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COOKBOOK
Ten recipes for all MaxFun members to enjoy!

Back in 2018, Maximum Fun asked the hosts of our shows to share their favorite recipes
with us. Our friend Tom Deja compiled all of these recipes into a community/church-style
cookbook (you know the sort of spiral-bound nostalgia I’m talking about)—complete with
black and white drawings of some dishes.
Originally, this book was a very special thank-you gift reserved only for folks who became
a member at the $20 monthly level or above during the 2018 MaxFunDrive. A lot of you
may be spending most of your time at home (thank you!), and you might be looking for a
new and easy dinner recipe. Or maybe you’re out working now more than ever (thank
you!) and could use a sweet treat or a cocktail to wind down in the evening. Either way,
we figured now might be a good time to share a few of these special recipes, so we’ve
included some favorites that use pantry staples or have ingredients that can be substituted
easily.
Thank you so much to everyone who supported Maximum Fun in 2018 that helped make
this cookbook possible, and thank you to every single one of you for supporting MaxFun
right now! We couldn't do it without you!

THE EPILOGUE
Mallory O’Meara / Reading Glasses
INGREDIENTS:
2 oz tea-infused scotch* 2 dashes chocolate bitters
¾ oz lemon juice 1 egg white
¾ oz vanilla syrup

DIRECTIONS:
Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker for 30 seconds without ice, until frothy.
Add ice and shake for 10 seconds.
Strain into a rocks glass with one large ice cube.
Enjoy with a good book!
*I infused peppermint-cinnamon green tea, but you can use whatever tea you’d like!

BEVERAGE
 EVELYN WAUGH’S NOONDAY REVIVER
MaxFunCon Pub Trivia Drink Special
One of the time-honored traditions of MaxFunCon is the famous Pub Trivia hosted
by Chuck Bryant and John Hodgman. And every year, our talented MaxFunCon
bartenders mix up a version of this unique cocktail for all attendees to enjoy while
they try to remember everything they’ve ever learned in hopes there’s an answer
to a trivia question in there. To really get in the spirit, pretend Hodgman just made
you run a lap around the Iris building at Lake Arrowhead before you make this.

INGREDIENTS:
1 oz gin 4 oz ginger beer
4 oz Guinness

DIRECTIONS:
Pour the gin and Guinness into a rocks glass. Top with ginger beer. Enjoy while you
crush your opponents or get trounced at trivia.

LIMONADA DE COCO
Jesse Thorn / MaxFun Founder
Jesse's talked about enjoying a refreshing limonada de coco on several
occasions. But now you can make this Colombian take on limeade at home
yourself! The recipe Jesse uses is from: [Link]/
limonada-de-coco-coconut-limeade.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup cream of coconut 3 limes (or 6 Tbsp) of juice
2 ½ cups crushed ice 2 Tbsp sugar (or to taste)

DIRECTIONS:
Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a glass
and enjoy!

BEVERAGE
 SPICY TOMATO SOUP
Ben Blacker / Dead Pilots Society
Recipe adapted from Spicy Tomato Soup from Gourmet Magazine found at
[Link]
This is a recipe for a spicy tomato soup originally from Gourmet magazine,
with a few adjustments. I make this recipe all the time. When I’m writing,
especially to a deadline—whether it’s for TV or film, comics or novels—
I don’t usually like to stop for lunch or eat too much that’s too heavy
during the daytime hours I spend working. I discovered this soup recipe in
2004, and it’s the perfect “while-working” lunch. It’s fairly quick to make
(mostly it simmers), but gives you enough of a break during the
sauteeing of the onions and garlic and during the blending and straining
of the soup that you get some time away from the computer screen. It’s
light and spicy, and it’s infinitely adjustable. I halve the amount of sugar
and often leave the jalapeño seeds or stems in. I try to use homemade
chicken stock or broth, as it gives it more depth of flavor. And this soup
goes great with a grilled cheese sandwich, if you want something warm
and hearty on a cold day. Plus, it’s enough that one batch lasts for 3-4
days, so you don’t have to think about feeding yourself, and you can
concentrate all of your energies into your work! That’s healthy, right?
INGREDIENTS:
2 (28-oz to 32-oz) cans 2 tsp finely chopped
whole tomatoes in juice peeled fresh ginger
(preferably organic) 3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely ½ tsp ground cumin
chopped (2¼ cups) 2¼ cups reduced-sodium
2 tsp finely chopped garlic chicken broth (18 fl oz)
1 tsp finely chopped fresh jalapeño ½ Tbsp sugar, or to taste
including seeds and stems 2 tsp salt, or to taste
DIRECTIONS:
Drain 1 can tomatoes, discarding juice, then purée with remaining can tomatoes
(including juice) in a blender.
Cook onion, garlic, jalapeño, and ginger in oil in a 4- to 5-quart heavy nonreactive
pot over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until onion is softened, about 8 minutes.
Add cumin and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in puréed tomatoes, broth, ½ tablespoon
sugar, and 2 teaspoons salt and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes.
Working in 3 or 4 batches, blend soup in blender until smooth (use caution when
blending hot liquids). Transfer soup as blended to a sieve set over a large bowl and
force through sieve, discarding seeds. Stir in sugar and salt to taste. Reheat in cleaned
saucepan if necessary.

SOUP
 RACHEL’S TURKEY CHILI
Rachel McElroy / Wonderful!
Recipe originally inspired by Laura’s Quick Slow Cooker Turkey Chil found at allrecipes.
com/recipe/82768/lauras-quick-slow-cooker-turkey-chili/, but modified significantly!
This is the chili we discussed on episode seven of Wonderful! I make it
basically every other week all winter long. It makes enough for like 4-6
servings. I suggest pairing it with your favorite corn chip. Or sour cream
and cheese. Or a beer (for drinking, not for like pouring over the top...
although...)

INGREDIENTS:
1 Tbsp olive oil 3 Tbsp chili powder
1 pound ground UVSLFZ 1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 (8 oz) can of tomato sauce ½ Tbsp garlic powder
1 (10 oz) can of Ro-Tel - Original 1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 (15 oz) cans kidney beans, drained 1 pinch ground black pepper
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained 1 pinch ground allspice
½ medium onion, chopped salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté onion in the skillet and then add
and brown ground UVSLFZ.
Once meat is cooked, add UVSLFZ with onion, tomato sauce, Ro-Tel, kidney
beans, and black beans to slow cooker. Season with chili powder, red pepper
flakes, garlic powder, cumin, black pepper, allspice and salt.
Cover, and cook 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on High.

MAIN COURSE
 KALAN FAMILY TRADEMARK HOUSEHOLD
HEAVILY SEASONED ROASTED VEGETABLES
Elliott Kalan / The Flop House
This is an easy way to roast just about any vegetable. My wife introduced
it to me, and then I upped the seasoning by a factor of about five. It’s really
the only thing I know how to cook, and sometimes if I’m home by myself for
dinner, I’ll just roast a pan of broccoli and that’s all I need. So if you want to
fully replicate the Elliott Kalan Family Out Of Town Eating Experience, just
eat this out of the baking pan while you watch Closely Watched Trains, or
some other Czech New Wave film of your choice (Intimate Lighting, Loves
Of A Blonde, and so forth).
We Kalans usually use it on brussels sprouts, broccoli, or cauliflower, but go
ahead and try it on just about whatever you want. Just remember: DON’T
GO EASY ON THE SEASONING! THE SEASONING IS THE WHOLE POINT!
THE VEGETABLES ARE JUST A DELIVERY MEDIUM FOR THE SEASONING!
INGREDIENTS:
A vegetable of some kind 2 cloves garlic (at least!)
Salt Olive oil
Black pepper Bread crumbs
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (maybe a little hotter if it’s brussels sprouts).
Cut up your vegetable into however small a piece you want it to be in when you eat
it. Some people throw away the stalks when they cut up broccoli, and only eat the top
part. I cut up the whole thing. These plants died for you, don’t waste them!
Put your vegetable pieces in a medium-sized baking pan (like you’d cook a lasagna
in).
Pour olive oil all over the vegetables.
Add 5 pinches of salt, 2 grinds of the pepper mill, 2 good-sized cloves of garlic
(cut or pressed), and enough breadcrumbs that it looks like you put on way too
many breadcrumbs, and you start thinking, “Did Mt. Vesuvius go off in this pan of
vegetables?” Toss it all around until the veggies are evenly coated.
Bake in the oven for roughly forty minutes, or until as crispy as you want them to be.
Halfway through cooking, stir it around, being careful not to burn yourself.
That’s it! When the timer goes off, take it out, let it cool a little, and then eat it!
If you have no shame, go back to the empty tray and eat the leftover breadcrumbs
with your hands now that they’ve absorbed all the extra seasoning

MAIN COURSE
 DAVE HOLMES’ MON BOWL
Dave Holmes / International Waters
Recipe inspired by Le Bowl from Zinqué.
There’s a place on Melrose called Zinqué that is so Los Angeles it freaks me
out. Infuriatingly beautiful clientele, staff whose glamorous Vanderpump
Rules private lives you can only imagine, and ample lunchtime wine
consumption. It’s my kind of place.
But the thing I always get there is actually pretty simple, and recently, after
polishing it off, I thought to myself: I could actually do this. I could maybe
even do it better. On their menu, it’s called Le Bowl. So mine is called Mon
Bowl.
The crucial element in Mon Bowl is the sauce. Zinqué does a sriracha mayo,
and that’s fine, but I am a man who likes a peanut sauce, so that’s what I
do. Here’s how to make it, based loosely off something I saw on
Epicurious, but—as is my custom—I played with and made my own.

YOU’LL NEED:
About a cup of Peanut Butter. Right away you are faced with a choice. You can go
get some fresh-ground stuff from the store, or you can also do as I have done and
get the massive 5 pound tub of Reese’s Peanut Butter Sauce off of Amazon. It’s still
peanut butter, just a little creamier and easier to work with, and not as sugary as you
might be fearing.
About a shot glass full of soy sauce
A clove of garlic, minced
A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
A lime
Enough brown sugar for a light dusting. No more than a tablespoon.
…and then whatever spices turn you on. The original recipe calls for a few shakes of
red pepper flakes. From there, it’s up to you. A little curry? Some cayenne pepper?
This is your time to explore your identity in the kitchen, so get into it.
A cup of warm water, held off to the side.
Throw the peanut butter in a food processor or Magic Bullet, with the garlic and the
ginger, and start the blade going. You want those three main flavors to get set right
away. Pulse away until you’re not seeing chunks of garlic or ginger.
Then squeeze the lime in. If you want to get fancy, you can use a microplaner to get
some zest off that lime and toss a bit of that in there too. In goes the brown sugar
and the spices, and pulse some more until it all looks mixed in together.
Now is when you start to add that water. Add a quarter cup at first and pulse, and
then keep adding a bit and pulsing a bit until you’re at a consistency you like. I like
mine kind of a medium beige, saucy but not dripping off a spoon.
Let it hang out at room temperature until the rest of the meal is done.

MAIN COURSE
What’s left over can be refrigerated. They say three days, I say there’s no dairy in this
sauce so don’t boss me around. It makes a great condiment for a turkey wrap in the
days that follow.
For the rest of it, you’ll need:
6 chicken thighs. You can use breasts if you want, but I like the tenderness of a thigh.
An avocado
A container of grape tomatoes
Baby arugula
One yellow onion
Cauliflower rice. You can get this in one 16-ounce package in most produce
sections, or you can do it yourself: break off the florets from a head of cauliflower,
throw a handful at a time into a food processor, and pulse until it’s in a rice-y/cous-
cous-esque moment.

DIRECTIONS:
Cook your chicken thighs however you like: on the grill if it’s a nice summer night, or
in a hot pan or oven if you’re stuck inside. I use my sous vide machine to get it just the
right internal temperature, then I give the thighs a quick sear--couple of minutes per
side. Set the chicken aside, under a tin foil tent.
Dice up that onion, heat up a couple swirls of olive oil in a medium-hot pan, then throw
those onion bits in and get them nice and sweaty. Once they’re soft, but before they
start to brown, add your cauliflower rice and lower the heat to medium. Stir often. You
want to get the whole thing hot and soft, but not burnt.
While that’s cooking, wash a couple handfuls of arugula, slice your tomatoes in half,
and peel/pit your avocado and cut it into half-inch chunks.
When the cauliflower rice looks ready to eat, pull it off the heat, and fill a couple of
bowls with it. Add the avocado and tomatoes and stir. Add the chicken to the top of
the situation, a couple good spoonfuls of the peanut sauce over the chicken, and a
layer of arugula over that.
My friends, you have Mon Bowl. Pair it with a nice, crisp Sauvignon Blanc, and rejoice.

MAIN COURSE
 FUDGE PLUS
Sydnee McElroy, Teylor Smirl, and Rileigh Smirl / Still Buffering
None of us are particularly great at cooking or baking, but luckily our
Mom is! This fudge recipe is passed down from her mom and it is practically
legendary among our family, friends, co-workers, teammates, classmates
and basically anyone we have ever come across that deserved a special
thank-you. If you are reading this, you are definitely among those whom we
need to thank. So, without further ado, we present our Mom’s fudge!

INGREDIENTS:
1 stick of butter (she uses 3 huge globs of peanut
Imperial margarine) butter (about ¾ cup)
¼ cup of milk (she uses 2%) 1 tsp of vanilla
2 cups of sugar
DIRECTIONS:
Melt the butter over low heat. Add milk. Add sugar. Set heat on medium and bring to
a rolling boil. Let boil for 3 minutes.
Take off heat and add vanilla and peanut butter. Stir and pour onto a lightly buttered
plate. Cool and cut into squares!
For Chocolate Fudge:
Add 3 Tbsp of cocoa when you add the sugar.
For No Bake Cookies:
Add 2 cups of oats to the chocolate fudge after it has boiled.
Try not to eat it all yourself before you share it!

DESSERT
 ONE BAD MOTHER BRINGS YOU:
THE LOST ART OF ‘CAKE PARENTING’
Biz Ellis and Theresa Thorn / One Bad Mother
“Oh, yes,” said Mother, “you may be sure that there will always be plenty
of chocolate cake around here.”
—Russell Hoban, A Baby Sister for Frances
If we learn anything from the Children’s picture books and television of the
1940s, 50s, and 60s, it’s that cake was readily available on a daily basis in
the average American household and was believed to be an appropriate
food for parents to offer their children as an after-school snack, an after-
dinner snack, a pre-bedtime snack, a remedy for insomnia, an antidote to
sadness, and really a cure-all for childhood woes, ready to be dispensed at
any moment. We refer to this phenomenon as The Lost Art of Cake Parenting,
and we endeavor now to bring it back as a cultural norm so that today’s
modern parents can enjoy the many benefits of feeding our kids a fucking
crazy amount of cake whenever we’re not sure what else to do.
FAQ:
1. What are the rules or guidelines of Cake Parenting?
Make sure there is cake in your house and then deploy cake when needed.
2. How much cake should I have available in my house?
A good rule of thumb is to have at least one cake ready all the time. Pound cake,
bundt cake, sheet cake, red velvet cake, cake with icing, or brownies (brownies count
if you don’t precut them), all can work. There are even adult cakes, like Rum Cake that
can be helpful to have on hand for adult problem solving. There are no rules to cake
type in Cake Parenting.
3. I have only had cake at birthday parties on a plate with a fork. Are there
other ways to eat cake?
Yes! Give your children and their friends slices of cake and instruct them to carry and
eat it like an apple! Problems are solved!
4. I’m at my wits end with a problem I’m having with my [any age] kid. I feel
I’ve tried everything. What else should I do?
Great question. First, allow us to say: you’re doing a great job. Parenting can be really
hard. Second, have you tried cake? If not, that’s what we recommend.
5. What if my child doesn’t like their teacher at school? Is that a good time to
offer cake?
Yes.
6. What if it’s late at night and my child already brushed their teeth?
No problem, they can still totally have some cake.

DESSERT
7. What if I am trying to get my child to stay in bed and go to sleep?
Cake.
8. Can I have cake?
Yes! You deserve cake!

PROBLEM SOLVING CAKE

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter 5 eggs
1½ cups sugar 2 cups flour
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
Fold in flour. Bake in greased and floured* tube pan or bundt pan for 1 hour.
*Just wrap a paper towel around your fingers and cover it in butter then smear it all
over the pan, followed by dusting flour. This will ensure the cake coming out of the pan
after cooked.

ALL BETTER! CAKE

INGREDIENTS:
1 stick of margarine 1 cup flour
2 (1 oz) squares unsweetened ¹/₈ tsp salt
chocolate 1 tsp vanilla
1½ cups sugar powdered sugar for dusting
2 eggs
DIRECTIONS:
Melt margarine and chocolate; pour over sugar. Add eggs and mix. Add flour, salt,
and vanilla. Spread into greased and floured* 9x13 inch cake pan. Bake at 350
degrees for 35-40 minutes. Cut into squares and dust with powdered sugar.
*Just wrap a paper towel around your fingers and cover it in butter then smear it all
over the pan, followed by dusting flour. This will ensure the cake coming out of the pan
after cooked.

DESSERT