By The book is in its fourth printing. Five thousand, eight hundred copies sold. Caroline called with the news and she sounded almost as surprised as I was, which tells you that small press publishing is a field where five thousand copies is a miracle and almost six thousand is a religious experience. I said, "Caroline, how long will this keep going?" She said, "Dorothy, good books don't stop. They just travel slowly." Good books travel slowly. Like grits. Like grief. Like love. The slow things are the ones that last.
A library in Savannah wants me to do a reading. The Live Oak Public Library, the main branch on Bull Street. They want me to read from the book and do a Q&A and — this is the part that made me sit down — they want to name their Gullah-Geechee food heritage collection after me. The Dorothy Henderson Collection. A shelf of books about Lowcountry food tradition, with my name on the placard. A sixty-seven-year-old lunch lady with a shelf in a library. Baby, if that doesn't prove that life is stranger and more generous than fiction, nothing does.
I said yes. Obviously. What kind of woman says no to a library? The reading is in May. I'll bring food. The library said they don't usually have food at events. I said, "You do now." Because Dorothy Henderson does not speak without feeding, and that policy extends to libraries, bookstores, and any venue that has an electrical outlet and access to paper plates.
Made shrimp and grits tonight. Because good news and shrimp and grits are married in this house. They always celebrate together.
Now go on and feed somebody.
The shrimp and grits were for dinner — that’s between me and my stove and nobody else’s business — but when I called my sister to share the news about the library and the collection and the reading in May, she said, “Dorothy, you need to make the sangria,” and she was not wrong. This is the sangria I bring to celebrations, the one I’ll be pouring at that library if they let me near an outlet and a pitcher. It’s slow fruit and good wine and a little patience, which, if you’ve been reading closely, is exactly the theme of this whole story.
Easy Red Sangria
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 2 hrs 15 min (includes chilling) | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 bottle (750 ml) dry red wine (such as Rioja, Garnacha, or Merlot)
- 1/4 cup brandy
- 1/4 cup orange liqueur (such as triple sec or Cointreau)
- 2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
- 1 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 orange, thinly sliced into rounds
- 1 lemon, thinly sliced into rounds
- 1 cup fresh or frozen sliced strawberries
- 1 apple, cored and diced small
- 1 cup sparkling water or club soda, added just before serving
- Ice, for serving
Instructions
- Dissolve the sugar. In a large pitcher, combine the sugar and orange juice. Stir well until the sugar is mostly dissolved.
- Build the sangria. Pour in the red wine, brandy, and orange liqueur. Stir gently to combine.
- Add the fruit. Add the orange slices, lemon slices, strawberries, and diced apple to the pitcher. Stir once more to nestle the fruit into the liquid.
- Chill. Cover the pitcher and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight. The longer it sits, the more the fruit flavors meld into the wine — patience is rewarded here.
- Finish and serve. Just before serving, stir in the sparkling water for a little lift. Pour over ice and make sure each glass gets a good spoonful of the soaked fruit.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 175 | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Carbs: 18g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 8mg