Make ahead Sangria with Sangria Cubes!

I'm an insane person when it comes to planning ahead. I took my husband on a surprise picnic recently. I cooked and prepped in secret while he was at work and stashed the food in the fridge. I'm lucky we never use the veggie drawers. If I put veggies in them, I forget they're there and they go bad. It's sad.

frozen fruit rainbow

Anyway... I wanted to make a few things more than a day ahead. The day before I made shortbread, caramelized onions, and focaccia dough, I didn't want to spend all day chopping fruit too. So two days before the picnic I chopped up the fruit for the sangria. The problem with cutting fruit ahead of time is that it gets brown, of course. I was using apples and pears too which do not stand up well to storage when cut. I popped my chopped fruit into and ice cube tray, covered them with fresh citrus juice, and froze them until the next day. This worked perfectly! Freezing helped break down the fruit and make it softer and I didn't have to chop up fruit on my really busy prep day.

I think this technique would work well if making sangria for a summer bbq or any sangria occasion really. I would still combine it all the day before to let the flavors really meld. I just popped out the cubes, added wine and sugar and let it sit in the fridge for a day. Yum! I find chopping fruit really tedious and I like getting as much tedious stuff out of the way early when event planning. I get too spazzy to do tedious things when I'm really pressed for time. I hope you liked this trick. Let me know what you think.

Best,
Anna