Sangria Wine

OK, as per the request of my good blog buddy and fellow Arizonian, Teri O'Brien, while talking to her on her BLOGTALK RADIO broadcast today, I'm going to give you my recipe for one of my favorite drinks. (Isn't that just like two people of Irish decent to want to talk about "adult potable beverages?")

This is my recipe for SANGRIA WINE, and it was inspired to me by an album my "Wonder Years" buddies, (Brent, Jeff, Mike, Tim, Todd and 'Doughboy'), use to always listen too to start our partying time, and/or head on over to the Verde River back in Arizona.

That album is Jerry Jeff Walker's VIVA TERLINGUA.

I'm giving this recipe out now because I know that it is summer somewhere. Here in Chicago it's now the middle of May, rainy and in the 50's. Those of you in Arizona, I know summer there starts in March.

Here's what you'll need:

Some bags of ice and the biggest washtub that you can find. You know, the kind that you could give a large German Shepard or St. Bernard a bath in.

4 (or more) gallon bottles of Gallo Sangria Wine

1 bottle of Napoleon Brandy

1 large bottle of 7UP, (NOT DIET!!! REAL 7UP!!!)

Some crisp sweet apples, (I recommend the Pink Lady)

Some peaches and/or nectarines

A couple of limes

A couple of lemons

1 pineapple

And the most important ingredient: one copy of the CD of Jerry Jeff Walker's VIVA TERLINGUA.

First cut up all of the fruit and place it all in a large bowl.

Then dump half of the ice into the washtub and scatter the fruit on top of the ice; then dump in the remainder of the ice over the fruit. Mix the ice and fruit together.

Add the bottle of Napoleon Brandy followed by the bottles of Gallo Sangria Wine.

Then with a large mixing spoon, mix in the bottle of 7UP.

Now, when serving this wine, all anyone has to do is just dip their cup into the tub and drink. However I feel that I must tell you to make sure you serve this during a long weekend and plan on most people to be staying with you. If you don't want to have people staying at your home for any lengthy period of time, then do as we did back in the days of our youth, go to the Verde River, (if there are any places left there to go to anyway), or any wide open space in the area near where you live, on a Friday or Saturday. Start the festivities off with the VIVA TERLINGUA album and sing along to the song "Sangria Wine".

WARNING: TAKE AWAY EVERYBODY'S CAR KEYS AND LOCK THEM AWAY IN A SAFE!!!

Because, if history taught me anything about Sangria Wine, when you start drinking it on Friday, you won't remember Saturday, and the real world returns to you sometime on Sunday. And even though you don't remember, you feel in your heart of hearts that you just HAD to of have had a great time. (I remember waking up a few times in the back of someones car on a Sunday morning hearing the rippling sounds of the river).

But you are guaranteed to always be singing the course from SANGRIA WINE:

WHOOOA-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO!! I LOVE SANGRIA WINE!

WHOOOA-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO!! I LOVE SANGRIA WINE!

Something tells me I'm going to be getting a lot of stories from everyone from their youth days about their experiences with Sangria Wine, beer, that will have references to Boondockers and/or tubing down the Verde River.

By the way, I invite everyone to join in with Teri on her BLOGTALK RADIO broadcasts every Sunday at 2:00 PM CDT. For more information, go to her website: http://www.teriobrien.com/

When I'm participating, I'm known as ARIZONA SCOTT.