Abuelita

I was born and raised in the Bronx, NY by my loving and amazing Puerto Rican family. Day of the Dead is not something we celebrated, as it is not part of our cultural traditions. In fact, I didn’t know anything about it until I moved here in 2004, and my son brought home sugar skulls from school. Eventually, I learned more about this tradition and fell in love with it (as you can see by all makeup tutorials).

Day of the Dead is a holiday celebrated on November 1st and 2nd throughout Latin America, and is a day remember and honor our loved one who passed. Many celebrate by painting their faces (which I have done several times), creating altars and/or baking Pan de Muerto. I think it’s such a beautiful way to honor those who left earth but still live on.

Today I was invited by Nestle to celebrate Day of the Dead with some good old fashion Abuelita love. We got our faces painted, decorated sugar skull cookies and ate lots of chocolate and cinnamon treats. This was their cold mocha frappe, which was amazing, but I have to admit that I quickly fell in with their Mexican hot chocolate. Maybe because it reminded me of own abuelita’s hot chocolate. She would make them for me during the winter with galletas. One of the many beautiful memories I have with her.
These cookies were actually made with Abuelita, and they were so good. Check out all their recipes and more at El Mejor Nido. Although I’m a Nescafe veteran (what Latina didn’t grow up with Café de olla in the pantry?), I actually never had Abuelita products until today. So good.

Related: Better Together with Nescafe

Part of today’s celebration included a beautiful altar by Los Angeles artist Jennifer Gutierrez. It inspired me to do my own altar next year of my grandmother. I have a few of her kitchen items here, like my favorite cookie jar and her pilon.