Firewater Friday - Allow me to ladle you a piping hot bowl of . . .

If a meal is served tome 'piping hot' I know if I gobble it down with utter disregard for its extremehotness I should do so with full knowledge that it's going to burnthe taste-buds from my tongue and scald the flesh from the roof of mymouth.  

Piping hot . . . what doesthat mean anyway?  A reference to plumbing?  If you’re in thevicinity of a burst steam pipe, it will get your attention  . . . and, I promise, it will hurt.

Nope, that’s not it.  

Does it come from theScottish tradition of ceremoniously serving food on special occasions accompaniedby the playing of the bagpipes?  Certainlythat food could be considered 'piped in'.

No, not even close.

What ‘piping hot’ refers tois the sound sizzling hot food makes as steam escapes from it . . . the sound isreminiscent of whistling teakettles and high-pitched musical pipes.

One of the first literary referenceswas from the second of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales - The Miller’s Tale (1390)

Absalom in his attempt to wooAlison . . .

He sang as tremulously asnightingale;

He sent her sweetened wineand well-spiced ale

And waffles piping hot out ofthe fire . . . 

Now a pipe dream . . . that's a whole other thing. It, too, has nothing whatsoever to do with plumbing or musical Scots.  It has everything to do with pipes . . . opium pipes.

You puff on one of those suckers you'll have dreams like no other . . . pipe dreams, as it were.

Absolut® Orient Apple Breeze

2 Parts Absolut Orient Apple

2 Parts Cranberry Juice

1/2 Part Fresh Pink GrapeJuice

Combine all ingredients andpour over rocks in a highball glass.