I Cheated. So What?

    Last night, I cheated on wine. Sort of.  The warm weather is on the way, and every year around this time, I start to crave one thing- a red wine that's best served chilled. There are many wines that benefit from some slight chilling, but my favorite is Beaujolais.  I love Beaujolais, but many wine snobs frown upon it; especially hated is Beaujolais Nouveau, a product that is released only on the third Thursday of every November. If you are not familiar with this, the novelty of this wine (besides the anticipation of its release) is that it is very fresh, very fruity, and excellent with Thanksgiving dinner.  If you have not consumed your stash by December 31, it is no longer considered fresh or fruity, just kind of old. Some say it can be consumed up until a year after, but by then I feel it has lost its trademark qualities- smells like banana, tastes like a Jolly Rancher candy.  Beaujolais Villages is considered to be more sophisticated, and this is delicious as well. Which gets me to where I cheated last night.  Wine snobs, have a seat.   

     Last night, I made sangria. Oh, be quiet. Nothing gets me more excited than a glass of fruity sangria, and nothing gets me more in the mood for recipe experimentation. Sangria recipes vary tremendously, ranging from the simple and sublime to the boozy and addictive.  I like a happy medium.  This starts with a nice, inexpensive, Beaujolais Villages (or if you have some Nouveau hanging around, you can get rid of it with this recipe).  Pour 1/2 cup of a fruity or spicy spirit in a large pitcher- you can use Cointreau, Grand Marnier, brandy or rum (decent quality, please- save yourself a wicked hangover.)  Add in fruits of your choice- I find sliced apples, oranges, 1/2 lime, and 1/2  lemon work the best.  Some people use halved grapes, which work nicely, or berries, which I think are too mushy for this project. Rather than be a sugar hound and add 1/2 cup of sugar like many recipes suggest, I prefer 1/2 of a freshly squeezed orange- just squeeze it with your hand, right over the pitcher.  Now stir vigorously, allowing the fruit to sit in the booze and juice for at least fifteen minutes.  Then pour in the wine.  Do not add ice to the entire pitcher; rather fill a glass (a clear one, yes? The fruit looks so damn pretty) with some ice, fill mostly with sangria, and add a splash of club soda.  This makes it fresh and fizzy. Sangria is great for a party, because you can make it in bulk, plus the longer it sits, the better it gets.       I had my sangria with bourbon-marinated, barbecued chicken breasts and herbed basmati rice.  Yes, you can have red wine with chicken. In fact, you can have red wine with many things.  The philosophy "red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat" is an archaic idea at best- it never made sense to begin with. It was probably made up by a confused housewife.  We'll talk about matching wine and food in the future, but the best rule of thumb is this: if you like what you're drinking, like what you're eating, and love who you're with, how could you go wrong?