SoCal Holiday Punch
Ohhhh, The Holidays.
Usually, we spend Thanksgiving out of town with family. But, this year we just...weren't up for it. Staying home sounded like a total dream--especially since some of our favorite fwands were having a Friendsgiving at their place. Our price for admission: a boozy, large-batch cocktail. TWIST MY ARM.
I present to you: SoCal Holiday Punch. Why the SoCal part? Because it's made with grapefruits and lavender fresh from my garden (plus some cranberries that ain't). Grapefruits don't really seem like a holiday thing, now do they? But you know what? This damned tree of ours gives us TWO HARVESTS every year--a big one with big fruit in the summer, and a smaller one with small fruit in the winter. So I gotta put them in cocktails year round. It's just the way it has to be.
Punchbowl-sized serving:
24 oz. bourbon
48 oz. organic cranberry juice
16 oz. fresh grapefruit juice
1.5 tsp. lavender bitters
1 750 ml. bottle sparkling wine
1 cup homemade cranberry sauce, relish, or chutney
1/2 cup organic honey
1/2 cup water
Fresh lavender sprigs and cranberries for garnish, plus if you real fancy you can make an ice mold with cranberries and lavender in it for the punch bowl.
Image courtesy of VerySarie.com
First, you'll need to make your honeyed cranberry simple syrup. I used homemade cranberry sauce as the base for this (something like this recipe), since I had it laying around BECAUSE THANKSGIVING. Keep it simple with this--you don't want a bunch of fancy crap in that cranberry sauce like nuts or jalapeños or anything like that--just the basics. Add your cranberry sauce, honey, and water into a saucepan and cook on medium heat until it's thinned out and thoroughly combined. Now, if you don't like little cranberry chunks in your drinks, go ahead and strain the syrup. But me? I like the chunks. I leave it all in there. Put it in a jar and let it cool.
Now let's dump everything into a giant punch bowl. Well, not quite everything. Mix the bourbon, cranberry and grapefruit juices, and bitters in the bowl. If you want, go ahead and dump the sparkling wine in, too (or, if you're like me and want the bubbles to stay fresh, you'll top each glass of your punch with about an ounce of bubbly instead of dumping it in and letting it sit all evening en plein air). Spoon a spoonful of honeyed cranberry sauce simple syrup into the bottom of each glass (if you want to be technical, it's about a half ounce).
Image courtesy of VerySarie.com
Now ladle your punch into each glass, leaving room for about an ounce of sparkling wine (unless you already threw that into the bowl like a champ).
Top each glass with bubbly, a few cranberries, and a sprig of fresh lavender greens:
Image courtesy of VerySarie.com
Image courtesy of VerySarie.com
And we, of course, had to go drink them out by the pool, since it was about 80 degrees outside. And because there was a pool.
For the record, it rained for the rest of the weekend--but Thanksgiving Day was a glorious one. Especially at the gorgeous house of Very Sarie. Please to enjoy a few more photos...
The table...COME ON:
Sooooo pretty.
But their entire house is soooo damned dreamy.
And then, of course, there's the pool.
And when there aren't any chickens to drink with...you drink with doggies.
And you go night swimming. Because: SoCal.
Of course, I had tremendous guilt issues and had to whip up 'leftovers' (aka another round of punch) the next day so that my poultry could stare at me momentarily whilst I drank and then fully lose interest and go on their merry little way. It was important for me to make another round of drinks for this.
Annnnnnd, on the off chance you don't want to whip up a whole punchbowl of this stuff: I got you covered. Here's the breakdown per cocky:
1.5 oz. bourbon
3 oz. cranberry juice
1 oz. grapefruit juice
5 dashes lavender bitters
.5 oz. sparkling wine
.5 oz. honeyed cranberry sauce simply syrup
a few free-floating cranberries and sprig of lavender greens to garnish
Add everything but the bubbly and the simple syrup to a cocktail shaker and shake with ice. In a rocks glass (even though we served in champagne coupes for the party), spoon your simple syrup into the bottom, fill glass with ice, strain cocktail mixture, and top with sparkling wine and garnish.
Happy Holidays, indeed!