White Summery Sangria

Happy Memorial Day!  It’s also my two-year anniversary with Fritz, and his sister Eber’s birthday.  A giant day of celebration all around.  Even though we are hundreds of miles apart, Fritz still managed to be his adorable self and texted me a picture of pancakes that he made “for me”, but sadly, had to eat alone.  Is that cute or what?

We are also celebrating around these parts by having a backyard summer BBQ–I made my standard summer picnic pasta salad which my family has never had before!  Weird, because I’ve been making it for years–just never made it around here, I guess.  Dad went fishing and brought home some lovely rainbow and brown trout this morning, and I made a tarragon/lemon/garlic mayonnaise to grill it with–you’ll see that tomorrow.  Most importantly, Mom and I decided to make a summery white sangria to celebrate.

It started off being red (cherry, strawberries), white (wine), and blue (blueberries) for Memorial Day, but we wanted to add some citrus, too, so now it’s just a gorgeous rainbow.  You can admire mine, or there’s still time to run to the grocery store and get the stuff to make your own.  Up to you!

White Summery Sangria

• 1 bottle dry white wine (chardonnay, pinot grigio, etc)
• 1-2 C of orange juice
• 1/2 L of club soda (or one or two cans)
• 2 T sugar (adjust to taste–it all depends on how sweet you like your drinks!)
• Fruit–whatever you like!  We used 2 lemons, 1 lime, 1 C blueberries, 10-12 big strawberries, and a handful of cherries

Wash and slice the fruit, layering and arranging them in a large pitcher (we actually used a small 1-L pitcher for the table, and a large plastic one for “refills” later). 

Pour the orange juice and wine over the fruit and gently stir.  Add sugar according to taste. 

Chill the sangria in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it.  Right before, pour the club soda over the top, give it a mix, and enjoy.  All these pictures are pre-club soda, since we haven’t had dinner yet!

It is so refreshing, light, and delicious.

A perfect summer drink that also makes a beautiful centerpiece for a nice dinner–you can arrange leftover limes and lemons on the table for gorgeous look, too.  We’ll be slicing lemon to be served with the fish, and it’ll look great next to the sangria.

I also like the white sangria better than the traditional red–it just feels lighter and brighter.  It reminds me a bit of Fritz’s favorite summer drink, a gin and tonic (or a G&T, if you’re in the know).

We also celebrated Memorial Day by going to my hometown’s parade this morning, and we ran into some friends there.

Hi Sarah, Josh, and Cora!

I love this parade because it goes by literally in a flash–small town, small parade.  I used to march proudly in this parade with my girl scout troop–go Brownies!

Hope you have a beautiful Memorial day, and happy anniversary to the best husband, student, dentist, brother, son, friend, cat owner, and all-around good guy I have ever known:

And of course, happy birthday to Eber: