Mmmmm, Sangria!

Memorial Day Post: Part One

We had a picnic to go to for Memorial Day, so I decided to be ambitious and try some new recipes I've been dying to give a shot!

First off- Sangria! This idea actually came to me when my husband pointed out that we have far too much random alcohol in our liquor cabinet. I took a look in there, and he was right. There were random things purchased that I had only used once for a particular recipe (as I just mentioned in a previous post!). After examining the cabinet I decided that my goal would be to use the Cointreau I purchased to make my Pomegranate Cosmopolitans for our holiday potluck back in January. I never used Cointreau before that & hadn't used it since. Luckily, I came across a sangria recipe that would put it to good use! Unfortunately, the peaches & plums I needed for the recipe are not currently in season! Grrrr! However, I was able to improvise & use apples I already had on hand & some white peaches I randomly located at Wegmans (not the ripest peaches, but they would have to do).

Fresh fruit for Memorial Day Sangria!

Lots of fruit... too much fruit if you ask my husband!

Wine + fruit = yummy!

Ready to hang out in my fridge overnight!

Since I wanted to do 2 batches of Sangria & my original recipe was already tweeked, I decided to get creative with the second batch!

Upon closer inspection of my liquor cabinet I discovered some Chambord that I had purchased back in February for the Valentine's Day dinner I prepared for Peter. I decided to make a berry sangria that turned out to be even better than the above sangria!

I only have one glass picture, so the classiness of this sangria had to suffer!

Blackberries, raspberries & blueberries

Tried a different rioja with this one

In case anyone is interested, this is the recipe I came up with:

Berry Sangria
1 bottle of Rioja Wine;
3 Tbsp sugar;
3 Tbsp dark rum;
3 Tbsp Chambord;
1 container of blackberries;
1 container of raspberries;
1 container of blueberries;
1 cinnamon stick

I don't really think the quantities of berries matter too much. Peter's pretty sure all the berry flavor came from the Chambord... regardless, it was good. Then the wine soaked berries were wonderful to snack of afterward! Enjoy!