Home Made Non-Alcoholic Eggnog Recipe

A few years ago I started to make my own Eggnog and haven’t been able to drink the store bought stuff since. Making it can be tricky as it is very easy to over cook it, and if you do you end up with scrambled eggnog, which is gross. We actually did that the first time we tried to make eggnog and it took us 5-years to work up the courage to try again, but we are glad we did…

Ingredients:

  • 6 2/3 cups of milk
  • 2/3 cup of white sugar
  • 8 x beaten egg yolks
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • dash of nutmeg

You can also substitute in 2 x cups of cream for 2 x cups of milk if you prefer a thicker eggnog. I have also tried 3 cups of half & half cream in place of 3 cups of milk with good success.

If you want an alcoholic version of the eggnog recipe you can substitute 2/3 cup of rum in place of 2/3 cup of the milk.

Directions:

Stir together 4 cups of milk with the 2/3 cup of sugar and egg yolks over low heat. You will want to stir constantly so that none of the egg starts to cook on the bottom of the sauce pan (trust me, you don’t want this to happen). You want to warm the mix until it just adheres to the spoon. If it starts to boil or overcooks just throw it out, otherwise it will be like drinking scrambled eggs…

As soon as the eggnog is warmed transfer it to a sink full of icy cold water and cool it for at least 2-minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in the remaining 2 2/3 cups of milk and the vanilla (you can substitute the 2/3 rum in for 2/3 of milk at this point). Cool for at least another 4-hours before enjoying.

Serving:

I usually pour my eggnog on to a couple of cubes of ice and then drink sprinkle some nutmeg on top and you are set to have some eggnog that crushes anything I have ever bought from the store.

My Review of A&W Coffee

Many of the fast-food outlets including A&W, McDonald’s, Burger King, etc. are starting to upgrade the quality of their coffee, finally. I have yet to have one that comes close to what you might get from a speciality coffee place like Starbucks, Second Cup or Tim Hortons, but they’re trying…

Yesterday I got some coupons in the mail that included two free coffees from A & W. I don’t think that I have tried their coffee before, so this morning on the way home from dropping the kids off at school I thought I try it out.

My first thoughts when I got the coffee into the car was what that it actually smelt quite good! That is of course a good first step towards a good cup of coffee.

When I got home I had a chance to try to coffee and to be honest, it didn’t live up to the smell. The coffee wasn’t as hot as I would like and since I have my black with no sugar I know that it wasn’t the milk that cooled it off.

Also, the coffee was bland. The smell was stronger than the taste. I wouldn’t say that I hate the coffee, but I also wouldn’t say that I like the coffee. If I got it for free I would drink it, but it’s not a coffee I would pay for.

The best “fast food” coffee that I think you can get is still from good old Tim Hortons. Surprisingly the second best fast food coffee I think is McDonald’s, especially when they give it away for free.

A & W Coffee Nutritional Information

One thing that I find interesting about A & W coffee is the nutritional information:

Most coffee that I’ve seen has a calorie count of 0, but A & W coffee has 5 calories in it. By contrast a Tim Horton’s coffee has 0 calories. I have also never seen black coffee with no sugar that has carbohydrates or sodium in it! This makes me suspect that it’s not just ground coffee that I’m buying, but that they have added other “flavour enhancers” or junk to the coffee.

I have one more free coffee coupon that I’ll probably use, but A & W coffee isn’t something that I can see myself paying for…

Dilmah Ceylon Tea Review

Normally I am a coffee drinker in the mornings, but in the evenings I usually switch to tea. I will sometimes enjoy a flavoured tea, but a standard black tea always hits the spot, sometimes with a bit of honey and sometimes not…

This week I was sent a box of Dilmah Ceylon tea to review.

Dilmah Ceylon tea is a single origin tea that comes from Sri Lanka (formerly called “Ceylon”). They claim that the tea is very fresh, unlike many other “blended” teas on the market. They also claim it to be “the finest tea on earth” because of the freshness and the single source for the tea.

I must say that after trying out the tea I was very impressed. The tea has a nice full flavour and a pleasant aroma. It is very smooth and manages to avoid any “sharpness” of flavour.

One of the things that I enjoyed the most about the Dilmah tea was that it was not bitter and did not leave any aftertaste. Some of the cheaper “store brands” of tea often suffer from that.

The Dilmah tea was very easy to enjoy without adding any milk, honey or sugar because of the nice clean flavour. I will very likely be purchasing Dilmah tea in the future, once I’ve worked through my bulk pack of tea from Costco …

To find out more about Dilmah Tea here is a video of it’s origins: