Everyone is welcome. This savory dish will be the talk of your dinner party, the unforeseen star of the show, the recipe that everyone will ask for.
The bacon grease slipping the sides of the pears, the savory coating of the salt and pepper, the tangy cut of the vinegar and mustard is, well, chef’s kiss.
ENJOY!
Summer is coming to a close and I’m trying to not get too depressed amongst crazy life things (did anyone else get the blues or have the world fall out from under them after turning 30? Asking for a friend).
While navigating a new season have turned out to be way more reactionary and survival mode than I anticipated, there have been some super sweet moments along the way that has kept me sane.
While planning a last minute surprise party for a dear friend, I realized that I didn’t want the typical bottle containers for wine, and don’t even show me a plastic cooler. I wanted texture, Italian vibes, effortless summer….so cue some MacGyvering and that Can-Do attitude that keeps my life afloat most days.
The trick? I wanted to use some baskets that I have, but how do you make it work? The other trick? Keeping leftover materials from past shoots to come in clutch. Using clear plastic, I cut pieces large enough to fill the bottom of the basket and the sides. Cut the piece longer than you need, then add bottles and fill with ice, trim the extra and voila!
Now, go hurry and have some friends over for the last of summer Rosé :)
Cheers!
-Kat
It is hot. Blazing. Scorching. It feels like some of the only physical touch I get these days is from the constant bead of sweat sliding its way down from my clavicle to my belly button, never mind the rivulets that stream down my legs. No jeans are safe. Pit stains are a fashion statement. The humidity is simultaneously laughing at us while being at 1000% and so thick it feels like we’re drowning.
So we’re tired. Hot and tired. Which means we need something easy, refreshing, and light.
This is a slight take on the Ranch Water Cocktail, I’m not reinventing the wheel because at this point in time I simply cannot, but hopefully this does the trick for ya.
I just returned from being back home in Minnesota where the days are long, the time feels short, and someone is always in the kitchen! The farming and nostalgic recipes are rearin’ to be used so this pairing I created for Nashville Box Club, but one that uses my mom’s tried and true recipes!
Memories of her hands making this same dough, rolling it out, being in the kitchen. The pies cooking and radio on blast. Calling out to my Dad that it was time for supper after the 5 o’clock whistle blew.
The easiest pastry that can be used in multiple ways, this one as a galette. Don’t worry, she’s never been a lobbyist for the sugar board so this is minimal on added sugar and utilizes the natural flavor and juices of the fruit! Enjoy with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and you’re set.
Part of Wild Wednesdays is the permission to try something new and guess what, you don’t even have to be good at it.
I’ve never made any kind of spring roll or egg roll, until I go through the process it can seem intimidating and then once the steps are strode though I usually wonder where it has been all my life (remember how LONG it took me to even try making a martini because the simplicity of it was mountainous in trepidation?!)
These Summer Flower Rolls are insanely easy, if you don’t have access to edible flower, ask around! Just make you know if they have been sprayed or not. For this recipe I used pansies, bachelor buttons and yarrow, with some garnish of the little white daisy ones that I wouldn’t recommend only because they are super bitter!
And, as you can see by the lack of my skills, they don’t have to be perfect or show worthy, they just have to make it from the plate to your mouth. Feel free to substitute with other things that you might have in your fridge or want to try!
Just do it.
It’s hot, it’s muggy, everything and everyone is sweating. So much so that I feel like I’ve sweat past lives out onto the sidewalk while trudging to my destination in hopes of some cool relief.
Since we’re already going to be throwing ice into any drink we can, why not make it pretty?!
Find some edible flowers (ask friends/neighbors/etc if you don’t have any!), also use an app to identify and make sure you have the right ones, some varieties have sub species that are so similar but one is edible and one is not!
Buy some silicone ice trays - W+P Design has some good ones, Amazon of course, just follow your heart.
Fill the trays halfway with water. Add the flowers, let freeze for at least two hours, then take out and fill with ice cold water to the top. This way the flowers stay in the middle for that dramatic effect you want and won’t float to the top!
Et voilá! Spice up your 7th glass of water, your 5 o’clock cocktail or your kid’s lemonade.
Now that the heat has arrived in Tennessee, the craving for fresh, juicy, crisp anything is real. I’m talking light summer meals because we’re already uncomfortable sweating through every inch of clothing we are wearing, don’t want to add overstuffed and bloated to that equation also.
So check out this Savory Summer Peach Salad (?), I guess it is a salad but also maybe not, gonna give it the ability to be whatever it wants in this life. While this can be seen as more of an appetizer, if you want to make this your full meal, just add some meat like prosciutto and maybe some bread to help soak up some of the juices or even make your own small bites crostini. Add a glass of wine or a spritz and you quite literally have the perfect situation.
Enjoy!
What you are looking for will come along when the timing is right, if my life is anything else it continuously shows me that. So while I have been in the market for the perfect shelf/bar show off/storage, it hasn’t broken my heart when something gets sold on FB Marketplace before I get to it, a researched piece is too expensive, or none of them felt right, they didn’t move me.
But that changed when I was scrolling through IG stories and my gals at Patina + Co popped up with some new goodies that just got delivered to the shop. My heart stopped as the story panned across the store and this beauty practically jumped out at me, I had to click back twice to capture it on a screenshot to send and make sure it was still available. While my day was not planned around buying a piece of furniture, I HAD to go. Follow that intuition, babes.
She was perfect, although I did have to peruse the store because there were so many pieces for different spots that I was absolutely drooling over, and all so unique! All of me wanted to open a drawer only to find a secret drawer only to discover a long lost secret of the British Government or becoming entangled in a National Treasure situation….but alas Nicholas Cage never showed up and defending the honor of America would have to wait another day.
I lean more towards maximalism (minimalists stand down), so when I think of styling a piece of furniture I try to add in these elements: something green/organic (like a plant), an art piece, function (stuff that needs storage or to be on the shelf), layers and different textures (i.e. different wood, fabric, levels, etc). Most likely you are buying something to fill a need of storage but that doesn’t mean that you can’t add in your style or personality. I added the layers of a fabric piece I got in Mexico, an olive tree stand from California, custom lunch trays from 3 Dot Wood Design, books, a vintage ostrich skin cocktail case, and just a portion of my found glassware collection. Driftwood, shells and bones from past jobs, home and former lovers (the bones being a gift, not THE bones of my former lovers).
The best kinds of deliveries end with cocktails and catching up, I am so very thankful to Stacy and Monica entertaining my dreaming and loving on me, this piece is so perfect and I can’t wait to see what gets put on these shelves over the years!
The sun is back, summer is coming, Kat is happy again.
Woof, I don’t know about y’all but winter hits me harder e v e r y year and I am sick of it. But the last two weeks have played games with our hearts here in Nashville and inspiration and creativity is returning, along with a full heart.
Easy summer appetizer? Beautiful handiwork that takes 10 minutes? Go play. Here ya go.
The latest version of bar hopping is traveling from the kitchen table to the wine rack on the other side of the fridge, and deciding what you want from a menu is staring at your supplies and deciphering what ingredients you have to make something and the exasperation and exhilaration of yelling above the din of strangers and music to a bartender who you contemplate slipping your number to at the end of the night has now been exchanged to barking an order at your roommate or partner for a Gin + Tonic, heavy on the gin because the Zoom calls today…
The rise of the at-home bartender is at an all time high. Covid has taken away ease of accessibility of our favorite bars and restaurants (but if they’re still open, go order something from them right now). Maybe it’s instilled a sense of curiosity or given you the courage to tackle the seemingly tall task of conquering a cocktail. I get messages from friends or followers who are at the store and staring at the never ending aisles wondering what to buy, so I decided to give this very ambiguous overview for a starting point.
First of all, let that intimidation fall away. There are so. Many. Options. It’s ok if you didn’t buy the same top shelf bourbon as your friend or you can’t tell the differences between gins yet. You’ll get there and by experimenting will develop your palate and begin to notice those subtle differences. And trust me, friends will be delighted that you asked them over to make them anything and spend time with you, so don’t worry if it’s the very best, masterful drink they’ve ever had, the company makes it perfect.
Cocktail wise? I suggest learning 1-3 drinks. Enough to give you a little range and once you have those under your belt and feel like you really own them, go forth and play. Experiment, mess up, play with variations, give yourself permission to annihilate ingredients! I’ve made some of my best cocktails when I let curiosity guide me and also knowing that you can adjust levels of ingredients doesn’t mean it was bad, improvements take time.
Liquor. Recommending at least one clear and one dark liquor will give you at least two different profiles to educate on and that means you can also satisfy drinks for friends on either side. Some people will drink anything that tastes like kerosene and up, others won’t touch it if it isn’t vodka. If you have an offer of both you have a chance of catching both sides (and if you have a friend who hates everything, suggest they pick a bottle of wine or you can make them the H20 Cocktail with an extra lime wedge).
Kitty’s Picks:
Bourbon
Gin
Tequila
BOURBON/WHISKEY
Old Fashioned
Whiskey sour
Neat
Manhattan
Hot Toddy
GIN
Gin + Tonic
Dirty Martini
Gin Fizz
French 75
Bijou
VODKA
Moscow Mule
Marinti
Vodka Tonic/Soda
Bloody Mary
TEQUILA
Makes me crazy (not a drink, just fact)
Margarita
Paloma
Tequila Soda
St - Rita
MEZCAL
Mezcal Negroni
Neat
French Intervention
Mezcal Margarita
RUM
Daiquiri
Cuba Libre
Mai Tai
Dark & Stormy
Liquers/Digestifs/Apertifs. When I started filming the short little intro I began to realize I had SO much more to say about literally everything, so maybe at one point I’ll do some fun facts about each liquor and its sisters or derivatives?
It got me really going on the Digestifs and Apertifs part, there are so very many to choose from, different levels of alcohols, flavors, etc, so, just gonna say. Try them. And don’t be afraid of starting with a pick from the bottom shelf *gasp* I know, but this way if you start with Triple Sec and find out you like the cocktails you’ve made with it, then you can graduate into using Cointreau or Grand Marnier or Dry Curacao and up your game even more. Amaros are a game all of their own with the Rabarbaros, Melettis, Braulios, Avernas, then the Fernets, Chartreuses, Aperols, the list goes on. Tasting profiles range from a cola-esque profile to pine and mint, so, once again, if you don’t like one, move onto the next because there is a flavor for everyone.
Kitty’s Picks:
Dry Curacao
Aperol
Campari
Meletti
Averna
Bitters. Something you don’t know why you need it but the Old Fashioned Recipe calls for it and you bought it and the same bottle has been sitting on the shelf for four years. Ironically, bitters and amaros are very similar, they are sort of the same thing in different concentrations. Both are botanicals and herbs mixed with clear liquor at highly concentrated alcohol contents, the different is that bitters have a 35-45% alcohol level and you only use a few drops at a time, which is technically why are they are considered non alcoholic.
Adding a few drops is meant to enhance the flavors of the liquor in your cocktail, not to overpower them, which is why you only use a small amount. There are many kinds of bitters, but starting off I recommend the Angostura Aromatic Bitters and Orange Bitters. With those two you will be able to start making more variety of drinks and can expand from there into chocolate bitter, rhubarb, mint, etc.
Kitty’s picks:
Angostura
Orange
Simple Syrups. So easy to make it’s not even funny. Literally just a type of sugar and water, meant enhance and potentially change a flavor profile. These can be made using white sugar, honey or agave, and equal parts water. That is a basic simple, and from there you can add fruit, herbs, etc for your cocktails.
Kitty’s Picks;
Basic
Pineapple
Honey
I’ve always got limes and lemons on hand and the citrus is needed to cut through and give way to other flavors in drinks, but be careful that they don’t overpower. Also, drink water. Throw that citrus shiz in that glass with some ice and your body will be giving you pray hands emojis.
Kitty’s Picks:
Lemons
Limes
Orange
Have fun, enjoy responsibly, and let me know what you’re making.
The time has come.
Bathtub Bon Appetit. What is one of my favorite and ultimate ways to relax and what appears to be everyone’s less than secret obsession, is here. It’s kind of extra, self-indulgent, and pretty incredible. I feel like I should have my friends who have no gone on to try it for themselves to write reviews to show that it lives up to its hype. I’ve been doing it so long I don’t really remember when it started, only that at the first time I did it was because there was no other thing I needed most than to eat a McDonald’s burger in the bath. Fairytale beginning, amiright.
Now it’s moved onto cooking complicated dishes (or doing a fun game of what can I make from the pantry), sipping on a cocktail that fits the food and r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g.
It’s a combination of all the self care. Amazing food, tasty cocktail, bath, oils, crystals, reading or watching. Music and cooking. A time to decompress and stop time. The cooking begins the art of the slow down, the bath running, music playing, beginning to let the day go.
Soak a minimum of 20-30 minutes. You’re welcome.
I love summer when everything is blooming and in season and lush. Winter makes me sad with the lack of green and leaves, but I feel less bad when I’m able to use my abundance of herbs and flowers from summer because I threw them up on this drying rack.
It’s super easy. Simply go outside and find a stick (not all sticks are created equal, when you find the right one, you’ll know). Buy leather cord from from a craft store and these great brass hooks from Amazon (click link here). Then put it all together and voila!
Then tell me what you’ll be drying!
The holidays bring home all the crafting and cozy vibes which I am undoubtedly here for. One of my favorites? Drying oranges to make into garland or to use for garnishing cocktails and drinks like in the previous post.
It’s the easiest thing.
Slice oranges with knife or mandolin (mandolin makes all the slices consistent, but like, watch your fingers).
Lay on paper towels and pat excess liquid away
Place on baking sheet
Bake at 200 degrees for 4 hours
Let cool for a couple of hours, then string, lay for decor, use for drinks, etc!
Let’s. Break. This. Bread.
Honestly, I roll my eyes to admit that I have too many thoughts as an adult of wishing that I had taken high school way more seriously, this coming from a teacher’s pet and kid who loved learning and reading and school and homework (for the most part). I do, however, wish there had been avenues to explore things that I was interested and curious about but didn’t immediately grasp. I was fascinated by so many things but we moved quickly through subjects and atoms and periodic tables and equations and my mind had more questions than they allowed answers for so I just waded through and tried to get passing grades. Did I tell you I cried whenever I didn’t get an A (annoyed at myself, even) so when I tell you I was happy with a C or D in math that came after an exorbitant amount of personal blows to the ego.
Intricacies of sourdough and the breads you have to whisper magic words to and leave gifts for them to rise are not necessarily my forte but a quest I aim to conquer soon. I knew I wanted to do my mom’s beer bread as a segment since I bring it to everything, the easiest thing to make if you are short on time or even ingredients. People will be impressed, bread will be eaten, you will leave the table with your head high…and you can still try to learn sourdough and watch every YouTube tutorial.
But beer bread is a great to:
Give as a gift, just combine dry ingredients and package together with a can or bottle of beer.
Bring to a dinner party with local butter, or make a dipping oil (people will think you fancy)
Enjoy by yourself, on the couch with a bottle of wine, the dipping oil, and some brie and honey.
Don’t do drugs. Stay in school. Make beer bread. Share with a friend. Or don’t, and eat it in bed by yourself.
Welcome to the first official episode of Wild Wednesdays! Happy Hour feat. “Shaken, Not Stirred.” Throughout this episode I’ll go through a little bit of history of the cocktail, liquor, creation of it and the supplies, intermixed with a narrative. Extra? Probably. Hilarious? Definitely.
“Shaken, not stirred,” the infamous quote from James Bond that transcends borders of land, time and space. For all of my love of cocktails and trying new things I have always been intimidated by the martini. I love ordering Dirty Martinis at the bar (the dirtier the better) but making them at home scared me, they seemed so classy, so refined and elegant, so….not me.
But then the pandemic hit, and I had less time with friends and more time to get annoyed at the fact that I was intimidated by them. So. Here we are. Turns out they’re super easy and now one of my favorite things.
Tune in below. Recipes are at the end of the page. Narratives are fun but when you’re basically working with a low-key professional actor (um, hey friend, next time give a girl a heads up) it makes you think twice about yourself acting in front of the camera ;)
Videography/editing: Angell Foster
Creative Direction/Still Photography: Ashtin Paige
Talent: John Pritchard
Location: Studio Nous
A series of videos by a curious Kat. Mixed parts of tutorials, recipes, tips n’ tricks and folklore advice. How to make a solid martini, ask someone those burning existential questions, and change a tire. I know a little about a lot, am not an expert, am a forever student and also kind of everyone’s dad. I will probably get many things wrong, misspeak and potentially do things out of order (cuz we’re keeping this irl, also thank you sudden onset adult dyslexia).
So, these will be what they are. Fun, somewhat informative and will hopefully make you laugh. Self started, community created. Let’s have fun with it, I can’t wait to see how/what/when we’ll do things. So here’s the trailer to get you excited and get things rolling.
Let’s do something.
Shot by Angell Foster and Ashtin Paige. Edited by Angell Foster. Created by Kat Wolle, Wild Artifact.
“Do not strive to uncover answers: they cannot be given to you because you have not been able to live them. And what matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now.” - Letters to a Young Poet.
Every major decision in my life has been made following a feeling, a knowing. My parents will say that it’s God telling me to do something, I will expand that and say that I’m following intuition, perhaps spiritually enhanced. From decisions made throughout the day or major life changes, trusting it has proven its legitimacy a thousand times over, especially when I ignore it or think it could be wrong. That bites me in the ass every single time.
That intuition is why I’ve chosen majors, moved, jobs, friends, good/bad decisions, dropping a random note in a mailbox or a care basket off to a friend. It’s why I’ve waited, or charged forward. Said “yes” to everything sprinkled with the occasional “no”.
I’ll share a secret with you. Since I was young I’ve seen this and more, dreams I thought would only stay in the clouds but now are floating within reach and as much as I show online, behind the scenes I’ve been working on secrets for years. But, much like the quote at the top, I knew I had to be quiet, and wait, and live. There were experiences to experience, projects to build, people to meet and life to live that would all need to be moving to make it happen. I wasn’t quite ready, there had to be more growth and shedding of ego and self and It would take community, so many experiments, soul crushing events and building back ups, time alone, time filled, and light seeking everything.
So now has come the time to listen to it again.
A morning in June. I woke up and felt the knowing, the feeling like if I didn’t do what was inside my head I was going to throw up. Then the pieces began to gather together, the people started to show up, my force of nature friends arrived and gave themselves to my service. Speechless.
So the first project is being released. It’s fun, quippy, meant to be laughed at, taken somewhat seriously, shot beautifully, enjoyed and whatever. It’s out of my head, that’s the biggest part. Here’s a teaser that doesn’t explain at all what I’m doing at all but it will keep your interested piqued until tomorrow.
To the follow throughers, the people who dream and do, the ones who have an insatiable need to get the ideas out of their head. Cheers and Amen.
Video: Ashtin Paige / Editing: Angell Foster / Location: Bloomsbury Farm
