Happy Friday

I had afternoon tea with a dear friend and there is, what should prove to be, a yummy dinner in the crock pot; this week is ending well.

The thing about making dinner is I rarely have the urge to do it. I really have no desire to cook. I would eat out every night if I could (that's not true. at some point I would get sick of it as was proven when we were up in Rhode Island for 10 weeks with no kitchen, but my memory does not serve well so go with me). I would get much larger to be sure as eating out is not the most healthy option there ever was.

But, really, that's the last thought on my mind when I think about the possibility of cooking dinner. However, I don't have a full-time job and I feel lazy if I get absolutely zero done during the day when Dan works 8-10 hours a day five days a week. So, sometimes that urges me to cook.

Like today. Also, I wanted to try out a drink recipe and I couldn't really justify going grocery shopping just for beverage ingredients so I picked out a recipe - a really delicious looking one, to be sure - and added those items to my list. Then I felt better about buying all the rum for the fruity drinks that are to be in my stomach this evening.

YES. Happy Friday, ya'll.

Blackberry Sangria

A couple weeks ago we went to Outback Steakhouse and they had this amazing Blackberry Sangria. I tried finding recreations of the drink to no avail. So, I took a crack at it from what I knew of their version and it came out pretty tasty. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 bottle (750 ml) Jacobs Creek Moscato
1.5 cups Raspberry Vodka
20 oz can Pineapple slices (in pineapple juice!)
3.5 cups blackberries (about)
1 cup raspberries
1 large lemon
1 green apple
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp's corn starch (optional)

Directions:

1. Make the blackberry syrup.
        - Put 2 ¼ cups of blackberries, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup water in a sauce pan (+ corn starch if
           you want the syrup a bit thicker!)
        - Boil for 2-3 until sugar is dissolved.
        - Simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes.
        - Using a colander drain the syrup into a bowl pressing down on the chunks to get the most juice.
            (I put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes to cool while I was cutting the fruit.)
        - I also saved the fruit chunk parts because I figure it'll taste good on pancakes

2. Cut up the apple and lemon (I used the whole lemon and about 3/4 of the apple).

3. Pour the Moscato and Vodka into a pitcher.

4. Add 1 cup of the pineapple juice from the canned slices, add the blackberry syrup (it came out to about 1/2 cup so I just used it all), and throw in the apples, lemons, pineapples (from the can), raspberries, and blackberries.

5. Let the drink sit in the fridge for about 2 hours.
6. Serve over ice and enjoy!

mmm

The reason that I was okay with getting up early on a Saturday to study while Dan continued snoozing in our toasty bed. 
Hot Chocolate: The best thing that ever happened to cold weather.