Okay, to be honest our nights right now aren’t too cold. It’s been about 60 here the past few days, including Christmas. Sadly, not even close to the white Christmas Brianna was hoping for.

Even so, one of my favorite things about winter is the chance to drink hot drinks. I’m not a coffee drinker, but I love tea and hot chocolate. Growing up, my family always had Tom & Jerry’s over the holiday season. I like them okay–I think I need to find a really good recipe for them, but I’m actually more a fan of Hot Buttered Rum (kind of odd since I hate butterscotch). I made a batch last night, using this recipe, and it is YUMMY. I did two small things different: 1) I cut the recipe to 1/4 since it’s just me, and 2) I added at least 2 Tbsp of the mix to the rum (I used vanilla rum) and hot water. Reading the comments, it looks like a lot of people did the same. This is a great recipe, would be wonderful for entertaining–or for hoarding to yourself at home.

Hot Buttered Rum (makes 100 servings)
* 1 pound butter
* 1 pound brown sugar
* 1 pound confectioners’ sugar
* 1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened
* 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Blend in brown sugar and confectioners’ sugar. Remove from heat, and whisk in the ice cream, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour mixture into a plastic container, seal, and freeze.
2. In a coffee mug, measure 1 tablespoon Hot Buttered Rum Batter and 1 fluid ounce of rum, then fill cup with boiling water. Stir, and sprinkle top of drink with nutmeg.