The holidays are a wondrous time of year where family, friends and loved ones gather together to spend some time sharing gifts, cheer, and joy.
Some folks frantically shop for the last-minute holiday bargains. Other people bake cakes or cookies or prepare some fun holiday treats.
Whatever you do, whether purchasing or preparing, always remember to put some Joy into it.
I’ll give you a great example.
Every year from the time I was a teenager, my dad used to turn our kitchen into a distillery of sorts. I would hear glass jars clanking, and large pots clanging and banging around.
I’d peek my head into the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about, and there was my dad with a big grin on his face, mixing a holiday drink that infamously became known as “Beaman’s Brew.”
It was a version of Bailey’s Irish cream that changed every year.
The main ingredients are:
- Eggs
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Instant coffee granules
- Heavy cream
- Whiskey
Some years, depending on how spirited he was feeling, he would use tequila, scotch, or bourbon.
And, sometimes he would use all three.
It wasn’t necessarily the ingredients that made his brew so special. It was the feeling he infused into the elixir that truly made it a wonderful holiday treat.
When he was preparing “Beaman’s Brew” he was feeling joyful. He was like a big kid excited to share something fun and delicious with people he loved. And, he wouldn’t just make one or two quarts. He would make gallons of it!
He would freeze it until the time was right, and then he would take a few gallons up to the Bronx family courthouse where he worked as a lawyer, and he would share it with EVERYONE: the judges, the clerks, the lawyers, the court reporters, the bailiffs, the janitors, and the stenographers.
Most of the people at the courthouse loved it, and it brought the holiday cheer. Some folks thought it was highly inappropriate to bring liquor into the courthouse because, after all, it was against the law.
My dad knew the law well.
And, to ensure he wouldn’t be arrested for dispensing alcohol without a license he shared his brew with the courthouse police and security guards, too.
He has since he’s moved on from this world into the next, and I certainly do miss his holiday brew and the joy he infused into it. But, I always have the memories to warm my heart, and the recipe to warm my belly.
I’m sure he would be happy that I’m sharing his infamous recipe with you, too.
Enjoy the Beaman’s Brew
You can also freeze this brew and eat it as a decadent soft ice-cream. Oh my…
Wishing you happy, healthy, and delicious holidays filled with JOY!
- 3 pastured eggs
- 14oz can organic sweetened condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons instant coffee granules (plus 1 tbsp. water)
- 1 pint grass-fed heavy cream
- 1 cup whiskey (or alcohol of your choice)
- Dash of nutmeg
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs.
- Add the condensed milk and whisk.
- Combine the coffee with water and whisk it into the eggs and milk.
- Add the heavy cream and whisk again.
- Add the whiskey and give it another good whisking for good measure.
- Top each glass with a dash of nutmeg
- Get ready to get schnockered with joy!
Andrea Beaman is an internationally renowned Holistic Health Coach, Natural Foods Chef, Speaker, Herbalist and best-selling author. Named one of the top 100 Most Influential Health and Fitness Experts, she is also a recipient of the Natural Gourmet Institute’s Award for Excellence in Health-Supportive Education and a Health Leadership award from The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Since 1999, Andrea has been teaching people how to harness the body’s own preventative and healing powers using food, herbal remedies and alternative medicine.
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