Month: December 2017

Holiday Cheer

A Dash of Eggnog

Katherine

My family eggnog recipe includes Myers Dark, a Spicy Bourbon, and a brandy floater. Eggnog is the best if you make it yourself.

Here is our recipe:

1 750ml bottle of Bourbon (We prefer bourbons with a nice strong nose of alcohol)
1 375ml of a dark spiced rum (Myers is the only way to really go here)
grate up some nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice (think Pumpkin Pie seasonings)
Mix it up and stick it in a sealed container in the fridge for at least 24 hours.

Make sure you chill the glasses ahead of time and serve it with a nice thick layer of brandy on top.

Personally Speaking

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Katherine
The park is a nice spot for some mellow day hikes. Mostly the trails are through an established hardwood forest that was carved up in interesting ways by the glaciers that used to frequent the area. Think of it as a shady woods, with mossy sandstone cliffs and rocks, with some streams and waterfalls. If you were just walking the trails leisurely, most trail heads can be explored in under 3 hours, giving you the chance to then drive to another part of the park and explore some more. It has some fantastic hikes, wonderful waterfalls, and contains part of one heck of a bike trail. Just keep in mind that the park is designed around visitors taking a quick day trip from one of the surrounding cities. Most everything is a short walk from a parking area, with a heavy focus on picnic spots for families. The bike trails are flat. Road biking between trail heads/destinations is possible, but keep in mind the roads are two lane with a minimal shoulder and folks tend to drive a bit fast. There is a great farmers market there and some of the most dedicated volunteers. The area around Cuyahoga Valley National Park offers additional opportunities that those other areas do not offer. It is also bordered by several Cuyahoga and Summit county metroparks that are also great. It’s a great place to visit, but I’d definitely rank it in the bottom third of U.S. national parks, though that’s not necessarily an insult. It’d be like ranking in the bottom third of your class in Harvard. You still graduated Harvard.
London, OH

That Ohio Accent

Katherine
I took a class with a girl from Dayton and she said I sounded like I was from the deepest South! I’m from a small town a little north of Columbus and having listened to recordings of my voice, there is a little bit of a drawl there, but I doubt if this girl had met actual Southerners. My father was a professor in Cleveland for many years but he grew up in the rural south. His accent lessened over the years and he always tried to enunciate. I usually don’t have much trouble with regional accents and have been exposed to a lot of various foreign visitors that speak limited English and understood them pretty well. There’s a historical basis to the accent you’re hearing in Dayton. From the 1920s to 1940s there was a massive migration from Eastern Kentucky to Southwest Ohio. If you’ve ever spent time in East Dayton, you’ll definitely hear the influence of Appalachia on the local accent. This is mentioned in the book Hillbilly Elegy bye the way. What you’re hearing is an Appalachian accent. It’s extremely common in our part of Ohio, especially in working class white neighborhoods.