Gorgeous Sangria

Serves 4-6 depending on the size of your glass

Beets, baby! That's how this lovely-hued sangria gets its color. You can skip it if you don't have time for that beet business, and it will still taste great (it just won't be this lovely shade of fuchsia).

So grab your best gals and celebrate with a batch of this easy-to-make libation. Make sure you use a dry white wine so it doen't get too sweet or have competing flavors. Any red fruit will do--I used purple grapes, strawberries and blood oranges, but raspberries, pomegranate seeds, red apple and/or cherries would be great too. It can be made up to a day in advance. Just store in the fridge and pour over ice when its time to get the Galentine's Day party started.

• 1/2 cup (4 oz) Cointreau or triple sec

• 1 small peeled cooked beet,

• 3 cups assorted cut fruit, such as halved red grapes, quartered strawberries, thinly sliced quartered blood oranges (pomegranate seeds and raspberries work well too)

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 1 (750ml) chilled bottle dry white wine, such as prinot grigio, sauvignon blanc or albarino (Note: avoid sweet or buttery whites)

Measure Cointreau into a container with high sides. Add cooked beet and mash or muddle until it has broken into small bits and released its color. Strain into a serving pitcher (discard smashed beet solids) and set aside. Place fruit in a medium-size bowl and toss with sugar and lemon juice (I like to squeeze the ends of the blood orange into the mixture too). Let sit, stirring occasionally, until fruit releases its juice and most of the sugar is desolved, about 10 minutes.

Add the fruit and any liquid in the bowl to the pitcher with the colorful Cointreau. Add white wine and stir well. When ready to serve, fill glasses with ice and divide sangria and fruit. Cheers!

Note: can be made a day in advance and stored (un-iced) in the refrigerator.