Coquito Recipe

Coquito is a traditional Puerto Rican holiday drink. It's basically a coconut eggnog with copious amounts of rum. Puerto Rican families make a batch and distribute it among friends. Coquito makers have their own carefully guarded recipes and flavors vary from spiced coquito to Amaretto or various chocolate concoctions.

Unfortunately, my family recipe is a pain to make. It requires eggs and boiling and the final result has to be carefully handled to it doesn't go bad. But it's a fabulous drink and I love giving it away for the holidays, so I came up with a simpler version. The great thing about this recipe is that it can be easily super sized. I can (and usually do) make up to sixty batches of this recipe in one night. It's easy and tasty.

1 can of evaporated milk

1 can of condensed milk

1 can of coconut milk 

(Do not use coconut water, and try to get the "Light" or "Lite" coconut milk that way you won't have chunks of coconut in your coquito.)

fill up the can of condensed milk with rum, about 14 oz.

(I hate admit it because they no longer produce their rum in Puerto Rico, but Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum is the best choice. The spices go really well with the coquito.)

a squirt of vanilla extract

cinnamon

This recipe will make a jar of coquito. It should be kept refrigerated and it's usually best after one day in the fridge (that way the rum can permeate the drink). You can used shaved coconut or a fresh sprinkle of cinnamon as a garnish. Enjoy!

Movie Review: Hallmark's Christmas Under Wraps

This movie has one of my favorite tropes: fish out of water. In this case, uptight doctor meets small-town hunk and holiday hijinks ensue. I loved this movie and I'm naming it my favorite holiday movie of 2014.

The premise is simple, our career-oriented lass, Dr. Lauren Brunell, is a newly-credentialed doctor in San Francisco. Her ritzy fellowship in Boston falls through and she's stuck with a family doctor position in rustic Garland, Alaska. I love this plot. L-O-V-E. I liked it when it was called Northern Exposure and I still like it now.

Andy, the love interest is, as you would expect, a fan of plaid. He's also a pilot (All Alaskan guys are pilots. I think it's in the state constitution somewhere), which comes in handy since Garland is nowhere near Anchorage. Oh, and he drives a red pickup truck. Seriously, a plane and a truck? This is Hallmark Hero overkill.

The town is small, there's the requisite diner and hardware store. It's supposed to be a rustic Alaska hamlet, but it looks more like a ritzy ski resort town. The houses are enormous with stone cladding and wood paneling, and the downtown is cute in an Aspenish kind of way. The main employer is an outfit called "Holliday Shipping." Yep, you guessed it, Andy is the owner's son. He used to be an architect in Seattle, but, as Hallmark Movie heroes are wont to do, he returned to Garland to serve as the resident handyman-slash-heir-to-local-shipping-empire. Oh, and his dad looks just like Santa Claus, if old Santa wore buffalo plaid flannel shirts that is.

Lauren is appalled to find out that she has to stay in a gorgeous log cabin.  Yeah, right, the kitchen has so much granite she could open up her own quarry. Super-picky Lauren is even more horrified when she finds out that the Garland General Hospital is located in an old Victorian home. Needless to say, I'm in love. I adore old houses. The sets and wardrobe in this movie don't quite reach the levels of fabulousness of The Twelve Trees of Christmas, last year's favorite, but they come close.

As you would expect, our uptight doctor loosens up and learns to love flannel shirts and hunky pilots. The knight-in-shining-flannel looks heart-broken when he thinks he's getting dumped. The townspeople are quirky and adorable. None of it comes as a surprise, but it's all heart-warming and adorable.

I'm not going to spoil the big secret (hint: there's reindeer involved), but suffice it to say that this is my favorite Christmas movies of 2014, although Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever is a close second. Cute premise, great scenery (the Alaska shots are gorgeous), and good acting make for a very enjoyable film. Two thumbs up (with antlers!)

Link Fiesta

Jennifer Crusie dissects The Black List and explains why set-up is not story.

A converted barn in Cornwall. Perfect for a holiday.

A Christmas tree gallery by El Mueble. I haven't seen fake snow on a tree since the 70s. Is there a fake snow revival? And I like the idea of hanging Christmas cards from the fireplace matel. That's very cute.

The Zara Home Christmas Lookbook. I want all of it!

Christmas Sangría Recipe

This is my Christmas sangría. It's very sweet and spicy and has lovely green and red apple chunks swimming in it. Very festive.

1 bottle of cheap red wine (Don't use expensive wine. You want the cheapest, sweetest red wine you can find. I use Chilean Merlot. Trader Joe's is also good.)
1 cup of lemon lime soda (like Sprite or 7up)
1 cup of spiced apple cider
1/2 cup of Licor 43 (This is the key ingredient. Buy it. It makes a huge difference.)
1 Granny Smith apple, chopped
1 Red Delicous apple, chopped

Mix all the ingredients together and serve over ice. You can add a cinnamon stick as garnish.

Photo via Morguefile.

Movie Review: Lifetime's The Twelve Trees of Christmas

This movie should have been called "A Bookworm Christmas." Or maybe "How the Grinch Stole the Library." It's about people who love Christmas, but not as much as they love books.

I loved every single cheesy minute of it.

Cheri (played by Lindy Booth) is the children's librarian at the Shaughnessy Library, which is located somewhere in Manhattan. Or, rather, in a set in Toronto that stands in for Manhattan. Let's call it Canadian Manhattan or CGI Manhattan. Anyway, the historic Shaughnessy Library is going to be demolished and turned into luxury condos and Cheri is devastated.

So she comes up with a scheme to get Mrs. Shaughnessy, the owner of the building, to stop the demolition. The library patrons will all create charming Christmas trees illustrating how important the library (and, by extension, books) is to the community, and Mrs. Shaughnessy will judge the contest. Unfortunately, Mrs. Shaughnessy's son, Tony (played by Robin Dunne) is set on turning the building into rubble. Will Cheri's Christmas tree contest win over Tony and Mrs. Shaughnessy?

Of course it will!

The leads have absolutely no chemistry and the paint-by-numbers plot is a snooze, but the movie is as charming as an off-key caroler. The holiday spirit is everywhere, from Cheri's silly outfits to the holly draped sets. The wood-paneled library is adorable. I wish I worked there.

It truly is a Bookworm Christmas. I loved it.