Slimmest of All People,

I found a place where I can get gas for $1.99.

Taco Bell.

AND NOW THE REAL NEW REAL NEWS FROM SLIM'S SHADY TRAILER PARK

Happy Thanksgiving, Slimmigos!

Here's an excerpt from the Slim Man Cooks Volume 2 cookbook...

Thanksgiving is the one day of the year when I stand back and let other folks stoke the stove. Man the pans. Put some lovin’ in the oven.

I love Thanksgiving. I love the food, the turkey and all the side dishes. I love the fact that you can just hang out all day, eat, and you don’t have to give anybody gifts!

All you have to do is give thanks. Which is a beautiful thing.

But cooking a Thanksgiving dinner? I've never done that. NFK.

Not Effing Kidding!

I usually leave that to folks who have a passion for it.

Thanksgiving...turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, watching football on TV. It’s an American tradition. 

But my favorite Thanksgiving wasn’t in the US of A...it was in Madrid, Spain. 

Viva España!

One summer a few years ago, my amigo Marc Antoine, the Parisian guitar picker and producer, suggested I record a new Bona Fide album. 

Bona Fide is a band I started a while back, an all-instrumental funky jazz group. It had been some time since our last album, Soul Lounge, was released, and Marc offered to produce a new CD and play guitar as well.

It was quite an offer. I took him up on it. Oui oui!

I was living in Nashville, and Marc was in Madrid. We started emailing song ideas across the Atlantic. At one point, he sent me a song he was working on, something he had just written.

It sounded...different. Fresh. Had a retro, 1960s cocktail lounge vibe. 

I really dug it. It gave the album a direction, a focus, and we were off and running.

After a couple months of sending song ideas back and forth, it was time to put it all together. That November, I flew from Nashville to Madrid, and we got to work in Marc’s studio. 

I had already recorded most of my bass parts in Nashville. There wasn’t much for me to do in Madrid except make suggestions and watch Marc mix everything.

Mixing is when you determine the volume and tone of each instrument...turn up the guitar, turn down the bass, beef up the drums. 

I was having a wonderful time. We’d make music during day, go to the local village—Villa Vicioso, the Vicious Village—in the evening for tapas, and then have dinner around...midnight.

Them Madrileños eat late! 

And that’s what we did day after day.

When Thanksgiving Day rolled around, I didn’t expect anything special. It’s an American holiday. In Spain, it’s just another day.

As usual, Marc and I went downstairs to the studio. When it was tapas time, we shut down the studio and came upstairs to a wonderful surprise...

Rebeca, Marc’s wife, had prepared a lovely table of food for Thanksgiving. She and Alejandro, their son, had put together an amazing spread. 

It was really touching. Impressive, too...

Alejandro had a created a huge, colorful platter of sliced fruit and vegetables, laid out in the shape of a turkey, complete with pieces of celery carved to look like turkey legs and feet. 

And next to this dazzling display of sculpted produce was a steaming plate of what looked like chicken...but I wasn’t quite sure.

Rebeca has a strong Spanish accent. But I’m pretty sure I heard the word “rabbit.” I took a closer look.

It was a rabbit, all right...with the head still on. Intact. Eyeballs looking up at me. I thought for a second it might have given me a wink. 

Rebeca told me she’d searched for a turkey but couldn’t find one. I looked back down at the platter. The rabbit was baked in a golden-brown gravy, and it smelled heavenly. Except...

The rabbit head thing was bugging me. I know, it’s hypocritical. I don’t have a problem biting into a turkey breast...but you rarely see it attached to the turkey head. 

Call me crazy, many have, but I prefer not to make eye contact with whatever I’m eating.

As I was looking at Rebeca’s platter of rabbit, I remembered what my grandmother, Angela, used to say when she served us kids pasta for the Sunday dinners at her house...

“Eat that spaghetti or I’ll shove it down your throat.”

We kids would laugh, and Angela was joking of course, but the underlying message was, shut up and eat what you’re served. So that’s what I did.

I picked a piece of rabbit, sat down and took a bite. The sauce was delizioso. And the rabbit...it was not a-so bad! I liked it. Muy sabroso!

Rebeca, Marc, Alejandro...they’re like family, and it was very thoughtful to do Thanksgiving just for me, such a long way from home.

After dinner, the they thought it might be nice to watch some sports on TV, like in America. The only thing they could find was figure skating.

So we sat on the couch and watched in silence as the skaters glided along to classical music. After a few minutes, one of the skaters lifted his partner high in the air and...I made a blaring fart sound with my mouth. 

Very mature of me.

They thought it was hilarious. When the laughter died down, we watched in silence again until one of the skaters flew into the air...at which point I bellowed out another boisterous fart sound. 

We started laughing even louder and longer.

Then Alejandro found a handheld fart-making machine—I gave it to him for his birthday—and every time a skater made a jump, he’d produce a different gaseous blast. Short, long. High, low. Squeaks and bellows.

We could not stop laughing. Tears were rolling down our faces. The next-door neighbor heard the commotion, came over, and all of a sudden, he was laughing uncontrollably, too.

And that was my favorite Thanksgiving. Music, laughter, friends, and fart sounds. How lucky can one guy be?

Happy Thanksgiving, Slim People.

Thanks for being so...Slimsational.

It's all about love.

Who loves ya?

Uncle Slimmy

Here's a video for risotto with bay scallops. The recipe is in the new cookbook. She's a-so nice!

https://youtu.be/G3OlEtaMdX0?si=HuuAK77G_hP1b1LC

Wednesdays in November and December!



The Slim Man Chase Huna Rat Pack Duo!

Larkspur Grill at Hotel Paseo

45400 Larkspur

Palm Desert, CA 92204

760.340.6069

6-9 PM

Come see the Rat Pack Duo! Slim Man sings. Chase plays sax.

We have a cool video screen behind us that shows hundreds of vintage photos of the Rat Pack, Vegas, Palm Springs, old album covers, travel posters and postcards from the 1960s. Come check it out!

It's fun. Ain't that a kick in the head!

See you there!

https://www.larkspurgrill.com



EVERY TUESDAY!

THE SLIM MAN BAND AT VICKY'S!

SHOWTIME 6:00 PM

RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED!

Vicky's

45100 Club Drive

Indian Wells, CA

760 345 9770

https://www.vickysofsantafe.com

CHECK THE WEBSITE FOR ALL GIGS. AND MERCH! BUY A NEW CD! GET A COOKBOOK FOR GRANDMA FOR CHRISTMAS!

PEACE, MAN!