Joy the Baker

This post could also be entitled:  

     Can’t Bake Now… I’m on the I-5.

     Joy the Driver and Lauren the Snack Coordinator

     Joy the Baker eats 6 pounds of Chex Mix between San Francisco and Portland

     or simply… Joy the Baker moves her sister from Los Angeles to Seattle in a Budget moving truck creatively nicknamed Budgie.  

It’s early Tuesday morning.  My Mom makes Lauren pose with her moving truck.  That’s not weird, right?  Not weird at all.  

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Three things.  Can I tell you three things?  Do you mind getting all up in my business for the next several minutes of your life?

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Let’s talk about this weekend’s adventures.  There were highways, gas stations and bridges.  I might have a made friends out of strangers although there was too much wine to be clear on that.  Aaaaand!  I taught my first cooking class.  In Sonoma.  That happened.  

Take a peek!

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We three?  We always have our mouths in motion, our wine glasses full and our eyes wide… looking for trouble.  

Let me introduce you to On the Lamb Food and Beverage.  We’re a roving catering and events firm made up of three unstoppable Los Angeles women:  Whitney (the sommelier), Rachel (the chef), and Joy (the baker).  

How does this all work?  Here’s how:

First we find an often obscure, always stellar location around Los Angeles.  We design an amazing theme and a ridiculous menu.  Then, here’s the best part… we invite you.  You come.  You meet other cool, unpretentious people who are as dorky about food and drink as you are.  You have a great time and love your life.  That’s exactly how it works.  

Our next event:  The One Night (Stand) Speakeasy on 02.14.2010.  

Would you like to keep up with On the Lamb?  

Email onthelambfb (at) gmail (dot) com to put your name on the email list.  Space is always limited at these shindigs, so be diligent.  We know how to throw a party.  That’s a fact. 

All up in the Internet?  You’ll also find us cavorting around Twitter and Facebook like a bunch of floozies.  Join us!

Want to have breakfast with me?

Better yet, want to make breakfast with me!?  

Heck yea friend!  Me and you and eighteen other brand new friends… making breakfast, drinking coffee, laughing, talking trash.   It’ll be great!

Here are the details:

Ramekins, Sonoma
California

Sunday, February 21st from 11am-2pm

Hands on breakfast baking course.  I’m teaching.  Keep in mind that this could get both awkward and silly.   

Cost: $85… which includes breakfast and laughs and me smiling all up in your face.   

Space: very limited.  

Head on over to Ramekins to sign up!  Select Cooking Classes then Class List.  My class is on the second page of the Class List.  

Come on!  Let’s make breakfast together! I’d love to see your smiling face.

Oooh!  Here’s a little update from Yvette at Ramekins:

Hi Everyone! I’m Yvette, and I work at Ramekins in Sonoma. We are thrilled that Joy will be here in February and April. We are experiencing technical difficulties with the website right now, so call now to reserve your spot with Joy! (707) 933-0450, extension *811. Ask to sign up for Joy’s class. You may also e-mail to:marlena@ramekins.com. Thanks and have a wonderful day!

It’s Thursday which means that… it’s still not Friday.  

I say that today you be far more blatant about your disinterest in getting any work done.  To help you with this task I’ve got links… links on the Internet… links on the Internet that are bound to help you waste at least a good hour of your day.  You game?  Let’s play.

See… my Internet starts to look the same day after day.  Of course I have to go see what’s cookin’ in ranch life with Ree.  Then I jet off to see how Deb and family are doing in New York.  Dooce and her crazy self always manage to crack me up… but these are the places that we all go, everyday.  

It’s a whole big Internet, friends!  That means we have some serious clicking to do.  

Here are some new food blogs that are, without a doubt, making the world a more delicious place.  Go on… check em out.  Every food blog can use a little love… especially the new ones!  Say hi!  Make friends!  Let’s not pretend like you actually wanted to work.  

Brunellos Have More Fun.  Where there is wine, there is Whitney.  

Jamie Oliver is Not My Boyfriend.  Um… I already feel like I have something in common with this blog!  Jamie Oliver is not my boyfriend either!!

The Noshery.  Food.  Photography and doggies.  I’m in. 

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You’re here.  We’re friends.  That’s just how it goes.

Are you all up in my business?…  Because I want you all up in my business.  

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably know exactly when I’m…

on the road…

having breakfast…

or trying to abscond with cats that don’t belong to me.  

You also know when I’ve eaten Milk Duds for breakfast and when I’m on my fifth consecutive hour of watching Mad Men.  

Yep… you’re all up in my Twitter zone.  It’s a fun little place to post silly pictures of myself, sneak peeks at what’s going on in my kitchen, and even have the occasional giveaway.  Twitter.  Dorky and fun.  

I simultaneously thank you and apologize for being so ridiculous.  I’m glad we’re friends.

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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Have I introduced you to my little sister Lauren? 

Lauren… this is everyone.  

Everyone… this is Lauren.  

Lauren and I grew up in the kitchen together.  We made brownies, we burnt cookies, we frosted crooked cakes, and we could plow through a box of Peanut Butter Captain Crunch in 10 minutes flat.  We were always in the kitchen either creating or consuming.  True.  

Things aren’t all that different for me and Lauren these days.  We spend a lot of time baking up treats, talking about Paula Dean, and arguing about which awkward teenage phase was worse:  my Blossom Hat Phase or her Sweatpants and Vest Wearing Phase.  Just typing those out… they each seem like equal tragedies.  Thank heavens we’ve moved past that.  

I’m introducing you to my sister because these two things are true:

1.  If Lauren were not in the world, I would surely be unable to breathe… that’s how much I love this girl. 

2.  I shoved my camera in Lauren’s hands last week, told her to bake something and take pictures of it.  In her unending brilliance, she returned to me a camera full of pictures (including the self portrait below) and six of these cookies.  Holy heck!  A food blogger could get used to this kind of treatment.  For real.  

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Hey!  Can I share some fun news!?  Sweet… thanks.

What makes dinner with friends even more fun and lovely?  A dash of holiday spirit… aaaand whiskey.  

I love the months between September and January because I get to cook and cook and cook.  Something about the holidays inspires people to gather and consume… it’s just heaven for me.  

This holiday season I’m teaming up with my super chef friends and crackpot wine buddies to cater big ol’ homey holiday suppers for people in their homes.  You gather.  We throw down in the kitchen.  You consume.  We’re talking six course meals with things like Braised Cocoa Beef with Buckwheat and Corn Polenta Cakes and Christmas Lima Beans. Yea… the real deal.  How about Warm Apple Crostadas with Butterscotch Ice Cream and Bourbon Whipped Cream?  Yes.  Please.  Dang.  

We also do dishes.  Wait… chefs who do dishes!?  Well… we bring help.  That’s true.  

I’m telling you all of this goodness because if you’re in Los Angeles or San Francisco… well heck, maybe you’d like to throw a badass holiday dinner party.  Weeks sure are coming and going quickly so email us at joythebakerdinners (at) gmail (dot) com if you’d like to talk food… talk wine… talk menu and pricing… and talk holidays with you.

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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Have you seen the newest Food & Wine magazine?

It’s a good one, made even better if you have a Sharpie marker and a couple of giggly girlfriends around.

It’s all about the best new chefs of 2009.  It’s about dudes (plus one ladydude) that are young, hip and magic in the kitchen… like Vinny Dotolo (bottom left with glasses) and Jon Shook (bottom middle with a heart drawn on his shirt) of a restaurant called Animal in Los Angeles.

Animal is the kind of place that turns lamb tongue into something I might actually consider eating… and enjoying.  They also work wonders with chicken liver and rabbit loin.  On the real.

My only concern is… well… only one awesome lady chef this year Food & Wine?  Really?

I suggest you get this months issue.  Also get a marker… maybe a glass of wine too.  It’s Friday, do it up right.

I think we should all sit down and have tea and cookies today.  Tea and cookies and a little chat and laughter in the late afternoon sun.  What do you think?  Are you in?

In the past few days, my inbox has filled with emails from people with big, arms-up-in-the-air, life questions.  If you’ll allow me to paraphrase, they go something like this:

Dear Joy,

This might sound totally weird and crazy, but I think I’m going to get laid off from my job soon, and I’ve always wanted to be a baker and I was wondering if you could tell me… what the heck to do next.

Sincerely yours,

Ok… first things first… let’s hug it out.  That will help.  Next, you should know, as I’m sure you already do, that I don’t have all the answers.  Not even close.  I am a firm believer in the idea that if you go after what you love, in a balls-out, take-no-prisoners kind of way, you succeed.  Succeed?  Heck yes!  Because you’ll be ultra happy that you’re, in the very least, doing something you love.

So!  If you want to be a baker… do it!  Bake every day!  Bake and bring cookies into the office job that might not be your favorite place in the world.  Bake and try to sell to the coffee shop down the street.  Bake and give it to the local homeless shelter.  Bake and blog about it.  Read books about baking.  Talk to bakers about baking.  Take a cheap cooking class at the community college.  Ask to apprentice one (very early) morning at a local bakery.  Dive in.  It’s what I did, and if I can scratch out a living in the kitchen every month, I think you can too.  On the real.

This concludes today’s installment of My Two Cents.

Now… how about cookies?

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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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