Queue the cocktail hour music.

I was so bummed since Oronoco Rum became unavailable, I painted the cement walls around our house and the four tires on my 1999 Saturn SL2 black. After all, I couldn’t very well make the fab Hemingway Daiquiri recipe provided by renowned Wynn Las Vegas mixologist Patricia Richards with Bacardi, right? So it was with wonder and great relief that I discovered on a recent trip to Total Wine a similar cachaca-based Brazilian silver rum called Olo, and all I can say is…

The magic is back.

So now I can once again look forward to cool, comfortable, and hopefully mosquito-free nights under the happy back patio lights with Hemingway daiquiris to light my way.

Sticking with rum, I’ve long been wanting to find a great recipe for hot buttered rum to have around the Christmas tree during the holiday season, and courtesy of Wayne Curtis’s fine book …and a Bottle of Rum, I’ve got one. You lookin’ for a Hot Buttered Rum recipe to make you all warm and fuzzy even with all those four million illegals that President Obama is about to give amnesty to? Check this recipe out:

1 pound butter
1 pound brown sugar
1 pound granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 quart vanilla ice cream

Bring butter to room temperature and mix all ingredients except the ice cream. Add slightly softened ice cream and mix well. Store mixture in freezer at or around first frost or hard freeze.

To make drinky-poos by the mug during the holiday season, add 1 1/2 oz. rum, 1 tablespoon of ice cream mix, then fill to the top with boiling water. You’ll be singing with Bing in no time!