VMBURNS: I was looking for a fruity punch to celebrate the holidays and stumbled across a recipe for a virgin sangria. I, of course, made adjustments and tweaked to my tastes. Feel free to do the same.
The original recipe I found used a Pink Lady Apple. I didn't have a pink lady, but I did have a red delicious. I thought the bright red skin would be great. I was wrong. I do NOT recommend the red delicious. The texture of the apple's flesh didn't hold up well. I LOVED the blackberries in the sangria. In fact, I eventually scooped them out and ate them with a spoon. My biggest adjustment came with the sparkling water. Initially, I used a plain sparkling water. However, on my second batch, I tried flavored sparkling waters and OMG was it tasty. I tried peach flavored and blood orange. Both were delicious. If you are going to drink this immediately, then I would recommend adding the sparkling water to your pitcher. Otherwise, I recommend waiting until you are serving the sangria/punch and just pour some sparkling water in the glass.
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VIRGIN SANGRIA
INGREDIENTS
- 1 Apple (I like Honey Crisp)
- 2 Oranges
- 1 Lemon
- 1 Cup Blackberries
- 1 Cup Sparkling Water
- 3/4 Cup Apple Juice
- 1 Cup Orange Juice
- 3 Cups Cranberry Juice
- INSTRUCTIONS
- Cut the apple into chunks. Slice the oranges, and cut the lemon in half, and slice one half of the lemon. Add all of your fruit, including the blueberries to a pitcher.
- Fill the pitcher with the apple juice, orange juice, and cranberry juice. Squeeze the juice from the remaining lemon half into the pitcher.
- Stir and place in the refrigerator to cool.
- Pour the juice into a glass about 80 percent full, then add the sparkling water to the glass.
- READERS: Do you have a fruit that you like to include in beverages? Or a fruit that you HATE in beverages? Let me know in a comment below.
MURDER FROM A TO Z
When Michigan bookshop owner and mystery writer Samantha Washington and her sister, Jenna, agreed to host a class for seniors on estate planning, they didn’t plan on discovering shady doings at Shady Acres Retirement Village . . .
Nana Jo has volunteered her lawyer granddaughter, Jenna, to teach estate planning to retirees—with Sam providing her bookshop as the venue. But during the seminar, entitled Getting Your Ducks in Order, it quickly becomes clear someone’s up to Fowl Play. When elderly Alva Tarkington, accompanied by her niece, sits down for a consultation, Sam realizes the woman’s frequent blinking is actually Morse Code—S.O.S. The sisters get her alone, and Alva tells them she believes her life is in danger and must change her will . . .
Unfortunately, Alva is found dead the next day—seemingly from natural causes. But Nana Jo and the sisters suspect otherwise. In between penning her latest historical mystery, set in 1939 as England declares war on Germany and Lady Elizabeth Marsh pursues stolen paintings and a traitor, Sam teams up with the senior sleuths of Shady Acres to search for motives—beginning with Alva’s family. They soon learn not everyone is who they say they are, and someone is more than qualified to teach a class on cold-blooded murder . . .
