Black Friday Fashion, Groupon, Coupon!

Dear friends, my friend Anne has published some terrific Black Friday deals focused on locally owned, independent businesses. I think this is RAD.

Go to The Shop Tart and check out Anne's Black Friday magic!







What I've been up to:

Thanksgiving dinner by the sea at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island: white wine, fancy turkey panini + yukon fries!

In the meantime, here the daily deal from Groupon is pretty tight: for $25 for $75 worth of wine from internet retailer Barclay's Wine. Nice, whether you are on the West Coast or in the dear old state of South Carolina:


Go ahead, use my Groupon referral link! http://www.groupon.com/r/uu7866963

Snow Leopard Wine? Hellooooo, Christmas!

Snow leopard wine? YESSSS.

My favorite zoo animal growing up? The snow leopard.

Which I visited often at Riverbanks Zoo in my hometown of Columbia, SC. (Riverbanks is really quite the excellent zoo! This was confirmed when I visited the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park last year!)

My friend Jeremiah is a zookeeper at the San Francisco Zoo (and he's a North Carolinian!); he sent me the info on this cool nonprofit fundraising initiative. Thanks, bro!

"I wanted to let everyone know about Long Tail wine, which is a project that we helped create about a year ago in an effort to support our dear friends at the Snow Leopard Conservancy. 

http://snowleopardconservancy.org/

Dr. Rodney Jackson and Darla Hillard have dedicated their lives to researching and saving snow leopards in the wild, and your purchase of this wine contributes directly to this worthy cause."

Proudly re-introducing Long Tail wines, the Snow Leopard Conservancy's most delicious fundraising effort. Sip to our success and the Snow Leopard's survival, by purchasing Long Tail wines. Created by celebrity winemaker Gustavo Brambila at Torchlight Cellars, these wines are well-balanced and in limited supply (just like the Snow Leopard!) so get yours soon.

White Wine Sangria w/orange liqueur for Thanksgiving Day!

This white wine sangria recipe is tasty, easy, and pleases a crowd in this crisp, Fall weather. Takes advantage of the autumn apple season, of course, and a kick of Citronge orange liqueur gives it a holiday lilt.

Naturally, the alcohol in this recipe is guaranteed to take the edge off for any Thanksgiving host(ess). Blessed be. Happy Thanksgiving!

White Wine Sangria with Orange Liqueur
Serves: 12-20
Prep time: 20-30 minutes
Ingredients:

• 2 chilled bottles crisp, dry, unoaked white wine like pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc
• 1/4 to 1/3 small (375mL) bottle of Citronge orange liqueur, or similar -- to taste
• 2-3 crisp, heirloom variety red apples, like Fuji, Braeburn, Honeycrisp, etc., diced how you like (but a 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch dice works well)
• 1-2 green Granny Smith apples, diced
• 2-4 navel oranges, peeled and diced
• 1/2 bunch red globe grapes or similar
• 1/4-1/2 liter or so ginger ale (Schweppes is the best mainstream brand, IMHO)
• Punchbowl or big ole pitcher

Assembly:

1. Slice 1 orange and 1 apple into wide, flat slices for garnish.
2. Dice your fruit. Don't make the mistake I made of cutting your grapes in half, as they will cease to float. See? No grapes in the pic above. Bummer!
3. **Pour white wine over your cut fruit so that the apples don't brown. Fun fact you probably already know: The acid in white wine offers the same preventive magic for apple browning as lemon juice!
4. Put all of the cut fruit in wine into the freezer until go time, so that your fruit can serve as ice cubes for the punch!
5. Mix everything together in a punchbowl or pitcher, adjust for taste, and have at it!

**If you have time to make an ice ring out of the punch ingredients, that is particularly ideal. The Shop Tart taught me that one!