Ho Ho Ho!

Hail and well met this festive season, fellow foodies. To where shall we turn our culinary attention? I suppose we could talk turkey or yack about yams, but instead, how about we noodle on the nog, as in the proverbial yuletide eggnog. Ah, eggnog, the I-can-only-drink-one holiday go-to. The artery-clogging, creamy calorie-fest that suddenly appears in your grocer’s dairy section the day after Hallowe’en and goes BOGO somewhere between Boxing Day and January first. If you celebrate Christmas, then you likely make the obligatory trek to insert-weird-relative-here for a punch bowl showdown, thanks to Uncle Harry spiking the nog with a mickey of Old Gay (look it up young’uns). This creamy, dreamy, thick cold drink is only a soupçon shy of a DQ shake —minus its many alcoholic permutations.

Nobody really knows eggnog’s origin story though conventional wisdom supposes it’s an old British swig meant to demonstrate prosperity as it contains eggs, cream and sundry booze-du-jour (Is it me or have I gone hyphenated?). Nothing says peace on earthquite like conspicuous consumption, one supposes.

For me, eggnog is the worst/best Christmas impulse buy. I’m in my local grocery store with festive music playing and garlands hung when I come upon a gross of nog chilling next to the unsalted butter. Usually, I drink half the carton in the car on the way home, followed by a midnight glug, followed by morning-time self-loathing as I roll my calorie rich carcass out of bed. What about homemade, you ask? By all means, fill your boots! But I’ve had my share of cloying oversweet homebrew in my day so make sure you perfect your recipe before offering it to Yuletide visitors. There are just some things that you really don’t need to make yourself like olives, peanut butter, wine (no mail please), ballpark mustard and eggnog. Besides, you have birds to roast, cookies to bake, trees to trim and holiday movies to watch!

So, from all of us Gustopians, please enjoy some great nosh (and nog) over the holiday season. Remember, it doesn’t matter how dry the turkey or lumpy the gravy is if you’ve cooked with love and served it to friends and family—even Uncle Harry.

By: Chris Knight, President & CEO of Gusto Worldwide Media