January 5, 2008

Sew Crafty Friday - Coquito Tags




These are some cute little gift tags I made using my Cricut with the Doodlecharms cartridge.

Every year I make Coquito, which is a Puerto Rican version of traditional eggnog. What makes it Puerto Rican? Add Bacardi of course! Over the years I've switched over from a raw-egg recipe to a cooked-egg version. Some people just freak out if you tell them they're drinking raw eggs. Personally I've never gotten sick from drinking raw-egg Coquito. If there was ever any chance of salmonella being in those eggs, surely the Bacardi would've taken care of that.

12/24/2008
*Edited to add:
I realized I should've shared my Coquito recipe. You can click here for the original recipe.

*********PLEASE NOTE: I DIDN'T MAKE IT EXACTLY LIKE THE RECIPE. SEE CHANGES BELOW********

EGG YOLKS - I don't have double boiler so I cooked mine in a pan and stirred the whole time. Just be careful with the heat. You don't want to cook the eggs. I'd say start with a medium heat and adjust from there. Take your time or it will scorch. I used a candy thermometer clipped to the pan until it reached 160.

CREAM OF COCONUT - Use coconut milk instead. It comes in a can too. Cream of coconut is too sweet.

GROUND CLOVES & GROUND CINNAMON - I used whole cloves (about 4-5) and cinnamon sticks (about 3) and boiled them in about 1 1/2 cups of water. Let it boil (slowly) until the water turns light brown and you have about a cup of water left. Then add this "cinammon/clove" water to the mix.

VANILLA EXTRACT - I did one batch with it and one without. I really couldn't tell the difference.

WHITE RUM - BACARDI Need I say more?




Anyway, back to the gift tags. My husband asked me to make some Coquito to give as Christmas gifts to his co-workers. The bottles looked a little plain and boring but adding the gift tags really made a difference. This was the first time I had used the Cricut since I got it. The machine ROCKS! It is so awesome. The cartridge I used to cut the snowman has a "charm" setting so it cuts a little hole above it. All I did was thread curling ribbon through the hole, and tie on to the bottle. Oh...before that I added some sparkle to the edges of the snowman by using a glue pen and glitter. I think they turned out super cute.

Check out more crafty goodness at Shereen's blog. Just click on the Sew Crafty Friday button above.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are so cute. I've never had Coquito, but I used to make plain eggnog with raw eggs all the time. Yours sounds delicious. What lovely gifts.

Ben said...

I just read your Cocito recipe. Just use Pasteurized egg yolks and you don't have to cook them. It's the raw egg that makes you sick. Pasteurized eggs kill that bacteria that'll make you sick.

Gina said...

Thanks Ben! I honestly had never heard of pasteurized eggs. I will give them a try.

My Favorite Little Things said...

Does this need to be refrigerated? And how long does this last?

Anonymous said...

yes the coquito needs to be refrigerated