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Posts Tagged ‘Savvy Entertaining’

I wandered into the family room the other evening to find Captain Cavedweller sucking down his fifth, yeah – that’s  right FIFTH, Otter Pop of the day. Granted, he spends the bulk of every day out in the hot sun and comes home in need of something cool and refreshing. But this may have gone too far. Maybe.

He could at least eat a real Popsicle instead of the plastic filled tubes of frozen liquid sugar. The whole thing is so… unsportsman-like. Not summery. Icky. There is just something wrong with sucking on a plastic tube. It seems so uncivilized.

And while I’m on a rant today, I’d like to know what happened to the old-fashioned kind of popsicles. You know, the kind that came on two sticks?

I was going to prove to Captain Cavedweller how much better my frozen sugar on a stick was than his tube-filled thingies. Only I couldn’t find my popsicles anywhere. Believe me I’ve looked. The closest I could find was a box of single popsicles on one stick. But at least they had my favorite flavors of banana and rootbeer.

Captain Cavedweller can’t even identify the flavors he is inhaling. He brought a yellow tube for me to sniff to see if I could determine the flavor. I started to tell him exactly what I thought it smelled like and decided I better behave myself.

“Pineapple,” I said. “Definitely pineapple.”

So as the battle lines are drawn down the middle of our freezer this summer with Otter Pops on one side and sad little single stick Popsicles on the other, what kind of frozen treats are in your freezer?

She Who Still Thinks Popsicles are Best

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Drooley

Drooley, aka The Heinous Cat,  has been off adventuring again.

Only instead of coming home with pieces of his ear missing as he usually does, he came home limping.

The good news is, nothing is broken. The bad news is that whatever he did has caused him to go temporarily insane. Even worse than usual.

I’m telling you the little fuzzy dude has been nibbling loco weed.

Drooley has several places he likes to laze around our yard. Behind the lilac bush, in the chair by the front door and sprawled across my petunias are three of his favorites.

Since he came home injured, he has taken to hiding in the most obscure places, like burrowing into my lamb’s ear bushes, crawling under a pallet and climbing on top of the patio table. All that activity is strange, to say the very least. But the thing that has let me know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has lost his marbles is the fact that he let Miss Maizy, aka The Interloper, get close to him and rub her head on him. A previously unheard of event that normally ends with him swatting her so hard she either falls over and runs away.

I’ve said it before and I know I’ll say it again, but this cat is just one odd little duck.

She Who Will Never Understand This Cat

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If you are like me and sitting in the bliss of ocean breezes is not on your near or distant horizon, you can at least keep your cool as temperatures rise.

Did you know certain foods can help you beat the heat?

Why not host a summer party with a theme of “Keep Your Cool?”

Go Green

As in salad greens. This is an obvious and easy choice for summer meals. Lettuce contains a lot of water as do cucumbers, celery and carrots. The added liquid helps cool you down and keep you hydrated. Set up a salad bar with some basic toppings and make entertaining this way a breeze.

Think Spicy

Food in the tropics are often spicy. The reason for this is because “hot” food such as chili peppers lower your body temp because of capsaicin, a chemical that causes skin to prespire (or glow, as I prefer to call it). That glow cools you as it evaporates. Add a few spicy additions to your salad bar and see how popular they will be. (Except to those of us you have an aversion to spicy foods. I’ll just eat some chocolate to make up for it.)

Hint of Mint

Both peppermint and wintergreen contain menthol which has a cooling effect. Add mint to salads, side dishes, desserts and drinks. My BFF thinks I make peppermint iced tea just for her but I really enjoy it, too.

However you decide to entertain this summer, remember to relax, enjoy your guests and have fun.

She Who Now Craves Peppermint Tea

 

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Around this time of the summer, I start dreaming of being somewhere tropical and wonderful versus somewhere that the lawn needs mowed, the housework needs some attention and someone needs to go to the grocery store. Again.

So to compensate for the fact that fresh pineapple is about as close to an exotic location as I’m going to get, I like to fill my home with some fun fragrances.

Three of my favorites are:

Sage & Citrus from Yankee Candle

Island Nectar from Bath & Body Works

Tropical Spice by Bath & Body Works

And when I just need a little extra tropical boost, I grab a tube of this:

Tahiti Sweetie from Bath & Body Works

I inhale it deeply, slather too much of it on and pretend I’m sitting in a chair somewhere close to the beach.

What is your favorite summer candle or lotion scent?

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