Catching Up II

This weekend for a cookout I made a sangria from my calendar from the first week of January. Why they thought anyone would be making sangrias that time of year... I'd also put off making it because it calls for Licor 43, which I finally found a month or so ago. My sibling, who's much better drunk than I am (you know what I mean), said she'd never even heard of it.

The recipe is a dry red wine (I took the path of least resistance while doing some grocerying and bought Shiraz), Licor 43, lemon juice, sugar, sliced lemons, peaches (I got frozen after shuddering at the thought of buying canned), and the usual topping of club soda.

I liked this one better than the white wine sangria I made a couple weeks ago, and so did my sister and her husband. It was on the sweet side, so next time I'd cut or maybe even eliminate the sugar. And I'm not sure it does the Licor 43 justice. A vanilla bean and some brandy probably would be an OK substitute.

Another concoction from January that got made was gelatin shooters. The active ingredients were energy drink (I used Monster) and Southern Comfort. Didn't like it. Even in Sponge Bob paper cups (that's all the store had; the rest of the box goes to a 5-year-old friend). And the recipe was math challenged at that: it seemed to think you could get 40 1-oz cups out of a 32-oz brew.

This afternoon I'm skipping ahead to tomorrow's drink because I don't have the ginger beer I need for today's. (I'll probably substitute ginger ale, but I don't have it either.) The one I'm sipping is brandy, a little sweet vermouth, a little creme de menthe. Creme de menthe has a tendency to overpower anything you mix it with. This drink is OK, it probably would be even better with some chocolate or coffee liqueur in it, but it's not my thing.