Small Bites: Sign up free for Holiday Kitchen Kickoff right here! A free one-day online event (Friday, Nov 13) with 10 food pros covering the whole season, Thanksgiving through New Year’s. Read on to learn more!
👉 Save Your Free Spot
Once you’re registered, grab your Holiday BINGO card. The game runs all day, with prizes from Old Town Spice Shop, Challah Days, The Stress Free Christmas Market, and the speakers.
🍽️ Missed our conversation with Brett this summer? Her Order Up! interview and Parent Picks are still up, with the story behind Freaking Delish and the store-bought shortcuts she’ll defend forever.
At One Potato, we’re always looking for resources that make family life a little easier, and the holidays are when most of us could use the help. Back in August, we pointed you to Brett DuPree’s free summer summit, What’s for Dinner?, built around making weeknight dinner doable. This fall she’s taking that same approach to the busiest cooking stretch of the year.
Holiday Kitchen Kickoff is a free one-day online event on Friday, November 13. It’s one day, 10 food pros, and practical help with the hosting, baking, and make-ahead planning that piles up between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. The timing is the point: mid-November is the last quiet window to make a plan before the season starts making plans for you.
Why We Love Holiday Kitchen Kickoff
Brett started Freaking Delish to build a dinner rhythm where everyone cooks and everyone gets cooked for, moms included. Holiday Kitchen Kickoff carries that idea into the holidays, when the cooking load gets heavier and usually lands on one person. The lineup reflects it. Most of these sessions are about getting more done ahead of time, so the person doing the cooking also gets to enjoy the day.
Here’s what that looks like: Stephanie Longstreth of Stephanie Cooks for a Crowd cooks a real holiday dinner for 25, then sits down and eats it with everybody else. Erin Parker of The Speckled Palate works backward from the moment everyone sits down, so the turkey and the sides get served at the same time. Sharla Kostelyk of Freezer Meals 101 makes party appetizers weeks ahead and pulls them straight from the freezer. And Brett herself has three ways to rethink the turkey, for the years when a whole bird is more than your table needs.
For anyone thinking “I don’t have time to watch an online event in November” (fair), this one is built for that. It’s a single day, and every session stays up free for 24 hours, so you can watch one during nap time and catch another after bedtime. The speakers hop into the live chat while their sessions air, so you can ask about your oven space, your picky eater at the big table, or your mother-in-law’s stuffing and get a real answer. There’s also a private Facebook group if you want to keep comparing notes after.
There’s plenty for the kids, too. June Dick of Practically Homemade turns one box of cake mix into a whole tray of Christmas cookies, which is about the right level of project for small helpers. Stephanie Manley of CopyKat Recipes makes copycat bakery treats like Nothing Bundt Cake and Cinnabon cinnamon rolls at home, ahead of time. And Susannah Brinkley Henry of Feast + West shows how to batch holiday drinks so one pitcher serves the whole room.
And the best part? The whole day is free. Every speaker is giving away a freebie tied to their session, and the Holiday BINGO game runs all day with real prizes. If you want to keep everything past the 24-hour window, there’s an optional Holiday VIP Ticket: replays of every session, a souvenir holiday cookbook with two recipes from every speaker, and bonus resources from the lineup. It’s $27 for the first 20 minutes after you register, then $37 through Sunday, November 15.
A plan made in mid-November is worth a lot more than one made the night before Thanksgiving. Here’s to a holiday season where the cook gets to sit down, too.
👉 Get Your Free Spot at Holiday Kitchen Kickoff!
You can learn more about Brett and Freaking Delish + Holiday Kitchen Kickoff on her website, and follow her on Instagram @freaking.delish.
& Don’t forget to follow US on IG @onepotatobox ❤️
Note: This newsletter contains affiliate links for Freaking Delish and Holiday Kitchen Kickoff. We’ve had Brett on the newsletter before because we love what she’s building, and we’d be pointing you to her free holiday event whether the affiliate relationship existed or not!!
