We’re settling into our new life in Whistler.
Furthermore, we love it here. I never want to leave. Ever.
Last night, under the spell of a full moon, a bunch of our mates sent the call out; ice hockey on the lake under the stars. Brilliant! Being Australian, it’s still difficult for me to comprehend standing on frozen water, regardless of the fact that this is my fifth winter snowboarding. Strapping myself to a slippery board and sliding down a mountain, no worries. But walking across a lake that has only recently frozen over, woah. Needless to say, with childlike anticipation, we jumped at the opportunity to watch our friends hussle it out on the lake with goals, pucks and skates in toe. These guys suprised me, what skills!
In all truth, this isn’t all we were excited about. As a collective group, our thought process seemed to go something like… hockey, ice, cold, frozen, how do we keep warm, two pairs of socks… mulled wine! I refined my mulled wine recipe while I was living in Mt Buller, and it’s bloody good!
My Super Duper Totally Awesome Mulled Wine Recipe + Tricks of the Trade !
- 3L red wine. Don’t go fancy here. Some suggest that you do, but the way I see it, good wine shouldn’t be meddled with. You’re going to be changing the flavour of the wine significantly with the rest of the ingredients, so opt for something affordable. This indeed may be the time to whip out the *gulp* cask of red.
- 2 cups orange juice. Bottled is fine, but we juiced 4 oranges and the flavour of the real thing definitely reigns supreme.
- 1 tbsp cinnamon (or 2 cinnamon sticks)
- 5 cloves
- 1/2 cup sugar. Organic and dark is best. You could probably use agave here also.
- Liqueur or dark spirit. Anything that you can imagine yourself adding to a fruitcake. Think: spiced rum, bourbon, berry liqueur etc.
I pre-made our batch at home, then rebottled it, then took it down to the lake with our housemate’s portable gas cooker, some mugs and a ladle. We huddled, freezing, around the gutless flame as it warmed our spicy Christmassy wine. Once ladled into our mugs, we added a splash of rum, in this case it was Bacardi Gold (I’ve found that adding the spirit at the end tastes a million times better than cooking it in the wine). It was such a joyous way to spend a night under the stars with both old friends and new, all the while enjoying the taste of the festive season and keeping our insides toasty!
Look at this guy- my Glen- 31 years old and he doesn’t look a day over 18 (except maybe the beard)!
For all you southern hemispherians, you could drink this chilled at your summer Christmas, for a mulled-sangria-type interpretation! What do you think?
x
