Love

Hot Dates

By Susan Wenner Jackson /

If you’ve been married a while, especially once you have kids, dates don’t just “happen” anymore. You have to make them happen. And sure, you hear all the time that date nights are good for your relationship, that it’s important to have some “couple” time away from the kid(s).

But what if your dates are lame?
Since Cassie was born, Jay and I tried to make time for at least one date a month–or more often if we can swing it. What did we end up doing? Dinner at the same ol’ place, movie, home. Not only was this expensive, it was getting rather stale. Earlier this year, I read a New York Times article about reinventing date night for long-married couples, which said that “simply doing new things together as a couple … may help bring the butterflies back, recreating the chemical surges of early courtship.”
I am all for that.
So lately, we’ve been making more of an effort to change up our dates and try new things together. I’m going to share some of our date night successes with you in this occasional “Hot Dates” series, and I hope my fellow WMAGs will join in when they find a good date idea.

Now, for one of our first Hot Date: cooking demos/tastings. I can’t take the credit for thinking of this one. My good friend Amy in Ohio blogged about her newfound love of cooking classes and demos at a local store called the Party Source, which has its own cooking school as part of the store. I promptly “borrowed” her idea and we ended up making plans for a double date at a demo of whiskey-inspired recipes.

We all sat front-and-center as the chef did his own live cooking “show,” instructing us not only on how to make delicious meals and desserts with whiskey (mmm!) but also on clever little cooking techniques (don’t cut into the core of the onion–that’s what makes your eyes burn so much). He even let Jay get behind the stove for a bit (check out the pic–his eyebrows were only singed a little).

Meanwhile, we got to taste each dish along with a wine that complemented the flavor. For $55, we had two hours of cooking edutainment, a meal with wine and lots of laughs. Then we went out afterward with Amy and her husband Doug for a drink and recaps of the night.
If this sounds up your alley, check out your local gourmet/food/liquor stores or cooking schools in the area. They might offer such demos or tastings, and you can make your own hot date out of it!
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3 thoughts on “Hot Dates”

  1. just4ofus says:

    It is hard to come up with new ideas!
    We usually are lame too and go to dinner and then home. Which is nice, but creativity would be good : )
    Cooking class sounds fun.
    Sometimes we have spontaneous dates after the kids go to bed and we eat dinner then, and then drink some wine on the back porch and chat. It’s cheap and fun.

    Reply

  2. I love this new column idea! Our daycare does Parents Night Out and we were both disappointed with our boring dinner out; we were home by 8, watching Grey’s Anatomy!

    Cooking class sounds like a great idea. I’m looking forward to future ideas!

    Reply
  3. txbighair says:

    I love this idea! My husband and I have been married for almost 2 years and are always looking for a new date night. We have an 11 year old (his son) and our 8 month old daughter. Thanks for the post. I love this one!

    Reply

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