Let a brandy slush help you through the holidays
‘Tis the season to be jolly. And what could be jollier than a seasonal cocktail? Nothing. Except maybe a seasonal cocktail that won’t weigh you down while you deck the halls! Believe me, I love eggnog, grasshoppers, and coffee with Bailey’s. But this year I am leaving the cream and shortening in my cookies, not my drinks. As I continue with the battle between staying fit and getting lit, let me share with you my favorite holiday beverage:
The Jensen Family Brandy Slush 
Prep time: 30 minutes
Guaranteed overall readiness time: 24 hours (to freeze) & 30 minutes
This recipe hails from my mother-in-law’s family. How happy I was to marry into a family with a signature holiday drink! This recipe serves many, so it is perfect for family get-togethers, or Exile on Main Street Employee Appreciation parties, as it was most recently served!
You will need:
2 cups sugar
4 tea bags
1 can frozen orange juice
1 can frozen lemonade
2 cups brandy
1 2-liter of 7up
First, leave orange juice and lemonade cans out to thaw slightly. Next, combine 2 cups of sugar and 6 cups of water in a large pot. Bring to a boil, or until sugar is totally dissolved. Remove from heat. Next, put four teabags in 2 cups of water and bring to boil. The Jensen family uses black tea, and the result is very tasty.
This year, all I had was blackberry tea, so I used that, and it got rave reviews with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law, who said they preferred the extra sweetness. Remove tea from heat. Combine tea, sugar water, and brandy. Now add the cans of lemonade and orange juice. Stir until everything is blended. Put it in the freezer overnight; it can take up to 24 hours to freeze!
When you are ready to serve, get out a large spoon and shave layers from the top of the frozen mix and put in a rocks glass until almost full. Then, top off the glass with 7up. Give your guests a straw so they can smush the drink to a slush consistency. Add more 7up as desired.
Next time I make this I am going to try Diet 7up for an even lighter version! If you find you are still craving a creamy beverage after making this recipe, you should still have some brandy leftover to add to Silk Soy Nog. Enjoy!
3 comments
This is what makes our family holiday, and lucky me, our family party is tomorrow!
Growing up we had “kiddie” slush and “DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH THIS” slush. It was always a game to switch around the glasses on the table after the adults had too much of their frozen beverages. Now we have a new crop of young and mischievous wee ones to watch out for.
Cheers to a great write up and to continuing holiday traditions!
ambii25
My family has used a recipe similar to this for years. They call it “The Recipe,“ and the exact combination is a closely guarded secret. Since I’m one of those not in the loop, I’m happy to have yours now, so I can make something similar by myself.
this drink is quite tasty.
Most Recent Food Comments
(Not to talk too much, but I would delight in being proven wrong. I hope that there are many vegan dishes, and next time I am there, I will ask the owner for dishes that are vegan that are offered and post them as a comment here,…
I understand the disclaimer, and I appreciate it, but given the title of the article, it would be nice to have more of a talk with the owner and less of a “to the best of my knowledge” thrown in the article as an aside, when vegan…
Um. Yeah — check out that “General Disclaimer” at the bottom of the article, folks.
I highly doubt a single dish is vegan at Bombay. Most Indian dishes use Ghee(essentially clarrified butter) as the base fat. While I guess they could make some dishes with canola oil, I would for sure ask the exact ingredients before I consumed if you are following a vegan diet.
Bread Company can do some fantastic vegan dinner dishes! Several of their pastas are vegan or could be made vegan and their pizzas can be ordered (and taste great) without the cheese. I also recommend their roasted potatoes and their roasted garlic head appetizer.
Glad you asked Stuart. In the 1950s (well before they were approved for human use) poultry producers began using subtherapeutic doses of quinolone antibiotics, specifically fluroquinolone, to reduce the incidence of respiratory disease in overcrowded production conditions. In humans, quinolones are a last line of defense antibiotic…
Hah! Good one, Joel. But my question was a serious one. I only buy eggs from a couple of local organic farmers, so I never thought about antibiotic-free eggs. I’m assuming that Anna meant the hen was not fed antibiotics, but am not wholly sure. I’m…
That sounds like a setup to a joke at a CSA’s annual banquet. Q: “How can you tell an antibiotic-free egg?“ A: “It just can’t seem to get rid of that cough.“ /shows self out
I love eating Vietnamese food, and having growing up my entire life eating it, I was excited to go. I really wanted to like this place because of all of the hype I had heard——unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. I got the pho (vietnamese soup) and thought…
Most Popular Food Articles (60 days)
- The best sandwich in town: Croque Monsieur at Luna
- Confounding name, delicious food
- Fiesta Cafe a real treat for vegans
- Xinh Xinh celebrates one year today
- Saigon to Bangkok in… Savoy
- Next best thing to the Farmer’s Market
- Growing micro-greens through winter
- Kaiyo a surprising delight for buffet
- Cocktails 101: The Margarita
- Healthy vegetarian delights abound at Intermezzo Café
Most Recent Comments
Set your own life easier take the business loans and all you want.
Awesome looking lineup… I’m excited. Another vote towards the Smoking Popes rocking out at the first Laughing Prairie Dog festival… it was a pretty good energy, and plenty of groups considering the cheap ticket. The rest all look pretty good for the ticket price as well. …
(Not to talk too much, but I would delight in being proven wrong. I hope that there are many vegan dishes, and next time I am there, I will ask the owner for dishes that are vegan that are offered and post them as a comment here,…
I understand the disclaimer, and I appreciate it, but given the title of the article, it would be nice to have more of a talk with the owner and less of a “to the best of my knowledge” thrown in the article as an aside, when vegan…
Nate, No offers to crash but I was wondering if you’d ever considered publishing the plans to your trailer. You might make a dollar or two especially after you go solar! Let me know if you do it. Sincerely, Don
Not sure if it’s been mentioned here, but they’ll also be playing the Old Rock House in St. Louis on May 22
Interesting about who owns land in the path of the Olympian Drive extension. My comment was in response to ‘Tony C’s remarks about the I-74 expansion. Just who owns land in the 150 [BloomingtonRd]-I-74 corridor?? Because the corridor is zoned for future use as Commercial/Industrial, I am…
(happy face)
Wow, great article. I wish you the best in your endeavors and hope you have a nice trip.
Um. Yeah — check out that “General Disclaimer” at the bottom of the article, folks.
As an adoptee, I can empathize—although I’m not an international adoptee, and I apologize if I’m assuming too much on the nature of your adoption. You can feel what you feel, but don’t be too hard on yourself. When I started a search for my birth family,…
I highly doubt a single dish is vegan at Bombay. Most Indian dishes use Ghee(essentially clarrified butter) as the base fat. While I guess they could make some dishes with canola oil, I would for sure ask the exact ingredients before I consumed if you are following a vegan diet.
You’re right! Every runner, in my opinion, is a real runner.
Congratulations on the AG place! In all of your accomplishments, don’t forget what it was like to think a mile was an impossible distance. Getting to the six-mile point takes a lot of training and preparation to acclimate the mind and musculature to so much pounding. Your…
Sounds like it!
I heading out on my 9 miler before my 10 hour work day right now. Do I have what it takes?
Nice, killer work pretty man…the channeled, one sided collaborated rhyming poem. An oft forgot genre. The ruckus was felt even here in my living room, which is normally a safe haven from ruckus.
wait, I was commenting on the wrong thing - sorry - he’s actually a gigantic sellout but who really knows what all this is about.
If the democrats didn’t have Kucinich, and the republicans didn’t have Ron Paul, where would both these parties really stand? These men actually mean what they say.
Joel, thank you for the opportunity to answer these questions and have them posted here. I really appreciate it! Yes, I was thrilled to see that Rep. Kucinich flipped today, so he will has committed to voting yes for health reform. I appreciated his comments which seem…
Most Popular Articles (14 days)
- All’s well, no worries, next year will be great!
- Champaign Pop City
- Die another day
- The Plastic Generation
- Kaiyo a surprising delight for buffet
- “Nice flag, douchebag!“: one man’s quest to run as Lincoln
- A review of “A History of the American Film”
- Week Seven: The mug cake and the damage done
- Your official St. Patrick’s Day celebration guide
- New artist coop Shared Space opens today
Recent Searches
- 1365 (2 Results)
- 2102 (1 Results)
- aviation (4 Results)
- manolo's (4 Results)
- eating delillo (1 Results)
- red herring (68 Results)
- YADIRA MONTOYA (1 Results)
- gillespie (110 Results)
- 1933 (1 Results)
- 2102 (1 Results)
- dropkick murphy (5 Results)
- seth fein (64 Results)
- olympian (12 Results)
- 1901 (1 Results)
- lebowski (8 Results)
- neoga blacksmith (26 Results)
- military (75 Results)
- strange teenager (9 Results)
- daily illini (50 Results)
- 1840 (2 Results)
Facebook
Twitter
Full Site
Set your own life easier take the business loans and all you want.