Guest Post: Wine Slushies!

Hello everyone! My name is Lauren and I blog over at The Elephant's Trunk and I also have an Etsy shop of the same name. 

Today I'm here to tell you about my love for wine slushies! Recently I was in Arizona at a Craft Fair and some guy at a booth asked me if I'd like a sample of a wine slushie. Was he serious? Of course! I loved it! It was so refreshing and delicious. I then purchased the mixture so that I could make my own win slushies at home.

Frappe Vino is the name of the company that makes this genius drink! You can purchase Frappe Vino yourself via Amazon. (I'm not receiving compensation from Frappe Vino I just happen to love their product. If they are interested in compensating me for singing their praises that's fine with me though).

It is so simple to make this delicious concoction. All you need to do is buy a bottle of red wine and buy a cheaper bottle (you're not having a fine lobster dinner you are pairing it with, you're making a slushie here people). I used a Barefoot Merlot and this can be found at most super markets or liquor stores for a fair price. You dump your whole bottle of wine in a gallon size freezer bag, then fill your wine bottle up with water, add the water to the freezer bag and then mix in the Frappe Vino mixture. After all of this has been done give your gallon size bag a good shake (with the zipper sealed tight of course) and place the bag in the freezer for 24 hours.

After the 24 hours is up, remove your bag and scoop out the frozen slushie. Place in a glass and enjoy!

This is an amazing way to get your red wine fix in on a hot summer day. It would also be great to have a big pitcher of these slushies available at a party. What are you waiting for? Make your own slushie! 

Winey Wednesday

I'm over at The Elephant's Trunk today guest posting for Lauren's Winey Wednesday series.  I am so honored to be posting over there, so please make sure to head over, check out the post, and show Lauren some love!

  
Elephant's Trunk readers who are visiting: WELCOME!  I'm so happy you're here.  I hope you'll take some time to look around and be friends!! Start with the About page...lots of good info and links for exploring.

PS--have you LIKED my Facebook Page?

What I'm Drinking

Today's What I'm Drinking is The Little Penguin Pinot Noir.

If you've noticed from my previous What I'm Drinking posts (here, or here) you'll know I love red wine.  And this Pinot is lovely!  A tad sweeter than others but very smooth.  Lots of berry notes here.
This would go great with lamb chops or pork, and if you're into making pan sauce I would recommend swirling  a little of this in to give it some zing.

Little Penguin Pinot Noir

 Sean randomly picked this bottle up (he knows how I love a cute label...)  But, it actually brought back a wonderful memory of my time in Australia.  This particular wine is named for the little penguins in South Eastern Australia who live in large colonies along the beach.  When I studied abroad in Melbourne we took a trip and got to see these adorable little animals.  We sat along the beach at Phillip Island and at sunset these tiny penguins came out of the ocean in droves just running across the sand after a day of fishing.  It was incredible to see!  Here's a video by some tourists...not the greatest quality but you can certainly appreciate the idea.  If that isn't a good reason to head back I don't know what is!!

Head over to Love is Home for other lovely Friday posts. 

What I'm Drinking

My most recent botle of red is a Merlot by The House of Independent Producers.  Once again I chose this wine because the label is so dang pretty.  I'm so sophisticated sometimes I even amaze myself!

Although the label is gorgeous, and apparently the vinyard uses sustainable farming techniques, the wine itself was definitely not my fave.  Totally drinkable, and it'll do in a pinch, but I will not likely be buying this bottle again.  It was weak where it should've been bold, and bold where it had no business being bold.  Overall, just a meh rating of 2 glasses from me.

Also I finally got with the program and added the option to subscribe to my blog.  Over there! On the side bar!  Subscribe and each post will be delivered right to your inbox.  Is that service or what?! Click it, you know you want to.

In other news we have SNOW here in Philly.....again.  Now I'm one who loves the snow, but after that warm up this weekend I am so ready for spring.

What I'm drinking...

I feel the need to preface this post with 2 caveats:

1. I am not a big drinker.  Seriously, my mom can drink me under the table.  Booze just doesn't really do it for me a lot of the time and all this crap about beer being an acquired taste is BS.  I don't want to have to acquire a taste for anything.  I either like it or I don't.  However, a margarita or a glass of red wine is one of the finer things in life.
2. I know nothing about wine.  When I interned in Michigan for a summer I took a wine tasting class at a local restaurant.  I sure did drink a lot of wine, but the parts about the notes and the fruit and the aging and all that are a little bit, um....fuzzy.

So with those things in mind I'm starting a little series about the wine I'm drinking.  With Sean in class and internship until late at night three days a week and on Saturday, good chance I'm going to be doing a lot of wine posts...Since I usually just pick it out by how much I like the label, I'm hoping this will help me remember which bottles I liked and which I didn't and maybe the next time you are in charge of bringing a bottle to a dinner party it will help you choose a nice one that tastes yummy rather than some Franzia.

This week it was a bottle of Old Vine Zinfandel.  For New Year's my lovely friend and former roommate, Morgan, brought over a bottle and I thought it was AWESOME! So I bought a bottle with a fun label:

Gnarly Head

Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin was a delicous bottle of wine.  The smell was actually the first thing I noticed and for a wine amateur that says a lot.  The smell of oak was very distinct and warm and made me want to dive right in.  I thought the wine was great by itself after a long day at work but would pair really great with any kind of hearty meal, and the Gnarly Head website suggests ribs which I wholeheartedly agree with!  So with 1 being totally gross and 5 meaning I would take the bottle to the face, this wine definitely gets 4 glasses from me!

Let me know in the comments what your favorite bottle is...I love recommendations!