Fun things to do with wine
I love wine. I’m a big fan. I buy it by the box, which I tell myself is for purely economical reasons. I drink it when I’m celebrating something, I drink it when I have a bad day, and I drink it when I have a headache…because that’s how migraines work, right?But sometimes, when I feel like I’ve been drinking entirely too much wine, I like to step outside of my wine box and try something new. Like wine slushies or wine fruit snacks.
So, if you feel like you’ve been drinking entirely too much wine lately, give some of these ideas a go.
White Wine and Strawberry Slushies
You’ll need:
Two and a half cups of hulled strawberries
One bottle of a dry white wine (Riesling adds a bit of sweetness)
One tablespoon of fresh lime juice
Two and a half tablespoons of sugar
Directions:
In a food processor, puree the strawberries with lime juice, sugar, and all but one cup of the bottle of wine. Pour the mixture into ice cube trays and freeze until solid. When you are ready to serve (read: drink all the wine slushies), puree the ice cubes with the cup of wine you saved. Then, enjoy the fact that you are technically drinking a slushy, not wine, so you can’t be contributing to the entirely too large amount of wine you have recently consumed.
Wine Fruit Snacks (a.k.a. Grown Up Gummies)
You’ll need:
One cup of wine (red or white will work)
Four tablespoons of gelatin
One half tablespoon of Stevia (optional)
Two to four tablespoons of maple syrup (depending on how dry your wine is and how sweet your gummies are)
Directions:
In a saucepan, warm the wine on low heat. Add the gelatin one tablespoon at a time, and stir to combine completely before adding any additional tablespoons. After the gelatin has completely dissolved, add the Stevia and maple syrup. Taste the mixture as you go to make sure you achieve the level of sweetness you are looking for. When the mixture is ready, you can either fill a mold or place the whole batch into a shallow pan. Place the mixture into the fridge to set and leave for two to three hours. If you used a mold, simply pop out your gummies and get eating! If you used a pan, cut the gummies into squares – as big or as small as you’d like – and enjoy.
Bonus: Wine Ice Cubes
Don’t you just hate it when, in search for the perfect wine temperature, you drop a couple of ice cubes into your glass – before remembering that you have just sadly watered down your drink? Here’s a fun fact: you can freeze leftover wine! So, the next time you have a few sips left at the bottom of your bottle, simply pour the extra vino into an ice cube tray and freeze for later use.