I don’t think there are very many things worse than waking up at 6:00am with the phone ringing…but of course, no hot water when you get in the shower is one of them, going to make oatmeal and realizing that you are out of milk is another, and then leaving the house without a sweater because “it looked warm” was the icing on the cake.

Yes, it was one of those mornings. But at least Hugh is back after a long week, and even though this morning was nowhere near perfect, I did get out of bed to find him making my coffee like he does every day. I had missed that.

“. . . One must observe the proper rites . . .”
“What is a rite?” asked the little prince.
“Those also are actions too often neglected,” said the fox. “They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours…”

But the day has ended, and outside the weather is cooler than I’d like and so I thought I would make some glühwein with some of the wine Sarah Elles gave me for Christmas.

She gave me an entire box of US$3 California goodness…lol I know, it’s not fancy, and definitely not something I should admit to liking. But what started as an experiment on the physiological effects of cheap wine, has become a weird obsession.  Almost like couponing but not really. In any case,  thank you Whole Foods!

Anyway, since I started the skinny bitch project nearly a month ago, I have not had any wine.  I am sending it all to hell tonight so I can have some glühwein because I am cold, I like it, and quite frankly I would like some alcohol.

I discovered glühwein back when I lived in Germany.  In the winter months, you can find it as readily available as anything else you can drink.  The easiest way to describe it would be hot sangria, but it’s really not.  It’s more like a very intense tea.

Years ago, one of my German friends gave me the recipe.  This same recipe has kept me  warm and happy many a winter, and now I am going to share it with you.

Glühwein  

• 1 bottle of red wine
• 1/2 cup of extra fine sugar
• 4 Cinnamon sticks
• Several whole cloves
• 1 sliced orange
• Whole allspice
• 1/2 cups of orange juice
• Sweet sherry

1. Pour the wine into a pot and place it on the stove on very low heat
2. Add the oranges and the cloves to wine
3. Break the cinnamon sticks in half and add them to the wine along with about 3 or 4 of the allspice.
4. Add in the sherry and the orange juice.
5. Add half of the sugar.
6. Stir for about 20 mins and add more sugar as needed. I don’t like it very sweet so I tend to stop there.
7. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Whatever you do, DON’T LET IT BOIL!!!!!!

Enjoy 🙂