TINTO DE VERANO
"Summer Wine"
Mom's birthday is tomorrow, April 8th...but she celebrates for a month. So, we are celebrating today. Tonight to accompany the duck my parents will be eating (I'm still being "meat free", aside from meat that we have raised or my parents have killed) I am making some asian inspired sides. I'm doing my green papaya salad and a lemongrass infused stir-fried rice. But, we had some time to kill while Dad was napping...so I figured it was COCKTAIL TIME. The sun was shining and I had some red wine sitting in the house, so I made a spin off of Heidi Swansons' "Tinto de Verano". Her recipe calls for cheap Spanish red wine, a sparkling lemonade or lemon-lime soda, ice and lemon wedges. Well...I had expensive Spanish red wine (thanks to my friend Rochelle who is a distributor of spanish wines and sometimes gives me leftover sample bottles...), a Tempranillo. And I made my own sparkling lemonade by mixing club soda, agave nectar and the juice of one huge lemon and a juicy lime. It's about 1/3 to 1/2 red wine, and then topped off with the sparkling lemony beverage. Serve over ice, in a small glass, with a lemon wedge. DELICIOUS. Que Rica!
