Labor Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the AMAZING weekend.  Here in the Bluegrass State, temps dropped to a high of 75 (!!) and I tried to spend as much time outside.  Labor Day weekend, for me, marks the kick off of fall and I could not be more excited!! I have just a few things to look forward to this fall.  Besides the wedding (and honeymoon!), I love the food, weather, and colors of fall.  I drove by a tree the other day that had just the hints of fall color.

The enjoyment of the weather this weekend involved dinner at my parents house out on their porch.  My mom the gourmande made Paella for dinner (wayyy out of my league) so Stud and I offered to make some Sangria.  Dangerously yum. And dangerously strong.  This here is the real deal - the recipe originates from Stud's time abroad in Barcelona.  And we have enough to make another batch....

Sangria

1/2 bottle red wine (cheap is better)

1 1/2c. brandy

1 1/2c. club soda

1c. sugar

2 oranges

2 lemons

1 lime

Slice and squeeze the juice from the oranges, lemons, and lime into the bottom of a pitcher.  I left about half the rinds of the slices in the pitcher - they are so pretty!  Add the sugar and mix well.  Add the liquids and stir to combine.  Taste to make sure it's to your liking.  I also added ice to ours, I think it's much better with a chill.  And the color of the sangria is so deep and rich.  I wish I could have captured it better...maybe I should stop using my cell phone camera....

This recipe was so tasty and we just used a basic ratio.  I think it's actually supposed to be two parts wine to one part brandy and one part club soda, but ours was more like 1:1:1 and it's what I'll make again because I enjoyed it so much.