Basic Sangria– Pour 1 bottle red wine (Spanish grenaches and riojas are wonderful for this but you could use any merlot, cab or zin as well) into pitcher.  Cut 1 lemon and 1 orange into wedges.  Squeeze the juice from the wedges into the wine and toss in the fruit wedges.  Add 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 shot brandy.  Chill overnight.  Add 2 cups ginger ale or club soda before serving.  (Could also add sliced strawberries, peaches, raspberries, apple slices, a shot or 2 of gin, apricot or peach brandy, rum or spiced rum, lemon lime soda or lime juice.)

Strawberry Sangria-pour 1 bottle Rose wine (Relax just came out with a nice rose that would be perfect for this) into a pitcher and add 1 cup of sliced strawberries.  Add 1/2 cup white sugar and 1 1/2 cups strawberry lemonade and stir gently.  Chill at least 1 hour or overnight.  Right before serving, add 2 cups ginger ale or lemon lime soda.

 

We had a delightful visit to Auburn Road Vineyard in Pilesgrove, New Jersey on Saturday.  Our first visit to a winery on the Southern New Jersey wine trail (who knew Southern Jersey had a wine trail?) and very rewarding.  A short ride into Jersey from the Delaware Memorial Bridge through verdant farmland brought us to the winery and their cafe called the Enoteca.

First, we tasted the wines.  They have a variety of whites, reds and sweet wines.  We loved their pinot grigio and the chardonnay with a touch of green apple was a hit.  Their Roxanne, a dry rose was also a highlight, as was a lovely red blend called Classico.  While we aren't typically fans of sweet wines, their Give Peach A Chance was so refreshingly full of peach flavor that we both gave it a thumbs up, along with "Mad Anthony's Chase" Spiced Apple Wine which was the best spiced apple wine I've ever tasted.  No need to add mulling spices, just heat in the crockpot on a crisp fall day and enjoy.

After the tasting, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the cafe with a glass of their pinot grigio.  Really nice Italian wedding soup, artisan bread with olive oil, green olives and a creamy,  nutty cheese and a truly great tomato bruschetta. 

All in all, totally worth a short drive for lunch and a wine tasting.  Auburn Road
Vineyards has a website at www.auburnroadvineyards.com with directions, history, special events (you can even help with harvesting and crushing) and descriptions of their wines.  We will be stocking several of their selections and featuring them at the Milton Farmers Market on the 4th Friday of each month through October.

My daughter-in-law found this recipe on Pinterest and served them on Thanksgiving.  While I was organizing recipes that weekend that I had printed, I found that I had the recipe as well.  They're delicious and so easy!

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
1 16 ounce package small cooked smoked sausage links
15 slices bacon, each cut crosswise into thirds
3/4 cup packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a large jelly roll pan with foil, lightly coat with cooking spray and set aside.  Wrap each sausage link with a bacon piece, overlapping the bacon at the end.  Press the end of the bacon to seal.  Place brown sugar in a large baggie.  Add several bacon-wrapped sausages to bag and seal.  Shake bag gently to coat sausage with borwn sugar and place on pan.  Repeat with remaining sausages.  Bake about 30 minutes or until bacon is browned.  Serve warm with stone ground mustard for dipping if desired.

This tastes remarkably like a margarita and is so easy to make and multiply for a large party.

Add a large can of frozen limeade concentrate to a large pitcher.  Fill the empty limeade concentrate can with room temperature tequila and add to the pitcher.  Fill the empty limeade concentrate can with Sprite or Seven-up and add that to the pitcher.  Then pour in a 12 oz Corona beer.  Serve over crushed ice in a salt rimmed glass with a lime wedge.

Found these on Allrecipes.com and loved them.  So much fun for your guests and really attractive with a mix of orange, yellow and red cherry tomatoes if you can find them.

Ingredients
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons hot sauce
1 cup pepper flavored vodka (I used Absolut Peppar but Stoli "Hot" with jalapeno would  be good as well)
2 tablespoons lemon pepper
2 tablespoons celery salt

Remove the stems from the tomatoes and place them in a shallow bowl. The recipe didn't call for this but I pierced each tomato a couple of times with a small knife to make sure that more of the vodka was infused in each tomato. Pour vodka over the tomatoes so that they are covered.  Stir in the hot pepper sauce.  Cover, and refrigerate overnight.

To serve, mix together the lemon pepper and celery salt in a small dish.  Serve tomatoes floating in vodka.  Provide toothpicks for your guests to use to pick up the tomatoes and dip them in the seasoning before eating.  Really good accompanied by blue cheese crostini!