Summer Sangria

My lovely sister Linde came to visit a few of weeks ago. Her best friend from college was getting married in Seattle so she took a little extra time off to spend with me!!! Plus, she’s like a totally hard-core runner and the Chuckanut Footrace was happening in Bellingham (it’s a 7 miler) and she wanted to run it. My husband is training for a marathon, Linde has run marathons – including BOSTON, and I am running 5k’s, usually. On a good day. Ok, I do run a little farther than that but I’m slow and I’m also a little bit of a fillintheblank and my tolerance for misery is slim. But I do love running. It gives me this wonderful natural high and also made me have to buy new pants in a smaller size. And there ‘aint nothin’ wrong with that.

But this is about alcohol, not running. (Yes! You can do both! Can you believe it!?!? Running totally cancels out any calories you expend on alcohol.)

So anyway, while Linde was visiting me in Bellingham it was a gorgeous few days--Sunny, low 70s and the perfect temperature for Sangria. So we made some. I basically made up the recipe since I know generally what’s in it. Red wine, fruit, some fruit juice and a little sugar. The key is to let it sit for about a day before you drink it. But if you don’t have that kind of time, totally fine. Drink it anyway.

I should say I paired this with the fried avocado tacos. It was the perfect combination.

Summer Sangria

·         1 embarrassingly large bottle of wine (1 litre)

·         1 orange

·         1 grapefruit

·         1 lemon

·         Strawberries for glasses

·         1 cup orange juice

·         2 tablespoons of sugar

Directions

·         Cut up all of the fruit and put in the bottom of a large jug or punch bowl

·         Add orange juice and sugar

·         Add wine and stir around.

·         Chill for 24 hours if you have the time

·         Pour in a beautiful glass over ice and top with a strawberry

This is us all ready to run the Chuckanut Footrace. How did I do, you ask? Well, at about mile 3 I felt like crying but that was because it was mostly uphill for the first three. And the rest was easy! I ran a _ minute mile. No, I’m not telling. A secret this embarrassing is worth keeping.

The best part was after the run when Linde and Andy and I went out to breakfast and sat in the sun and had mimosas! (Refer to drinking and running above) and then went home and got all gussied up for a wedding in Seattle. Special thanks to Andy for babysitting so I could be Linde’s date.

Here we are just a few hours after the picture above standing in the same spot. I think we clean up pretty nice :) Oh, plus, please note Linde's cute as hell dress with the pink bows. That was her bridesmade's dress from my wedding 7 years ago! She's worn it at least 10 times since. I feel very proud of that. She picked it out herself, of course, which really is the secret to 'wear it again' success.

And for a really funny blog on running I highly recommend this one from bitchin' sisters: http://bitchinsisters.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/an-ode-to-running/