Around this time of year I always get the sniffles. Something to do with the sudden drop in temperature combined with the fact that I finally get to relax after working my butt off since summer. Anyhoo, today, on the horrendous drive home from Edinburgh (we were parked on the motorway for over an hour whilst the police, firemen, paramedics, etc. tried to clear the road of a multiple vehicle accident, which was spread across all of the lanes, bringing rush hour traffic to an absolute standstill. We drove past the wreckage of the cars & motorbike - it was truly frightening), I realised that I was sniffling, had a sore throat, etc.
So, after thanking every god in heaven that it wasn't us in that accident, and after praying to every god I could think of that the people involved would be ok, I decided that I could do with a hot whiskey. A hot double-whiskey, in fact. It'll take a couple of them to erase the picture of those upside-down, cut open and burnt out metal husks from my mind.
Anyway, just as my Mum is the queen of the Irish coffees, my Dad is the king of the hot whiskeys, and he kindly taught me how to make them a few years ago. It's such a simple recipe, but you'd be amazed at how many people get it wrong. And, since I'm all liquored up and full of the spirit of Christmas, I thought I'd share it with you so you can try it out over the holidays, maybe in lieu of that disgusting eggnog, and certainly to help ward off any impending sniffles.
Firstly, you'll need to assemble the ingredients:
1 bottle whiskey
1 lemon
1 jar cloves
1 bag of brown (demerara) sugar
And the appliances needed:
1 kettle to boil water
1 glass from which to quaff the good stuff
As can be seen from this pic, I had to resort to Jack Daniels as they only had 12 year old Jameson in the supermarket this evening, and I wouldn't even dare to destroy that by turning it into a hot whiskey.
Anyhoo, step one, cut the lemon into chunky slices:
Step two, insert cloves into the lemon segments in a pretty fashion, as such:
Step three, pour a double measure of whiskey into the glass. I would usually use a coffee glass, but I don't have any here, so this horrible glass had to suffice:
Step four, boil the kettle of water, and add as desired to the whiskey. Then stir in a teaspoonful of brown sugar:
Step five, stir!
Step six, pop in the lemon, give it another stir, allow to "brew" for about a minute and enjoy!
Step seven, repeat until you fall over or go numb.
I'm feeling better already 
