Nog

There’s been a tragic shortage of eggnog at our house this year.  During a typical holiday season, every time milk is purchased, so is eggnog.  Now, eggnog season lasts from Thanksgiving until New Years in this house.  Sadly, only two containers of nog have graced our kitchen this year.  Due to the avian flu and its accompanying poultry genocide, the cost of eggnog is roughly four times the cost of milk this year.  Not even a holiday budget can sustain prices like that for an entire season. 

It’s New Years Eve.  After a Thanksgiving full of gratitude (and eggnog), and a very Merry Christmas spent with family (but sadly, not a drop of nog), we come to this, the end of the holiday season.  If feels so incomplete without fighting off four children for my nog, tucked away in the back of the refrigerator in the hopes that the little boys are too short to see it and the big kids will be too lazy to move the gallon of milk in front of it.  Once egg nog is discovered, it is soon consumed.  Hiding the eggnog is a bit like playing “Elf on the Shelf”.  Where will it appear next?

Chicken slaughters and egg shortages are desperately sad things.  They hit close to home, because we have our own flock.  Wait….I HAVE MY OWN FLOCK!!!!  A quick Internet search later, and homemade nog making has commenced!  I think it’s not a coincidence that my house is consistently stocked with the four basic ingredients for nog.  I always have more than enough eggs because I have discovered that I lack the energy to sell eggs to anyone who lives farther away than next door.  I have a husband who only takes his coffee with sugar and heavy whipping cream.  I have three boys who think milk is an appropriate substitute for water.

Based on my limited Internet research into eggnog, proper nog contains an element of alcohol, which not only flavors it, but also preserves it.  True nog should be prepared two weeks before consumption, and made with the freshest eggs possible.  Well, I got the egg part right.  Next year, maybe I’ll try making my mom’s springerle (dutifully pronounced “SPRIG-a-lig” for my entire life) recipe and some traditional eggnog.  Since they both need to “mellow” for a while.  Ooh, those sound good together.  How long until next Christmas?

Have a wonderful New Year’s holiday and a blessed 2016!

Web Mistress