White Summer Sangria

I have never really been a wine drinker.  I just never cared for the taste of it.  I much preferred fruity mixed drinks.  But it turned out that I just hadn’t found the right wine.  A year or so ago I discovered Moscato.  Moscato is a really sweet white dessert wine with lovely effervescence.  It’s so tasty.  I’m really glad that I finally discovered a wine that I actually like!

Last fall I ran across a recipe for sangria made with Moscato.  I squirreled it away because, as you know, I have to make certain foods in certain seasons.  And this was definitely a summer recipe.  A couple of weeks ago my sister was in town, so after we put all the kiddos to bed, I whipped up some of this delightful stuff.  I ended up changing the original recipe, (go figure!), so here’s my version.

White Summer Sangria


Ingredients:
1 (750 ml) bottle moscato
½ cup triple sec or other fruity liqueur
1 lemon wedge
1 lime wedge
1 tbsp sugar
6 oz. fresh raspberries
1 peach, sliced
2 cups ginger ale


Directions:
Pour moscato and triple sec into a pitcher.  Take both the lemon and lime wedges and squeeze the juice into the pitcher.  Add sugar and stir until dissolved.  Add raspberries and peaches and stir.  Chill in refrigerator for at least half an hour.


When ready to serve, add ginger ale and stir to combine everything.  Pour into glasses with ice and garnish with lemon and lime wedges.


Makes 4 servings.

Please excuse the poor quality of the photos.  Since I made this at night, the lighting was bad and these pics were the best I could get!

I had never made sangria before, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  I knew it contained wine and fruit, but that was about it.  Sangria is traditionally made with red wine, but this super sweet white wine version rocks!  And it seems “lighter” somehow, and more fitting for summer.

You can use frozen fruit if you get the unavoidable urge to make this out of season, just let the fruit thaw before adding it to the drink.

I made this again last night, but used Sloe Berry Liqueur instead of the Triple Sec.  That was really good too! You can really use anything you like, as long as it’s sweet and fruity.

So pretty in the pitcher.

I hope you get a chance to make this before summer leaves us for good!

Doya Margaritas

These are the margaritas Hilary and I made for our Sister’s Day party this year. I didn’t know what to call them, and they are so good that they definitely deserve their own name, so I made one up. It’s an acronym.

I got the recipe from my friend, Brenda, who is a Pampered Chef consultant and makes them at her shows. Hilary had had them before too, but I forgot where.

Doya Margaritas

Ingredients:

2 (12 oz.) cans Sprite

2 (12 oz.) cans frozen limeade, thawed

2 (12 oz.) bottles Corona

24 oz. tequila (use the empty limeade cans to measure)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher. Stir thoroughly. Serve over ice. Take away everyone’s car keys and enjoy!

Makes 3 quarts, or 8 (12 oz.) drinks.

These are the best margaritas ever! I don’t like frozen blended margaritas (they give me that “head freeze” thingy), so these are perfect for me. The beer and the Sprite give them a nice carbonation effect, but it’s not like drinking soda at all. You can salt the rims too, if you like that. We didn’t bother. If you do decide to salt the rims, try dipping the glasses in tequila instead of water. That’s what Brenda did at her PC show and it was nice! This is some pretty potent stuff, so consider yourself warned. Definitely suited for a “girls’ night in” kind of party or any other situation where no one will need to drive anywhere.

Flaming Meredith

This is a cocktail that we created for our Moroccan-themed The Office watching party.  It is in no way Moroccan, but we found out ahead of time that on the episode, the character Meredith catches her hair on fire.  She is a redhead and it was a Christmas party so we chose cranberry schnapps. This drink is a variation on one that Hilary and I created back in 2001 or 2002 called the Flaming Mitsubishi.  (It was in memory of our tv that caught on fire.) That one was made with orange juice and raspberry pucker.

Flaming Meredith

Ingredients:

1 shot Crantasia cranberry schnapps

orange juice

ice, if desired

Directions:

Put ice in short tumbler.  Pour shot over ice.  Add desired amount of orange juice.

Makes one drink.

You can use pineapple juice instead of the orange juice, but the colors seem to mix more that way than with the orange juice. But it’s just as tasty.

Raspberry Kir

A part of our Girls’ Night In dinner.

Raspberry Kir

Ingredients:
1 shot raspberry Vodka
2 shots champagne
Crystal Light Raspberry Ice

Directions:
Measure out shots into cocktail glass. Add Crystal Light to taste.

We had to change this to be able to drink it. It originally called for 1 oz. of raspberry vodka and a 1/4 oz. of champagne. 1/4 oz? What is that, like half a thimblefull? So we first tried 1 shot of each. But it was still not sweet enough, so that’s when we upped the champagne and added Crystal Light. The champagne is nice because it makes it bubbly. And it wasn’t pink until we added the Crytal Light, as the raspberry vodka is clear.