Yep it's a mouthful of a title, but its quite possible the greatest thing I have ever made. I am sure I am not the first person to think of a banana bacon bread, but this sort of evolved for me from scratch.
I had a package of bacon that I needed to use up. I was originally going to crisp up the bacon and make chocolate covered bacon. Just to have around as a snack. Why not? But then I had some bananas that needed to be used. Banana's for some reason, do not last more than a day or two in my apartment without going brown. Banana bread was obviously on the table and then I thought, what if I crumbled bacon into the banana bread? What if I made a sour cream banana bread? And what if I put honey pecans on top? Later, in a last minute decision, I put two pinches of kosher salt into the glaze to add a double punch of sweet and salty like the bread itself. And that's how it happened. That's how the greatest creation of my life came to be.
I didn't expect this recipe to be so coveted. A bunch of people have asked for this because I told Mario Batali I was planning this on twitter. Thanks to his RT, and some friends on FB, the recipe is going up now. The pics were taken with an iphone since it was only an experiment. Forgive the quality.
Difficulty: Easy | Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins | Active Time: 20 mins | Makes: 1 (9-inch) loaf
This banana bread starts as a thick, tangy batter full of mashed banana, and emerges from the oven with a golden-brown crust and a moist, almost cake-like texture.
Game plan: We tested this recipe using a stand mixer, but it could easily be made by just stirring all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting the pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 very ripe medium bananas, mashed (about 1 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup sour cream
**Added Ingredient: One package of bacon cooked crispy, and crumbled.
INSTRUCTIONS
Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Coat a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with butter and dust it with flour, tapping out the excess. Whisk together the measured flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl to aerate and break up any lumps. Set aside.
Place the sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until thoroughly combined, about 2 minutes. Add the bananas and sour cream and mix until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the flour mixture, and mix until just combined.
Turn the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, the top is golden brown, and the bread is pulling away from the sides of the pan, about 1 hour.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Slide a knife around the perimeter of the pan, invert to release the bread, and cool completely on the wire rack before serving.
** Once it's cooled, place on a large serving plate or cake display with plenty of room for honey pecan glaze to drizzle over the top and sides.
Notes:
I tweaked this recipe by using 3 bananas and a little more sour cream. Be mindful of the baking powder. I used a brand new tin of baking soda and it caused the batter to spill over a bit while it was baking. So, put your banana bread pan on a sheet pan to catch anything in case it does spill over.
**Added Ingredient: 2 pinches of kosher salt or large granualed sea salt.
Chop half cup of pecans and leave some peices whole.
In a heavy saucepan, add the butter (chopped into 2 pieces), sugar, and honey. Bring these to a boil over medium-low and stir frequently until the sugar is dissolved.
**Turn off the heat. Toss in the pecans and salt and stir. Allow to cool but still be slightly runny so you can pour over the top of the bread.
Spoon the mixture on top of the cooled banana bread leaving most of the larger pieces on top of the bread. Allow it to drip down the sides.
I was sick and tired of beer dinners. Sick and tired of trying to come up with concepts for beer dinners. I had hosted a series of cool beer dinners in the past like the Aztec Beer Dinner, or Soul Food Brunch pairings, chocolate beer dinners, Russian beer dinners, even the now infamous Gallia Belgica.
All of those events were cool. No scratch that, they were amazing. But I now I am done with concepts or themes. I am done working with one sole brewer and only their line up of beers for beer dinners, and I am done with beer dinners that serve amazing food, but all anyone walks away with is, did they get enough of the geekiest beer being served that night.
I am through with coming up with beer dinners for beer geeks. A lot of them will never be satisfied and only want dinners that include full pours of Allagash Gargamel or something equally rare, they want the finest food to be served with it, and only want to pay $45 dollars max to be served like and eat like kings.
Sorry beer geeks, it's simply not about you anymore.
It's also not about the uber foodie either. I am frankly sick of them too. They don't have any idea about good craft beer (some of them anyway, not all of them), and they still turn their noses up at the idea that beer can be and is amazing with food.
Of course I am completely generalizing here, but you get the idea.
No Mas! No more creating dinners to suit other peoples needs. I wanted to create a series of dinners that highlight the things we love. From the restaurants, the chefs, the waitstaff, the style of food, and various beers. It may also include a wine versus beer tasting, a beer cocktail or spirit served with the meal, or even a beer battle itself!
The idea is to elevate the foodie to beer, and bring the beer geeks back down to reality with good solid beer and food offerings.
We had been discussing a possible beer dinner with Hungry Mother in Cambridge. A favorite restaurant who hadn't hosted a beer dinner before but was really contemplating the idea of working with us. I decided this was the right place to launch such an idea. Anyone who is local around here already knows Hungry Mother and how awesome they are. If you don't, drop whatever it is you are doing, shut your mouth, and go over there and have dinner immediately.
Their style is Appalachian-style southern food with local ingredients, and French techniques.
** When I say Appalachian, I mean App-il-lay-chin. The fine folks at HM will disagree with me until we are all blue in the face, but actually being from Virginia, and more the Appalachian Mountain chain extending way up into New England, I am right! Only in the deep corners of the south and the Blue Ridge Mountains do you call it "App-a-Latch-chan."
This is the kind of place that will serve you cheesy grits and bacon that will make your mama cry. They will serve it with a Hickory Dickel (Gingerale, George Dickel, a tiny hint of liquid smoke, and a bacon lardoon garnish. They will serve you a gorgeous country-style gnocchi with peas, mushrooms, and bacon, but serve you a Genesee Cream Ale with it. This is exactly our kind of place.
Together with Todd and Jason, myself, Alon and Rachel Munzer, Barry Maiden, John Kessen, and the various waitstaff and barkeeps, we created a fun menu to showcase the fun stuff Hungry Mother likes to create, and we all had a hand in picking our favorite beers for this menu. Beers that WE loved and it didn't have anything to do with whether they were super rare or super generic. It's all about what we love and what we wanted to share with our friends and patrons.
I want to highlight that at the very bottom of the menu listed all the things Hungry Mother loves.
Things We Love: BeerAdvocate, Deep Ellum, The Gallows, Carolina Chocolate Drops, East by Northeast, pizza, opera, Dylan & Mira, our lawyer, Jamison Farm, Tetris, Anson Mills, Eastern Standard, Muddy Pond sorghum, bourbon, hot dogs, Ridgeway Blue, rainbows and puppydogs, Kanye, days off, snood, golf, ukuleles, drinking, Strangeways Here We Come, (ex) data synapse, Joe-Joe's, Brazil, Hulu, bonfires on Wiborgs Beach, boo ya later.
We welcomed everyone to dinner with southern specialties of house made dilly beans, boiled peanuts, and homemade chips.
*Click to enlarge any image.
Great social foods to pick at and get introduced to your table. We sat a lot of people together in groups. The Dilly beans were spicy and tangy, the chips were crisp and addicting. I will take the word from everyone at the table that said the boiled peanuts were fantastic. They ate them all! I am a southerner who who doesn't care for boiled peanuts. I know, it's pure blasphemy. But it's a classic none the less and perfect for the table.
We also opened up with a beer cocktail of Campari, sorghum syrup, and Smuttynose Star Island single.
First course:
Miss Lewis' Tomato Aspic with Deviled Quail Egg and Bacon.
Beer: Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project American Darling, 7% abv
I think this was my favorite course. The aspic was soft and extremely flavorful with tomatoes. The deviled quails egg was cute and packed just the right amount of pop of creamy texture and flavor contrast for the beer. The bacon was just an awesome hint for the plate that tied every thing together. Really, who can deny a lovely piece of bacon? They should have had a piece of bacon on every course served for this dinner.
The beer was perfectly fresh, crisp, and delicious. Just a tad too hoppy for the aspic though. Not enough to clash, but while pilsners and lagers are excellent for tomatoes, the added hop bite of American darling, almost proved to be to much. But as a hop head, I never mind big hops.
HM always offers a pork plate of some sort. This was the perfect portion size for wonder flavors and two different variations of pork. Paired with the most classic beer for pork, Schlenkerla Marzen larger. Smoked beers are made for pork dishes. It's a simple pairing but packed full of flavor and proved during this dinner why we love it.
Third Course:
Catfish Caveach picholines, capers, poblanos.
Beer: Allagash White, 5.2% abv
Caveach is basically a method of pickling fish. It was fantastic catfish too. It had a lovely earthy rustic taste to it and the Allagash White really went perfectly with it. The tangy capers and vinegars tastes were smoothed out by the lovely and soft flavors of the wit bier. The soft texture and hearty flavors of the catfish were fantastic.
Fourth Course:
Shrimp and Grits with HM tasso, cornbread croutons, and rosemary.
Beer: Cape Ann Fishermans IPA, 5.5% abv
You can't have a real southern meal with out grits. HM always has a grit offering in some way. Shrimp and grits are a classic southern, soul food offering. These grits were slow cooked, creamy and deliciously buttery. The shrimp and sauce was extremely flavorful and worked well with the malty IPA. Malty and hops are good for rich sauces like this. I really didn't want this course to end.
Fifth Course:
Fried chicken picnic with "kohlslaw", compressed watermelon, and Texas Pete.
Beer: Narragansett vs. Genny Cream Ale
Yes! Yes, we did go there with fried chicken and cheap beer at a fancy beer dinner. Genny Cream Ale is a favorite of the HM staff, and Narragansett is a Todd favorite. We thought, why not battle them out and see which cheap beer is the favorite among crowd?
The best part of this was serving the chicken in paper baskets and the beer served in cans with paper cups on the tables. As soon as the beers were delivered, the cracking noises in sync around the room from the cans was amazing. It was super fun and had everyone engaged. I have never seen that many smiles for cheap beer in a long time. It goes to show you that there is a time and a lace for every beer. Only one person wasn't really thrilled with the cheap beer choices because he prefers Budweiser for his cheap beer of choice. I am a PBR girl myself, but I didn't let that stop me.
Before I announce the winner, lets talk about the food. Compressed watermelon? Yep vacuumed sealed so that all the juices compressed further into the melon. Sprinkled with salt to give it an awesome contrast to the insanely sweet and delicious melon. The "kohlslaw" was light and creamy and packed a delicate hit of flavors.
The fried chicken was perfectly southern. Juicy and that right bit of nearly burnt skin flavor. It tasted just like my mom's pan fried chicken and no one beats my mom's chicken! I was surprised to find out it was not pan fried. Close enough though. They deep fried it in a deep fryer but set the chicken high in the fryer like it was pan frying.
Winner: Narragansett!
But winner by a slim margin. The way it worked for me and a lot of people tended to agree was that the Genny Cream Ale was perfect right after the grits and worked extremely well with the "kohlslaw." But it was the 'Gansett that over took every thing by working perfectly with the watermelon and fried chicken.
Very fun course.
Sixth Course:
Pulled Jamison Lamb with hominy tortilla, corn and tomato chow chow.
Beer: Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, 8% abv
Wonderfully tender lamb. Flavor explosion with the southwest-style flavors perfectly matched with the malty and bitter Hop Rod Rye. This was one of the best matched courses with the beer. Unfortunately this was also the course where we all realized that this we may have been in over our heads. We still had desserts and cheese coming!
Seventh Course:
Meadow Creek Grayson with green tomato and sour cherry jam, crystal malt, and house made beer bread.
Originally we had planned for the beer to be Cerise from Founders. The reason being is that that beer tastes exactly like cherry pie filling! Something so southern, and cherries were in perfect season. However, there was none available and I think it worked out for the better.
Cisco Cherry Woods was available. It too had a delicious cherry pie filling taste, but with a much more crisp and delightfully sour bite to it. Not too sour where it burns your throat going down. It was very enjoyable and delicious. I am not usually a fan of sour ales, but this is one I very much enjoyed and could drink more than one glass of.
The sour notes and carbonation cut right through the cow's milk cheese allowing for an excellent pairing.
The beer bread was homemade and soft and the sour cherry jam was actually pretty mild. I think most people were expecting more of a cherry pop to the jam, but it was soft and mild because of the green tomatoes. If if had been more sour, the beer and jam would have over powered the pairing. I really enjoyed the sweet little accent of the crystal malt sprinkled on the plate as well.
Eighth Course:
Chocolate cake, sorghum buttercream, Benne brittle.
Beer: Left Hand Milk Stout 5.2% abv
Yes!! Chocolate cake covered in chocolate. A sesame seed brittle on top and Left Hand Milk Stout served in coffee cups. I loved that detail. HM has such cool flare.
This cake was rich and balanced by a lovely sorghum buttercream filling. It was very reminiscent of a New England whoopie pie. Rich chocolate flavors, butter sesame brittle, and rich, bitter, chocolate-y beer.
When we realized we were in trouble with the lamb course, this surely sent us all over the edge. And we still had one more to go.
Taza is a local favorite of HM as it is with many local shops and restaurants. It's a natural fit for those shops and restaurants who keep it local and source ingredient from their area and local producers. I am personally not a huge fan of Taza Chocolate, but just for this once I didn't mind it. The cookies were soft, buttery, and had that perfect balance of salt by being topped with sea salt. Sweet and salty always works. The cookie dough covered up the flaws I normally find in Taza Chocolate.
The cocktail was a nice way to end the night. We were all so full and in full on food coma mode. The cocktail was soothing and settled our full bellies.
And there you have it. Hungry Mother's first beer dinner showcasing their favorite things with a combination of our favorite beers. From the details of the paper in the fired chicken course, to the mini mason jars filled with gorgeous tomato aspic, to the coffee cups filled with milk stout, they really knocked this one out of the park. For their first ever beer dinner, they really seemed to get it. Look for more events with BeerAdvocae and Hungry Mother in the future. I know I certainly can't wait to work with them again.
The idea that having a fun and a well received beer dinner without serving the most rare and geekiest of beers was made abundantly clear with the super fun fried chicken course. A successful event that proves we need to listen to ourselves more. Trust our own ideas and go with what we know works and what we love. It's up to you to come with us or not. As you can see, if you don't, you might be missing out on some really amazing food and some real good times.
Red, juicy, delicious, sweet cherries. Just playing around with my camera and taking pictures of cherries for when I made Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream. I love the colors and I love my new camera.
Our first night hanging out in Brooklyn with good friends Shane Welch, owner and Brewmaster of Sixpoint Craft Ales. And Cathy Erway, food writer and author of The Art of Eating In. See her blog here. Not Eating Out In New York. Cathy spent two years of cooking at home and learning more about local foods and wrote a wonderful book about her experience. It must have taken incredible dedication considering the caliber restaurants of New York and the ones they took us to over the weekend.
Cathy stopped by a market to get cheese, crackers, dips, and fresh cherries. As well as some fresh raisin Challah bread to wake up to. Delicious snacks with some beers while Shane geeked out on music.
We also got to try some handmade paté de fruit from some good friends of Cathy. She has the hook up on all the good secrets of Brooklyn.
A few libations for the evening. It's not Westvleteren, just the glass wear.
That Sierra Nevada Torpedo behind these beers, then gets horribly disrespected. I cracked it open before I saw the other beers being poured. I said, "no problem I will stick it in the freezer for few while I drink this one." Of course you know, I completely forgot about it.
I cleaned it up, but it felt bad to waste a good beer.
Then I took some random shots playing
around with my new camera. I got a Nikon D5000. It's a fierce camera,
but I literally got it 2 days before Brooklyn. I think it will take me a
long time before I fully understand how to use it. still, I liked this
messed up images anyway. We had a chill night with great friends.
And I don't to forget my new best friend, Barley the dog. Shane adopted Barley from a shelter. It took a bit of her getting used to us, but by the end, she loved us as much as we loved her.
This was our first event after landing in Anchorage, Alaska. We literally flew into town, got showered up, and were back out for beer and food.
Billy Opinsky, the owner of Humpy's Great Alaskan Ale House, owns and shares a kitchen with another bar called SubZero Micro Lounge. Anyone who know beer in Alaska, knows Billy O. He is a kind and generous proprietor of two Anchorage's mainstay's and is extremely knowledgeable about craft beer. After our week in Alaska, I can safely call Billy O, my pal!
SubZero was the scene for the "Break Into The Cage" beer dinner. Billy Opinsky broke into his stash of rare offerings of Belgian beers kicking off a week of beer events for the Great Alaskan Beer And Barely Wine Festival. There were some excellent surprises in store and some other offerings that were not so much.
Welcome Beer:Castelain 2001 Blonde Biere de Garde, 6.4%, France
This one came out a little chunky, but tasted amazing for nine year old beer. I felt like it held up well.
The French are known for their farmhouse style ales. Very classic, wild farmhouse ales. As pretty as Biere de Garde's are though, I am looking forward to France finally competing with the Italians and making more varieties of craft beer. But having said that, I have never been to France. There could be a beer revolution going on there right now.
First Course: Artisan greens with pomegranate, tossed with meyer lemon, olive oil, and geuze, topped with gorgonzola and crispy pancetta.
This was an excellent pairing. The sour gueze went right to work on the earthy greens and the blue cheese. The pomegranate seeds added a touch of sweet tart to the plate. And of course the pancetta, that's always a welcome guest to any dish.
I liked this course a lot because reinforces the power of a good pairing. I am not a fan of sour beers. If the ph is off, they become undrinkable to me. It's not the flavors of them despite how funky they can be, it's the physical effects they cause to my body. Like instant heart burn. If they are too funky, they wild bacterias cause instant bloating. An uncomfortable issue to talk about with beers, and in the middle of a beer dinner discussion, but it still happens. These aged beers were certainly funky but I was able to handle them okay with food.
It proves to me that food and beer really change one and other. Beers you may not like, end up being wonderful with the right food. And once you accept that factor that food changes the experience all together, it reinforces a mantra that I have been repeating over recent months: You don't not need to give a person "training wheel" beers in order to make them a convert. People think non beer drinkers should be weened into beer versus giving them the best beers no matter what style they are. All it takes is an expertly matched pairing. The same can be said about me who has professed a dislike towards sour beers. Food changes everything for the better.
Second Course: Seared Foie Gras resting on red cabbage braised in Hanssens Kriek with a blackberry compote and fresh berries.
This was an amazing dish. Huge pieces of wicked soft foie gras. Absolutely sinful and artery clogging. Just the way I like it! The red cabbage and the blackberry compute was fantastic.
The beer was not so much for me. Despite it's gorgeous red color and crisp carbonation still hanging on, there was a funk going on that I just couldn't get passed. It was little rough on my esophagus as well. All the other geeks at the table were going bonkers over it. This was one I just couldn't agree with. I wound up drinking the Boon Oude Geuze with it and it worked just as well. Same basic principles of the high acid content cutting through the rich fats as well as the carbonation.
Despite a super funky beer, this course was amazing.
Amuse Bouche: Crostini with a gouda spread, spring onions and chutney.
Now this was a Cantillon I could handle. Cantillon is world renowned for their lambics and gueze's. But they are also know for being some of the most sour beers you can get. These are some of the worlds prettiest beers, but the some of the roughest on me. Luckily not this one thanks to aging rounding out all the dramatic sharp sour edges. Big lovely peaches and apricots in this muted sour beer.
It went perfectly with the little nosh of gouda crostinis.
Intermission Beer:Unibroue Edition 2005, 10% Abv, Dark Belgian Strong Ale, Quebec, Canada.
Sadly from this point on I can only post the picture from this beer dinner. I had to head back to the hotel and sleep. I had a headache so bad. We landed that afternoon and went right to the dinner. This was the kind of headache that wouldn't go away without a few hours darkness and sleep. Luckily I woke up feeling great the next and had a glorious breakfast of King Crab Leg Cakes Eggs Benedict. But bad luck for me, I missed the bread pudding dessert. Todd finished taking pictures for me.
Third Course: Deconstructed venison stew with root vegetables.
Beer:Thomas Hardy's Ale 1996 Old Ale 11.7% abv, England (Retired)
Fourth Course: Pistachio crusted lamb resting in Duchess de Bourgogne demi glace with potatoes au gratin.
I love bread pudding. What a shame I couldn't make it all the way to the end. But from everything I did have, it was an incredible meal. Todd said the rest of the meal was fantastic. I got to meet and hang out with some really great people. And I got to bad mouth Sarah Palin with some like minded Alaskans.
Thank you Billy O for kicking off our week in Alaska with an amazing beer dinner.
(For the record, I tried to take a picture of this ice cream on three separate occasions with two different batches. They all came out blurry. Picture Fail.)
I found this recipe while surfing FoodGawker. It's a wonderfully delicious ice cream recipe from the blog Our Best Bites. It turned out really well and was absolutely fantastic.
2 C cherries, pitted and halved or quartered (about 40-50 cherries) 1 4.5 oz dark chocolate bar (about 1 C shavings, but can't go wrong with more) 1 1/2 c. 2% milk 1 c. sugar 2 egg yolks 1 c. heavy cream 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract (I used 1 full tsp.) 1/2 tsp. pure almond extract (I used 1 full tsp.)
Combine milk and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium until bubbles form around the edges. Remove from heat.
In
a small mixing bowl, whisk eggs thoroughly. Very slowly, add 1/2 of the
hot milk mixture, whisking the eggs constantly. Return pan with
remaining milk mixture to stove top and then whisk the egg and milk
mixture back into the saucepan, whisking constantly. You need to be
careful here to not get the eggs too hot too fast, or else they'll
curdle.
Add whipping cream. Over medium-low heat and stirring
constantly, continue heating the custard mixture to 160 degrees. It
will start to thicken quickly.
A good trick to test the
custard mixture is to dip a spoon in and run your finger down the back
of it. When your finger leaves a track, it's ready.
Once
ready, remove from heat and add chopped cherries immediately. Add
vanilla and almond as well. Let the custard cool (you can use an ice
bath if you want to speed that process up) and then place in the fridge
to chill for several hours.
Once the custard is cooled and chilled pop it in your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturers directions.
While
ice cream is churning, grate the chocolate. Add
the chocolate shavings into the ice cream when there's just a few
minutes left. If you wait too long and it's already to thick to really
mix it well, just stir them in by hand as you transfer your ice cream
into another container. Chill in the freezer for a few hours and then devour.
*Side Note: I started to shave the chocolate and it was tedious and too thin. So I grabbed a small knife with a serrated edge and chopped and shaved it at the same time. It made for shavings and actual chunks which was much better in the ice cream.
My three different attempts to take pictures of this ice cream all of which came out blurry.
Update: I have made this twice now and have been actually craving it nearly everyday since I first made it. Damn you Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream! DAMN YOU!!
After making Chocolate Berry Rum shakes the other day I realized I still had a ton of these frozen berries to get rid of. Now that they have been thawed, they can't be refrozen. Another situation with ugly fruit and what to do about it.
Since it's July 4th, I thought abut making something American and simple. A crisp. Well I don't know how "American" the origins of a crisp actually are, and since it's a patriotic day, I will just pretend it's all American. The south seems to think it originated there, so why not? Lest we forget the Apple pie isn't American at all, but we like to say it is.
Through someone talking about shakes on Twitter, this idea morphed into a good idea for an afternoon beverage, liquor fix, chocolate fix. Plus there is berries in it. Chocolate, mixed berry, rum shakes.
I had these frozen berries I bought from Costco intending to make a quick pie with. Once you freeze berries they are never the same afterward. They are like vegetables and turn to mush due to all the water in them. I had to get rid of them. Blender and ugly fruit? Bingo!
Ingredients:
1 pint of rich Chocolate Ice Cream 1 to 2 cups frozen Mixed Berries 1 cup Dark Rum (1/2 cup if you are a light weight) Not Meyers rum. Use a darker golden dark rum like Thomas Tew or Pussers. Captain Morgans will work too. 1/3 to 1/2 cup Milk 2 tbls Unsweetened Cocoa Powder or Chocolate Syrup, or Hot Fudge Topping 4 to 5 medium to large sized ice cubes
Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Make sure milk and rum are on the bottom. Without a good liquid base it won't blend very well. Oh and don't forget to keep that blender lid on tight. Everyone I know has had at least one blender accident.
Serve with straw and enjoy.
*Disregard my choice of using Frozen Yogurt in the picture. Stonyfield Farms is very yummy and very rich tasting, but milky, creamy ice cream is a better idea.
2 Bottles of Cabernet Savignon (the $5.99 el cheapo kind. I also try NOT to use blends like cab/merlot blends ect.) 1 orange sliced 1 lemon sliced 1 lime sliced 1 apple peeled, cored, and sliced or diced 2 cups of apple juice 1 1/3 cups of cranberry juice (2 cups if the wine is sweeter) 2 cups of orange juice 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of triple sec (Edit: Cointreau and Grand Marnier work just as well. Grand Marnier is a little alcoholic hot though on the palate so play around with the measurements.) 1/2 cup to 1 cup or sugar (depending on how dry the wine is.)
*Fruits may vary from strawberries, blueberries, blood oranges, and pears. For this particular batch I used Pears, Oranges, Lemons, Limes, and Blueberries. I had Apples ready, but the Pear was enough and the pitcher was already too full for more fruit.
Slice citrus fruits and muddle with sugar and triple sec in pitcher.
Add wine and juices and apples and all other fruits and stir nicely. Let sit for 4 hours up to over night. Serve on ice with soaked fruit from the Sangria.
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