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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Sangria

It was my turn to host book club this month and I tried to stick to a theme I knew most of the ladies in our group would enjoy--Mexican! We had a Mexican-inspired meal (recipes forthcoming) and I of course chose to serve margarita pie for dessert. With margaritas for dessert, I decided serving margaritas to drink as well might be overkill. Instead, my mom suggested sangria.

There is a wealth of sangria recipes on the internet, but my mom remembered that her tried and true recipe include orange juice and sprite. I found an online recipe that sounded similar and followed it...or so I thought. A few hours after book club I realized that I had completely forgotten to add the sugar that was called for. However, it called for a whole cup of sugar which seems like a lot, and I actually think it tasted fine without. Sometimes mistakes turn out for the best! I suppose you could add some (a whole cup probably isn't necessary!) but you get a sweetness from the soda and orange juice anyways. The sangria was easy to prep-I mixed everything but the fruit together the morning of, then added the fruit about two hours before serving.

This is a great cocktail for this Spring or Summer and paired nicely with our Mexican meal!

Sangria Demasiado (Light)
adapted from here

Ingredients:
-2 bottles of cheap red wine
-1 liter lemon/lime soda
-1 cup of orange juice
-1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored, and diced
-1 orange, peeled, seeded, roughly chopped

Directions:
1. Mix all of the ingredients together and refrigerate for at least a few hours ahead of time.
2. At least two hours ahead of time, add your chopped fruit.