avast, matey

I am longing for a hot buttered rum 

    Mind you, I have never had one.  Never sipped, tasted, smelled or otherwise imbibed  a hot buttered rum.

    But the name has always piqued my interest, especially in winter.

    So I went on line to find a recipe.

    I found one entitled The Original Hot Buttered Rum.  (Surprise!  A recipe on line!!)  The first item it calls for four ounces of butter.

    That is one whole stick! I am NOT going to drink a stick of butter!

    But then I read he rest of the story.  (Homage to Paul Harvey).  The recipe is for a mix.  You use two tablespoons of the mix, add 2 ounces of rum, and 6 ounces of hot water.  You can save the mix for later use.

    That seemed a lot more reasonable.

    Today I was going to mix the concoction but Christmas cookies got in the way.  Jackie and I made two kinds, raspberry thumbprints and shortbread.

    The shortbread is from a recipe for a former student.  She made it for me when she was ij fifth grade and it was delicious

    When I was growing up, an elderly woman named Minkie lived with my Uncle Jim and Aunt Kay. 

    I may be wrong, but Minkie was Jim's mom.  I may be right.  (It just may be a lunatic I'm looking for?)

    In any case she was the sweetest, gentlest soul I have ever met.  She taught me how to drink pink tea from a saucer! (Pink tea is regular tea with cream and sugar.)  She had a thick Scottish accent and although she must have been in her 80s, her mind was as sharp as a tack.

    Each year she would make a shortbread for the families.  It was golden, crisp, and melted in your mouth. I usually ate more than my share.  I am not saying I hid it one year and ate the entire shortbread, but that is a possibility.

    I have tried for years to replicate that taste but it just never is the same.  

    Mae's recipe comes close.  It is the best one I have found and I have tried several.

    So now I make the shortbread, but I don't give it away.  It never lasts very long either.

    I may have over baked it this year because it is a little dry and crumbly.  That is ok, because the first try is a test to see how well the next batch comes out.

    Who knows.....tomorrow night I may be munching shortbread and sipping a hot buttered rum when I tell you about my boring life.

Peace and Love