Warm Cocktails: Wine
Make no mistake: Old Man Winter still believes in corporal punishment. All cold-weather animals have a way of coping. Birds skip town. Bears go to sleep in a cave. Fish probably freeze to death, but I don’t know. We humans go skiing, have sex and drink lots of booze — not bad options considering you could be building a dam with a muskrat in an icy river.
It’s the booze that concerns us here. Certainly a glass of Scotch or some alcohol in your coffee will get you through, but it’s a long season and you will want some options. We took a look at some classic warm cocktails you may be familiar with — gluhwein, spiked cider, hot buttered rum, the unfortunately named hot toddy — and then asked our friends in the cocktail business and at restaurants in the chilly Northeast to give us their versions.
Germans have been drinking wine for more than 600 years. During the winter you’ll find gluhwein at every holiday market and in pretty much any major city square. (They have the advantage of more relaxed open container laws.) Cobble the basic version together with red wine, cinnamon sticks, vanilla pods, cloves, star anise, citrus, and some sugar, and heat it up.
Julie Reiner, the cocktail guru, showed us this recipe for a wine-based punch that’s also fortified with Campari and orange liqueur. It’s richer and more complex than your run-of-the-mill gluwein.
GASPARE’S WINTER PUNCH
Ingredients
¾ cup Campari
¾ cup orange liqueur
2 bottles medium-bodied red wine
6 cups cranberry juice
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
½ cup raisins
½ cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange
6 cinnamon sticks
10 whole cloves
10 whole allspice
6 whole star anise
1 whole nutmeg
1 tsp almond extract
Instructions
Sort cranberries discarding bruised fruit. Rinse and place in a 6-quart pan with raisins, orange zest, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and cranberry juice. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes to blend flavors. Add wine and sugar and heat until steaming (6-8 minutes). Do not bring to a boil. Add Campari, orange liqueur and almond extract. Strain out cranberries and ladle into punch cups. Garnish with a cinnamon stick and star anise.
Cider
Hot cider is the sober man’s version of mulled wine – mulled juice. When you’re really trying to stay warm, it doesn’t hurt to add rum or brandy and spices just liked the mulled wine. But there is a better combination.
LA ESQUINA TEQUILA -INFUSED CIDER
Ingredients
1 gallon fresh pressed apple cider (unsweetened), preferably from a farmer’s market
5 cloves
2 star anise
1 – 4″ piece of canela (mexican cinnamon – regular cinnamon can be
substituted)
2 oranges, cut into quarters
Instructions
In a small pan, gently toast the spices over medium heat until toasted,
about 3 minutes.
Add the cider, toasted spices, and quartered orange to a pot and bring to
a gentle simmer.
Continue simmering over low heat for 10 minutes.
Some restaurants serve another variation on the hot cider cocktail called Warm Apple Pie Moonshine (shown in photo), made with local Bully Boy Organic White whisky, Stoli Vanilla, and house-made warm apple pie spiced cider.
Tea
Although the American Lung Association suggests otherwise, we usually treat a cold with a combination of tea, honey, lemon, and whiskey — the foppishly-named hot toddy. Some versions are made without tea, but if you do that, it’s a lot harder to pass this drink off as alternative medicine.
Cold, puritanical Boston is the best place for toddy hunting. The Harrington Toddy (pictured) is a combination of Jameson, honey, sour mix, tea, and lemon zest.
The ultimate hot toddy is called The Mirage.
THE MIRAGE
Ingredients
3/4 oz Egyptian mint tea
3/4 oz Privateer Rum
3/4 oz simple syrup
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Topped with Chandon Brut
Instructions
Combine ingredients. Garnish with mint leaves and serve in a highball glass.
The Ginger Hot Toddy
If you’re going to skip the tea, try this version from Cafe Colette in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood. It’s made with Barenjager (honey liqueur), Old Grand-Dad bourbon, ginger, clove, simple syrup, lemon juice, and star anise (for garnish).
Jamaican Hot Buttered Rum
After a dicey experience drinking Tibetan butter tea made from tea, yak butter and salt, I basically don’t make any drinks with butter. In my house it goes on toast and into pie crusts, if I were to ever make a pie crust. But hot buttered rum has a long if murky history as a warm American cocktail, and it’s a fine drink on a cold night at the local tavern.
JAMAICAN HOT BUTTERED RUM
Ingredients (makes a large batch of cocktail base)
1 lb brown sugar
0.25 lb butter
Pinch of salt
4.0 oz. fresh apple cider
0.5 oz fresh extracted ginger juice
0.5 tsp nutmeg
0.5 tsp allspice
Instructions
Blend the ingredients together and bring to a boil before removing from the heat. Let cool and store in refrigerator. For individual cocktails, add 2 tablespoons of the base, 2 oz of Appleton Estate Reserve rum or other rum, 6 oz of hot water, and stir.
Truffled Hot Buttered Rum
Manhattan restaurant Saxon + Parole also uses Appleton Reserve for its version of hot buttered rum, but from there things get downright alchemical with the addition of Licor 43, Allspice Dram and truffle butter. It’s the type of thing your estranged but well-to-do uncle brings to the family reunion.
Truffled Hot Buttered Rum
1.5 oz Appleton Reserve rum
½ oz Licor 43
¼ oz All Spice Dram liqueur
½ oz ginger syrup
Boiling water
1 tsp. truffle butter
Pre-heat a Toddy glass. Add all ingredients and then butter. Once dissolved, grate cinnamon and drop in glass
Source: AskMen.com (writer: Jeremy Berger)
Category Healthy Living, Uncategorized |
10 Jan, 2012 | Author: krmihova | Comments Off
Men tend to vent their anger that emotion with physical play such as hitting. Then came the words do not go near a man who was emotional because he could become a creature of the rough.
Instead women tend to grumble when you’re angry. Why do men prefer to play physical when angry?
According to research, men and women really think differently. This is because of differences in brain anatomy between men and women.
Dr. Charles E. Damping, SpKJ from the Department of Psychiatry at the Faculty of medicine-RSCM Press Conference The 4th Annual Women’s Health Expo in FKUI-RSCM, explains that the brains of men and women differ in the chemical, spatial, verbal, memory and the gray matter and white matter.
In chemicals, women’s brains contain more serotonin, which makes it behave more peaceful than men. In addition, women’s brains also have oxytocin, a substance that binds human with other humans or with more objects.
“Two things affect the brain’s biological tendency of men to act in advance rather than talk. That’s why men are more easy to hit when angry, if not nagging old lady,” said Dr. Charles E. Damping, SpKJ.
While spatially, the area of the brain cortex sucked more men to perform spatial functions and tend to give a little on the local portion korteksnya to produce and use words.
Corpus collosum male brain is smaller than a quarter of the female brain. When the male brain uses only the right brain hemisphere, brain woman can maximize both.
“That’s why women are more talkative (fussy) than men,” said Dr Charles.
Research on the gray matter and white matter of the brain, showed that in general men have gray matter 6.5 times greater than women, whereas white matter 10 times more women than men.
It makes men more likely to excel in fields that require local processes such as mathematics. While women are more superior in the field of integerasi and assimilation (adaptation) information such as language skills.
And in memory, the memory center (hippocampus) in women’s brains bigger than the male brain. This makes him easy to forget, while the woman can remember every detail.
“Hence, the mothers do not get mad if my husband had forgotten an important date, because it’s much less memory than the female brain,” added Dr. Charles.
From the difference in brain anatomy and function, not surprising that the outlook and behavior of men and women differ significantly.
Category Uncategorized, Understand Men |
02 Dec, 2011 | Author: krmihova | Comments Off
Question: How many times is too much? How many times is not enough?
Answer: Now here is a real guy question. Unfortunately, there’s not a concrete, one-size-fits-all answer. First, let’s deal with entitlement. We are not entitled to all the sex we want.
Sex isn’t something that you want to approach just from a physical perspective.
If you’re looking for averages, two to three times a week is average for couples under 50 and one to two times a week is average for couples over 50.
Now for some of you, this would be heaven. For others, this would be hell. If your wife is within these ranges, you have a healthy, sexual woman. Most likely, she’s not your fantasy’s insatiable several-times-a-day-porn-star you might have trained your brain and body to think is normal. Sorry! That is poor training for intimate, satisfying sex.
Now if you are keeping your eyes open, the lights on and having nurturing conversation during sex, then both you and she will be more sexually satiated. The more intimate sex is, the more satiated you will feel. The more satiated you feel, the longer you can go between meals—so to speak.
Let’s talk about working out the appetite differences between you and your wife. You and your wife can work out a sexual agreement that you both can be satiated with.
Remember, how can two walk together unless they agree?
When assisting couples toward reaching sexual agreement and harmony, I ask them how often they would like to have sex. It is surprising how many times their answers are the same.
They look at each other in amazement, and then say to me that they really didn’t know they agreed so closely on the issue. My next question is usually, “Then why aren’t you doing it that often?” Typically their answer is that they haven’t had any real discussion or communication about the issue.
Question: Do you think foreplay is wrong?
Answer: Absolutely not. Foreplay is what makes sex fun! If you have played any sport in your masculine life, you know about the warm-up phase. Your coach would have you stretch, pull and twist to get you ready to play.
Sex is more than a sport and foreplay is more than just groping at your spouse. Remember that the rest of her body is foreplay, too. Go for her hair, back and feet before you move on.
Remember that sex is also three-dimensional. Have your spiritual foreplay intact. Make sure you have been sharing your heart and not just managing communication with your wife. Make sure appreciations for the many things she does as well are flowing from your lips.
Also, consider that the woman you want to engage with is a global thinker; make sure you have kept your word or have done your assignments (honey do’s). Yes, a random act of kindness (laundry and dishes) is also foreplay. So foreplay of all types is really good.
Question: My wife and I have 3 children, and neither of us wants to have surgery. Is there a “safe age” to stop using condoms?
Answer: Many men have erroneous fears about the surgery to their private area. The visions of the doctor slipping and ending their sex life flash through many men’s minds. They may also believe that sex won’t be as great after the surgery. None of these are true.
For you, it’s an outpatient surgery and you can go right back to work that same day. If you don’t want that surgery and you keep using condoms, you must be aware that they are not foolproof. I heard one sex educator state that they are about 70 percent effective.
So you are still running a risk of having the fourth child. If this is your only method of birth control, then the only time to stop using a condom is when your wife has gone through menopause.
That may be a long time from now, so if you’re going to use condoms, I have two pieces of advice. First, make sure you check the expiration dates on the condoms before you purchase them. Using a newer condom is better than an expired condom. Second, stock up on them so you don’t run into a night where you don’t have any.
Doug Weiss, Ph.D., is founder of Heart to Heart Counseling Center and author of The 7 Love Agreements, which explains the power of unity in marriage and outlines seven “love agreements” that will revitalize relationships (available at strangdirect.com). Contact him at drdougweiss.com, or 5080 Mark Dabling Blvd., Colorado Springs, CO 80918, or info@drdougweiss.com.
Source: NewMan
Tags: condoms, foreplay, love, married, menopause, sex, sex life, vasectomy, viagra, wife
Category Sex Life |
24 Nov, 2011 | Author: krmihova | Comments Off
It’s a rare man who knows how to deal with an emotional woman. I know that “feelings” scare a lot of dudes, and in their fear and perfectly admirable desire to “fix things,” they become inert, inept or insensitive.
Number 10: “You’re going to be alright.”
Of course I’m going to be alright, Captain Obvious, just give me a minute.
Better Alternative: “I can see how upset you are right now.”
Number 9: “Don’t cry”
This is like telling me not to breathe. Once the tears started coming,they are NOT going to stop.
Better Alternative: “Let me get you some tissues.”
Number 8 :”Maybe you just need to get laid.”
Um, sex is probably the last thing on my mind right this second. Your magic penis, and hands, and tongue can’t solve this problem.
Better Alternative:
A simple form of physical affection does wonders here. Hand-holding, hair-stroking, or spooning recommended. We might even want to do it once we’ve found our way out of Emotionville.
Number 7 :”Stay strong for me.”
When will you learn that being emotionally vulnerable IS a form of strength? Also, I’ll stay strong for ME, not for you.
Better Alternative: “You are strong. You can handle this.”
Number 6: ………..
Dead silence, a look of confusion, or a big, annoyed-sounding sigh. All nonverbal communication failures.
Better Alternative: Eye contact. A compassionate expression. Empathy tears (a very advanced move – you must practice).
Number 5: “It’s not a big deal. We don’t need to make a production out of this.”
Well, it’s clearly a big deal to me.
Better Alternative: “Explain to me why you’re so upset.”
Number 4: “Are you getting your period?”
Aren’t I allowed to be upset and have it not be related to my period? Sensitivity happens all month long, buddy.
Better Alternative: “Are you feeling sensitive today?”
Number 3: “There’s nothing you can do to change it, so why are you getting upset?”
If we abide by that logic, the world will be an even colder, crueler place to live. True fact: Human beings sometimes get upset about stuff we can’t change.
Better Alternative: “I know it’s hard to accept.”
Number 2: “You are overreacting.”
Well, this is my reaction right now. So… yeah.
Better Alternative: “Maybe it’s not as bad as you think” or “It will get easier with time.”
Number 1 :”Pull yourself together.”
Oh, hold on. Let me find my “emotion off” button. Oh, crap! I don’t have one? Arrghhhhhh!
Better Alternative: “Take as much time as you need. I’m here for you.”
source: AskMen
Category The Best of, Uncategorized |
28 Oct, 2011 | Author: krmihova | Comments Off
With Christmas and New Year’s around the corner, you know it’s that time of the year again. No, we are not talking about presents and fireworks. It’s that dreaded onslaught of bitter winter weather and a time when even the most fashion conscious men are taking a hiatus on style. You can opt for comfort but let’s not dismiss fashion entirely shall we? Consider this a guide men fashion trends for 2011 winter you can avoid in pursuit of warmth and comfort during the frigid months ahead.
1. Patterned Chunky Knits
Over-sized chunky details on sweaters are all the rage this season, making it one of the strongest trends to hit Fall/Winter 2011 runways for women and men alike. Such knits are distressed in such a way from larger than life cabling to exaggerated ribbing, leaving wearers to think that this might just be hand-knitted. But, the look can make you look bulkier than you actually are. So, err on the side of caution with this trend, for those of you who anticipate to put on some holiday weight.
2. Oversized Coats
A well lined coat is a staple during the winter, an essential to brave the cold. We’re still seeing plenty of exquisitely tailored coats for Fall/Winter 2011. But, the oversized trend has made its mark on coats. At the Acne show, coats that are way past knee length billows behind the model as they strut their way down the runway. I ask myself, are these appropriate for the winter, especially when you’re trudging through inch deep snow.
3. Men in Black Fashion?
Hues of dark color such as black have always been a frequent element for winter. Breaking free of the shackles of traditional winter palette, designers are showing an influx of bright colors in their 2011 collection. So, ditch the black ensemble and go for an outfit with a pop of color to brighten up those gloomy winter days.
4. Need flamboyant headwear?
Novelty hats have become a thing of the runway, providing necessary theatricality that elevates the collection to another level. Note, Agnes B or Alexander Mcqueen’s Fall/Winter 2011 menswear show where pirate and military head gears are heavily accentuated. At risk of looking like you’re heading for a Halloween party, let’s keep the winter hats in check and stick with your basic ski caps, fedoras, newsboy hats and bowlers.
5. Your Favorite Suede!
For those of you who receive snow during the winter, avoid suede at all cost! Be it a badass suede jacket, suede boots or chic suede pants. It’s a known fact that suede loses its integrity when worn through damp weather, i.e. rain or snow.
Source: A Man Fashion blogspot
Category Fashion, Uncategorized |
09 Aug, 2011 | Author: krmihova | Comments Off
What are the best trainers in existence? Loads of you told us exactly what trainers kick other trainers asses.
In case you didn’t get involved (if so, get signed up to our Facebook page, cos we do this all the time) here’s what you should be considering when deciding what trainers are the most epic.
CLASSIC – a good trainer never goes out of style, like a pair of Converse. Anyone can get involved, wear them with pride and nobody feels like a massive tool because they’re trying to get in on a trend.
NUMBER – If all you ever buy is Reebok or Adidas, then they’re probably high on your list of the best trainers, no? If you have a long-term relationship with that brand you’re probably a bit of a fan.
PRICE – Cheap trainers (by which we mean cheap, cheap trainers) fall apart. They get smelly quicker. They look naff. There’s no point getting a cheap pair for £8 if you need to get new ones all the time. Also, gold-plated trainers worth £30,000 are stupid, and you’ll get mugged, and then you’ll be £30,000 poorer and your toilet will get repossessed.
SO with all/none of that in mind, here are the trainers that got the most votes in no particular order.
Converse All Star: always imitated but never bettered, these baseball trainers are an essential bit of kit for your feet. Loads of colours and varieties (they even do knee-high ones, if that’s your sort of thing?), these look great with a pair of chinos.
Adidas Gazelle: Rab Colquhourn on our FB page said, “Adidas Gazelles – accept no limitations” and we think Rab is a wise old bastard. The white-on-black looks killer, especially after the Craig David-inspired shell toes.
Nike Air Jordans: we’re a big fan of the Air Jordans, personally, especially these ones in red, black and white. Don’t be put off by the basketball-inspired design, these can be worn casually without people anticipating slam-dunks in public.
Source: FHM
Category The Best of, Uncategorized |
