Slim Man Cooking Class of 2023

Oui Oui Music Newsletter

February 7, 2023

Hello Slimsational Slim Folks!

Last night I watched a Netflix documentary about beavers.

It was the best dam show I've ever seen!

Slim People!

Good news from SlimLand.

We're still playing every Tuesday at Vicky's, including Valentine's Day!

So grab the Funny Little Honey and head over to Vicky's for the Best Love Fest in the West! Lots of hotel rooms within walking distance. Make a Valentine's night of it!

The Slim Man Band has never sounded better.

So many of you Slim Folks came out to the big debut of the Slim Man Chase Huna Rat Pack Duo at Larkspur Grill that they want us back every Wednesday in February. So come see the show!

A little Frank. A little Dino. A little Nat. A lot of fun!

And if you haven't booked a table at Humphrey's in San Diego, you gotta get on that. The last show was sold out!

It's the Slim Man Band in full effect! Craig Chesnut on drums, Chase Huna on sax, and Hans Zermuehlen—the Gentle Giant from Germany—on piano. Sunday, February 26.

And we don't want to encourage you Slim People to start shacking up (like you need it!) but there's a hotel right there and it's on the water.

And if you're looking for a little something to give the Love Pumpkin for Valentine's Day may I suggest a Slim Man Cooks Volume 2 cookbook?

It's got more than 30 recipes, lots of funny stories, and there are videos for every dish. I'll even sign it!

Imagine the look of love on your Dearly Beloved's mug when you give them a personalized cookbook.

Just make sure you're prepared to duck if they throw it at you for insulting their culinary skills!

Speaking of culinary skills, come to the next cooking class at Kitchen Kitchen on February 13th! All details are down below.

And finally, we started archiving these newsletters on the website. We've posted the previous ten. Take a look-see!

Everything you need is on the website. Concerts, cookbooks, merch, videos, photos…check it out:

https://www.slimman.com

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

I did a cooking class a couple weeks ago.

It was at Kitchen Kitchen, a store in Indian Wells right near Vicky’s that sells all kinds of kitchen stuff. Knives, pots, pans and lots of gadgets.

I've taught a couple classes there. One time I even sang a little Slim Serenade afterwards!

Jan, the owner, told me to put together a menu for the upcoming dinner.

I decided to include an amazing recipe from the new Slim Man Cooks Volume 2 cookbook: shrimp with lemons and limoncello.

Why?

It’s one of my favorites. It really is.

And it’s lemon season out here in Palm Springs, Californee. They’re everywhere!

Plus, the sauce is explosive. I light the sauce on fire and flames shoot up in the air like an active volcano. It's thrilling...

And hopefully nobody gets hurt!

I mean, it wouldn't be good for cookbook sales if someone caught fire like the woman at the end of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood!

The other two dishes I proposed were stuffed portobello mushroom caps and a Caesar salad.

Jan gave my menu the green light and posted it online.

The class sold out in hours.

Sure, there were only 16 tickets available, but a sell out is a sell out!

I decided to food shop the day of the class. I thought it might be less complicated that way.

One of my New Year resolutions was to make great decisions.

Turns out shopping at the last minute was not one of them.

Finding wild shrimp was a challenge. The first store only had farm-raised shrimp, and farm-raised shrimp ain’t no good. They're mushy. Mooshy. Tasteless.

Not good enough for the Slim People!

The next store I went to had wild shrimp, but they were $26 a pound!

Well, I didn’t have time to comparison shop for shrimp at every grocery store within 200 miles, so I decided to get some.

Now: how many pounds? There were about 16 shrimp to a pound. If I got five pounds, that's 80 shrimp.

Which comes out to about five shrimp per person!

I got five pounds.

Then I went over to the produce section and found some beautiful organic romaine lettuce. I picked out five heads. And then I looked for portobello mushrooms...

They only had eight. I asked Produce Person to check in back, but no luck.

So I headed back to store #1 for more mushrooms. Then I went over to Kitchen Kitchen to start prepping everything.

When I squeezed the Meyer lemons, not very much juice came out. I didn't have nearly enough. They weren't juicy, Lucy!

So I went back to the store to get some more. And then back to Kitchen Kitchen to continue the prepping.

Have you ever deshelled and deveined 80 shrimp?

It’s quite a task!

Luckily, Jan's assistant, Anthony, came on the scene right before I started on the shrimp. And he offered, so Anthony did the shrimp while I began to...

Chop shallots and squeeze the rest of the Meyer lemons for the limoncello sauce, chop parsley and walnuts for the portobello mushrooms, peel the mushroom caps, cube the baguettes for the croutons, grate the cheese, smash and peel the garlic, clean and rip up the romaine…

Measure out all the ingredients for the dressing, the sauce, the mushrooms...

I was prepping up until the last second!

SHOWTIME!

Everybody filed in and took their seats.

I started with the Caesar salad. I did the dressing first, put all the ingredients in a big jar, and shook it up. Then I toasted the croutons as I tossed the salad.

Well, I guess I got a bit distracted with the tossing because the last batch of croutons almost caught fire! But one of the guests pointed this out before calling the fire department. (Thanks, Larry!)

Everyone seemed to enjoy the Caesar salad. Hail Caesar! Onward to the mushrooms...

I stuffed the portobellos with panko, parsley, walnuts and gorgonzola cheese.

The mushroom caps were about the size of a Frisbee when I put them in the oven.

When I took them out, they were about the size of a Reese's peanut butter cup!

Not sure what happened there. I’ve made them a million times without a problem, but this time there was...shrinkage!

I didn’t say anything to the guests. Nobody mentioned it, so I’m putting it in the win column!

When it came time to do the flaming lemon/limoncello sauce, I was a bit apprehensive.

First of all, you only get one shot. If the limoncello doesn’t burst into flames, then it’s a big letdown.

And if the flames do ignite, what if there’s a massive explosion?

I mean, I was cooking for 16 people. There was enough limoncello in that pan to ignite the Burning Man statue!

I was somewhat concerned about setting that much limoncello ablaze. So I had Anthony do it!

True story.

Why?

Not because I was…chicken.

Because I wanted the pan in my hands in case those flames got out of control! I figured I could run the flaming skillet out to the parking lot and save the day.

Slim Man. Superhero.

Plus, I didn't want any Slim People to spontaneously combust. I need each and every one of you!

Well…Anthony lit the limoncello and it flamed up just enough to impress, but not too much to pull out the fire hose.

I didn't need to put on my superhero cape after all.

When the flames died down, I added the shrimp, and the fresh basil.

And I’m guessing everyone thought the dish was Slimsational, because there wasn’t one shrimp left.

Of course, everyone only got five, but still…they were all gone!

As folks were leaving, they told me how much they loved the food, which made me happy.

However…however, Slim People, I didn't really and truly know if the dinner was good because I never got a chance to eat. Seriously!

Why?

Well, I was really (really really) busy prepping and cooking from the moment I got there until the very end.

Sure, I taste-tested a bite here and there, like the guy who tastes the food before it's fed to the king to make sure it's not poisoned. Still I didn't eat but a couple morsels all night long.

When I got back to the Slim Shack I put a frozen pizza in the oven. At least I didn't have to deshell and devein it!

I’m guessing the affair must have been a success, because Jan asked me to do another one.

But this time, I’m making meatballs!

Why?

Because I can make most of those in advance.

And there’s no need for fire extinguishers!

You see? I'm making better decisions. I hope!

Keep smiling, Slim People. And keep in touch.

It's all about love.

Who loves ya?

Uncle Slimmy

PS: Call me crazy for giving away a recipe from the new cookbook while I'm trying to sell a few copies, but here's the YouTube video for the lemon/limoncello sauce:

https://youtu.be/cBLHvuJnoIg