Pink Sangria

Over 30 and want to feel young again? Here's what you do: dress in sweats with no makeup (preferably with baseball hat), go to the grocery store, put a few bottles of white zin and a bottle of peach schnapps on the conveyor belt, and I assure you, you'll be carded. It happened to me and it was a joyous experience. Now, had I left the baby at home and also bought a few bottles of Purple Passion and a case of the beast, I'm sure the checker would have thought I showed her a fake. Because these are the drinks of (underage drinking) youth.

Anywho, I was buying said zin and schnapps to make sangria for a bridal shower. I wanted to make a pink sangria rather than the usual deep red because pink is one of the wedding colors. Plus it would look fancy in these light pink wine glasses we got for our wedding, and which have never been used. I searched high and low and found a recipe on Epicurious. It was a big hit, refreshing and fruity. A little too peachy for me, but not so much that I didn't drink at least five glasses. (Bonus: I managed to not get drunk and make a fool of myself.)

The only changes I made to the original recipe was to cut up a small red apple in place of the lemon that the recipe calls for. Also, I meant to slice up strawberries in place of the peach but forgot, and did the peach instead. The biggest change was that I didn't just slice the fruit so it would float prettily in the pitcher. I like my sangria to be a mini-meal - a fruit salad with lots of liquid - so I diced my fruit so that each person would get a lot of fruit in their glass.

White Zinfandel Sangria

Source: Epicurious.com

1 750-ml bottle of chilled White Zinfandel

1/2 cup peach schnapps

2 Tbsp Cointreau or other orange liqueur

2 Tbsp sugar

2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half

1 lemon, sliced

1 orange, sliced

1 peach, sliced into wedges

1 10-ounce bottle of chilled club soda

Ice cubes

Mix first 8 ingredients in tall pitcher. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Mix in club soda. Fill 6 wineglasses with ice cubes. Pour sangria over ice and serve.