I do believe I promised you a hot drink. This is the first hot drink I've ever made, and (as always) I made some mistakes while making it. But on this dark, cold, windy, rainy December night in the desert, it still tasted grand regardless. (It helps that I also have access to a dozen Christmas albums, a loving family, and a wood stove. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is civilization.)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
4 ounces boiling water
2 ounces dark rum
1 whole clove
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
In an Irish coffee glass, combine the brown sugar and boiling water. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the rum and the clove. Float the butter and sprinkle nutmeg on top.
I know rum is from the Caribbean, but I have to say, after tasting this drink, that I believe the concept of hot buttered rum was the driving force behind rum's invention. Hot buttered rum is amazingly good, and seems to capture the flavor of wintertime and the holidays better than anything else I've had (so far).
I've never had Irish coffee, so I'd better reserve judgment until I do.
I did everything right up until the "float the butter" part. I cut off a teaspoon's worth of butter from the stick, dropped it into the steaming water...and realized that I had no clue where Mom keeps the nutmeg.
There followed five minutes of rooting around in the spice cabinet. During this intermission, the butter melted. Undaunted, I took the elusive nutmeg and sprinkled some liberally onto the liquid's surface, then took a sip.
The four hours of Southern California traffic I'd endured (and the pile of rain, fog and wind on top of it) melted away instantly.
This is one of those drinks that's impossible to describe articulately. Unless "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" is a word. The rum provides a tasty baseline for the clove, nutmeg and brown sugar to rest on and give off their spicy aromas and flavors. And the temperature of the thing is not to be underestimated. If you've just come in out of the cold after a hard day (as I have)...this is the drink for you. Sip it slowly, it packs a wallop. A good, homey, Christmasy sort of wallop.
This sounds great -- it really does! I'll bet I could manage it drizzled over vanilla ice cream...
I always think I'm going to love hot alcoholic drinks and I can always manage at least one taste -- but then something kicks in and I find myself thinking that I'm drinking hot mouthwash. It's not that I come from a family of teetotalers, I swear it -- I just don't do alcohol. Unless it's tequila and orange juice and I'm totally at the end of my tether.
I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm oh so jealous of your woodstove. I miss having one more than I thought possible. And I miss chopping wood.
I have a recipe for Hot Buttered Rum that is quite a bit more decadent than this. Here it is, in case you want to compare:
Blend 1 lb. brown sugar, 1 lb. confectioners' sugar, 1/2 lb. butter, at room temp., and 1 qt. vanilla ice cream, slightly melted. Add rum to taste and garnish with nutmeg.
To make 1 drink, put 2 tbsp of the ice cream mixture in a mug. Add 1 jigger of rum and fill the mug with boiling water. Garnish with nutmeg. Freeze remaining ice cream mixture in a plastic container for future use.
Pollinatrix: That new picture is quite good! A lot more personal, a lot more YOU.
I hadn't even realized how much I missed chopping wood until I went over to my buddy John's house and we did it for 3 hours. Man, it was great. Therapeutic, in fact.
A decadent buttered rum recipe indeed! I've heard of ice-cream variants, but that one takes the cake. Whoops, that's two dessert references in the same sentence...
EC: Oh, I'm sorry...did I not drop enough hints in previous posts? I have a very dear (female) friend visiting me from out of town. She got in on the 13th and will be here until tomorrow. In the meantime, we've been traveling all over Southern California, and we're heading off to Vegas in a few hours to pull an all-nighter before her plane leaves at 6:30 Friday morning. So I've been a bit busy to blog, for once. Don't worry, an account of the trip is coming. I feel your sense of urgency...
The weather here has been lovely during the day, mostly sunny and mild- yesterday, on our way to a Christmas party, we had the most beautiful sunset! Pinks and orange and yellows, puffy cotton candy clouds.
It's getting very cold at night and I worry a great deal about animals left outside.
Postman-
Yes, you did say that! About company. I just thought she was staying for the day or something.
Miss your writing and your comments.
Looking forward to hearing all about it.
At the Christmas party, Postman, I ordered coconut rum, double shot, and Coke Zero. Very yummy.
Speaking of writing and comments, I better go see what Polly's up to.
Oooooh, snow for Christams. Just like "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Yes, you are so lucky.
I've looked at Taos on a map. You are 16 hours away from me.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you the weirdest thing. I mean, WEIRD.
Postman, this concerns you too-
Okay, so Postman hasn't written in several days and I'm fooling around on his site, so I thought I'd go back and read his very first post, you know, see what he was like, what he said, that sort of thing. (It was adorable.)
Well, what's so bizarre is that that very morning, as I sleep late most days, as I need more sleep than most people do, even though they say, "Oh, but you're SO high energy", I had this vivid dream. (How's that for bad sentence structure, Polly?)
In the dream I caught a long, silver-ish fish.
And just WHAT do you think?
Postman had my very fish from my dream on his blog!
I'm telling you, it was incredibly eerie.
But you know, what does it mean? Probably nothing.
I do that all the time. Dream something and then it happens the next day.
Do you guys do that?
However, nearly all my dreams do not add up to anything significant. Still, don't you guys think that's SO weird?
Whoa...a fish? From your dream? In my blog? Where??? Wacky...
Thank you for adoring the preamble...I missed you guys while I was out, too.
Nope, my special guest Alli stayed for the week. We went all over heck and back, it was great. Will soon update.
Oh, and before I forget, EC, I also want to apologize for not calling you back sooner. I'm afraid today is going to be booked up until the evening. I just pulled that all-nighter in Vegas and have been up now for 25.5 hours straight, which includes four meals, some cocktails, Blue Man Group, and a helluva lot of walking up and down the Strip. Have to hit the sack now.
Good night to all of your sententious oohing and aahing over snow for Christmas. Haven't a whiff of it here.
No worries about calling me back. I knew you had company so I didn't call you either. Anyway, it'd been *awkward* to explain how I'm calling and I'm your fiance and all.
God forbid Polly should call you too.
It'd just beg a line of questioning I'm sure you'd just as soon avoid. :)
I thought our invitations could read:
"The honor of your presence is requested to our highly illegal, yet elegant affair."
I have my six questions written down in my file cabinet, waiting for you. It was just going to be the one question but you know...
Call me when it's good for you. I do teach tomorrow night and we are the judges for our neighborhood Christmas decorating contest. But I'd say, after 9:30-ish my time, I'm free.
13 comments:
This sounds great -- it really does! I'll bet I could manage it drizzled over vanilla ice cream...
I always think I'm going to love hot alcoholic drinks and I can always manage at least one taste -- but then something kicks in and I find myself thinking that I'm drinking hot mouthwash. It's not that I come from a family of teetotalers, I swear it -- I just don't do alcohol. Unless it's tequila and orange juice and I'm totally at the end of my tether.
I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm oh so jealous of your woodstove. I miss having one more than I thought possible. And I miss chopping wood.
I have a recipe for Hot Buttered Rum that is quite a bit more decadent than this. Here it is, in case you want to compare:
Blend 1 lb. brown sugar, 1 lb. confectioners' sugar, 1/2 lb. butter, at room temp., and 1 qt. vanilla ice cream, slightly melted. Add rum to taste and garnish with nutmeg.
To make 1 drink, put 2 tbsp of the ice cream mixture in a mug. Add 1 jigger of rum and fill the mug with boiling water. Garnish with nutmeg. Freeze remaining ice cream mixture in a plastic container for future use.
Polly,
I like that new picture of you! And oh yes. I came over here to complain to Postman about how he's not blogged in several days.
Not that I'm worried. I know he's fine. I like reading him and... well... HELLO?!
Are you still drunk from the recipe and therefore, can not blog?
Have some coffee, man! Your readers are restless.
I have spoken.
Why thank you, EC.
I guess we'll just have our own little conversation here, since Postman is MIA.
So how's the weather?
Pollinatrix: That new picture is quite good! A lot more personal, a lot more YOU.
I hadn't even realized how much I missed chopping wood until I went over to my buddy John's house and we did it for 3 hours. Man, it was great. Therapeutic, in fact.
A decadent buttered rum recipe indeed! I've heard of ice-cream variants, but that one takes the cake. Whoops, that's two dessert references in the same sentence...
EC: Oh, I'm sorry...did I not drop enough hints in previous posts? I have a very dear (female) friend visiting me from out of town. She got in on the 13th and will be here until tomorrow. In the meantime, we've been traveling all over Southern California, and we're heading off to Vegas in a few hours to pull an all-nighter before her plane leaves at 6:30 Friday morning. So I've been a bit busy to blog, for once. Don't worry, an account of the trip is coming. I feel your sense of urgency...
Polly,
The weather here has been lovely during the day, mostly sunny and mild- yesterday, on our way to a Christmas party, we had the most beautiful sunset! Pinks and orange and yellows, puffy cotton candy clouds.
It's getting very cold at night and I worry a great deal about animals left outside.
Postman-
Yes, you did say that! About company. I just thought she was staying for the day or something.
Miss your writing and your comments.
Looking forward to hearing all about it.
At the Christmas party, Postman, I ordered coconut rum, double shot, and Coke Zero. Very yummy.
Speaking of writing and comments, I better go see what Polly's up to.
I'm so lucky to live where I do. We have beautiful sunsets here every single frigging day.
I want more snow before Christmas.
Polly,
Oooooh, snow for Christams. Just like "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Yes, you are so lucky.
I've looked at Taos on a map. You are 16 hours away from me.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you the weirdest thing. I mean, WEIRD.
Postman, this concerns you too-
Okay, so Postman hasn't written in several days and I'm fooling around on his site, so I thought I'd go back and read his very first post, you know, see what he was like, what he said, that sort of thing. (It was adorable.)
Well, what's so bizarre is that that very morning, as I sleep late most days, as I need more sleep than most people do, even though they say, "Oh, but you're SO high energy", I had this vivid dream. (How's that for bad sentence structure, Polly?)
In the dream I caught a long, silver-ish fish.
And just WHAT do you think?
Postman had my very fish from my dream on his blog!
I'm telling you, it was incredibly eerie.
But you know, what does it mean? Probably nothing.
I do that all the time. Dream something and then it happens the next day.
Do you guys do that?
However, nearly all my dreams do not add up to anything significant. Still, don't you guys think that's SO weird?
Oh, I looked up Taos because when we get married, I have to see where I'll be living. ;)
Whoa...a fish? From your dream? In my blog? Where??? Wacky...
Thank you for adoring the preamble...I missed you guys while I was out, too.
Nope, my special guest Alli stayed for the week. We went all over heck and back, it was great. Will soon update.
Oh, and before I forget, EC, I also want to apologize for not calling you back sooner. I'm afraid today is going to be booked up until the evening. I just pulled that all-nighter in Vegas and have been up now for 25.5 hours straight, which includes four meals, some cocktails, Blue Man Group, and a helluva lot of walking up and down the Strip. Have to hit the sack now.
Good night to all of your sententious oohing and aahing over snow for Christmas. Haven't a whiff of it here.
Postman,
No worries about calling me back. I knew you had company so I didn't call you either. Anyway, it'd been *awkward* to explain how I'm calling and I'm your fiance and all.
God forbid Polly should call you too.
It'd just beg a line of questioning I'm sure you'd just as soon avoid. :)
I thought our invitations could read:
"The honor of your presence is requested to our highly illegal, yet elegant affair."
What do you think?
I like it. Eloquent, but not overly wordy. Is there a better time to call? Saturday night? Sunday or Monday?
Postman,
I have my six questions written down in my file cabinet, waiting for you. It was just going to be the one question but you know...
Call me when it's good for you. I do teach tomorrow night and we are the judges for our neighborhood Christmas decorating contest. But I'd say, after 9:30-ish my time, I'm free.
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