Last month, for Easter, I whipped up a tasty apéritif that really lifted my (holy) spirit. Now that I am an “adult” I am expected to contribute to my mother’s Easter lunch or dinner. This year I opted for a cocktail as my previous attempts to win over my family with through my cooking has not been successful. My rationale was, if I cannot beat them then I will get them drunk. Because it was Easter I decided on Sangria. What better way to honor the body and blood of Christ than by making Sangria?

Because I am Katie and I am not smooth, things did not go without a hitch. First, I started with some bottles of store-bought Sangria. I was unable to make fresh Sangria (Ina would be pissed) so this was going to have to do. Also–I had to use two different brands because I originally got one bottle for free (that is where the idea came from) and had to purchase a second one at Vons which did not have the same brand.

 

I then added fruit to the equation. It was an assortment of fruit that I mainly picked off of the pictures on the Sangria bottles. I added apple because it sounded good. I was going to use grapes but I forgot to buy them. So all together we had an apple, orange, lemon and a pineapple.

The pineapple was a little tricky. At first had no idea how to cut it but then I found these handy directions attached to the tag.

Things were going good.

Then I cut my finger. This was the first disaster because when you cut yourself and then handle citrus/acid, it feels like acid is BURNING YOUR FINGER OFF.

The worst part was that it cut into my skin at a diagonal, so after I got the bleeding to stop I had one of those skin flaps.

It seemed like smooth sailing from here out. All I had to do was finish cutting the pineapple and then put it all together. Easy enough? Not for me. I dropped my camera and the lens smashed.

Farewell, my friend. This camera has been with me to Ireland, Mexico, Italy and Greece. Oh well, it is almost 8 years old. I am not even going to bother trying to get it fixed because I feel like I can get a point and shoot $50-$100 and I am sure it would cost a bit to fix.

Anyways, after I cut everything up, put it in the pitcher and added the Sangria.

I put it in my fridge overnight.

When I was ready to serve, I ladled fruit into a wine glass, poured the Sangria over and added a piece of pineapple for garnish. It was so hot, it tasted like juice! In fact, we drank them so quickly, I had to run and buy another two bottles of Sangria. It was a nice Easter libation.

For those who want to kick it up a notch, you can add brandy or even club soda for a fizzy option. I would have added brandy but this was the lord’s day after all. This is my new go-to party drink.