Joy the Baker

I went to the Foodbuzz Festival in San Francisco last weekend, and all I got were these silly photo booth pictures with my dear friend Tracy of Shutterbean.  

Ok…. that’s entirely untrue.  

I walked away from the Foodbuzz Festival with more kitchen gear than I could carry, pockets full of fellow food blogger business cards, and a belly full of incredible food.  

A room full of food bloggers means a room full of cameras.  So many.  Rather than crowd around and take pictures of food…. I just took pictures of people taking pictures of food.  Weird.  I know.  

This also happened…

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Holy Heck!  When did Fall sneak up on me!?  I could use a deep breath… how about you?

Here we are at the end of September and I’m more than ready to go shopping for winter tights and oversized sweaters… not to mention jumping in the kitchen to bake up my favorite pumpkin cookies.  Seriously.  Have you made these pumpkin cookies yet?  They’re my reason for living from October through January.  

Now is not the time to talk cookies.  Can I show you a few things!?  I want to show you what my summer looked like…. up close… personal… on the fly.  All captured by my trusted camera phone.  Remember when we played the camera phone picture game a few months back?  I’m at it again.  Come take a peek and then tell me what you were up too all summer long!

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After extensive… and I do mean extensive research, I’ve determined that certain items always taste better if someone else makes them for you.

It’s like when someone else draws a bath for you… maybe with bubbles or salts, and perfectly warm water.  Dang, that’s a good bath… somehow way better than it would have been if you turned those bathtub faucets yourself.

So, what items always taste better if someone else makes them for you?  Perfect macarons and the day’s first cup of coffee.

Cookie and a coffee?  And I don’t have to move a muscle in the kitchen?  It’s already delicious.

Now let me tell you about who made them for me.

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I feel like it’s just about time to say goodbye to summer.  I think I’m just about ready to trade in peaches for pears and white wine for red.  Just about ready.

The best way to bid farewell to such a gorgeous season is to do something quintessentially LA…. and if we can work in a smokey sunset and some wine… well, that’s living.   

Here’s some of our end of summer adventure.  What are you doing with your end of summer days?  Does it involve wine?  It should.  It really should.

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Shareen.  Do you know Shareen Vintage?

Oooooooh my word.  Should I tell you about Shareen?

Shareen Vintage is a wonderland of vintage dresses.  Ok… I’m about to combine three concepts that you probably thing an impossibility in combination: reasonably priced, magnificent condition, vintage dresses.  Yes.  It’s true.  These concepts all work together at Shareen Vintage in downtown Los Angeles.  I ain’t lyin’.   

Here’s the skinny on Shareen.  Her warehouse is located in a super obscure part of downtown Los Angeles.  You’ll seriously question your GPS finding this place.  You’ll know you’re in the right place when you see the bodies at the end of the road.

Shareen Vintage is only open two days a week, and there are noooooo boys allowed inside.  Why no boys?  There are no dressing rooms in her secret garden of vintage dresses.  Girls try clothes on around a giant bed she has fashioned in her warehouse, or beside a couch and coffee table set up… really, just wherever you can find a spot next to a mirror.  Wear your pretty bra and underwear… I’m just sayin’.  

My pretty pink picnic dress?  Shareen Vintage.  I couldn’t believe how cheap it was.  Holy heck.  I’m a believer.  

So… now you know the secret:  Shareen. Vintage.  Downtown.  If you find yourself at the warehouse any given Wednesday or Saturday, please just save me some good stuff… in a size six.  It’s only polite… sweet, thanks!

A few weeks ago I threw a little idea out into the world:  a Joy the Baker picnic.

Well… holy heck!  We’re doing it!

Joy the Baker is throwing a rooftop cupcake party smack dab in the middle of gorgeous downtown Los Angeles.  Consider it a room with a view (the view pictured above silly!)… and no roof and tons of cupcakes and sweet tea.  

Sunday August 23rd from 2pm until 7pm.  Downtown Los Angeles.  

This event is not a pot luck situation.  It’s more of a eat-all-the-Joy-the-Baker-cupcakes-you-can situation.  

If you’d like to attend, send an email to joythebakerpicnic (at) gmail (dot) com

I’ll email you the fancypants invitation late next week.  

Now… a girl can only make so may cupcakes.  In the event that I have to limit the guest list, invitations will go out on a first come, first serve basis.  Get your emails in!

Not in Los Angeles?  Don’t fret!  I have plans for you to play along wherever you live.  You might call it a virtual picnic!  Stay tuned for that!

I want to see your shining faces!

I had exactly too much fun this past weekend, so much fun that I seem to have left my camera in a different city.  At least I know what city it’s in…. it just doesn’t happen to be the city that I’m in, making blogging about muffins and such difficult.

So!

Time for a distraction!

Hey… look over here!  It’s fabric!  Why?  What’s this all about?

Mom and I had a little downtown Los Angeles fabric shopping adventure last weekend.  We braved walls and walls, stores after store of fabric… for you.  It’s blinding friends, absolutely blinding.  The only thing that cures fabric blindness…

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… eat watermelon, in a park, in a row with several friends, quickly, in a race-type situation.  See who finishes first.  Crown them the winner.

Call it a Watermelon Eating Contest.

It’s summer.  Summer is fun.  Watermelon is summer fun.

Here are five Watermelon Eating Contest tips, from a photographer not a participant.

Just before the race, it’s not a bad idea to lick your lips and stretch out the back.  You’ll need every advantage.  No… pregnant women do not have to eat twice the amount of watermelon.  It doesn’t work that way.

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We used to be one of those families that would drive out to the cemetery on Sunday afternoon after church service.  I can remember chasing my sister around the cemetery slopes, slipping on the moist grass in my church shoes and getting bright green stains on my Sunday dress while my parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents sat around our family graves exchanging stories.

The bright afternoon sun, the way the wind whipped over the rounded hills of the cemetery, and hearing my family talk and laugh about our family who had passed… it’s one of those super calming childhood memories that I keep tucked away, and pull out on days like today.  The remembering is important.

Today it feels good to remember all of the men, women and families who have sacrificed so much for our country.  While thanking you may seem trite, I mean it from way down on the inside.  Thank you.

If you’ve hung around these parts long enough, you may have pieced together a few facts about me.  You probably know that I have a strange and undying affection for pancakes.  You probably know that my family loves biscuits, and I’ve been known to drop an entire cake all over the counter top instead of on the cake plate.

You may know that  I shoot all of the food on this website with a Canon Rebel XSi and a 100mm macro lens.  It’s fancy for me.  Only a few months ago, my camera was worth more than my car.  I love this camera, but for everyday shooting… for the shots on the fly and on the go, I reach for my camera phone.  I know, it sounds crazy, right!?  It’s just that sometimes my little iphone is the easiest way for me to document my happenings on the sly.

Below are some fun facts and camera phone pictures from my life this year.  It’s a little peek into my world.  Some food.  Some shopping.  Some reading and some wine.  I just want you to see that not everything in my life is as staged and well lit as the stuff that I show you on my dining room table.

I’ll spare you all the shameless self portraits I may or may not have taken with my phone.  Ok… I’m embarrassed.  Come on… let’s play Joy the Baker’s camera phone life.

Fun Fact:  The Suzzallo Reading Room at the University of Washington is one of my favorite places in the world.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen asleep while trying to study in that library.  I’ve even fallen asleep and missed the last bus home.  Overnight at the library?  Let me tell you… not all that cozy.

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Did you have a great weekend?  Have you woken up with a lingering Easter candy tummy ache?  Do you still have confetti everywhere from the Cascarones?  Yea?  Me too.  I think I might have an Easter sugar hangover… I’m not proud.    Here’s a look at what Easter looks like when you combine a cupcake contest with a steady stream of champagne, a dog named Bunny and a confetti filled egg massacre.

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Five hours in Napa… ready, set, GO!

Drink wine.  Talk about tannins, body, oak barrels and finish.  Blah Blah Blaaaaahs.

Stomp around the vineyards like you own the joint (pictured above).

And stop by Fatted Calf to talk about how approachable and awesome American charcuterie can be.

More later!  Right now I’ve got more ground to stomp, and a plane to catch.