Margaritas -- A Toast to Three More Weeks of Waiting

Three weeks until the baby. Jenny had a doctor appointment and everything is fine — the baby is healthy, growing, positioned correctly, ready. Jenny is ready. Miguel Jr. is pretending to be ready. I am ready in the kitchen and terrified in the heart, which is the standard state of a grandmother-to-be: competent on the outside, melting on the inside.

At the hospital, I have been training my team for my absence. When the baby comes, I am taking a week off — the first week off I have taken in five years, the first voluntary absence since I started at this hospital twenty years ago. My assistant, Debra, will run the kitchen. She is capable. She is trained. She is not me, but nobody is me, and the kitchen will survive seven days without Carmen the way a garden survives seven days without the gardener — everything stays alive, nothing looks as good, and the gardener comes back to a lot of catching up.

I told Trish she is in charge of the lunch service while I am gone. She looked at me with wide eyes. I said, Trish, you have been here two years. You know the kitchen. You know the patients. You know what the food is supposed to taste like. She said, But what if something goes wrong? I said, Something always goes wrong. That is the nature of kitchens. You fix it. You adjust. You make sure the food goes out on time and the patients eat and nobody goes hungry. She nodded. She will be fine. She carries the training in her hands the way I carry Mami training in mine. The chain holds, even across cultures, even between islands. The teaching works.

Mami knitting continues. The blanket is growing — slowly, unevenly, beautifully. She works on it in the recliner while watching novelas, and every time I visit she holds it up and says, Feel this. It is soft. I feel it. It is soft and uneven and perfect. She says, For the baby. I say, For the baby, Mami. She goes back to knitting. Her hands shake but the needles move. Her memory fogs but the stitches hold. The blanket is a prayer made of yarn, stitch by stitch, row by row, a great-grandmother wrapping her love around a child she has not met yet.

Made coquito tonight. Not for a party, not for Christmas, just because I wanted the taste of coconut and rum and warmth. Eduardo had a glass and raised it and said, To the baby. I raised mine and said, To the baby. We clinked glasses. Three weeks, mi amor. Three weeks until abuela. Three weeks until everything changes again, the way everything always changes, the way the kitchen always adjusts. The coquito was sweet. The waiting is sweet. The love is sweeter than both.

The coquito was my real toast that night — coconut and rum and all the warmth of the island — but not everyone has coquito ingredients in the pantry, and sometimes the spirit of a moment matters more than the exact recipe. A margarita carries that same feeling: something you mix with your own hands, something bright and sweet with a little salt on the rim, something you raise in a glass and say, to the baby. If you’re waiting for your own good news, or just need a reason to clink glasses with someone you love, this one is for you.

Margaritas

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 5 minutes | Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 4 oz blanco tequila
• 2 oz fresh lime juice (about 2-3 limes)
• 1 1/2 oz triple sec or Cointreau
• 1 oz simple syrup (or agave nectar to taste)
• Coarse salt, for rimming the glasses
• Ice
• Lime wheels, for garnish

Instructions

1. Rim the glasses. Run a lime wedge around the rim of two rocks glasses or margarita glasses. Dip the rims into a plate of coarse salt, turning to coat evenly. Set aside.
2. Combine the ingredients. In a cocktail shaker, add the tequila, fresh lime juice, triple sec, and simple syrup. Fill the shaker with ice.
3. Shake well. Shake vigorously for about 15-20 seconds until the outside of the shaker feels cold.
4. Serve. Fill the salt-rimmed glasses with fresh ice. Strain the margarita into the glasses. Garnish each with a lime wheel on the rim.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 230 | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Carbs: 18g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 150mg