Hot Buttered Rum

Recipe:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (now you KNOW it'll be good)
2 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
dark rum

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl using a hand mixer on low speed. Add ice cream, spices, and vanilla. Mix until well blended (try not to incorporate too much air in the mixture). Place mixture in a plastic container with a lid, seal and freeze. When ready to serve, scoop two heaping tablespoons of the mixture into a mug, add a jigger of rum and fill with boiling water. Stir lightly to combine.


Is there any better concept than drinking butter? Drinking cheese, perhaps. But this will have to do for now. This is a rich, decadent treat on a cold winter evening. The butter will float to the top of the beverage, creating a creamy head and each sip is deliciously satisfying. The best part about this recipe is it makes enough for a dozen or so servings, so one batch will deliver multiple mugfuls of happiness. Kristin and I have enjoyed this many times this winter.

Supposedly, traditional hot buttered rum was made by adding rum to hot cider and floating a pat of butter on top. I like this recipe a lot better.

Dusk in Eden

OK, so we're back and committed to updating this regularly. However, in a nod to a concern from a good friend of ours, we are abandoning the idea of this blog being entirely about the tiki drinks. We'll still work through that deck and number those entries, but we're adding some seasonal drinks as well. So, without further ado ...

Dusk in Eden



2 oz. vodka
1.5 oz. apple juice
2 tbsp. pomegranate arils, plus additional for garnish
splash of simple syrup

Muddle the arils in the bottom of a cocktail shaker with the simple syrup. Fill shaker with ice and add vodka and juice. Shake until well mixed and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with additional pomegranate arils.

This is a PERFECT autumn cocktail. We loved it. When the first sip hits the tongue, the apple juice is in full force, but is quickly tamed by the power of the vodka. The tart pomegranate adds a lovely finish. This was fantastic and a flawless addition to a cool fall evening. And the color is beautiful and very fall.

The biggest drawback to this is the fresh pomegranate, which is kind of a pain to prepare and will stain anything it comes in contact with. We didn't try it this way, but I'm willing to bet that a generous splash of pomegranate juice would provide an adequate substitute (although you would miss the treat of the pomegranate seeds at the end of the drink).

#2: Jungle Runner

Recipe:
1.5 oz. spiced rum (we used Captain Morgan)
1.5 oz. Myers's dark rum
3 oz. fruit punch (we used Hawaiian Punch)

Shake ingredients over ice. Strain into a chilled collins glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lemon slice.

Our second foray into the deck was met with better results, but the catch here is that you've gotta like rum. Fortunately, we do.

The look of this drink is deceiving, as it appears to be fruity and sweet. One sip will quickly remind you, however, that it's 50 percent rum. The contrast of flavors work well ... the richness of the dark rum and the sweetness of the fruit punch keep each other in check, while the spiced rum adds a good finish.

This is a good cocktail for someone looking to avoid a sugary drink. But the flavor of the rum is not masked, so if you're not a fan, this isn't for you.

Side note: this actually works surprisingly well with food. We had our first round of these at a friend's house with dinner. The second round (the actual cocktail hour) were sipped over a round of dominoes.

Side note 2: I totally kicked ass at dominoes.

#1: Seafoam

Recipe:
1 oz. light rum
1 oz. Midori
1 oz. blue curacao
Sprite or 7-Up

Shake first three ingredients over ice. Strain into a chilled Collins glass. Fill glass with Sprite or 7-Up.


So ... yeah. This is not very good.

On the one hand, the color is very appealing. It looks kind of like radioactive Scope.

But then there's the taste. After Kristin took her first sip, she said, "It's like drinking a cantaloupe." At first, I agreed. It was as though the Midori was dominating the flavor. But after a few sips, I noticed there was something familiar about the flavor. It took me a while to pinpoint it, but eventually we came to an agreement.

This drink tastes like a big pink wad of bubblegum.

It's not unpleasant, but it's not particularly good. We both finished ours, but neither of us had any desire for a second one.

On the plus side, we did reach one agreement: the vast majority of storylines on this season of True Blood are really not interesting.

So it begins ...

The impetus behind this blog was an episode of "Good Eats" about cocktails. Alton Brown quipped that cocktail hour was once a daily ritual and the traditional end to the work day. In today's society, of course, the work day doesn't ever really end, so the ritual of cocktail hour sort of died with it. Which, I think, is quite sad.

My wife Kristin and I decided this is a concept that needs to be revived. We spend far too much of our free time glued to the television or our laptops, and we thought it would be nice to set aside an hour or two per week to make drinks and just talk.

Sometimes we invite friends. Sometimes we don't. We've yet to actually make this a weekly thing, but we're working on it.

Anyway, to help us, we got this:




There are 52 cards in the deck, each with a different recipe. So we're going to work our way through this deck and I'll be blogging about the drinks along the way.

To be clear ...

- We will try EVERY drink in the deck at least once.
- They will not all be good.
- Several of these drinks will be blue.
- Tiny umbrellas will be involved.

So ... yeah. Hope you'll join us.