Fruit-Filled Virgin Sangria

A few months ago, I attended a food blogger event at the City Creek Harmons. They served a delicious non-alcoholic basil sangria. I loved the drink and thought it would be fun to recreate my own version at home when fresh fruits were in season!

Sangria is traditionally served in Spain and Portugal and made with wine, sweetener, fruit and a bit of brandy. I'm not a drinker, but love drinks made with fresh fruit.






Last week, we watched the fireworks, soaked up the sunset and enjoyed a pitcher of this colorful drink from our patio. The kids and adults loved the fruit-filled pitcher. When it was empty, we just added more of the liquid base, mixed and enjoyed. This is a perfect addition to any summer party. It travels well- just take the cut up fruits, canned juice, soda and ice in a cooler and mix when the party starts.
Hope you're keeping cool this summer!

Fruit Filled Virgin Sangria
A Bountiful Kitchen
print recipe

1 frozen can of Welch's (or other brand) White Grape and Peach concentrate (not mixed up), thawed a bit*
one 2 liter bottle Ginger Ale or Sprite, sugarless is fine as well
ice, about 2-3 cups
a cup of water, if desired
Approximate fruit (for one pitcher)
2 limes, washed, sliced
1 orange, washed, peel on, sliced
1-2 cups strawberries, washed, a few sliced, a few left whole
handful of cherries
1 peach, peeled and sliced
mint leaves

Using a large glass pitcher, pour in half of the can of concentrate. Add half of a 2 liter bottle of Ginger Ale or Sprite. Add ice, about 2-3 cups. Mix a bit. Add chopped fruits and mint and stir lightly with large wood spoon.  If needed add a bit of water. You may leave the spoon in the pitcher if you wish to help scoop out the fruit while serving.
When the liquid is empty from the pitcher, simply add the remaining juice concentrate, ginger ale and more ice to the remaining fruit in pitcher. Stir and enjoy. You may also add more fruit if needed.
Serves 8

Tips:
-I used a white grape and peach blend but you can use any type of juice. I suggest white grape, pineapple, apple, grape, cranberry, peach, mango. The possibilities are endless.
-Most instructions for Sangria will advise to let the mixture to sit in the fridge for at least two hours before serving. Since I was using a carbonated liquid (and I was short on time), I made it right before serving. Either way works fine.
-If you would like the fruit to sit at the bottom of the pitcher, place the fruit in first, then the ice and the juice and carbonated beverage last. The weight of the ice will help the fruit to sit at the bottom instead of float on the top.
-You may use any combo of fresh fruit in season. I liked the look of the orange and green and red together with a splash of dark green.
-This recipe would also work well in a punch bowl.

Tweet

Pumpkin Spiced Hot Cocoa

Corrine called me the other day and asked if I had a recipe for Starbucks Pumpkin Spiced Hot Cocoa.
My reply: What's that?
Her reply: YOU HAVE TO GO GET ONE.
I waited for the next cold day and drove to Starbucks. Big line. This is not Seattle. We only have one Starbucks in town (soon to be two). Note to me: be ready to wait wait wait when visiting Starbucks on a cold day in Btown. No drive thru. No bueno. I ordered myself a tall. When the barista finally handed me the cup (seriously 15 minutes later) I took a sip and knew I was in trouble. Cream. Spice.  Chocolate.  Pumpkin.
This is not a drink. It's dessert.

Theirs and mine. 

I've been back a few times for research/ homework, ABK style. Each time, tasting and comparing. This is serious work.
Back at the ranch, I looked online for "Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa". Found this recipe from Cookies and Cups and adapted it to my taste, adding a home made hot cocoa which was adapted from Alton Brown, Food Network. Combining these two recipes resulted in a homemade version of my new favorite pumpkin-spiced-chocolaty treat.
If you are out in your car and want to sip a dessert in a cup, stop by Starbucks. If you're cozied up at home, watching the rain or snow fall from inside your steamed up windows, mix up this treat. It's like comfort in a cup.
Fall style.

Pumpkin Spiced Hot Cocoa
A Bountiful Kitchen
print recipe

2 cups low fat or whole milk ( I used skim)
2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
1 cup hot cocoa mix, recipe below
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
whipped cream, chocolate syrup and additional pumpkin pie spice for garnish

Pour milk into a saucepan. Add pumpkin puree, dry cocoa mix and 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice.
Cook over medium heat, whisking until smooth, and milk is hot. Do not boil. Remove from heat.
Pour in to mugs and top with whipped cream. Drizzle chocolate syrup and sprinkle with additional pumpkin pie spice.
Serve immediately.
2 servings

Alton Brown's Hot Cocoa
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup Dutch Process cocoa*
1 1/4 cup powdered milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Mix all of the ingredients together and store in a container with a lid in a cool, dry place.
When ready to use, place about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of mix into a mug, fill cup with hot water or hot milk. Mix and enjoy.

Tips:
-*When buying Dutch Processed Cocoa, buy a good quality chocolate, it will greatly improve the flavors in the finished product.
-If you are in a hurry, or don't want to make your own hot cocoa mix, you may substitute a pre-made powder mix, such as Stephen's Hot Cocoa Mix (I suggest a dark hot chocolate mix).
-When making the hot cocoa, you may use hot water when mixing up to drink, but I like to mix with milk for extra rich flavor.

Tweet

ABK Green Smoothie and 5 year Blogiversary Blendtec Giveaway!

It's been five years since I started blogging.  Five years and four hundred and sixty seven recipes after I posted  Watermelon Salad,  I still love sharing recipes and the stories behind them. To celebrate the five year mark, I'm having a BLENDTEC BLENDER giveaway!
Oh my.
This is the very best blender.
On the planet.
I know you've seen the "Will it Blend" videos :)
Want to hear the story behind our little connection with Blendtec?
I'll try to make it short.

Remember when the smoothie shops started popping up everywhere? There was a Zuka Juice shop (now Jamba) around the corner from Grant's office.  One day, while we were waiting in line to get a smoothie, I told Grant (my in-house patent attorney)  he should get the name of the company that makes the smoothie blender and see if they had a patent attorney. He wrote down the name of the blender, contacted Tom Dickson, owner and inventor at Blendtec. The rest is history. Eventually, Grant helped Blendtec get a patent for the 5-sided "Wild Side" jar. You've seen it, right?  The Wild Side jar was so successful at blending "twice the work in half the time" that the biggest name in the blending industry, Vita-Mix, copied Dickson's  5-sided jar.
Oops. Bad idea.
Grant, his brother Brett, and the Holland & Hart team sued Vita-Mix for patent infringement. After six years, they won the largest patent infringement award in the history of the state of Utah. Hooray for Tom and Blendtec. Love it when the system works.
So there you have it, the short version of why it's not a good idea to copy your neighbors work.

Want to know how to win the Designer Series Blendtec with Wildside Jar  ?

The giveaway will be a little different this time because it's all on Pinterest!
If you don't have a Pinterest account, read this post for step-by-step instructions on set up. Thank you again to Corrine at Mint Arrow for guest blogging with Pinterest tips!

A Bountiful Kitchen's Pinterest giveaway rules: 

1. Follow A Bountiful Kitchen on Pinterest . 

2. Pin the giveaway post.  

3. For extra entries, pin up to 5 recipes from A Bountiful Kitchen per day. (please make sure they are ABK recipes, pin directly from the ABK site. 

the not so small print:
Winner will be chosen at random and MUST follow A Bountiful Kitchen on Pinterest, and have pinned the original contest post (this post) to be eligible. The giveaway will run from Tuesday, September 3, 2013 to Thursday, September 5, 2013 at midnight, Pacific Time.  The winner will be announced Friday morning September 6, 2013 and will be chosen by Random Number Generator. U.S. residents only. 
I was not paid or received products for this post. The opinions shared are my own. The giveaway item was purchased by me, for you.

Hello. Cooking blog.

Here's a recipe for my favorite smoothie. I came up with this back in January, and have been making one almost every morning since. It's not a beautiful green smoothie, because I always add blueberries. Mine is kind of a purple-brown smoothie. Appetizing, right? But it tastes good and it's  simple, and gets a few fruits and veggies into my system each day. After I make this, I pour two glasses and in a bit of a falsetto do "cheers" with Grant and say "to our health". I know. Not normal behavior.
Have a great week!






ABK's Favorite Green Breakfast Smoothie
A Bountiful Kitchen
print recipe

16 oz cold water
2-3 cups fresh spinach
6 frozen strawberries
1 medium carrot or a handful of baby carrots
1 cup blueberries fresh or frozen
1 apple, cored
1 ripe banana

Pour water into pitcher. Add spinach, strawberries, carrot, blueberries, apple and banana.
Place lid on blender and blend until smooth. I use the #5 setting on my blender which is a 40 second blend.

Tips:
-I like to use frozen strawberries, even when fresh are available, because it makes the smoothie a bit thicker and serves also to make it cold.
-to easily core the apple I set it on a cutting board and make four slices around the core. No peeling needed.
-Melinda taught me this trick, if you purchase spinach and you think it may spoil before you use it up, place the leaves in a Ziplock in the freezer and use the spinach frozen. Same goes for any fruits or veggies you want to use in the smoothie.

Tweet

Limeade Slush

Last night my friends Mel and Jo put on a party for 60 ladies in our neighborhood. They served Southwest Salad with Cilantro Honey Lime Dressing, Chicken Taquitos, chips and salsa to go with the Mexican Fiesta theme. 
We read Mexican sayings/quotes: 
La suerte no es como la preñez, que dura nueve meses 
translated-
Luck is not like pregnancy which lasts for nine months
Um, ok. 
Put flowers in our hair. Is this a Mexican tradition? We had a long conversation about this. 
Broke a pinata, filled with (of course) Chicklets. Laughed and visited until the sun went down. 
For dessert they made Mexican Wedding Cookies (Cooks Illustrated version) which were absolutely delicious. And a chocolate cinnamon chile cookie. Yum. To top it all off we had a refreshing lime slush. 
Making slush is really simple. Throw all of the ingredients together, freeze, and a few hours later scoop it into cups and top with a little soda. You're going to love this . 
Ole. 





Limeade Slush
Jo Cash
print recipe


1-12 oz can of frozen limeade, mixed up according to directions
3 cups sugar
8 cups water (in addition to the water you will add to the limeade concentrate)
Juice of 5 limes (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup)
2 drops green food coloring


10-12 oz cups, about 30
1- 2 litre bottle 7-Up


The day before serving:
Mix first 5 ingredients together in large container. Stir until all sugar is dissolved. 
Freeze overnight or until completely solid. 
Take mixture out of freezer about 1/2 hour before serving and set on counter to thaw slightly. 
When ready to serve, use a large serving spoon to scrape the frozen mixture into cups. 
Fill with frozen limeade to top of cup.  Slowly pour in soda until cup is filled. 
Makes about 30  10-12 oz servings. 
Tips:
-A deep container works best for serving purposes (easier to scrape out frozen juice). A shallow pan (9x13) will freeze faster. You will need 2-3 9x13 pans. 
-I've also had this slush with diet grapefruit soda in place of the 7-UP. 

Tweet

Heavenly Hot Chocolate

 

I love these cups. I picked them up at a Thrift shop in Port Townsend, WA for about $3 each. 

The cup with pink flowers says "Made in occupied Japan" underneath. 

Three months ago, I was sitting in Paris, sipping hot chocolate. Brookie, my second oldest, was living in Spain for three months as an English tutor, and needed (according to me) an "adult" chaperone while she traveled through Spain, Italy and France. I know, sad for me. One day, while trekking around Paris we made a lunch stop at Angelina's for their famous pot of hot chocolate.  It's been touted as the "best hot chocolate in the world." I'm not sure if it's the best in the world, but it certainly is the richest cup I've ever had.

This is not your mother's hot chocolate. Or at least my mother's hot chocolate, which was, and still is, Swiss Miss. Now, I loved my Swiss Miss as a kid.  And I love a good cup of Stephen's hot cocoa now. This hot chocolate is not an everyday cup of cocoa. It's a thick, dark, decadent, rich cup of chocolate.  A grown up drink.  Hey, kids- you get out the Swiss Miss, Mommy will have this.

Oh, if you are on a diet, walk away, now.

Heavenly Hot Chocolate
Chowhound- Recipe for Angelina's Famous Hot Chocolate
print recipe

3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon confectioners sugar
4 oz. Bittersweet chocolate, not unsweetened (60-70 % Cacao)
whipped cream for topping


Heat milk, cream and Confectioners sugar in heavy pan over medium high heat until mixture bubbles. Remove pan from heat, and add chocolate.  Whisk until chocolate is melted and blended well.
Pour into small cups and top with a spoonful of whipped cream.
Serves 2

Angelina
226 Rue de Rivoli
75001 Paris, France
01 42 60 82 00

Tweet

Charlene's Grapefruit-Cranberry Christmas Punch

Charlene is one of my Recipe Club friends. I have known her for about 10 years now. She's kind of like Martha in the style and decorating department, only WAY more beautiful, and (a lot) more friendly. Her home looks like something out of "House Beautiful" and this time of year it's seriously decked with holiday spirit. Last year at Christmas, she served this yummy slush with our annual holiday dinner. It's easy, refreshing, and looks pretty on a holiday table!

Grapefruit Cranberry Christmas Punch

printable recipe

2 16 oz. can grapefruit sections
2 6 oz can cranberry juice concentrate
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
2 – 2 liter bottles Sprite or 7-Up ( I used about a bottle and a half)

The day before serving:

Stir water and sugar together until sugar is dissolved. Mix grapefruit and cranberry juice into water & sugar mixture. Freeze.
To serve, pour Sprite or 7-Up over frozen slush in a large punch bowl.

Tweet

Kimberly's Famous Eggnog

yummy

icky

I still remember the first time I tasted homemade eggnog. It was in Portland in the mid 80's. I remember thinking- "This is eggnog???" Then, what was that liquid yuck my parents served me while I was growing up?? Back to the party-This REAL DEAL eggnog was served out of a HUGE silver punch bowl, with beautiful silver cups. There were mounds of cream floating on top. I just parked myself close to the eggnog bowl, and consumed in the neighborhood of 4,000 grams of fat in an evening. It was about 10 years before I had some of this delicious drink again. Enter Kim. My wonderful friend Kim. One year Kim showed up at my house with a jar of her home made nog. Oh my. It was like falling in love all over again.

Kimberly's Famous Eggnog

printable recipe

2 eggs well beaten
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
1 quart whole milk
1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Combine first four ingredients. Mix or beat in blender until mixed well. Gradually stir in milk. Fold in cream. Sprinkle nutmeg on top and chill for 2-6 hours. Stir before serving.
Serves 8-10

Tweet