How to Drink & Cook (Semi) Responsibly
So, we here at Milwaukee Public Library have already recommended that you take life advice from one of YouTube’s finest. But, you ask, now that I know how to pretend to be an adult, can YouTube solve some of life’s other hardships, like hunger and sobriety? Preferably in a book, as there is no such thing as a YouTube comments section in a book (As we all know, YouTube comments are a special level of hell that Dante had to edit out of The Inferno).
Well, have I got great news for you! Hannah Hart, YouTube celebrity chef/drinking enthusiast, has written the book My Drunk Kitchen (which happens to also be the name of her YouTube show). In said book, you will find all sorts of food recipes, complete with drink suggestions that are meant not to be paired with the meal but with the cooking itself. The recipes themselves are an absolutely slap-dash of ideas, enthusiasm, and vague directions, meant not to guide you to a well-measured exact result but instead to experimenting with your food in fun new ways. This is not a cookbook for people who need every step detailed, but is instead about finding the joy in cooking as well as life in general.
Much like Grace’s Guide, My Drunk Kitchen succeeds in being excellent even when the recipes are weak because Hannah makes each page feel like you’re just hanging out with her as she puts together these bizarre culinary concoctions (like Pizza Cake). You feel like you’re making a new friend with a bright, fun outlook on life even as she is in the middle of that bizarre and uncertain time of life she calls ‘adultolescence’ (aka being a twenty-something struggling with finding meaning in life). You might not find a great idea for your next dinner party here, but you will find yourself a new friend – whom you can check up with every few days on YouTube.