There was a brief period, somewhere around my sophomore year in college, when I drank a lot of Captain Morgan spiced rum. Looking back, it's not hard to see why I fell in love with the stuff: I've always been a big fan of root beer and cream soda, and Captain Morgan was like an alcoholic cross between mulled cider and cake frosting. It was sweet and spicy, and when I mixed it with cola, it tasted like a cream soda with overtones of lighter fluid.

After about a year, the love affair was over. Part of this was the fact that my tastes had wandered away from rum, and part was the fact that Captain Morgan's had gone from refreshingly tasty to cloyingly sweet. Mostly, I think, I had learned to enjoy the flavor of liquor and was no longer interested in drowning it under a mass of sugar and spice. With tears in my eyes, I bid farewell to the Captain and shifted my focus to other shores.

My thoughts returned to the Captain recently when I tried Rogue Spirits' Hazelnut Spice Rum. The "spiced rum" moniker, combined with the fact that Edward Teach is prominently featured on the bottle, led me to anticipate an aggressively seasoned, supersweet flavor; instead, I found a delicate, mild rum with a hint of vanilla, the slightest touch of spice, and the smooth, rounded flavor of hazelnuts. To put it mildly, this was a whole other ball game.

Having now tried and retried the Rogue rum, I don't really know how to characterize it. My tastes tend toward golden rums, notably Appletons Estate, and Rogue seems mild, almost delicate by comparison. Moreover, most of the hazelnut-flavored tipples that I've consumed have been hyper-sweetened, artificial, and aggressively nutty. Rogue, on the other hand, is subtle and sly, with a flavor that tastes very natural. It's odd to describe a flavored rum as "pure," but that's a pretty good description of this spirit. Basically, it's a spiced rum for grownups, as oxymoronic as that may sound.

The downside of Rogue's delicacy is that I could very easily see the flavor getting drowned out by mixers. The distillers suggest combining it with buttershot liqueur for a "butternut," or mixing a "fuzzy nuts" with Irish cream and Amaretto. While these sound interesting, I find it hard to imagine the flavor of this rum remaining intact when combined with stronger-tasting additives. Personally, I think I'm going to stick to the occasional shot on the rocks, slowly sipped to enjoy the complex blend of flavors!

I had never really thought of Irish Cream as something you could make at home (I thought it was something that only came in a bottle and was bought at the liquor store) until I came across this post on The Real Potato. Posted a couple of days ago, she offers a seemingly easy recipe for making your own Irish Cream (none of that pre-bottled stuff!). It does use raw eggs, so if that makes you feel uncomfortable, you can either get some pasteurized eggs or leave them out and add some extra cream. It would be a great thing to make tonight if you're going to have a mellow night at home with friends or family (or both)!

Baileys has launched a Drinkable Desserts contest to promote their new flavors of cream liqueurs - Baileys Mint Chocolate and Baileys Caramel - which were created to give fans of Baileys Original Irish Cream a few new flavor options. The contest calls drinkers to come up with a drink recipe that features one of the three flavors and is inspired by a real dessert, making the cocktail a drinkable dessert and a holiday indulgence.

You won't be able to see all the recipes and vote on your favorite one until after December 18th, but that still gives you plenty of time to pick up a bottle of Baileys so that you can give your favorites a try over the Christmas holiday or New Year's. The voting will last until January 21st, when the winning recipe will be selected. The grand prize winner will receive a trip to New York City for two for a private cooking class in the Gourmet Cooking Arts Center with Chef de Cuisine, Jennifer Day and the winning recipe will be featured in the April 2007 issue of Gourmet magazine.

Read on for the recipe for Baileys Caramel Apple Pie-tini (pictured).

The primary distinction between a muffin and a cupcake is frosting. A muffin has none and a cupcake is topped with gobs of it. So, what do you get when there is frosting inside the muffin/cupcake? A muffincake, of course! Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea seems to have coined the term with a recipe for Irish Cream Filled Muffincakes. The rich chocolate cakes are made with a combination of butter and cream cheese, which brings an extra level of decadence to the cake itself. Once baked, a cavity was carved into the fluffy base and filled with an Irish Cream-spiked whipped cream cheese filling and topped with a cherry.

Since it has the word "muffin" in the name, does that mean I can still eat it for breakfast?

After all that Spirited Cooking, I have quite a bit of Bailey's Irish Cream left. Normally, I'd have no problem with letting a bottle of liquor hang out in my cabinet, but did you know that Bailey's has an expiration date?!? That means I need to use my Bailey's up!

Okay, so the expiration date isn't until 2007. But still...

On a late Friday night, the eve of Christmas Eve, a warm, spicy Gingerbread Man couldn't be more perfect in keeping with the spirit of the Holidays. It's simply 1 part Bailey's Irish Cream to 1 part Kahlua (which I also have quite a bit of) and 1 part Goldschlager.

I have horrible memories of Goldschlager from my college days, but I make an exception when it's mixed into a Gingerbread Man.

Cheers!