  Use these links as procrastination as you need:  •   This week in New Orleans we lost legend Leah Chase.  She was a gift to all of us, so generous, such a force.  This tribute brought tears to my eyes: Leah Chase, Creole Chef Who Fed Presidents and Freedom Riders, Dies at 96.  I appreciate these words from Dr Jessica B Harris, “She is of a generation of African-American women who set their faces against the wind without looking back.” (New York Times)  •  This week’s long-read comes along with a sexual assault trigger warning b

I’ve always had a soft spot for Cherry Limeade. It’s a delicious combination of sweet and tart, and I’m a sucker for that vibrant pink color every time! The problem with many cherry limeades is that they aren’t made with fresh juices, so you get an artificial cherry flavor instead of an authentic one. I don’t mind artificial cherry flavor in a piece of candy, but I don’t want it in my cherry limeade when real cherry juice is so much more flavorful. My recipe uses just three ingredients (four, if you count water) – lime juice, cherry juice and sugar – and the fresh juices make a huge difference in the finished limeade. Lime juice tastes both more sour and more acidic than lemon juice, so I find that I need to be generous with the sweetener in a drink like this one. Instead of stirring in sugar, I used simple syrup to sweeten things up. I’ve given a basic recipe for simple syrup below. It’s a great tool to keep in your refrigerator because it allows you to sweeten all kinds of drinks,