Summery Sangria

What better way to cool off in this ridiculous Maryland heat than with a summer-fruit-loaded white wine sangria?

I guess I didn't quite get my sangria fill in Barcelona, because I made this drink three days after my return for a Friday grill-night. This recipe uses a magnum of wine and makes 6-8 glasses of sangria but you could easily halve it. I used strawberries and peaches from my CSA but any variety of seasonal fruits would work.

Summer Peach Sangria

1 1.5 liter bottle Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio

1/2 cup Cointreau

1 quart strawberries, washed, stemmed, and sliced thin

4 peaches, pitted and sliced thin

2 oranges, wedged (one of the recipes I found says to slice into thin rounds which I'm sure looks nicer, but is much more difficult to eat)

Ice and club soda, for serving

Combine all ingredients but the ice and club soda into a big pitcher; refrigerate overnight.

To serve, place some ice cubes and a bunch of fruit from the pitcher into a glass. Fill about halfway or more with sangria, depending on your taste, then top off with cold club soda. Make sure you give your guests a spoon or fork for the fruit -- or don't and laugh at their attempts to reach the fruit with their tongues/fingers.

For a sweeter twist, use champagne in place of the club soda. For an even awesomer twist, eliminate the club soda and instead add about 2 cups of St. Germain elderflower liquor into the mix before refrigerating. I definitely would have done this if the liquor store on Connecticut had any clue what St. Germain was. Alas, they looked at me like I had two heads and I walked out empty-handed (if you consider 5 bottles of wine "empty-handed").

In case you were curious, we grilled fresh Kielbasa from a market in Jefferson, MD then made sandwiches with peppers and onions.