Sticky Situation

Recently a friend wanted to know what the secret is to my fried chicken was.   Not to brag; but I've been asked this question on several occasions.    Depending on how close the friend was, depended on just how many ingredients in my personal recipe and preparation secrets I gave up.   Needless to say, I am a true Southern Belle and don't hand over my recipes.   Now the same can't be said about me with a good piece of gossip but when it comes to my recipes honey you bet your buttered biscuits that the lock down on my recipe box rivals Fort Knox.

The truth is, and I will deny that I told y'all this if ever I'm brought before a tribunal of the DAR and judged by Paula Deen; but it is pretty hard to mess up fried chicken.   Hell I think its pretty hard to mess up anything fried; but believe me this Diva has witnessed it.   The key is your respect for seasoning in the batter/breading and a careful eye when frying it.   Frying it on too high of a heat will speed up the cooking on the outside but will leave the inside as raw and undone as a Witch's womb!   The biggest mistake in frying chicken and actually many dishes is walking away from the dish as it is cooking.   Fried Chicken requires a careful eye to make sure it doesn't stick.

Now back to my friend.   When she asked me this fried chicken question for some reason it stuck with me.   The idea of "sticking," in its many forms begin to play around in my mind.   I know when I was a kid my mother always warned me that I never stuck to any project long enough to really get anything of value out of it.   Which I admit here, that she was right; but to her face I would still roll my eyes in that "whatever," tone.  To me it seems all about timing.   Like with the chicken that is frying, not letting it stick yet sticking by the stove to keep that from happening.   The same thing in life I think is also true.   It is hard to stick with things we like in life let alone trying to stick out things we don't like and then the flip side conundrum comes when we  start to wonder how long do I stick before I wind up getting stuck?

When it comes to romance and relationships in the past I always had my bag packed in the closet and my running shoes shined and ready to roll.   Yet this time around I am learning that I cannot just run.   It would be easy for me to do so, or relatively speaking.  Sometimes we have to let go and follow what our hearts say.   Same thing with frying chicken, I truly believe that the best fried chicken comes from those people who just have a "feel," for frying.   Maybe with relationships in the past I was just too chicken assed to stick around for fear of getting stuck and burned.    So, then, what has changed?   Maybe age and maturity has finally snuck up on my sweet Southern ass; but with this guy I have a "feel," that I need to stick this one out.   Folks my track record ain't good and maybe when it comes to relationships and romance I just don't have a talent for or "feel," for picking the best mate; however this time around something tells me the more this relationship simmers and ages it will be worth my having stuck around.    I'm learning in life that the old cliche about life being too short is the damn truth, so I am realizing dear readers that there are times in life that you have to take your time, learn patience and stick with things.   Yes we always risk getting "stuck," in some muck; but the one thing I've learned you don't want to do is look at your life and say, "what if?"  There are two things I feel sure about and that is there are not many of us who have a Teflon heart so we are gonna get stuck and perhaps burned once in a while and finally I know life is full of hard decisions, uncertain paths and many sticky situations.

Sunday Brunches

Sunday Brunches have admittedly become my church of choice!   Of course there is never really a bad time to have Brunch in my opinion.   There are several key points to having a good Brunch this Southern Fried Diva believes in.  

1. Good Cocktailia
2. Good Food
3. Good Friends
4. Good Cocktailia

One of these days I will blog a vocabulary list with definitions for words I create or adapt.   Briefly, when I say Cocktailia It simply is an umbrella term for your personal cocktail of choice.   It also has another meaning which is like saying a kingdom, land, or location for seasoned professional cocktail purveyors.   Used in a sentence I might say: Today I'm going to be in the cocktailia suburb known as Urban Mo's.

I think it's also a scientific term for describing the state in which said seasoned pros of alcoholic beverages might be categorized as in their phylum, etc.   But I am not drunk enough to get that deep into that tangent now.   However, as with all my terms and adaptations pattens are pending & many dictionaries are scrambling to get my permission to use them, but until then, remember follow my golden rule:  BE ORIGINAL, and create your own smashing vocabulary and by all means feel free to quote this Southern Fried mega superstar diva but give me my proper credit and dues!   

Lest I digress, back to having the proper Sunday Brunch.   When it comes to cocktailia I always say go for the mixology that best fits your biology for a sustained buzz without fuss or muss.   Sunday Brunches should be a festive and fun time, so if you are out to get hammered within the first hour I suggest you stay at home or crawl into one of those little dank caves whether the leather faced slurring lizards lounge.   There is nothing worse than a brunch bunch with a lose cannon falling and raining drama all over other's perfectly good mid morning buzz!

Personally for me the best cocktailia for my Sunday Brunch buzz is one of the following:  Mimosas (traditional, I know but for me a Mimosa is just champagne minus any fruit juice!   In my world of cocktailia why muddle up perfectly good bubbly with vitamin C, and saying Mimosa at Brunch seems correct and stylish).   My 2nd cocktailia of choice would be a Bourbon and coke & lastly but certainly not least a good ole spicy Bloody Mary.    However for any future bartenders attending my service please note that I like my Bloody Mary with a little less blood flow if ya get my drift, once again I firmly believe one should not cloud up the crisp and nature's natural flavor of the alcohol.

Good Food is a must.   As with any party or social gathering I think food should compliment the occasion, not overwhelm it.   You always want your guests to leave thinking you know how to prepare good and flavorful food; but ultimately if all the attention is upon getting grub then the social aspect will get lost in the shuffle.   I always think that success at a Brunch is having food that can be eaten easily with your hands and is able to be sitting there for a few hours without warming or cooling or any further preparations.   Food should fit into your brunch just like the flow of conversation.

Good friends are like good shoes!  They should look good, provide good support at the same time providing comfort and if at all possible be slimming as well.   In other words don't host or go to a Brunch with people you have to "tolerate."  Life is too damn short to screw a good buzz over with a mix match of lack lusters, drama queens and wet blankets!   If brunch is done right you should feel satiated, buzzed and like you don't want it to end.   So you want to be with people who are not just fun to be with but with people you can dish with, share with, drink with for hours if need be without worry of drama or boredom.

I've always enjoyed Brunch, but I really got into Sunday Brunches when my favorite bar where I was living (San Diego at the time)  was introduced to me.   Urban Mo's is one of those legendary neighborhood bars that feels like home.   Their Sunday Champagne Brunch is very popular and it became a weekly destination for me and my friends.   If you are ever in San Diego I highly recommend that you go treat yourself to Sunday Brunch at Urban Mo's.   The bartenders Craig and Jason are more than just bartenders.  They are comics, friends, therapists and good mixologists who never let your drink get room temp or half empty!   DJ Taj is also there (or as I call him, Taji) spinning good music in the background and hosting a tea dance in the latter part of the afternoon on Sundays.  There is nothing like a little disco after a morning full of champagne to give you that Praise Jeeeeeezus hallejujah feeling!

Well speaking of Sunday Brunches, it is time for mine!   This week my cocktailia of choice is bourbon.   I hope to hear from you dear readers of your favorite Sunday Brunch stories or Sunday Brunch destinations in the city/town where you live!   Until then may you all clink your cocktailia glasses together and have a wonderful Sunday!

A Big Ole Down Home Welcome!

Howdy fellow blogosphere followers, foodies, members of the cocktailia unanimous club, & fellow divas of dish, dirt, fashion, song, and other smashing hedonistic persuasions.   Fabulous things first:  I LOVE good food, stiff cock-tails, Dolly, Cher, Paula Deen, Ina Gartner, Elaine Stritch, divine madness, divine ramblings, & oh yes, the Divine Ms M (aka Bette Midler).   Like Dolly I am not a slave to fashion.   What I am, feel, and what is just plain comfortable will be what is on my body.   I have many divas I salute, adore and derive inspiration from; but over the years I have learned it is better to be yourself and be original.   I guess this is really at the heart of this first blog.   Owning and being yourself.  Having retired from the on-stage drag world, I took away one important lesson and that was being yourself.   It is fun to see our heroes and celebrities imitated; and stop short of admitting that there is a certain artistic talent for imitating those famous legends; however what became important to me over the years in the drag world was being able to take a song and honor the personality that first made the song fantastic and then find a few more layers to it and if I was lucky bring my interpretation to the stage.   I realized that from my hair down to my click clack high heel shoes that I had to be me no matter what sparkly frock I might be donning or how high my hair was jacked to Jeezus or how much makeup I had slathered on.   It sounds a bit lofty and admittedly maybe some would find it pretentious to see myself that way.   After all aren't drag queens supposed to be funny send up professionals in a way ?    I don't know if I achieved bringing across a message or artistic expression every time I hit the stage; but deep down I always knew it was Kitty Davis up there living the lyric and emotion of every song.

When I first started in drag in a small Blue Ridge mountain town in NC, they (meaning the bar owners, fellow drag queen legends and teachers) really had no idea where to put me or how to categorize me.   At this point in my life it was a good metaphor for how I felt about my life in general.   No direction and no idea about my "self."   I look back on it now and think that perhaps it was not such a bad thing, even though for years it felt like something I had to "overcome," rather than embrace and celebrate.   I sort of carved a niche for myself as being a comedic drag queen, meaning I would take tunes (especially show tunes) and put a humorous over the top spin to them.   However backstage I got pressure from many different sides of how to dress, material to perform, joining a pageant to compete and most of all coming up with a star I could imitate.   Well, not having direction or not knowing yourself has it pitfalls because usually when you don't know yourself you are much more malleable  to work with.   You begin to see yourself through other's eyes.   I naturally chose Dolly Parton because she is such a big influence and inspiration in my life.   My first few attempts to bringing "my" version of Dolly to life on stage were laughable and cartoon-ish; but not in a good or polished way.   However over time my version of Dolly became more tailored and precise and I had a few good gigs out of doing Dolly and spread my drag wings to also incorporate impersonations of Joan Rivers & Shirley Maclaine.  

I never felt comfortable being someone else.   I was always amazed when I did an impersonation that I got applause, laughs, cheers, and the obligatory "you go girrrrl," yelled at me.  I felt like my favorite was Dolly just because I had loved her from the age of five, she was from the same area in the South I was and foremost she was a songwriter.   She forged her own way in the world of show business and never lost sight of who she was.   It would be that Dolly Parton quality that would break me free of impersonations once and for all.   I really understood that Kitty, like Dolly, had to stand on her own 6 inch heels and wear her own aqua-netted wig!   Owning myself became a life long practice and in turn the Kitty Davis I had brought life to also begin to teach me, the man on how to be.    They have a saying in the South that goes : "don't git to big for yer britches,"  which I take to mean don't forget yourself when good things start to happen to you.   Having said that, Yes Me the Man and Me the Kitty Davis ate too much at the banquet of life, to steal a line from Mame.  

There are always stumbles along the way and those damned fall from grace moments!  

One of my favorite new writers to read is Augusten Burroughs (Running With Scissors, Dry, A Wolf At the Table) and so I often say that in my life there were times that I was running with scissors in 6 inch heels.   A sure fire kamikaze sprint towards those proverbial fall from grace moments.   They are a bitch, I will not lie; but like learning to bake a cake, you just keep adjusting the ingredients and you learn your lesson and move on to the next recipe in life.

I say all of this my potential readers to say that my blog is quite literally a buffet of thoughts and this first blog is just a lil ole taste to welcome you.    So come on in to this Southern Fried Diva's blogosphere and lets dish some smashing tales, rants, raves and every flavor in between!    Welcome to my kitchen of kitsch and bitch!