Sparkly's Skinny Sangria

[Sparkly]

So the Stinker and I went out to a Mexican place recently and had "Skinny Margaritas." Turns out they just used fresh lime juice and agave syrup instead of Rose lime. Also turns out the "Skinny Margarita" is not included on the special $2 Margarita night, but instead is designed to make your wallet skinnier. (Thank goodness we only had one! Sheesh.)

Anyway, we had guests soon after and I made up "Skinny Sangria," which was a hit -- yet so simple it's almost stupid. Tonight we're having even more guests so I've concocted a white version as well as red.

Here's what I do:

- Get some box wine -- seriously. You wouldn't want to do this with good wine, and people will drink a lot of it. I used "Black Box" Shiraz and Pinot Grigio.

- Get pitcher, rinse out pitcher, towel dry pitcher, clean pitcher with dishwasher liquid, dry pitcher, note dog hairs in pitcher, rinse pitcher again, decide pitcher is the wrong size and start over with correct sized pitcher.

- Slice up ripe peaches and mango. Gnaw on the mango seed over the sink while nobody's looking.

- Slice lemon and lime into rounds. Save some ends of them to squeeze.

- Set aside any of the pieces of fruit that came out pretty, especially if you're doing the red version, because they're all going to look like soggy plums after a while and it's nice to have a little piece of something fresh floating in the glass. (Something that isn't a dog hair, I mean.)

- Put the fruits and a pitcher and add (I know this is terrible) a couple of packets of sweetener. Or fine, agave syrup. Stir it around and smash at the citrus.

- Squeeze juice from the saved lemon and lime ends into the pitcher. Slice and twist bits of peel and throw those in there. (Oh! I just remembered I bought this nifty zester thing from a friend who was selling Pampered Chef, which might make some cute things to float.)

- Get the box of wine and start dispensing into pitcher. Switch hands when one gets tired (my arms are pathetic). Don't fill the pitcher all the way, though.

- Stir.

- Taste to make sure the fruit is coming through pretty clearly. (Red needs more lime than white, I believe.)

- Now I take some (terrible, I know) clear, Splenda-sweetened Tangerine Lime flavor clear soda. (Hey, it's "naturally flavored.") This is key.

- Don't add it to the pitcher yet or it'll all go flat. But to taste what it'll be like, put a sip of the fruited wine into a little glass and add seltzer -- I do it about 2/3 and 1/3 proportions.

- Make sure it tastes good.

- Take a taste to any resident curmudgeons in your household: wake said curmudgeon from nap, provide sip, await murmur of approval, allow curmudgeon to resume nap.

- Put pitcher(s) in frig.

- Once guests start arriving, add seltzer to pitcher and stir.

- To serve, put ice in wine glasses, pour it over ice, and garnish with the pretty fruits you set aside.

Voila!

[Warpy]

1. Can you substitute cat hair for dog hair?

[grasswire]

2. you have a border collie, don't you?

The amount of hair my border collie puts out is scary. Scary. I wonder how much nutrition there is in an ounce of dog hair.

[EFerrari]

3. Dog hair, sweetener, wine-- my 3 favorite food groups!:

:applause:

:rofl:

[supernova]

4. Sounds good!

Without the dog hair, I mean.

:rofl:

[NMDemDist2]

5. sounds great

i just used to use 7up instead of seltzer and sweetner tho.... :hide: