After a few days of bright sunshine, it starts to rain again today.  I'm always amazed of how mood changes drastically with the presence or lack-of sunshine.  On a cold, and rainy day, all you want to do is curling up with a good book or movie with a cup of hot cocoa or other beverage of choice in hand.


Talking about beverage of choice, another one of my favorite drinks for this kind of days is hot buttered rum. And it's one of those things that seem too complicated to make at home, but then once you look into it, is really a breeze.  A big hooray for the internet.

I found this recipe of Old Fashioned Hot Buttered Rum.


1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups vanilla ice cream
rum
water
nutmeg

1. Combine sugar, brown sugar and butter in a 2-quart saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted (6-8 min).
2. Combine cooked mixture with ice-cream in a large mixing bowl, and beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until smooth (1-2 min). Store refrigerated up to 2 weeks or frozen up to one month (mine lasted about a week ;))

3. For each serving, fill one-quarter of a mug with mixture, add one ounce rum and three-quarters of a cup of boiling water. Sprinkle with nutmeg.



And you see, I got addicted to it in no time and finished my last batch today while watching the cold raindrops drifting down my window.  Somehow, the sweet, smooth, and warm taste helps make the gloomy day tolerable. <3

ช่วงเทศกาลคริสต์มาส เครื่องดื่มที่มีธรรมเนียมดื่มกันคือไวน์หวานอุ่นๆ ใส่เครื่องเทศ หรือ Mulled Wine. สูตรนี้เป็นสูตรประยุกต์ของตัวเอง ง่ายๆ อร่อยเหลือหลาย จนดื่มได้ไม่ยอมหยุด อิอิ

 During Christmas season, one of my favorite drinks is mulled wine. Here's my simplified version that I do love very much.



   

History:

This kind of beverage is also called "Wassail" -- the word which as a beverage is a hot, mulled punch often associated with Yuletide. Historically, the drink was a mulled cider made with sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg and topped with slices of toast. Modern recipes begin with a base of wine, fruit juice, or mulled ale, sometimes with brandy or sherry added. Apples or oranges are often added to the mix.  While the beverage typically served as "wassail" at modern holiday feasts with a medieval theme most closely resembles mulled cider, historical wassail drinks were completely different, more likely to be mulled beer or mead. Sugar, ale, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon would be placed in a bowl, heated, and topped with slices of toast as sops.

 Hence the first stanza of the traditional carol the Gloucestershire Wassail dating back to the Middle Ages:

 Wassail! wassail! all over the town,
Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown;
Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree;
With the wassailing bowl, we'll drink to thee.

At Carhampton, near Minehead, the Apple Orchard Wassailing is held on the Old Twelfth Night (17 January) as a ritual to ask God for a good apple harvest. The villagers form a circle around the largest apple tree, hang pieces of toast soaked in cider in the branches for the robins, who represent the 'good spirits' of the tree. A shotgun is fired overhead to scare away evil spirits and the group sings, the following being the last verse:

Old Apple tree, old apple tree;
We've come to wassail thee;
 To bear and to bow apples enow;
Hats full, caps full, three bushel bags full;
 Barn floors full and a little heap under the stairs.

Reference: Wassail Washington Irving's Sketchbook Bracebridge Dinner