Little did I know, I got a fantastic Christmas gift. Or did I?

When my parents were visiting town a few months before Christmas, we stopped by a cookbook store in Fremont called The Book Larder (by the way, great store!). While roaming the store, I spotted the Joy the Baker cookbook. I read her blog daily, and just love her recipes. I knew my mom was looking to buy Christmas gifts for people, so I suggested it to her. She bought it for someone (I can't remember who now), and were on our jolly way.

Come Christmas, I'm opening my stocking stuffers, and low and behold...there was Joy holding a cake smiling at me. As I flipped through the pages, I knew I was going to love this cookbook. Every recipes sounds delicious.

This cookbook brought back a little love to the cookbook world for me. Lately, I've been sourcing my recipes online. I mean, you can find so many online now, and you can avoid the cookbook pile up (which is important to avoid when you have a tiny kitchen).

Needless to say, I've been on a baking spree trying out all sorts of Joy the Baker recipes. So far, I can report each and every one of them has been delicious. Here's what I've tried:

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (psst..here is a very similar recipe, if this sounds good to you).

Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins (you're in luck, it's on her blog, get it).

Mommom's Chocolate Bourbon-Spiked Banana Bread (some random blogger posted the recipe for you).

"Man bait" Apple Crisp (yes another random blogger sharing Joy's secrets - recipe here).

There is one other recipe I have made from the book. That's another post to come. But I have to say five winning recipes from one cookbook, that's a pretty good return. In fact, I don't think I've ever made the many recipes from one cookbook. It's a winner!

Maybe that name JOY has something to do with it. Joy the Baker...Heather Joy Brown. Hmmm, the similarities are uncanny.