For those of us from dysfunctional families, battling inner demons or feeling too cash-strapped to celebrate the holiday season, Hannah Hart’s latest book is a welcome guide to finding joy all year long.
“My Drunk Kitchen Holidays! How To Savor And Celebrate The Year” is equal parts cookbook, memoir and inclusive guide to entertaining in a space where there hasn’t been much representation for “queer people like myself,” says Hart, a two-time New York Times best-selling author and creator of My Drunk Kitchen on YouTube, which has almost 2.5 million followers.
“I wanted to write this book to encourage people to take control of the holidays and make it an experience to savor and celebrate, instead of being a stressful obligation to dread each year,” she says. “It’s all about taking back a time that might have previously felt sad and regressive because you felt you didn’t fit in – but the reality is, you belong everywhere you are, simply by virtue of the fact you are breathing.”
There’s much more to Hart’s second cookbook than just the holidays you’d find on a traditional calendar. With recipes to mark every imaginable occasion for all 12 months of the year, from Hanukkah and Christmas to Lipstick Day and Singles Self Acceptance Day, there’s something for anyone who might be looking for unorthodox ways to celebrate the little things in life. Each theme is marked with humorous anecdotes and tongue-in-cheek observations from Hart’s life.
Written in an earnest, kind and effervescent tone, the book urges readers to live in the moment and take time for self-care. Hart describes cinnamon rolls as “one of the greatest gifts the universe has given humanity”; advises readers to consume an entire fruit (rather than just its juice) to get extra fiber; and introduces a salt made from ants that she describes as “spicy, oddly zesty and excellent.”
Like any self-respecting millennial, Hart also features a recipe for Avocado Acceptance Toast to celebrate being single. She also acknowledges that it can be hard to relate to those who are related to us. So, on National Drink Wine Day, Feb. 18, she suggests talking about food and drink as a good conversation starter with family members: “‘What’s your favorite kind of pasta?’ Forgive them if they say, ‘butter noodles.’”
Hart – called “Harto” by friends, family and fans – recalls sticking a rainbow pin on her backpack as an 11-year-old, only to be admonished by a classmate that rainbows were a symbol of homosexuality.
“I immediately took the pin off and proclaimed how definitely not gay I was,” she writes. “Methinks she doth protest too much.”
But, at 33, Hart has found a way to love the rainbow again. Hence the recipe for Rainbow Cake that she includes in the book to commemorate both Pride Month in June and Flag Day on June 14.
“I hope this cookbook allows people to feel welcome and makes their holidays not just better but funnier,” says Hart, who notes she’s now at a point in her life where she wants to develop her own holiday traditions as both a queer person and an adult.
Having struggled with depression, self-harm and ADHD during a turbulent childhood in the San Francisco Bay area, Hart has long had a complicated relationship with religion. While her mother converted to Judaism to marry her father, he later joined Jehovah’s Witnesses – a religion that doesn’t acknowledge holidays and considers homosexuality a sin. After her parents divorced, Hart’s mother raised her with a more theological approach to religion. But, during weekend visits with her father, holidays weren’t celebrated at all.
He has since disowned her for being queer, while her mother battled schizophrenia and later became homeless. Obtaining conservatorship and getting her mother a place to live was a complicated and drawn-out process for Hart that involved having her mother arrested to put her on a series of psychiatric holds.
Fortunately, now, Hart is in a much happier place in her life, engaged to Buzzfeed producer Ella Mielniczenko and planning her wedding next year.
“In my 30s, I know who I am, and I’m thriving,” she says. “I have the family I have found, and the holidays are a happy place for my fiancée and me. One of the most undercelebrated Christmas traditions out there is getting together and watching movies, and we love to watch ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ while having two types of popcorn – one that’s savory like parmesan basil and the other, sweet, like an adult kettle corn that’s just phenomenal.”
It’s been a long – and largely unexpected – road to stardom for Hart, who had just graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with degrees in English literature and Japanese when she uploaded her first YouTube video in 2011. To cheer up a friend, Hart filmed her clumsy attempt at making a grilled cheese sandwich without the cheese – while drinking wine from her sister’s kitchen.
At the time, she was a proofreader for a translation firm and dreamed of someday working on a screenplay or a novel. But Hart’s career path took a completely different direction when the video went viral with more than 100,000 views, encouraging her to create the web series My Drunk Kitchen, where she cooks something while tipsy.
Today, that first episode has more than 4.3 million views. Meanwhile, the series took off in a big way, capturing the attention of mainstream media and celebrity guests, such as comedian Sarah Silverman, British Chef Jamie Oliver and “Weeds” star Mary-Louise Parker, who have all made appearances on Hart’s show to whip up treats ranging from brownies to cannabis-laced pot pie.
My Drunk Kitchen also led to a plethora of other opportunities for Hart, including a six-episode TV series, “I Hart Food,” on the Food Network, for which she traversed the country to sample and cook regional cuisines in 2017.
Fast forward to 2019, and Hart is still keeping busy. In addition to her self-help podcast, Hannahlyze This, she hosts Edible History, a show on Facebook Watch where she attempts to recreate ancient recipes for Buzzfeed’s Tasty channel, and films A Decent Proposal, a series helping couples orchestrate their dream wedding proposals. The latter is in partnership with Ellen Digital Network, the media company founded by talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.
Hart continues to be an influential voice in the LGBTQ community through hosting interviews with other queer celebrities on her series How Did You Know? Plus, she was invited to make a cameo in Taylor Swift’s award-winning music video “You Need to Calm Down”; has been named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30; has co-produced and starred in three films – and she’s just getting started.
These days, Hart continues to have much to celebrate. But, even for the average Joe, “there’s always cause for celebration,” she writes, and “always moments to savor.”
For her fans – to whom she stresses that there’s something to celebrate every day – Hart has these parting words: “Let’s bust open a bottle, baby. Don’t save champagne.” O
Love The Way You Latke
Ingredients
- Russet potatoes
- Onion
- Egg
- Salt
- Avocado oil (or another oil with a high smoke point)
Instructions
Start from starch! Roughly grate your potatez (pronounced: poh-TAY-tuz).
Chippity-chop up your onion.
Spread all your goodies out, and use a towel to soak up extra moisture. You can do this by twisting or by smooshing. A fun job for a kid!
Put your potato blend in a bowl, and beat in an egg. And a tiny bit of salt. If you’re of Jewish or Eastern European descent, then you are probably prone to anxiety and some form of hypertension, so … be gentle with the salt. You can always add more later. Put some lox on your latke after you fry it! Boom! Both salt and omegas!
Heat up your oil, and start sizzling. Depending on how you like your latkes, you can either add them as a hearty dollop or (like me) hand pat them to a flatter shape for maximum sizzle.
Accompany with any of your favorite accoutrement, and enjoy!
Source: “My Drunk Kitchen Holidays! How To Savor And Celebrate The Year” by Hannah Hart
Photos by Dane Tashima Photography and Maxwell Poth