Big Thanksgiving Dinner, Small Kitchen

I just moved the turkey from the freezer to the refrigerator to begin the defrosting process, so Thanksgiving is feeling very close! I'm doing all of the cooking this year, so fortunately I have a spacious, luxurious kitchen in which to prep all of the fabulous dishes. Ha ha ha! Good one! In reality our kitchen is pretty darned small and counter space is practically nonexistent. I'm used to it by now, so I thought I'd share a few of my workarounds for creating a holiday meal or big party in a small kitchen.

1. Do as much as you can ahead of time and freeze. I've already got the corn pudding, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, an apple tart and half of the stuffing done and I plan to do more later this week. I have the luxury of an auxiliary freezer in the basement (which is lucky, since our ice maker just broke and lovely libations require a lot of ice) and getting these things done ahead of time means I won't be scrambling for space to prep those dishes later. If you have room in your freezer, freeze!

That freezer is about half the size of our kitchen!

2. Co-opt space. I just watched the Thanksgiving episode of "That Girl," in which Ann tried to make many more dishes than her kitchen would allow, and she cleverly borrowed her neighbor's oven to get it all done. Of course disaster ensued, since "That Girl" is a comedy, but the idea is sound. If you can borrow oven or refrigerator space, do it! 

Poor Ann

3. A solid cutting board is your friend. We have a Corian cutting board that I can lay over the stove to create counter space. The stove should, of course, be off - you don't want to set yourself on fire! And make sure that it's resting evenly, so it doesn't move around. But it beats using the floor!

What I wouldn't give for those cabinets!

Do you have a small kitchen? If you have any tips you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them!

Cancun Cooking Class And Yucatecan Easter Feast

We're back from a week in Cancun, where we quite unexpectedly took a cooking class, and which turned out to be one of the true highlights of the trip! It also came at a very good time, since Easter was the day after we landed. What a great opportunity to test our new skills!

First, the class:
When we arrived my family had already been there for a week and mentioned that a cooking class had been added to the many excursions on offer. I was torn. We were on vacation and who willingly takes classes when they could be laying on the beach? However, I also love a cooking class. It had been described to us as "all day," furthering my skepticism. When we saw a brochure we learned that it was taught by a chef in her home and it looked very laid back, plus it featured tequila! What did we have to lose besides a little sun time? We were in!

We were taken by shuttle to a gorgeous home in downtown Cancun, headquarters of Can Cook In Cancun and Chef Claudia, our teacher, and greeted with a beautiful continental breakfast and Mexican coffee on the patio.

There were too many wonderful aspects of the day to list them all, but we learned to make many dishes, which you'll see replicated for Easter below, met some lovely people, and developed a further appreciation of Mexican food culture. And it was wonderful to eat such a fabulous meal in an elegantly casual home setting. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Making salsas with Chef Claudia

Salsas! I love the habanero one, on the right.

Easter Dinner:

I think we did pretty darned well on our first Yucatecan dinner at home, thanks to Chef Claudia's teaching! I made Mexican Rice, Nopales Salad, Xnipec Salsa (VERY hot, which we love, but most people would be crying from the heat), Sweet Pickled Onions and Pibil Sauce. Paul smoked the ham on the grill with the Pibil sauce I'd made and we served sauce on the side, too. It was delicious! 

Dinner is served!

A little appetizer - it's always the right time for guacamole!

I'm so glad we decided to take the class. I'll be serving these dishes for years, although I'll make a milder salsa for company! If you'll be in the Cancun area and are interested in the class, click here to learn more!

Screw Up Some Recipes

It can be incredibly daunting to try new things, including recipes, because there is an excellent chance that your results won't be perfect on your first attempt. I've had to learn this the hard way, trying out ideas and recipes for this show. We eat them whether or not they come out perfectly, unless they're just inedible. Sometimes they look like real "Pinterest fails." That's okay. Every attempt gets me closer to something I'm proud to share and I would never use a recipe on the show if I didn't think it was really good. That ugly duckling stage is a necessary part of the journey, so don't be afraid to mess up! You're not failing, you're doing research and development!

Test Kitsch-en

Corn And Black Beans: Is There Anything You Can't Do?

In much the same way that roasting a chicken and using it in dishes all week is a great way to save time and money, this easy combination of corn and black beans can serve as a base for dishes to last for days! All you do is combine one can of rinsed black beans and an equal amount of corn (I used frozen). Toss in some minced onion and salt, along with the juice of half a lime, and in about 30 seconds you're done!

This combination made its first appearance this week in an easy appetizer that is always popular at parties. Add a little spoonful each to Tostitos Scoops chips, top with hot sauce or salsa if you like. That's it! So simple and they disappear quickly!

Other uses for this magical mixture: combine with chicken or veggie broth (and a little beer or tequila if you're feeling frisky) and add a few tortilla chips for a delicious soup, add to your favorite chili recipe, tacos or melt with cheese in quesadillas, mix with eggs and milk for a fabulous frittata, toss with some olive oil and garlic and serve with pasta, blend with cream cheese or mashed avocado and spices for a yummy sandwich spread - the options are endless! Best of all, you'd be hard pressed to find a less expensive meal option. Pick up some corn and black beans the next time you're at the supermarket and don't worry about meals for a few days - you've got it covered!

Happy New Year!

I hope 2016 is treating you well so far!

I love the feeling of a clean slate that a new year brings. Resolutions aren't particularly my thing, although I do love to set goals! We have some pretty ambitious ones for the show this year, including producing three new music videos and getting our YouTube channel to 10,000 subscribers.  It's not just vanity on our parts. YouTube has an arcane algorithm which ranks channels on watch time and subscriber numbers. If they deem either of those numbers low, you fall in their rankings and it becomes that much harder for viewers to discover your channel. And when that happens it becomes a vicious cycle. Our watch time is excellent (a high percentage of viewers stick around to the end of our episodes), but our subscriber count could be higher. More subscribers means more opportunities for us to spread the love of kitsch and cocktails throughout the universe! So please subscribe to our channel if you haven't already. Click here to go to our channel - the "subscribe" button is red and on the right. And please share with anyone you know who loves cocktails, cooking, kitsch, retro culture or just laughing at the antics of a couple of goofballs. We're so grateful for your support!

Happy New Year to YOU!

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