4 Ways to Beat the Heat

It’s been bloody hot the past few weeks. There were a few days when things cooled down a bit and I felt I could catch my breath, but otherwise I’ve been “perspie” as my Grammy Thompson used to say.  ”Perspie” was her delicate way of saying perspire. Since we don’t have air conditioning I’ve come up with four great ways to beat the heat.

My favorite swimming hole

1. Clean your basement. Seriously, the basement is always cooler than upstairs. I’m not talking heavy lifting, just some rearranging, a few loads of laundry. You’ll cool down and be happier. Heck, just tell everyone you’re going down to clean the basement and instead grab a folding chair and a good book and read for a while.

2. Find a Swimming Hole. This tip is for folks in the country. There are several near and far from me (unfortunately nothing within walking distance). What you’re looking for is something on the icy side so you can bring your core temperature down. Don’t forget to put an extra towel on your car seat so you don’t fry your bottom when you leave.

3. Turn on the Brooklyn AC. When I lived in Brooklyn there were no swimming holes, and we couldn’t afford the electricity an AC unit sucked down so we made our own AC. First set up a chair with a towel on it. Beach or bath it doesn’t matter. Second position an oscillating fan in front of your chair. Third grab all the bandanas you own and soak them in cold water, wring out most but not all of the water. Fourth strip naked. Then sit on the chair, place the damp bandanas all over your body and turn the fan on high.  It will feel like you have AC. Re-wet the bandanas as they dry.

4. Make a pitcher of ice tea. I covered the basic concept for ice tea here. My friend Hilary Zaloom made this divine ice tea for our monthly knitting group when we were crazy enough to meet during a similar heat wave last summer. We ended up at Hilary’s house because she has AC (and not the Brooklyn kind) and she also makes the most delicious drinks. Needless to say between the beverages and the AC we were all happy to sit there for several hours chatting with a bunch of wool in our laps.

Hilary’s Herbal Ice Tea with Honey Water

Hilary’s Herbal Ice Tea

The genius of this ice tea isn’t just in the flavor combination, but in the sweetener. Instead of using a simple syrup (one part water to one part sugar) Hilary adds honey and some warm water to a squirt bottle. Once shaken to combine the honey water can be squirted into any cool beverage as a sweetener without clumping as it is want to do in cold drinks. Brilliant!

Red Zinger or Hibiscus tea

1 orange

2-4 spring mint

honey water* to taste (I make mine at a 1 part honey to 2-3 parts water)

Place teabags in a large pitcher of water and let soak 3+ hours or overnight. Remove bags and add mint sprigs.  Slice half the orange and  juice the remaining half. Add juice and slices to the tea. Sweeten to taste with honey water.

*Store honey water in the fridge if you don’t use it immediately, it will keep for a week or so.

Not Sun Tea

This is one of those little tricks that I think of as so simple that I often don’t remember to pass it along. When I worked at Leaf ‘n Bean Cafe and the temperatures rose to the high 90s we sold a lot of ice tea. Literally gallons of the stuff. It wasn’t the sun tea that you often read about at this time of year. Nor did we pour boiling water over the 25 or so tea bags we used for 4 gallons of tea. We just filled up giant containers with cold water, added the teabags, and popped them into the fridge with a lid on. That was it. The next morning there was a fresh batch of ice tea ready to serve.

The manager explained that when you use hot water (and to a lesser extent the sun) to make ice tea you release the tannins in tea, which can make tea bitter. Cold brewing means less tannins and a smoother brew. It doesn’t mean you can’t make a great glass of ice tea using hot water and then cooling it down, but when just stepping outside makes you perspire why not do things the cold way?

Fridge Tea, as easy as 1-2-3

It took about an hour and a half to go from clear water to the brown on the bottom right. Another couple of hours and I’ll just need a tall glass, wedge of lemon and a straw.

It’s Back!

It’s that time of year.

I found the Holy Trinity of Fruit - strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries at the farmer’s market today. Get all three while you can at a farmer stand near you. I think I need to make some angel food cake or perhaps roll a ball of ice cream*.

*Last week on Cape Cod we enjoyed lobster and home made ice cream which we made in our ice cream ball. There is no paddle so the ice cream can be a little soft, but it is divine and a whole lot of fun to make. Simply load up your ingredients, screw on the lid, add ice and rock salt to the other end and toss around. We made coffee, but for the Holy Trinity I would make vanilla.

Glitter with a Kiss

Most people do not know this about me but I have a secret passion for things that glitter and shine. It’s not overt, like my friend Olivia who has her own tiara she wears when she’s at home (which I admire her for). For the most part my penchant for glitter has been something only my closest friends and family knew about, well until now that is. Some of you know that one of my guilty pleasures is watching Dancing with the Stars. For my birthday this year Shawn and the kids made me my own set of vote-at-home glittery paddles, and after six years of watching the show I can predict the judges scores 96% of the time, even if I don’t always agree with them. I may not be able to rumba but I do know which paddle you’ll use Len Goodman!

My own glittery paddles that I vote at home with for Dancing with the Stars

So when I was asked to help with the food for The Academy at Charlemont‘s semi formal this year I decided to add a little sparkle by building another Hershey’s Kiss Chandelier. About twenty-five years ago I had made a chandelier out of Kisses for an Aids benefit auction. The winning bidder donated the chandelier to a local hospice house and when it had been stripped of kisses they gave me back the forms, which have languished in our barn ever since. The Academy is very small so rather than have a senior prom which would consist of 17 kids and their dates, the entire school is invited to “Semi”. Each year the juniors are in charge of decorations and food with the knowledge that A) they will never have to do it again and B) next year’s juniors will do it for them. Normally the refreshments consist of bowls of candy, a few platters of cookies from a box store along with a never-ending supply of punch. While the bottomless bowls of punch seemed like a good idea, the only thing I bought at the local box store were three gigantic bags of milk chocolate kisses.

Fruit kabobs stuck into watermelon bases that read “Yay class of 2012″

Parents of 11th graders were willing to contribute platters of delicious home-made food for semi, while a small band of us made over 100 fruit kabobs from watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydew, red & green grapes, and blueberries. The kabobs turned out to be as popular and as thirst quenching as the punch.

Hershey’s Kiss Chandelier

The glittery Hershey’s Kiss Chandelier was a recreation of one I had made many years ago. As with many of my projects I didn’t have pictures of the finished product since I typically run so close to my deadlines. My memory was a bit vague about how long the strands of kisses should be or how the kisses had been arranged but I did remember each strand was anchored with a small plastic pearl. I bought some spray paint to spruce up the form and Isabelle invited a few intrepid friends over (thanks Arcadia and Richard) to pull the little white kiss papers out of ten pounds of Hershey kisses. The three of them took turns drilling holes in each de-papered kiss. Then the threading began.

Pulling the papers prior to drilling

Drilling holes, one kiss at a time

For one afternoon Stephen’s mom Heidi came over and helped me wire on glass chandelier pieces that I’d been hoarding for a day when I might need them. Since I anticipated the chandelier being denuded during the dance  I didn’t want it to lose all its sparkle before the dance ended.

Base with a few real crystals

On the day of the semi I strung kisses along with Vickie and Jackie, two other 11th grade moms. With just a few hours until the dance started the chandelier got packed into my car and off I went to the dance site to set it all up.

Things got a little dodgy when we realized the chain cutters Shawn had given me were unable to cut the chain we’d brought to string the two levels together with. Either we didn’t have his superhuman strength or we needed a slightly more formidable set of cutters. My two helpers Richard and Patrick were real troopers as we duck taped, sticky puttied, and basically jerry-rigged the chandelier onto a beam (we weren’t allowed to screw in an eye bolt either so we had to use a clamp instead). Finally the chandelier was up and looking very sparkly indeed. A little crocked perhaps, but sparkly nonetheless.

A little crocked from this angle

The dance was wonderful, and I didn’t come home with a single kiss except the one on my cheek from Isabelle.

Thanks again to everyone who helped put the chandelier and all the food together. It was a deliciously rocking semi!

Winter Grilling and Anniversaries

My parents did it and so did my husband and I. We met on a blind date and then married exactly one year later. My parents went on their blind date in 1959, married in 1960, and had me in 1961. Shawn and I had our blind date in 1993, married in 1994, and our daughter Isabelle was born in 1995 (amazingly she actually managed to be born on my parent’s wedding anniversary). Today is 19 years from that blind date with my husband and 18 years from our wedding day.

March 6, 1994

Over the intervening years a lot has changed while a lot has stayed the same. We still live in the same house, though we own it now instead of renting it. Our family is slightly larger now–Russell arrived two years after his big sister. We have different pets than when we started out. All in all though things are pretty much the same. Shawn still fixes things and puns a lot. I do most of the cooking and say everything three times. Every so often we mix it up. I’ll fix a something (and feel really proud of doing so) and Shawn will brave my territory and step into the kitchen to cook dinner. Actually he steps through the kitchen and out to the grill.

Grilling in winter

Grilling in the winter is something I grew up with, which is a bit strange given that I grew up outside of of one of the snowiest areas in the northeast – Syracuse, New York and now reside in western Massachusetts. Logic has little to do with it, it’s primarily tradition – my grandfather did it, my Dad still does it, as does my husband. Really all you need are a warm coat, enough charcoal, and sometimes a fedora (my grandpa always wore a fedora while grilling). There are times in New England winters when it really is too cold to grill, at least with charcoal. If you choose the right day though, and have plenty of charcoal along with a warm pair of boots you’ll end up with a divine dinner.

So that’s what we had–grilled lamb, boiled potatoes, brussell sprouts sauted in garlic, salad, and chocolate brownies. Yum. I only set the table. Sorry there’s no recipe, but I wasn’t the cook. Shawn said he rubbed the lamb with crushed garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, and thyme before putting it on the flames and I am here to testify that it was DELICIOUS!!!

Grilling lamb

So thanks sweetie for 19 amazing years and an incredible anniversary dinner – xoxoxo