Mocktails

from Cathe Nadal's Facebook page. Photo taken during my college friends' get together in our house

As a Muslim, I don't drink alcohol. I don't know why my friends find that hard to believe. We are known not to eat pork but the no-drinking-alcohol part always comes as a surprise to some.

Every last day of the year, my family stays up together to wait for the midnight. We used to do that to celebrate the New Year and Papa's birthday. But since Papa is gone and we learned that celebrating New Year is haram, we started scrapping the idea of a New Year. This year, we just took advantage of the season to dress up, display our cooking skills, and take pictures as a family. I have to admit, it was so much fun not having to stay up late. By 10:30pm, we were all in bed.

(I have to remind everyone that this no-celebration-thing is my family's choice. Nobody is forcing it down anybody's throat)

Anyway, back to the original intent of this post, the mocktails. Mocktails is a coined term. Mock cocktails. A fake cocktail drink if you will. The practice of serving this every family get together was my older sister's idea. All the fun without the hang over.

Must haves: soda, sparkling juice, grenadine juice, lime juice, coconut cream

Directions: The fun thing about this is there are no instructions! Just mix whatever you want to mix. Experiment. Drink. Be merry :)

WARNING: This is very addicting and fattening.

ANOTHER WARNING: No need being defensive. Or judgmental. The first time we had this, people were becoming concerned as to why we were drinking alcohol. Us, defensive. Them, judgmental.

Have fun with your drink!