Friday, August 14, 2009

Sangria

One of my favorite summer pastimes is lounging outside on the couch on our front porch with a drink, enjoying the warm Los Angeles breeze and watching the sunset. Summer is not truly summer without at least a few evenings spent like that. And the best drink for those evenings? Sangria. Cool, fruity and refreshing, sangria makes a wonderful end to a hot day. Sangria is easy to make, and can be adapted according to your personal taste and available ingredients. Got some leftover red wine from last night? Toss it in! Want to use up all that fresh fruit? Go for it! Since I use whatever wine and fruit I find around the house, each sangria turns out slightly different. Here is the latest version which, in my opinion, ended up being the best so far. Salud!

Sangria
1 750 milliliter bottle dry red wine
2 cups carbonated water
1/2 cup brandy
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup orange juice
1/2 cup triple sec
1/2 cup rum
1/4 cup white sugar
1 lemon, sliced into rounds
1 lime, sliced into rounds
1 peach, sliced
10 cherries

In a large pitcher or bowl, mix together wine, carbonated water, brandy, lemon juice, lime juice, triple sec, rum and sugar. Float fruit into the mixture. Refrigerate overnight.

11 comments:

  1. Looks so refreshing! I can feel the breeze blowing gently through my hair already. Thanks for sharing! By the way, can you tell me how you do your "Popular Posts"? I can't figure out how to get that on my blog.

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  2. looks great! definitely very summery! except that it doesn't feel like summer here anymore, its actually getting cold already! :(

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  3. Gosh, there's probably NO pregnancy version of this, is there? ...Maybe the carbonated water and fruit alone with some red food coloring??

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  4. I just made sangria last week, super delicious!

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  5. Sounds refreshing I have to try that one day!

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  6. Thanks for this post! I've been looking for a sangria recipe, and not a random internet search result, but one that someone has tried. Just curious, what brand of red wine did you use?

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  7. Passionista - I used Charles Shaw Shiraz from Trader Joe's. Really basic and cheap.

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  8. I am going to need some of that after moving on Saturday. Mmmmmm.

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  9. I'm gonna try this on vacation. It looks great!

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  10. wow - this looks great! in my sangria i like to use luna di luna's pink merlot. red wine doesn't always agree with my stomach (or head) and i found that this is a perfect compromise.

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