Tag: hot

My husband and I have both always loved fall; so much that when we were picking a date for our wedding years ago, we skipped right past June and easily decided on November. The afternoon before our rehearsal dinner, family friends hosted a hayride for our guests that included a massive spread of food and, of course, plenty of festive drinks. The most popular beverage was a Tuaca-spiked cider that kept all of us warm as we rode around bundled up on hay bales. At the time I wasn’t familiar with Tuaca, but it has since become a staple at our holiday family gatherings.

Tuaca—a brandy-based liqueur blended with vanilla, and essences of lemon and orange—has a very distinct flavor, yet is versatile and can be used in a variety of drinks.

There is an old British nursery rhyme that talks about porridge that is either hot, cold or "in a pot nine days old." I don’t know if the poet ever thought that his poetry could ever be used to describe our sex lives but the comparisons are interesting.

Our married sex does have a temperature, in fact, just like porridge. There is a climate that defines our marriages in general, which naturally spills over into the bedroom. This climate and the resulting temperature can be sizzling hot, blistering cold, lukewarm, or stale and soggy like porridge left lying around for nine days or more—definitely not pleasant to the taste.

One of the most significant challenges of a long-term relationship, like marriage, has got to be keeping the fires burning. Every couple that has been together for more than four years has, I'm sure, experienced some measure of the doldrums in their relationship.

Having moved way past that early stage of marriage where you're barely able to keep your hands off one other, of scarcely coming up for air, and of spooning together in bed way past 9:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings, most couples find themselves in a situation where sex is as mundane an activity as taking out the trash.

Great memories have been made over summertime picnics with family and friends. Keep your memories happy by practicing food safety with outdoor dining. Bacteria counts climb in hot weather so you have to pay more attention to the possibility of food borne illnesses. Here are some tips to enjoy safe outdoor meals in warm weather:

1. Keep Cold Foods Cold: Foods that contain mayonnaise or meat, such as sandwiches, macaroni salads, potato salads, raw hot dogs, hamburgers or seafood, need to stay in an environment that is 40 degrees or colder to prevent bacteria from growing. Store these foods in a well-insulated cooler that is packed with ice.