YOUR HOST IN HER OWN WORDS
Kim
Kalan
They’re everyday women, just like you. And they know how to have fun.
Q. What's your favorite restaurant, and what do you order?
“Bar La Grasse. We sit at the kachina counter, and I order the pasta carbonara — homemade, and the best I’ve ever had in my life. The whole thing turns on the soft-poached egg they set on top. You pop it, the yolk runs down over everything, and I’m gone. I dream about that plate.”
Q. Coffee or tea, and how do you take it?
“Coffee girl, 100%. Two lattes every morning on my Breville espresso machine — light roast, a mix of whole and 2% milk, vanilla or sweet cream. In the summer I switch to a lavender cream I just found at the grocery store. I kind of fancy myself a barista.”
Q. How old are you, and what are three things you still want to do?
“I’m 58. Three things still on my list: eat my way across Italy with my husband John, hunting the best wood-fired pizza with a glass of red always in hand. A Great Dane named Tiny — the bigger he is, the funnier it gets. And rescuing a few donkeys while I’m at it.”
IN THIS ISSUE
01
Her Story
Thirty-two years & one big yes
02
Where We’ve Been
These women. These palces.
03
On the Playlist
What play’s in the van.
04
Grandma Inga’s Cake
Her favorite recipe.
HER STORY
Kim is a snowbird — Minnesota in the summer, a ranch in San Angelo, Texas in the winter. Twice a year she loads up her husband John and two one-eyed rescue dogs and makes the haul between them. The dogs are a Chiweenie and a Chapaggie, and between the two of them they’ve got exactly two working eyes, which she figures makes them a matched set. She raised two kids, Grace and Rudy, has two sisters and a brother, and has never once met a road trip she didn’t want to take.
She didn’t come to Beatrice Bradley as a traveler. She built it. Somewhere along the way she decided the women who’d spent their whole lives taking care of everybody else deserved to see the world — solo, but never alone — and she made it real, one trip at a time.
What you feel around Kim is simple: you’re in good hands, and you’re going to have fun.
These women, These places.
What plays on my radio.
“Hands up at the good part — it’s the law.”
01 |
Sweet Caroline — Neil Diamond |
06 |
You’ve Got a Friend — James Taylor |
02 |
Dancing Queen — ABBA |
07 |
Build Me Up Buttercup — The Foundations |
03 |
Country Roads — John Denver |
08 |
Lean on Me — Bill Withers |
04 |
I Will Survive — Gloria Gaynor |
09 |
Stand By Me — Ben E. King |
05 |
Brown Eyed Girl — Van Morrison |
10 |
Wonderful World — L. Armstrong |
Her Favorite Book
Rock Chicks by Kristen Ashley
“Pure fun. I love Tex and the gang at the Fortnum’s coffee shop — the kind of book that makes me laugh out loud and lose track of what time it is.”
Always in Her Bag
Chap Stick
“There’s one in every bag, every coat, every cup holder I own. If you forget yours, don’t worry — I packed enough for both of us.”
City that Surprised her
Boston
“”Boston. I thought I knew what to expect, and it knocked me flat. The streets don’t run straight — they wander like the cows laid them out, and they might have. You turn a corner and there’s a graveyard older than the country itself, the headstones leaning into each other like they’re still gossiping. The architecture, the history right under your feet, and the food — oh, the food. We took the hop-on-hop-off bus and I didn’t want to hop off any of it. I came home a little in love.””
Her Favorite Recipe
Grandma Izzy’s
Cardamom Apple Cake
“It came down from my Grandma Inga, who arrived from Norway at nineteen with the recipe in her head and not much else. When I make it, she’s right there with me.”
Ingredients
- 1½ sticks butter (12 tbsp)
- 3 apples, peeled & chopped (Honeycrisp)
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
Steps
- Heat oven to 350°F; butter a 9×13 pan.
- Brown the butter over medium heat, swirling, until nutty and golden — about 5 min. Cool a little.
- Whisk butter with both sugars; beat in eggs and vanilla.
- Stir flour, soda, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt together.