Monday, June 18, 2007

Sipping some love...

Many of you know that Greg and I like wine. Cheap, expensive, red, white, sweet, dry. Between the two of us, we pretty much like it all. There has been a very large bottle of red wine in the cupboard for many months - I guess Greg thought it good for a family gathering sometime. And it was. As we planned the menu for yesterday, Greg mentioned we should serve that bottle of wine. I was skeptical that anyone would want wine at lunch if they wanted to get anything else accomplished that day. He suggested making sangria. I Googled for a recipe and this is what I found:
1 Bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rioja, Zinfandel, Shiraz)
1 Lemon cut into wedges
1 Orange cut into wedges
1 Lime cut into wedges
2 Tbsp sugar
Splash of orange juice
2 Shots of gin
1 Cup of sliced strawberries or raspberries (may use thawed or frozen)
1 Small can of diced pineapples (with juice)
4 Cups ginger ale

I loosley based my recipe on this one. Here's what I did:
Poured the entire bottle of wine into a large plastic jug. Cut up a lime and a lemon and squeezed those into the wine, then dropped the lemon into the jug (the lime was a little old and the peel not so attractive). I didn't have an orange, and we forgot to get one at the store, so I just added a little extra orange juice concentrate. A couple of spoonfuls of sugar, two shots of really good gin, and it sat in the frig for several hours. Just before serving, I added 2 liters of ginger ale to the jug. Poured it into a pretty pitcher, and served it with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and grapes in the cups.
It was a hit! Here's an email Randy sent early this morning:
"Need new pictures for screen saver. Please send me some of kids to choose from. Also, the drink in the glass pitcher at Sunday lunch was great, please send some of it too."
(The photo is off the www - I didn't get a picture of mine.)

1 comment:

Melanie said...

Tammy, I love sangria! Can I come over and share a glass (or 2) with you on the patio? :-)