Mulled cider -- recipe

Jessie Brady’s Mulled Apple Cider
* as served in the five star romance As Big as the Sky

¼ cup brown sugar
3 whole allspice
3 whole cloves
1 stick cinnamon
1 quart apple cider
Juice from ½ an orange or lemon

Combine the juice and spices with the cider. Boil for about 5 minutes. Add the sugar and return it to boil and boil for 5 more minutes. Ladle into cups. Makes about 6 servings.

Contributor’s Note: Want to feel warm all over? Have some of Jessie Brady’s Apple Cider. This spicy drink will take the chill out of your bones. In the old days, people sat around the fire and sipped the cider as they chatted away with their friends, using the popular drink as an excuse not to go outdoors into the cold.

Jessie Brady’s recipe will take the chill out of you. You can spike the cider with rum for some added holiday flavor. Instead of brewing the cider you can also heat it by taking a red-hot fireplace poker directly from the fire and hold it in the cup. The poker as well as the rum are optional.

Contributed by Jan Springer.