Coquito, or Puerto Rican eggnog

You know what's great about not currently living in a small town in the Midwest? Meeting people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures that don't all just eat steak and potatoes for dinner and that don't think taco casserole is Mexican food.

Don't get me wrong – I love my hometown, and the Midwest's got some street cred but I think it says something that the first Jewish person I ever met was when I went to college, and then was really confused when I saw she had red hair (and then made some inappropriate jokes that I've only repeated since when telling stories to show how far I've come). I've learned so much by living elsewhere, even if it's only temporary!

This Thanksgiving, my friends and I threw a "Friendsgiving" (you guys know how much we love these) and everyone that came brought a dish to help out, because I learned after cooking for 20 people by myself last year that it's not something that I'd ever like to do again. And I was so, so excited because a bunch of my friends brought dishes that they traditionally had during Thanksgiving growing up, and they were things I'd never had before — tamales (OMG, y'all, how have I never eaten a tamale until now), chile con queso, arroz con leche, and this beautiful, boozy Puerto Rican eggnog, coquito.

I'm not sure if coquito is actually called Puerto Rican eggnog, but that's how my friend described it, and I think it's a super accurate description (and yes, it's okay to say Puerto Rican). It's like eggnog, but better — it doesn't have as strong of an egg flavor, and it's got that mild coconut flavor that I'm always all about, and obvi, it has Puerto Rican rum. Break out your blender, dump some rum and the other stuff in, and get to drinkin' this stuff, because is it really the holidays if you're not drunk on eggnog?