Joy the Baker

Bread.  Love.  Bread.  

I’m on a tiny bit of a vacation these days.  Tiny.  Seriously.  Also… I’m kinda still working, but that’s mostly because I can’t help myself.

While I’m away… sort of away, I want to show what I love.  Can I share a bit with you?

Here’s one thing!  I love that you can now sign up to get my rambling posts in your email inbox.  Kinda sweet, right?  Just drop your email in the little “subscribe me!” box to the left.  Oooooh technology.  You’re rad. 

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I think it’s important that you all know something about what comes out of my kitchen:  it ain’t all pretty folks.  Not every creation that comes out of my kitchen is pretty, polished and ready for its blog debut.  The reality is that I have my fair share of flops, dropped eggs, burned butter and dirty dishes… I just don’t usually show those kitchen tidbits with you.  Tricky, right?

Today is your lucky day.  Here’s a peek at the flops, disasters and otherwise icky recipes I’ve tried and trashed.  

Chilled Blueberry Soup.  Ok, seriously.  Who are you trying to fool?  This was just an elaborate recipe for blueberry juice.  You tricked me and I resent you Blueberry Soup.  This won’t be soon forgotten.

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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.

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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You mentioned once that you were an English major in college. What did you want to be when you grew up? Did you ever do it? How did you move from English major to Baker Extraordinaire?

I was an English major in college. Ironically enough, reading makes me fall asleep. Crazy, right? Somehow I managed to work my way through five (yes, it took me a while) years of college. I worked two jobs through college, always with food, often in kitchens. For those years, I either had my head (fast asleep) in a book, or my hands elbow deep in dough. When I finished college, I found that I loved baking so much that I didn’t want to stop working with food. I somehow wanted to find a way to incorporate my love of story telling with my passion for food. So far that journey has lead me here- cooking, photographing and writing for you fine folks. I honestly can’t think of any place I’d rather be!

Have you thought of making healthy versions of some of your recipes, or proposing a corpus of kid-friendly, healthier recipes that use fruit sugars and fat subs for a more conscious approach of your culinary art?

I think butter is beautiful. I think sugar is dreamy. I think cream is over the moon. I bake with ingredients that put a smile on my face. I certainly wouldn’t consider the treats on my site as everyday meal-time staples, but for a special occasion… when you need to reach out to that inner sugar fiend… this is a good place to come.

If you’re looking for fruit sugars and fat substitutes, I just may not be the baker for you. It’s just not what I’m passionate about these days. While I do have a handful of healthful recipes like my Gnarly Muffins… these recipes just don’t bring a sparkle to my eye like cream, butter and chocolate do.

What kind of camera do you use? Did you take classes or is it just the camera that creates those gorgeous shots?

I use a Canon XSi with a 100mm macro lens. It’s a lovely, easy to use camera, made even more awesome with the fancypants lens. Can I tell you a secret? There was a time when the lens to my camera was worth more money than the car I was driving. True…. that’s really true.

I also have to tell you that I’ve actually never take a photography class. A dear friend handed me a SLR camera, gave me a 15 minute lesson all about aperture and depth of field I think he might have mentioned shutter speed once or twice… but that was it. He knew what I wanted to shoot and he showed me exactly how to do it.

The 100mm macro lens It’s totally worth it, isn’t it?

Yes. Yes it is.

Did you go to culinary school? Do you currently work at a bakery? Have you been working at a bakery for your entire professional life?

Here’s the deal: I’m a self taught baker. I didn’t go to culinary school. Why? It was just too darn expensive. As a result, I’m no master at cream puffs, my bread baking is sometimes a comic tragedy and fancy French desserts make me break out in a cold sweat. But that stuff just isn’t where my passion lies. I’m more interested in getting in the kitchen with my Dad to recreate his favorite pie, or filling my kitchen with girlfriends to play with cookie recipes. My approach is all about food, stories, laughs and love and I didn’t feel like I needed culinary school to teach me that.

What recipe ingredients are worth splurging on?

Whatever you love… it’s worth splurging on. I love food, so I think the good stuff is worth seeking out. Recently I’ve come to love raw, artisanal honeys. The people at Ames Farm seem to know what they’re doing with bees. They have lovely honey that I usually eat by the spoonful. I also love love love good chocolate. I like to buy Valrhona when it comes to my chocolate baking needs. Expensive, yes… but the quality is absolutely worth the extra dough.

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Can we have a heart to heart?

Good.  Thanks.

The reality is… I’m up to my ears in emails from many of you lovely people.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s great!  I totally love it… but honestly, I’m overwhelmed.

Let’s make this fun.  If you have a question… any question, leave it as a comment to this post, and I’ll answer it.  Any and every question, answered… I promise. 

It could go something like this:

Hey Joy, do you really like pancakes as much as you say you do?  What’s your favorite toothpaste?  Do you have a recipe for peach cobbler on your blog?  And what should I make my Dad for his birthday?

My answers might be something like this:

Yes,  I really do like pancakes as much as I say I do.  My Dad’s pancakes are a little bit of awesome.  Aquafresh… the silver kind, that’s some good toothpaste.  Peach cobbler?  No not yet.  And for your Dad’s birthday how about Mocha Coffee Coffee Cake?

See?  We could be going places with this.  Maybe you have a question about my camera.  How about culinary school?  We could talk about that.  Anything at all… 

Let’s do it.  You ask.  I answer.  Easy as pie!

I’ll be honest, I have reusable grocery bags just about coming out of my ears.  The one big problem is that I leave the darn bags at home exactly every time I head out to the store.  I feel like a nasty whale killer every time I walk out of the store with a boat load of those thin plastic bags.  Sure, they’re good for cleaning cat liter, but still… the whales. 

Baggu figured it out for us.  Reusable shopping bags that fold and scrunch up into a little pouch that you can keep in your purse or in the back seat of you car.  I think they’re actually everything bags.  I’ve used mine as a gym bag, as a quick overnight bag and as a purse… but I’m a little hippie like that sometimes.  

I have three bags that I think you should have.  Let’s go ahead and call this a giveaway.  Three bags for three readers.  One each.  

Want one?

Leave a comment.  Tell me whatever you like.  You’ve got until Saturday, and then the random drawing and mailing begins.  

Can I talk to you about the Fancy Food Show?  Can I be completely honest?  

In some ways, the Fancy Food Show is a battle between people who want free stuff and vendors who aren’t all that eager to give away free stuff.  It’s a bizzare and sometimes troubling experiencing.  Take these macarons, for example.  Exactly everyone wanted one, and exactly no one got one.  It’s the Fancy Food Show, not the Free Food Show.  I get it.  Don’t get me wrong, I did manage to walk away with my fair share of goodies, but it’s not the free for all you might think it is.

Maybe it’s just me.  Maybe I’m too shy.  Maybe I need to work on my schmoozing skills.  Maybe it was the layers and layers of people clamouring about.  I dunno, but the Fancy Food Show made for a memorable, bizarre and overwhelming weekend.  

Here are some of the run of the mill details.  

The Winter Fancy Food Show is in its 34th year.  This year’s winter festivities were held over three monstrous days at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.  

More than 1,500 exhibitors from 35 countries packed the convention center.  Everyone had a badge.  There were plenty of dudes in suits acting like they had national security on their minds.  

Many producers from different countries banded together in specific areas, creating a sort of united front, if you will.  Leave it to the Italians to set up a giant flat screen television playing some sort of heated football match.  That combined with the wine and cheese made the Italian section one of the hot places to be.  Oh Italy.   Read more »

Tonight, from San Francisco, I’m raising my glass to one heck of a memorable year.  

 There have been highs and lows, lots of learning, some tears and plenty of beauty.   

Loads of goodies have come out of my oven.  Photos have filled the memory of my computer, and silly stories have flowed out onto the Internet.  

Here we are at the end and at the beginning.  Like a hop, skip and quick restart.

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I know this book is one of my new favorites for two reason. I’ve had it for three days, I’m half way through reading it, and the cover is already bent beyond belief. I have a nasty habit of falling asleep with a book and then sleeping all over that book all night. For that reason, my favorite books, the ones I read over and over again, either have no covers or are bent beyond recognition. Some might call this habit of mine charming. It is.

Let me tell you about Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating. In two simple words: super awesome! It’s a book for people who care about food, where it comes from and how it’s made. This book makes food a story about people and places, time and craft.

Take traditional balsamic vinegars, for example. Traditional balsamic vinegars come from the town of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.  That’s it!  That’s the only place where traditional balsamic vinegars come from!  Are you still with me?  Balsamic vinegars weren’t even available for purchase until the 1980’s. For centuries, balsamic vinegars were lovingly crafted and passed down from family to family. Vinegars were carefully dema by the matriarchs of the family and kept under lock and key by the patriarch of the family. They were so essential to family history that they were often given as dowries.

See, I learned all that from Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating!  The book is so inspiring!  It makes me want to go out, ask questions and seek out shops that are as nutty about food as I am.  

Nowadays you can hop down to your local grocery store and buy virtually everything you’ll ever need, including an unassuming bottle of balsamic vinegar. I have to tell you that this isn’t the stuff that old Italian women are making in their attics. The real stuff, the good Italian stuff, the stuff approved by the Italian government is expensive. While the price may deter most of us, the taste and the experience is absolutely astonishing. The brilliant part about beautifully crafted food is that it inspires others to create good food in its imagine. That’s when those of us with tighter pocket books win.

For those of us who can’t spend $200 on a small bottle of tradition balsamic vinegar, there are inspired artisan varieties that have some pretty sultry depths. A bottle of artisan Elderberry Balsamic Vinegar (made from elderberries instead of grapes) will set you back $40, for example. Totally doable!

The amazing thing about good food, prepared with care is that your tongue will tell you what’s what. You don’t have to be a fancy vinegar connoisseur, or a cheese expert to tell the good stuff from the crap.

What I love about Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating is its totally unpretentious and approachable attitude. It shows us that good food come from people who really care about it, and that care translates into the quality of their product. Good food comes from culture and time and tradition.  Most importantly, good food is for everybody. This book totally warms my heart. Yea, it’s that good.

Fact:  I love this blog of mine.

Fact:  I absolutely adore all of its readers.   That’s you.

Fact:  I’m obviously not very good at posting every day as NaBloPoMo would have me do.

Request:  Bear with me.

Hope:  This blog has always been about quality and not quantity.  

Another Fact:  I’m getting in the kitchen to bake right now-  mostly because I’m starving, also because I’m thinking of you and what you might like.  

Last Fact:  I went through a serious sunflower loving phase in my early teens.  I will admit that this phase included several straw hats with fake sunflowers glued to them.  Painfully dorky, and now.. for you to know. Facts are facts.  

An open letter year book response to you. Yes, you. Imagine it’s written in uncomfortably large bubble letters.

Hey! (Read: Dear Darling Most Wonderful Reader,)

It was so fun getting to know you this year in Ms. Roger’s class (Read: Thanks for reading my blog even when I don’t update it for four days) Isn’t Mark HOT!?!!? (Read: Isn’t Mark HOT!?!!?) Thanks for sitting next to me and letting me copy all you Spanish homework. (Read: Thanks for reading even when I just post a picture of an old stove.)

I hope we get to hang out this summer. (Read: I’ve got a date with Wordpress and photos later tonight. Promise!)

You’re awesome. KIT (insert hand drawn hearts and flowers and peace signs) xoxxo- Joy

(Read: You’re awesome. KIT. For reals. Love, Joy the Baker)

Your thoughts about coconut cookies and what makes your happy brought endless smiles to my face.  Thank you to all of you who took the time to share.   From rainy afternoons, to rum drinks and hot tubs, hearing what helps you find your happy has reminded me of all the little things that can create some light on a down day.

I’m headed to Palm Springs this weekend to visit my grandparents.  

I’m rushing to hit the highway.  

I promise that upon my return I will tell you about these- the hands that feed.

Hope you all have a happy weekend.  Make it so! 

Alright friends, we have some business to take care of.  Don’t worry!  It won’t be too painful!

It’s almost my birthday and I’ve decided to treat myself to a new cookbook.  I knew you were the people to come to for that sort of thing.  Help me out!  Do you have any cookbook suggestions?  Above is my old school Kraft Cookbook that has an irresistible pound cake recipe.  I’m looking for an awesome, not overly fancy, creative baking book.  You know things that I don’t, so I would LOVE your suggestions!  Leave me a comment and give me an idea of a book to buy.

Next- you’ll have to accept my humble, very humble apologies!  I haven’t yet sent out the cookies to the cookie winners from a few weeks ago.  I could list off excuse upon excuse, but please know that I haven’t forgotten about you!  The stars have not aligned to give me both time to cook and get to the post office with fresh cookies.  Your time will come, and it will be soon!

This week I’m working on a darling Memorial Day dessert.  I think it might be a winner, so look forward to that!  I’m also throwing together a wedding cake for Saturday.  It’s going to be a chocolate monster of a cake.  I’ll share pictures, I promise!