Sangria (and Fauxgria) & Sweets

Jenn With Her Fellow Cookie Artists!

  I love the month of December since the girls come home and bring all their friends over for cookie decorating, dinners, and edible gift making.  It is also a great time to get together with my teacher buddies and other special aquaintances.  From past experience, I know my educator friends enjoy a glass of wine or two when they get together, so when several were coming over to my house for a pitch in, I thought sangria might be fun to serve.  I googled sangria recipes and found tons and tons of variations.  All had some type of red wine as the base, and then the variations were endless.  Some had white sugar, some had brown, some had orange juice, and some had ruby port.  I knew I wanted peaches as part of the fruit, so I opted to include a peach juice blend as an alternative to the ingredients I saw in the other recipes.  The ladies all seemed to enjoy the recipe noted here. However, our family's speed is more like fake sangria, which we call"fauxgria" and the recipe for that is here as well.  Also included in this post are some delicious holiday treats - White Chocolate Party Mix and Rolo Pretzel "Turtles".



Great Gifts!

Super Easy Sangria

2 cheap bottles of red wine like “Two Buck Chuck” Cabernet

1 can frozen condensed peach blend juice such as Dole’s Orange Peach Mango

A mixture of 4 to 6 fruits such as apples, peaches, or oranges, sliced if citrus or cut up in chunks

Mix all ingredients together in a glass pitcher.  Pour sangria into glasses, spoon some of the fruit in, and toss in some ice cubes.  Enjoy!

 

 

Fauxgria

6 cans of Fresca

½ can frozen condensed grape juice

½ can frozen condensed peach blend juice such as Dole’s Orange Peach Mango

 A mixture of 4 to 6 fruits such as apples, peaches, or oranges, sliced if citrus or cut up in chunks

Mix all ingredients together in a glass pitcher; the fizz in the carbonated drink will cause “foam”, so it’s best not to add it all at once.  Pour fauxgria into glasses, spoon some of the fruit in, and toss in some ice cubes.  Enjoy!

White Chocolate Party Mix

1 1/2 pounds white chocolate                                                

3 cups Rice Chex

3 cups Corn Chex

3 cups Cherrios

2 cups thin pretzel sticks

2 cups peanuts

1 (12 oz.) package of M&Ms

Put the white chocolate in microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds.  Stir and microwave in 15 second increments, stirring each time until smooth.  Pour melted white chocolate over the other ingredients and gently stir until all is evenly coated.  Spread the mixture on foil until cool.  The mixture will naturally break apart into pieces as it is placed into containers.

Rolo Pretzel "Turtles"

1 package of Rolo candies (chocolate covered caramel candies)

1 small bag of mini pretzel twists

1 package of pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cookie sheet with foil and place a Rolo on top of each pretzel you place on the cookie sheet.  Bake for 3 minutes.  Upon taking out of the oven, immediately press a pecan on top of each Rolo covered pretzel.  Allow the "turtles" to cool before storing in a covered container.