In A Nutshell

Most of my life I found the idea of eggnog to be disgusting until I tried real homemade eggnog. (Awkward sentence coming...) My daughter's friend Audrey's mom, Lee used to host this super fancy holiday dinner party every year- by far the fanciest sort of thing we had ever attended. She looked glamorous like a film star and the first thing she put in your hand upon entering was a glass of delicious, and as we subsequently found out, strong!!! eggnog. It's nothing like that stuff that comes out of a carton.   I now make it every year in homage to Lee; this year it took me two tries: the first was Scrambled Egg Nog which nobody likes. I, of course, am blameless in this debacle; Saveur said to whisk the custard until "very thick" which is not possible and ends in a combination of sorrow and scrambled eggs. Now I ignore that prompt and simply adhere to the time direction. I like to serve additional bourbon on the side because.... well, because I like bourbon. You can a

 I found the inspiration for this recipe in an old edition of Food & Wine magazine; it took some tweaking but its final incarnation is delicious and festive. I added an egg white to mine but that's optional; if you choose to add it, dry shake it first in the shaker and then add the ice and other ingredients. For the salted rim, I like to add Tajin or chili powder to the salt for a little extra pep! Also, this is a great recipe for the holidays because you can batch mix it before you need it and if you have a lot of guests, skip the shaker part and serve on the rocks. 1 1/2 cups silver tequila 3/4 cup triple sec 3/4 cup lime juice 3/4 cup pomegranate syrup (recipe follows) 24 dashes of orange bitters salt for rim  Mix all the ingredients in a pitcher; you can chill this if you are not using it immediately. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add some of the mix from the pitcher- how much mix is up to you: how large of a drink do you want? Shake and strain into a pretty cocktail