What exactly is eggnog?!

So I'm sitting here drinking my tea with the fire that I built roaring (ok well maybe purring contentedly) in the background, along with the Chieftains Bells of Dublin cd, and I just found peanutbutter in my hair (I've been baking, I made those peanutbutter cookies with the hershies kisses, along with others). When I bake I always seem to make the most monstrous mess, no matter how hard I try to contain it! But don't worry, I cleaned the kitchen, and I found peanutbutter everywhere, I guess I went a little crazy with the electric mixer! Everyone has already left the house for the holidays and its just me, as I have to work the rest of the week. Now that I am officially done with school for the semester (thank goodness!) I'm doing things I didn't really have time for during the semester, like bake cookies, and read for fun! It's really very exciting! Now to the point of this post. What in the name of dairy products is eggnog? This was a burning question I had, as we always drink eggnog during the holidays, I had some earlier this evening in fact! But I couldn't help wondering what it was, and who on earth named it?! So I looked it up (gotta love wikipedia!) and discovered it is milk/cream, sugar, beaten egg (go figure!) cinnamon, nutmeg and it is an excellent source of magnesium, so if you happen to have a magnesium deficiency, just drink eggnog! It is believed to have originated in East Anglia England (hence the relation to my blog, maybe I'll go there so I can say I've seen the location of the origination of eggnog) Some food experts say that the nog portion of the name comes from the middle english word noggin which was a wooden mug used to serve alcohol. Another theory is that it used to be called egg and grog, eventually being shortened to egg'n'grog from whence it was just a hop, skip and jump away from becoming eggnog, the beverage we so frequently enjoy today! I can't believe I just wrote all of that. Just incase you were wondering about eggnog...! Just a month left until I depart for jolly old England! Should I yet again mention how excited I am?! Just in case anyone was in any kind of doubt :)! This may be the randomest blog post ever, but I hope you enjoyed it (that is if anyone reads this!) Merry Christmas, and think of me if you drink eggnog this holiday season, and how thanks to me you can now strike up a fascinating discussion of the origins of eggnog at the next holiday party you attend!


Becca

Almost There

I realize I haven't left for England yet, but I wanted to get a blog started now. I just had my pre-departure orientation! I leave for Bristol in 38 days! Woooo! Now I just have to make it through finals :/ I just joined the BBC's 606 forum thingy, as I've been reading the posts on the rugby union board for a couple months now, it seemed a great place to get advice and help with my quest to learn more about rugby. I was shocked at how many responses I got to my first post, simply asking for advice on where to sit at the Leiscester/Wasps game in February. And incase anyone was wondering, it is pronounced lye-ster, not lye-chester, as I had originally thought. Good thing I figured that out now before I got there and made a complete and utter fool of myself! Though I'm sure I have plenty of those moments still ahead, its a good thing I have an excellent sense of humor! Molly is in the kitchen right now making cookies (I'm going to miss that) and Moses is playing that stupid cat game of coming to the sliding glass door, looking imploringly at you with big green eyes that seem to say "Please let me in Becca, its quite cold out here" and then as soon as I get up and open the door she prances and frolics away waving her tail in the air, if this was 1995 and she was a person she'd be yelling "Psyche.. bahahaha" but since its not and she isn't, I just hear her bell jingling as she spastically leaps around the patio. Despite being the most annoying feline on the face of the planet, I am going to miss her. It turns out my museum studies professor from this semester has connections in Bristol! Which is awesome, totally going to milk that for all its worth! "What?! You want to offer me an internship at a museum?!" Hey, a girl can dream right?!

Right, so my priorities for when I get to England:
1.) Get settled, explore Bristol, orientation, blah blah blah....
2.) Go to a traditional English pub! I think I'll post something on the 606 asking about good pubs, they seem like they'd know!
3.)Classes, I'm actually quite excited about this (If my mother reads this, this doesn't mean classes are low on my priorities, I'm just listing in chronological order, they don't start until a week after I get there, which is plenty of time to go to a pub first!)
4.) Take a weekend, or maybe just a day, and go to Stonehenge. I have to see it, I have to.
5.) After Stonehenge comes Hadrian's Wall (Its further away)!!!
6.) Weekend in London to see the museums (as many as I can squeeze in) and the Leicester/Wasps games and Alexis of course
7.) Meet a Rugby player ;)
8.) Get a British person to believe I'm British (I'm practicing my accent)

And thats really all I've got planned out so far. Interspersed in there will be trips to all the museums and historical sites in Bristol, breakfast with the Bristol Aztec rotary club, and communication with my parental units of course! I'M SO EXCITED!

Cheers for now,

Becca