Another important parcel/package is scheduled for delivery today, so once again I find myself homebound.
The recruiter for the contract position at Ireland’s Higher Education Authority (HEA) emails around 10am to let me know they “decided not to progress with my application.” It’s disappointing news, but not overly upsetting. At least I have established contact with a recruiter, who says she’ll keep me in mind for future opportunities. After the CV/resume brainstorming session with my friend CJ this past weekend, I’m thinking of putting together a functional resume that focuses more on my competencies/skills than my work history. I’m continuing to scan over multiple daily email alerts for job postings, although at the moment there’s nothing that has caught my eye other than one low-level “financial administrator” position at a multinational company that requires fluency in Russian. I’ve noticed other job postings in the finance sector looking for Russian speakers, so it might not hurt to develop a functional resume highlighting my language skills.
A few home projects occupy my time in the afternoon — laundry, rotating my mattress, and tidying up the second bedroom. Lots of cardboard boxes from various shipments have accumulated in the second bedroom, which so far I’ve used only for storage, and the clutter is an eyesore. There are a few larger boxes that would be helpful to keep for whenever I move again, so I flatten these down for storing under the bed. I break down the remaining boxes for recycling. I’ve seen some stacks of cardboard left out on the street next to trash bags for recycling, but given the rainy weather this week, I decide to use one of my purchased recycling bags so that it doesn’t get soaked. The room is already looking much better, although I still need to figure out where to store some packing materials and other miscellany.
With less than two weeks to go until Christmas, I decide it’s now or never to make some homemade eggnog. I choose to go with Alton Brown’s Aged Eggnog recipe (scaled to 1/2), although I decide to temper the eggs using a technique from another recipe. I had never heard of “aged” eggnog before, but apparently you can make it months in advance?! Mixing in the booze in advance must be the key to preserving it.
INGREDIENTS — 6 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup each of milk, half & half (regular Irish cream and heavy cream (Irish double-cream), a pinch of salt, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg, 3/4 cup bourbon, 3/4 cup dark rum (I substituted extra bourbon and rum for 1/2 cup of cognac).
STEP 1 — Separate eggs (in some recipes, the egg whites can be whipped up later and folded into the eggnog to make it lighter):
STEP 2 — Blend sugar into eggs until smooth and creamy:
STEP 3 — Add freshly grated nutmeg to the egg and sugar base (everyone has a nutmeg grinder like me, right? and yes I brought that with me to Ireland, mostly just for eggnog):
STEP 4 — Combine milk, half & half, heavy cream and salt into a saucepan; heat it on medium-high until it’s barely simmering:
STEP 5 — Whisk in small amounts of the hot milk/cream to the sugar-egg base to temper the eggs (you don’t want them to get scrambled):
STEP 6 — Whisk in vanilla extra and booze:
STEP 7 — Transfer to glass pitcher or other container and chill in the fridge.
Until next time…
