Sure Is Hot

If Pope Gregory lived in Florida when he was working on the calendar there would only have been eleven months.
 
He would have skipped September.
 
Florida is hot in the summer. By the time September rolls around, it has been too hot for too long.
 
Everybody wants to talk about the heat. And everyone is saying that this summer is the hottest summer ever. It's not. The hottest September ever is always the first one.
 
My first September was perplexing. I had obviously made some tragic error that had brought me to this unbearably hot place. I did not know what had gone wrong.
 
Spending the winter in Florida was such a great idea.
 
The AC in our apartment was so weak that we used to drag the mattress off our bed and lay it under the puny little window unit in the kitchen. We would then prostrate ourselves on the mattress in an attitude of prayer and beg the whining little beast to please try harder.
 
But that was 35 Septembers ago. I am older and wiser than that now.
 
I own tons of air conditioning.
 
I have also developed a few life and culinary tools to cope with the September Hot.
 
I will share some of them with you.
 
1 - Go to Nova Scotia
 
2 - An old favorite pastime of mine on an unbearably hot September afternoon is to find a line at a cash register ... the hardware store, the post office or the drug store.
 
Get in line with all of those grave, stressed, sweltering people, wait for a quiet moment, and then announce with certitude..."sure is hot."
 
People have been known to weep.
 
It is cruel but fun.
 
3 - Drink … preferably something alcoholic and spicy and lemony with a lot of ice.
 

We at the Bistro have concocted the perfect September Hot beverage. We have named it the “Sure Is Hot”. It is Tequila-based because Tequila was created for hot days, by people who know heat.
 
We start the cocktail with the best Maple Syrup in the whole world. My wife Susan found it during one of our visits to Nova Scotia. It is deep in flavor and color. It comes from a lovely family who own really tough little maple trees that grow right on the ocean.
 
We aren’t going to tell you their names because you might try to get some.
 
We pour the Tequila over ice, add a trickle of the world’s best maple syrup, then fresh squeezed lemon juice and a soupcon of sriracha.
 
Shake well and sip your heated cares away.
 
4 - Another great September Hot island tradition is to walk into the Bistro bar and say to Fred or Briana..."sure is hot".
 
Then the first one is on me. Try out our new “Sure Is Hot” cocktail.
 
It will help get you to October.
 
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Sean Murphy is the owner of the Beach Bistro and Eat Here restaurants. He writes on matters culinary from time to time.
 
Visit the Beach Bistro website and check out the precise mix of his new Sure Is Hot cocktail.