Whip out those flip flops, fire up the grill, the unofficial start of summer is just days away!  We have come to LOVE Memorial Day Weekend and all of it’s festivities.  Today we’re excited to share some must have Memorial Day (or any day) drinks!   We’ve tasted tested three drink recipes that we think you’ll love!

as seen in June 2012 issue of All You Magazine

Although it’s not Red,White, or Blue, we think this is the perfect punch for ushering in SUMMER! What says summer more than fresh fruit?

4 cups pineapple juice

2 cups orange juice

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 liters ginger ale

fresh pineapple to garnish

Mix all ingredients together and garnish with fresh fruit

*You can add rum to make this an “adults only” punch, but then we don’t suggest drinking it with breakfast!*

Let me tell you, we were having a good laugh as we took pictures of ingredients etc.  We’re not food bloggers by any stretch, but we do know what’s really yummy!

We thought we’d let Jess demonstrate how to pour, just in case you needed some direction.  Have we ever mentioned we’re dorks?  Look how happy she is to be making punch! Ha!

One thing we actually did learn (from trial and error) is how to cut a pineapple so that it sits nicely on the side of your cup.

First, cut a triangle wedge

Then, cut a straight line half-way up the middle.

Most of the time people don’t think of breakfast as being special on Memorial Day weekend (the focus is more on BBQ food etc.), but we thought a simple patriotic breakfast would be fun! I know my kids would LOVE it if they woke up to a fun, little breakfast!

Combine your Pineapple Planter’s Punch with some blueberry muffins and voila! We picked up some cute decorative flags and stars for 40% off at JoAnn’s for our muffins.  And, since we’re calling this the SIMPLE breakfast, I’ll share a secret with you…

The muffins take about 4 minutes to whip together when you use Betty Crocker mix, everyone loves them!

We made this drink up…and the name too.  Who knows, it might actually be the name of another drink (it appears we’re good at taking names from other places- HA!), but for this post we made it up and named it ourselves.

Wanna hear a funny story?  I’m not a big drinker, I just happen to like Iced Tea or Coke Zero better than any other drink.  So, I headed off to the liquor store for red wine…UGH! It’s like sending my 4 yr old into Lowe’s to find upholstery tacks.  I actually had to Google Merlot, to make sure it was a red wine (it is btw).  Then, the checkout lady DIDN’T card me… I was bummed.  Does she know I just turned 30 and she wanted to rub that in a bit?  It wasn’t Awesome.

Stars and Stripes Sangria

Red Wine

Sprite

Blueberries

Strawberries

You can combine this to your liking.  We preferred 2 parts Sprite to 1 part wine (but neither of us are big wine fans).  Our husbands thought a 1:1 ratio tasted fine.

Layer your fruit in an alternating pattern and add the wine and Sprite.  Allow to sit for a few hours before serving.  This helped the flavors to blend really nicely.

This drink is the perfect color for the holiday weekend, and the taste is really light and fruity.  Taking a few extra minutes to garnish your glasses is a must.  Blueberries on a skewer, a little flag, and some strawberries make all the difference.

4 or more limes

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Seltzer water

Lime zest

Juicer (not required, but recommended)

Combine 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water in medium saucepan.  Heat over medium until sugar has dissolved (cooling is recommended, but we’re usually too impatient) Juice 4 or 5 limes. (We love the Pampered Chef juicer because it gets out ALL the juice.)  Combine lime juice and simple syrup.  Zest a few of the limes and save zest for garnish.  Add ice to a glass, fill 3/4 of the way with seltzer water, add about 3 tbsp. of the lime syrup and garnish with zest.  There’s no exact ratio of seltzer to syrup, because everyone likes theirs a little differently, but you can add more or less syrup to taste. This recipe will make about four drinks, but we usually double it up to make lots more!

We hope you enjoy these drinks as much as we do! Be sure to let us know if you try any of them over your holiday weekend!