When the sun won’t shine for your birthday party, make a Sunny Sangria instead. :)
I’ve been gearing up the past couple days for my birthday party tonight. We’re having about 25-30 people over so it should be a great time! This makes the first of two birthday potlucks this weekend. We have another with family tomorrow at our place too. Hopefully, the house is still standing by then, but I’m not making any promises. ;) My actual birthday is Monday and Eric is taking me out for dinner.
I better loosen my belt!
For today’s party I’m making Sunny White Sangria, Raw Triple Berry Fruit Crisp, Homemade Edename Hummus & veggies, chips & Nacho cheeze sauce, salsa, and Eric is going to fire up the BBQ. Friends are bringing along a savoury or sweet dish, so I have a feeling there is going to be a ton of food!
Back to this Sunny White Sangria. You know, the one I was taste-testing at 8am this morning? Sometimes a birthday girl just needs a little wine for breakfast to kick off her day.
I’ve actually never made a White Sangria before, only red, so this was a new experience for me. I thought a White Sangria would be nice and Spring-like. Being the fruit lover that I am, I loaded this with orange, lemon, lime, mango, and pineapple slices, kissed with orange juice and natural cane sugar. It turned out pretty darn fantastic and I’m sure it will taste even better after chilling for the next 8 hours.
[print_this]
Sunny White Sangria
Adapted from Oprah.
Ingredients:
- 2 bottles dry to semidry white wine, such as Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay
- 2-3 cups orange juice (freshly squeezed preferred), to taste
- 1 lemon, sliced
- 2 limes, sliced
- 1 orange, sliced
- 1 can pineapple chunks with juice
- 1 large handful frozen mango chunks
- 3/4 cup natural cane sugar, or to taste
- Club soda (optional) (I will add 1 can before serving)
- Ice, optional
Directions: Add everything except the sugar into a large pitcher and stir well. Add sugar to taste and adjust until your desired sweetness is achieved. Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours prior to serving. Before serving, you may add some club soda & ice if desired. Taste again and add more sweetener if necessary.
Note: I made a double batch, so you can always cut this in half using 1 bottle of white wine.
[/print_this]
Sangria, I’ll see you tonight! muhauha.
In the meantime, I have some deck updates for you…
Eric took a few days off work this week and Shayne and Dan helped him each day. They got so much done! It was such a great week weather-wise for deck building too.
I’m so excited to be able to walk straight out onto the deck from the back door! I can’t believe I can finally walk on the deck now.
There will be stairs going down in the middle (and stairs on each end).
I think they are doing such a wonderful job. You’d never know that a professional didn’t do this.
When Eric made the deck plan, he wanted to include a couple sections with diagonal boards and they turned out really nice. It was a bit more work with math & measuring, but the result was worth it.
This is all that remains for the base. After this comes the railing and stairs. The weather is calling for rain for a week straight, so it probably won’t be touched until end of next week, unless that changes!
I’m off for a little hot yoga to kick off my day and then back to work getting this place ready for tonight.
Coming up, I have a delicious Raw Triple Berry Crisp to share. Have a great Saturday!
Happy Early Birthday, and have a fun time at your party!!!
The deck looks awesome!
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
I’ve actually never had sangria before but this makes me really want to try it. It sounds so fruity and delicious!
Enjoy your birthday celebrations this weekend! :)
Ooh happy birthday!! This sangria looks BEAUTIFUL :)
I hope you’ll have a great party! Deck is amazing!
Oh yes – HAPPY B-DAY! It looks like you got some sun? All rain in the forecast here for the next week! Ugh – that’s what we get for nice weather last week.
Your deck looks beautiful! And that Sangria.. MMM! Never tried a white Sangria before either! But you’re right, it just looks so springtime!!! :)
My sister’s birthday is Monday too! :) she will be turning 21, and I have a bottle of Pinot to spare so maybe I will make her this sangria! Looks delicious!
Raw triple berry crisp sounds amazing! Can’t wait for the recipe :)
Have a fantastic birthday weekend!
deck looks great, i love sangria, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! have a great weekend!
So glad to have found your blog through Marla!
I love how colourful and summery this drink is and I can’t wait to browse through your other gorgeous recipes!
I absolutely love Sangria and have made many different versions of it! I can’t wait to try this one…it looks so good!
Your deck is coming together! I am jealous of it! It’s so big and roomy! :-)
What a fun drink I love red sangria but have a feeling I will love this white one just as much!
This looks amazing, like a bug jug of summer!
LOVE this recipe!
I am an American living in Spain. Brace yourself for this… the “real” Spanish sangria is made with Fanta! Yes, that orange sugar soda. Yuck! I much prefer yours!
Wow, that sangria looks fantastic. Definitely on my list to try……and Happy Birthday!
I hope you have a great night…and a great day come Monday. And your deck is looking wonderful! I’m really impressed with all your effort.
Angela- this sangria looks delicious as do all of your recipes!! I have made quite a few of them in the past couple weeks. I made some absolutely incredible muffins tonight (my husband ate 4 in one sitting!) and thought of you and how much you would probably enjoy this recipe. These muffins are definitely worth trying out! Here it is:
Vegan Apple Oat Bran Muffins
(Adapted from Wholesome Vegan Oat Bran Muffins on Madhuram’s Eggless Cooking website)
1 cup oat flour
1/4 cup wheat flour (after mixing all the ingredients, the batter seemed too wet, so I added the wheat flour)
1 cup oat bran
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 apples, grated
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup soy milk, or any liquid (regular milk, water)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
Yields 12 muffins
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Use muffins liners or oil muffin pan. Combine all dry ingredients and make well in center. Combine all wet ingredients in separate bowl and then add to dry. Also add in raisins and pecans. Mix until just combined; do not overmix. I used about 1/4 cup of batter for each muffin. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops of the muffins are lightly browned.
yum!!
From one May Birthday to another (mine is Tuesday!) I hope you have a wonderful weekend of parties!
Don’t you just love having a May Birthday? It is hands down the best month of the year to celebrate life!
Happy early birthday! Hope the party went well. I had a party this afternoon and made red sangria! Something about the spring demands it. Accompanied by LOTS of Mexican food. :)
Hope you had a great time last night! Wish I could have been there to celebrate with you :D
Enjoy your time with your family today!
I’m not usually a sangria drinker but the presentation on this is gorgeous and it sounds pretty delicious!