Hello Reader, It's Yukari!
​

Some of you met Aric's mom, Marge, here last year.
​
The woman who put a turkey in the oven and then took me shopping.

(If you're new: she was a force. She could cook, sew, garden, and tell the funniest stories, usually all at the same time.)
​
And about the morning after my first Thanksgiving.

The soup she made from the bones, with dark meat and tiny acini di pepe.
​
The little turkey sliders she set out during the football game.
​
Salt, pepper, and mayonnaise.
​
That's it.

The same turkey, three times.
​
Three completely different meals.
​
And she never once looked at a recipe.

I ended that letter with a question I couldn't answer:

"Where did she get the ideas, and how did she make it look so easy?"

For a long time I thought Marge just had more ideas than the rest of us.

Now I think she was asking a different question.

Not "What am I supposed to make?"

But "What can this turn into?"

If you read my Nabe story a couple of weeks ago, you've heard that question before.
​
I learned it from missing home.
​
Marge was the one who showed me it could be joyful.

What we've been learning from our Kitchen 911.

​
This year, Aric and I started going into people's kitchens.
​
With our new service, Kitchen 911.
​
And we kept running into the same thing.

It usually wasn't that people couldn't cook.
​
Most of them had a dish they were genuinely good at.
​
So they made it again.
​
And again.
​
Until one day they just… stopped.
​
Not because it got worse.
​
Because they were tired of it.

Nobody ran out of food.
​
They ran out of what else could this be?

And each time, what we needed was already sitting in their kitchen.

That's the Marge question. ​
​
Not another recipe.
​
​A second set of eyes on what you already have.
​

But first, Thanksgiving.

Holiday Rescue: Sunday, November 22, 10:00 am Mountain Time. (12 pm Eastern · 9 am Pacific)

The Sunday before Thanksgiving.
​
Online.
​
About an hour.

We're starting with timing.
​
One oven, six dishes, everything hot at the same moment.
​
And this year, bring your Friday question too.
​
The leftovers.
​
The bones in the pot.
​
The what do I do with all of this?

Marge would have loved that part. 🧡
​

(Yes, it asks for your email again...It's how we know to send you the link.) ​
​
​[Question for YOU today!] ​
​
What happens to the leftovers at your house the day after?
​
Hit reply and tell me.
​
I read every single one, and I try my best to respond when I can, too!

For our Denver Friends!

If you'd like to see what Kitchen 911 looks like, it's all here.
​
➡️ Kitchen 911 ⬅️

Thanks for being at our Kitchen Table on this cozy little corner of the internet.
​
We appreciate you following along and letting us share not just what we cook but why we cook. 🧡
​
With gratitude and friendship,

​
Aric & Yukari
​
🐱🐶(P.S. A friendly warning from our house: Senna recently stole one of our kitchen towels and turned it into confetti.😱Nothing got swallowed, thank goodness! but the towel did not survive. Ka-En watched the whole thing from a safe height and, as far as we can tell, enjoyed every minute. Kitchens get busy this month, so keep an eye on your four-legged helpers!🐾

​​​​​