Welcome to another glorious Friday!

I hope the sun is shining and you have the most wonderful plans for your weekend. Alfresco Friday is my celebration of the weekend. Usually our family will take advantage of the beautiful mild weather this time of year and have a picnic or BBQ at the beach, a park or a friend’s house.  In the spirit of celebrating the weekend I have made a Peach Sangria to share with my lovely readers.

Oh and a quick tip, the wine you use doesn't need to be expensive but it does need to be one that you like. The flavour will come through in the punch so you want a pleasant drinkable wine, not an expensive one. At Woolworths they have cleanskin dry whites available for under $3, this is what I used, and it was delicious.

Ingredients:

2 peaches sliced

2 nectarines sliced

750ml bottle of dry white wine

200ml Bacardi Rum

400ml apricot nectar

400ml lemonade (diet)

Method:

Place the slice fruit into a glass bowl with the Bacardi, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for between 2 and 12 hours. This is a good job to do before work.

To make the sangria you will need two jugs. Place half the fruit in each jug. Add half of the remaining ingredients to each jug and top with ice. Check the flavour and add more apricot nectar or lemonade to taste.

I could have give the recipe for 1 jug of sangria but that really wouldn’t be as much fun, and I do try and look after my readers. Feel free to halve the recipe if you are limiting your alcohol intake.

Have a happy weekend.

Todays Alfresco Friday is a bit of a preview for some upcoming stories.  I won’t give you any more hints… except to say that I have been sampling some different flavours recently and that will be reflected in some of the dishes coming up on the site.

Friday, however is the day we put the working week behind us and welcome the weekend.  What better way to do that than with a jug of Sangria amongst friends. The recipe below is the way I make this Spanish punch.  It follows the same style as the first Sangria I tried about twenty years ago (oh dear… I am giving away big hints about my age now!!)

Ingredients:

1 red apple

1 green apple

1 orange

750mls Red Wine (clean skins)

250ml Brandy

250ml Triple Sec

1 litre orange juice

1 litre diet lemonade

ice to serve

Method:

Slice the orange into rounds and then semi circles. Dice the apples leaving the skin on for colour.

Place the fruit into a container which has a 3 litre capacity and a lid. I used three, one litre capacity containers, as I will be taking only one with me on a picnic tonight.  The other two will remain in the fridge for later use.

Add the wine and the spirits to the fruit.  Seal the container and refrigerate.  It is best to let the fruit marinade overnight as the flavour in the wine is stronger. It can however be served sooner.

When ready to serve pour about 750ml of the Sangria concentrate into a 2 litre jug, add a scoop of ice and then 500ml orange juice and 500ml diet lemonade.

This method makes about 4 ½ litres of Sangria.

The concentrate can be stored for at least a month in the fridge prior to use.

Don’t forget to be healthy and eat the fruit as well! We all need our two serves daily!

I am sure you all know about my “Watermelon Punch” disaster!  You will be pleased to know that I managed to salvage the watermelon and the party.  The watermelon punch, became “Watermelon Fizz”

It was absolutely delicious and tasted fresh and healthy, but had a nice kick to it. If you are wondering why I have departed from my usual staple of wine and moved onto the cocktails I am happy to share.  Firstly, it is Christmas! It is extra special, and I love the idea of something more festive and less serious than wine for parties.

Also, the other day I participated in a Cancer Council questionnaire which looked at my general health, my lifestyle and my susceptibility to various cancers.  On the whole I fared pretty well. The two areas where I needed to make some improvements were sun sense, and adding more fruit to my diet.

I have now decided to make a concerted effort to eat more fruit.  It is not that I don’t like fruit, I absolutely adore all types of fruit, it’s just that in a busy day I don’t tend to find the time to think about snacking, thus, the fruit is neglected.

To tempt myself I went shopping and brought back lots of delicious fruit, cherries, grapes, rockmelon, pineapple and a half wedge of watermelon.  It has been so hot here recently that I started fantasizing about turning the watermelon into a refreshing drink with crushed ice.

Initially I intended to make a healthy “mocktail” hence the mint and ginger… but seriously, where is the fun in that? The end product was infinitely superior to any mocktail.  The blitzed fruit was so sweet, especially with the coconut flavour of the Malibu, the lemonade gave the drink a fluffy fizzy froth on the top. The ginger, lime and mint finished the cocktail with a refreshing summer flavour.

Like all good cocktails it was way too easy to drink.  It didn’t feel like I ate my way through ½ watermelon but I can attest that I did, with a little help of course.  Somehow I don’t think this is quite what the cancer council had in mind when they suggested an increase in fruit consumption.

Nevermind, we are in the festive season, and I think this would be an ideal drink over the Christmas period.

Ingredients:

¼ medium sized Watermelon

1 punnet strawberries

2-3 cups ice

½ cup fresh mint leaves

2cm x 2cm piece ginger (peeled)

2/3 cup Malibu

½ lime juiced

300ml diet lemonade

Method:

1/4 fill a blender with ice, add enough watermelon to fill the blender to the ¾ full mark. Add the punnet of strawberries, mint, ginger, lime juice and Malibu and blend until the mixture is smooth.

In a very large serving jug add 300mls lemonade and pour the contents of the blender over the lemonade. Serve with more ice cubes if desired.