Do you have Christmas Eve traditions youâve maintained or changed or over the years?
My baby sister and I used to always bake cookies every Christmas Eve âŚand our Pops used to make us his famous âhot holiday cider!â back in the day (âŚdonât tell him I told yaâll but his âsecretâ ingredient is â or at least used ta be â a dash of Tang! đ)âŚ. Well, weâre all grown up now so the more recent tradition for my sister and I on this night tends to be making Christmas Eve COCKTAILS (which I then carry over to KWANZAA COCKTAILS â and Mocktails so as to be inclusive but more on those in the days ahead⌠)
Plus Baby SIs has been VEGAN for like eight years now , so while our Mom and I continue to sip on the traditional (spiked) egg nog on this night [unofficial âcommercialâ break: special shout out to CostCoâs Kirkland brand â I donât usually do uncompensated endorsements but yum! ]⌠Anyway, she whips up vegan COQUITOs now which I hipped her to a few yrs back. Whatâs that you ask? :
âCoquito, meaning "Little Coconut" in Spanish is a traditional Christmas drink that originated in Puerto Rico. The coconut-based alcoholic beverage is sorta kinda similar to eggnog, and is sometimes referred to as Puerto Rican Eggnogâ ~ according to WikipediaâŚ
But there are many who passionately argue that the coquito is NOT âcoconut eggnogâ â itâs coquito! The main ingredients being variations of canned coconut milks (sweetened condensed, evaporated, cream of coconut, regular coconut milkâŚ.) .
Traditional (aka non vegan) coquito recipes also include evaporated as well as sweetened condensed (cowâs) milk, and pretty much ALL the recipes include lots of Puerto Rican rum and spiced seasonings like cinnamon, vanilla extract, and nutmeg.
Whether vegan or old school, the final result should always be a creamy coconut rum drink â essential to any Puerto Rican Christmas celebrations and now shared across cultures (like my uniquely American / African-American cultureâŚ)âŚAnd therefore I might use a complexly flavored Jamaican or other Caribbean rum or perhaps a bourbon style whiskey like Uncle NearestâŚ
PS. Another âdentâ in the Christmas Eve cookie baking plan is that as an adult I found out I have a major gluten intolerance. Which meant no run of the mill cookies for me anymore. And âgluten-freeâ flours werenât always as easy to come by as now. Iâve since been lucky to experience all kinds of delicious gluten-free (which I prefer to call âgrain diverseâ ) cookies both purchased and home-made ⌠Check out highlights of an amazing Holiday cookie party I went to last year at my sister-friend Joy & broâ Bradâs (and missed this year!) where the host and other attendees were considerate enough to make sure a wide range of G-free options were available for those of us with allergies đĽ°âŚ See photo carousel above for deets.
đ GIVE THE GIFT OF THE FOOD GRIOTâS CULINARY (& COCKTAIL!) CREATIVITY TO YOUR FAVE FOODIE and/or DRINKS lover THIS YEAR ! đ âŚ
