Today is...

Hot-Buttered Rum Day

Today is Hot-Buttered Rum Day! Hot-buttered rum is a warm alcoholic beverage flavored with butter, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves. These ingredients form a batter that is then mixed with rich, dark rum.

Mulled wines and other “toddies” originated in Europe, but hot-buttered rum is an American innovation. During the colonial period, merchants began importing molasses (the basis for rum) from Jamaica. The first rum distillery opened in the 1660s and it wasn’t long before the colonists began mixing the alcohol with spices to create a warm winter refreshment.

Try making a homemade batch for your friends to celebrate Hot-Buttered Rum Day!

Today is also Kid Inventors' Day

January is Get Organized Month & National Oatmeal Month

mages and text courtesy of MyPunchbowl.com" -- http://www.mypunchbowl.com/

History for January 17 1806 - James Madison Randolph, grandson of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, was the first child born in the White House. 1912 - English explorer Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole. Norwegian Roald Amundsen had beaten him there by one month. 1945 - Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War II. 1997 - A court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history. 1998 - U.S. President Clinton gave his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against him. He was the first U.S. President to testify as a defendant in a criminal or civil lawsuit.

"The secret of happiness? Enjoy small pleasures."

--Samuel Smiles