At our last Superbowl party, I learned the hard way that I should no longer be allowed to mix drinks. I decided to attempt a recreation of this punch that I loved in college -- something involving Captain Morgan's spiced rum, Southern Comfort, grenadine, pineapple juice, OJ -- and I decided to mix it like we did back in the day: 1:1. When my girlfriends decided to help me taste it, we decided to thin it with champagne.
Hiccup.
And to this day, no one remembers who won the Superbowl. (KIDDING! It was my beloved Steelers -- and that punch had me waving my Terrible Towel extra-specially!)
In any event, people bring me lots of bottles of wine these days, and I think it's because they want to make sure that I don't make another attempt on their lives with my special punch. (Wise idea.)
So... I had to figure out a way to use up all of this cheap wine.
And boy, do I love Sangria. My favorite is that served at the Columbia restaurant in St. Augustine, Florida; Oaxacan Kitchen in Palo Alto, CA makes pretty good one, too. And so does Zuzu in Napa. Wait... is there such a thing as bad sangria? I don't think so... but, being gun-shy, I intended to make a batch before ever serving it to any more unsuspecting victims. Except Halloween arrived before I could, and I had bought this really awesome punch bowl, and, well, I decided to go for it. After all, if it was that bad, we could always just thin it with champagne!
Here's the recipe I used, made my own by combining a lot of different recipes out there on the 'net; note that it takes a full 24-hours to make, as you have to let parts of it stew before mixing it all together to serve.
RoxAndRoll's Party Sangria
Ingredients:
2 bottles Smoking Loon Cabernet Sauvignon (or any other inexpensive cab, merlot, or zin)
2 lemons, seeded and wedged
2 limes, seeded and wedged
2 oranges, seeded and wedged
1/4 cup sugar
up to 1/4 cup OJ
1-2 cups frozen strawberries
2 small cans of diced pineapple with juice
8 cups (I use 2 liters) ginger ale
The night before:
Pour bottles of wine into a large pitcher. Squeeze the lemon, lime and orange wedges into the pitcher, then toss the wedges into the pitcher. Add pineapple, sugar, and the OJ (I don't meaure; I just pour in a couple of glugs). Chill overnight.
Just before your party:
Pour mixture into punch bowl. Add ice, ginger ale, and frozen strawberries. Enjoy!
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