I had never heard of wassail before the first cold day (after we were living in an apartment) in Irving, TX when Jennifer mentioned that it sounded like a tasty treat for such a nippy day. Apparently it’s a common holiday treat for her family. My family always tended more toward punch or hot chocolate, or maybe spiced cider, so I’d never heard of it. However, we made some and I decided it was quite nice :D. And, because it has so much fruit juice in it already, it was quite easy to adapt to use honey instead of white sugar. In this case the honey flavor is subsumed in the spices, and it just lends a nice light sweetness to the overall drink.
Happy New Year!
As a kid, eggnog from the store was a holiday staple in my house. As a matter of fact, my younger brothers still get very distressed if there is no eggnog purchased at various points during the Christmas and New Year’s period :-). I liked it okay, but it was rather cloyingly sweet, and such a funny shade of yellow. I’d never made eggnog from scratch until after I met Sean. You see, though you occasionally run across a sugar-free eggnog in stores (though it isn’t common where I’ve shopped), it is nasty. Sean actually didn’t really remember what eggnog was, so I took a stab at making him some. I didn’t let it get hot enough the first time I tried it, so it didn’t thicken properly, but my attempts this past holiday season have thickened up much more nicely. So, here I share the fruits of my labor with you!
