This recipe was on the back of a Cuisine at Home magazine a few years ago. It seemed like just the kind of drink to start Thanksgiving off with-- bubbly and festive but not too sweet and actually rather sophisticated. It's delicious and I will give you the recipe as written with only two further thoughts:1) This only makes enough for about 6 drinks- I'd advise on a double recipe.2) Don't discard the fruit pulp after you've squeezed the juice out of it. As my dad and I discovered it's delicious and can be served with your meal as a relish.One last thing- the photo is part of the image that appeared in the magazine as I didn't have any photos of my own. Recipe after the jump.
Cranberry Prosecco Cocktail
Serves 6, easily doubled
From Cuisine at Home
1.5 C. fresh or frozen cranberries (reserve 6 berries)
1 C. cranberry juice cocktail
1 C. sugar
juice and peel of one orange
1 bottle Prosecco or your favorite sparking white wine
- Pulse cranberries and juice in a food processor or blender until the berries are roughly chopped.
- Add berry mix, sugar and juice and peel of the orange to a small saucepan and simmer for about 10 minutes or until syrupy. Strain syrup and cool to room temperature.
- When ready to serve add 1-2T. syrup to your glasses than top with the sparking wine. Add a reserved berry and serve.
Two tips- use a fine mesh strainer to strain the syrup and don't chill the syrup, leave it at room temperature or it will thicken.
One of Zach's friends (who shall remain nameless) gave Zach a 5 Liter box of Franzia zinfandel for his birthday.* We had no idea what to do with it, besides use it as a rather large doorstop but when we ended up hosting a memorial day barbeque for some friends (since we were dog sitting and had access to a house and a backyard) we decided to make a white sangria.
While I have consumed my fare share of sangria over the years, I'd never actually made it before so I trawled the net for some recipes. Common themes were citrus with white wine, and that some kind of sparkling beverage like club soda or Sprite should be added right before serving.
A few hours before the party, I chopped up 2 apples, 1 lemon, 1 lime and two oranges and then we emptied nearly the whole box of Franzia in and added about a third a cup of sugar and into the fridge it went. Fast forward to guests arriving, the dog running around and me running to 7-11 for something fizzy and it's sangria time. It went over well, if the rapidly depleting punchbowl and rising volume of the conversation were any indication.
I really like the idea of serving a sangria or punch instead of having a few bottles of wine for guests. Dipping into a communal bowl (in our case with a coffee mug since we couldn't find a ladle) adds to the atmosphere, as does serving 5 liters of wine to 10 people...
*Franzia, just in case you weren't in the U.S. in the early/mid 90's, was the first really popular box wine. Known for zinfandels, franzia is pretty much snubbed by anyone who knows (or thinks they know) anything about wine but it worked perfectly well for our purposes.
This recipe was on the back of a Cuisine at Home magazine a few years ago. It seemed like just the kind of drink to start Thanksgiving off with-- bubbly and festive but not too sweet and actually rather sophisticated. It's delicious and I will give you the recipe as written with only two further thoughts:
