When Sangria goes crazy

I recently had a little party celebrating my 33rd birthday - I called it "The Power of 3" as all my major events have stupid names. The vague reference to the TV show Charmed was lost on most folks.

The menu was Mexican themed (loosely) and was originally to feature three drinks - one of which was a Mexian version of Sangria called "Agua Loca". It goes down smooth - too smooth as many of my guests discovered as they stood up to walk home (most all of them lived in the neighborhood, so I was not enabling reckless activity.

It's a ballsy punch of rum, vodka, wine and enough fruits and juices to fool you into thinking you're drinking something healthy. Here's a link to the recipe.

Mark Bittman provides a Rosetta Stone to sours

I love Mark Bittman's "minimalist" approach to food and drink. Here he's providing some guidelines to making many of my favorites - definitely a reference resource I'll come back to often.

http://www.nytimes.com/export_html/common/new_article_post.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2008%2F06%2F25%2Fdining%2F25mini.html%3Fex%3D1372132800%26en%3D23a472e09a6f22a7%26ei%3D5124%26partner%3Dpermalink%26exprod%3Dpermalink&title=Add%20a%20Splash%20of%20Ad-Lib&summary=Master%20the%20pattern%20for%20sour%20drinks%20and%20you%20can%20mix%20hundreds%20of%20cocktails%20at%20home%20without%20a%20book%20or%20recipe.&section=The%20Minimalist&pubdate=June%2025%2C%202008&byline=By%20MARK%20BITTMAN