Wild Wednesdays - DIY Floral Ice

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.

Wild Wednesdays - Goat Cheese with Edible Flowers

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.

Snow Day Sno Cone - But Make it Adult

I really cannot take credit for this, because until our group text received a message from my friend Kate that stated, “I put a container outside to catch the sleet for sno cones, you can thank me later,” I really had no idea.

So, thank you, Kate.

So that afternoon, post sleeting, now with a bucket about a quarter of the way full of the most tiny, perfect spheres of ice, I braved the cold and it was time to play. Kitty’s Cigar + Cocktail Lounge was open for business, even if just for myself since my roommate and boyfriend refused to come outside. I decided to go three different ways with this, to touch on a few different flavor profiles, I would just recommend to make sure all liquids are as cold as you can get them before pouring over so that the ice doesn’t melt as much.

We’ve got Chocolate + Bourbon, Pineapple Honey + Tequila, and a touch of the warmer weather with Banana Cream Rum.

So, bundle up yourself (and the kids, if you must) and head outside to enjoy. Pro tip, wear gloves. Recipes are at the bottom.

Don’t slip.

Wild Wednesdays - Stock the Bar - Part 1

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.

Wild Wednesdays - Herb Drying Rack

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!

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Episode One - Shaken, Not Stirred - Wild Wednesdays

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

Wild Wednesday Teaser

“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

Holiday Spirit

Holidays are obviously full of gift giving, food devouring, drink swilling and lots of family time, with some those ensuing more-so around family than usual.

If you’re friends with me then it’s fair to say at some point I’ll either make you a gift or food object at some point. I’ll be honest, sometimes it is me trying to save money but other times it’s because I tried something awesome and I want to share it with everyone. Literally.  

So, infusing gin. I love gin as a base for cocktails because you can do a lot with it and it’s easy to play around with. I got the idea to do an infusion when I wanted to add some flavor to fin but couldn’t find the right type of liqueur or bitters to do it and thought there had to be a way to infuse it into the gin. Turns out there is.

For my gin infusions I tried to think of my friends and what their personalities evoked when I thought of them/what flavors they like and what ones would work well with gin. My synopsis? Lemon, grapefruit, chamomile and ginger.

And it’s SUPER easy. Almost way too easy.

Pick your poison. Then pick your infusion.

Chamomile:

1 mason jar of gin

2 tea bags

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Let steep for 1 day and take out tea bags. Keep in jar or transfer to resalable , airtight container. Store in a cool, dry place.

Lemon/Grapefruit/Ginger

1 mason jar of gin

Peel rind of one lemon

Juice lemon and pour into jar

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Let sit for 1-2 days, then take out rind, strain gin with a fine mesh strainer (I used a fine cotton cloth) and transfer gin back to jar or reseal-able airtight container. Store in a cool, dry place.

 CHEERS.

Enjoy Responsibly.