Here's what happens when you say yes
Cocktails from Santa Fe + Huevos Rancheros and Toasted Coconut Tres Leches Cake + more recipes from New Mexico + Q&A about life in an RV + an exclusive invite for Lost Supper Club members
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It’s a warm Wednesday evening in late April. Steve and I are in Santa Fe sipping cocktails in the home of people we’d never met until we knocked on their door moments earlier. In truth, I still don’t know their last names or basically anything about them, though I’m peppering them with questions about where they’re from, what they do, who they are, where they got those gorgeous stained glass panels, and who plays the piano and who plays the guitar.
Their home is warm and welcoming, filled with interesting art and treasures, and the homeowners and their guests are all bright eyed and smiling, cocktails in hand, trying to reassure the frantic poodle who is distressed by the number of invaders in his home.
The week prior, I did my first live streaming cooking class with my friend
. We made cocktails and enchiladas and one of the people that tuned in was Robin who, after we asked where everyone was from, said she lived in Santa Fe.“That’s where we are right now!”, I said
“Shut up!”, said Robin
After the class, Robin send me an invite to the cocktail party they were hosting the following week to which I promptly accepted.
Robin is a Lost Supper Club member so I knew her first name and her email address and, thanks to the invite, her home address. And at the time, that was exactly all the information I had about Robin.
I did not know, for example, that Robin’s wife Sharon is an artist who creates the most unique and beautiful clay pottery I’ve ever seen. I did not know that Robin is a musician or that, before they started dating, Sharon weighed the pros and cons of stalking her at gigs. I did not know that Robin is fearless around people, pets, and power tools, but paralyzed with fear in the presence of a bat.
I did not know that they are from Wisconsin and love the weather in Santa Fe, but hate the wind. I did not know that they honeymooned in Door County, that Sharon is hopeless with technology but still managed to meet Robin online, that they love the color red, have the same drinking glasses that I do, and the exact refrigerator I’ve coveted for years.
This is not the first time I’ve shown up at a complete strangers home after an online invite.
Jenn, my aforementioned friend who made cocktails and cooked enchiladas with me on a live video, sent me a similar invite 3 years ago over Instagram after learning that we were headed to her corner of Louisiana.
“Come for dinner”, she said
“Ok, great!”, I responded
Then I panicked a little because all I knew about Jenn was that her first name was Jenn and that she liked to throw parties. But we went anyway and had a marvelous time, and were rewarded for saying yes with an extravagant dinner and new lifelong friends.
So, it was a promising start to what is becoming a pattern of accepting invites based on little more than the realization that we are in the same town.
Robin says there is something magical about saying yes.
Yes. I agree.
So, I put her theory to the test and asked Robin if she would do a cocktail class with me.
She said yes.
Join Robin and I next week for Cocktails 101
We’ll be making the two cocktails she made for Steve and I at her home: a French Gimlet and a Black Manhattan. You’ll find both of the recipes below if you want to mix, shake, and stir right along with us.
Another thing I learned on that night in Santa Fe, in a cozy living room, surrounded by kind strangers and interesting art, and Sidney the anxious poodle, is that Robin is an amateur mixologist. Amateur because that’s not what she does for a living and mixologist because she is curious enough to know when to shake and when to stir and that the combination of Averna with Chocolate bitters will change your life. She’s right, by the way. You’ll see.
Here’s how to join us live:
What: Cocktails 101 with Robin
When: Friday, May 9 at 5pm Mountain Standard (4pm PST, 6pm CST, 7pm EST)
How to join: Follow this link to join us: https://open.substack.com/live-stream/25688
Black Manhattan
In this version of a Manhattan, Averna takes the place of vermouth and the bitters add depth and keep it interesting. When we were leaving Robin and Sharon’s home, Steve said that homemade tortillas will change your life. Robin says the same is true about Averna with Chocolate bitters.
Questions I had to google after Robin sent me this recipe…
Q: What is Averna? A: Italian Amaro.
Ah, of course. But…
Q: What is Italian Amaro? A: A bitter liquor (Amaro means bitter in Italian) made by infusing grape brandy with a mix of herbs, roots, flowers, aromatic bark, citrus peel, and spices, sweetened with sugar, and aged for years.
Ingredients:
2 ounces of rye whiskey (Robin frequently uses Bulleit, but use anything you like.)
1 ounce of Amaro Averna.
A couple of dashes of each: orange bitters, angostura bitters, and chocolate bitters
Cherries, for garnish, preferably Luxardo Maraschino cherries
Add all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice… Stir, stir, stir, stir
Strain into a glass over a large cube.
Garnish with cherries.
French Gimlet
I am a gin lover and Hendrick’s is my favorite brand, two things that I have in common with Robin who, at the cocktail party, showed me the three (or four?) different varieties of Hendrick’s chilling out in their refrigerator.
Robin offered her guests four different cocktail choices, and this was the most popular one. It’s bright and fresh, a little bit sweet and a little bit tart, and everything I love in a cocktail.
Ingredients:
1 ½ ounces of Hendrick’s gin
¾ ounce St. Germain Elderflower Liquor
½ ounce of fresh lime juice
½ ounce limoncello
Fill a shaker with ice and all ingredients.
Shake your age. (Note from Robin: This is another perk of aging. You will always have a well chilled cocktail.)
Strain into a chilled coupe.
Triple Lemon Bars
I made these lemon bars for Robin and Sharon’s cocktail party, and when I say these lemon bars, I mean that literally. This is a recipe that’s been on the blog for a while. I’ve made them more times than I could count, but it felt like the photos needed a refresh.
So I used the gathering as an excuse to take some new pictures. After I ate the one on the top of the stack, I wrapped up the rest and brought them to the party.
The bars are bursting with tart lemon flavor thanks to a triple whammy of lemon juice, lemon zest, and lemon oil or extract. The filling is silky smooth and the shortbread crust is so buttery it literally melts in your mouth.
Here’s where you’ll find the recipe: Triple Lemon Bars
Recipes from Santa Fe
Santa Fe has a lot going for it, but at the top of my list is its Mexican food. Neighboring Colorado, where I grew up, also has great Mexican food, so I know my way around a good chili sauce, red and green.
One evening, after running errands in town, we dropped in at El Comal for dinner. El Comal is exactly the kind of hidden gem I love finding in the cities we visit: it’s hole-in-the wall that doesn’t look promising from the outside but is packed with locals who know where to eat.
Red chili is one of my favorite things in the world, so I ordered the cheese enchiladas. The sauce was exactly what I hoped for - smokey, spicy, and earthy, with that hint of sweet that comes from knowing how to bring out the flavor of the chilies.
How to make a really good red chili sauce
To make a really good red chili sauce, you must toast dried red chilies (typically dried ancho or guajillo peppers), soak them in water until soft, then puree them in a blender. It’s not a difficult process, but it takes a while and also, toasting the chilies releases the oil into the air and stings your eyes.
Years ago, I discovered a much easier way to make the sauce I craved: Bueno Frozen Red Chili is made in Albuquerque and contains nothing more than red chilies pureed with water. It saves you the time and hassle (and burning eyes) of toasting, soaking, and pureeing chilies. 👏
You can order Bueno Frozen Red Chili online or sometimes find it in the freezer section of your grocery store. In the Colorado town where I grew up, I could almost always find some at the local supermarket, but I’ve found it more difficult to track it down in other parts of the country.
Here’s how I use it to make a really good red chili sauce: Homemade Enchilada Sauce
The other sauce I love to make with pureed red chili is Mexican Adobo.
Honestly, give me a bowl of adobo and a stack of homemade flour tortillas and I’ll be the happiest camper in the campground. But also, use it to make Mexican Chicken Adobo, Adobo Fish Tacos, and the best Vegan Taco Meat ever.
Speaking of homemade tortillas… The response I’ve received from the Homemade Flour Tortilla class I taught last week has been so fun! Like this message from Marla…
“I did it, I did it, I did it!! They are amazing and so easy! I’ve just got to stop scaring myself out of making things! Haha!”
If you missed the replay, here’s where you’ll find it:
The class will be available for anyone to watch for the next couple of weeks, then added to the archive, which is available only to paid subscribers (Lost Supper Club Members).
How to make a really good green chili sauce
New Mexico is also, of course, known for its green chilies, most of them grown in Hatch, which is rightfully known as the Chili Capital of the World.
There are about a thousand different ways to make green chili - the rich stew that you can eat in a bowl with warm tortillas, or use to smother burritos, chili rellenos, enchiladas, eggs, or anything your chili loving heart desires.
My green chili recipe is a bit unconventional in that it also includes red chili. Why does it contain red chili? Because I like it that way. And I think you will too because it’s really freaking delicious.
Get the recipe: Homemade Green Chili
One of my favorite ways to eat green chili is over chili rellenos because, well, there are few things better in life than a crispy chili relleno fried to golden perfection, stuffed with a roasted chile and plenty of melted cheese.
Like my recipe for green chili, my method for making crispy chili rellenos is also unconventional. I use egg roll wrappers to make rellenos so fast and easy, you just might be tempted to make them every week.
Get the recipe: Crispy Chili Rellenos
The rest of this issue is for Lost Supper Club members (paid subscribers). It includes NEW recipes for easy, no-recipe-required Cast Iron Huevos Rancheros and a Toasted Coconut Banana Tres Leches Cake that is heaven on a plate. Think I’m overstating it? Try it and then we’ll talk.
Also…
After writing about our recent renovation, I’ve gotten some questions about life in an RV, like… where do you store everything? Do you have to pack everything away every time you travel? Where do you purchase things that are light and small enough for an RV? Does weight play into your design choices? Isn’t butcher block too heavy for an RV? I answer all of those below.
An exclusive invitation for Lost Supper Club members to be my co-host and share your expertise in an upcoming Live cooking class! I know for a fact that most of you have mad skills - like how to make sourdough, or growing and preserving produce, or, like Robin, how to make incredible cocktails. Scroll down to join me in an upcoming class where you can share those mad skills with the rest of us. 🙌
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