The Best Fruit Punch

Two posts in one day? Well, yeah. It is the last day of the year and I started my blog this past March so I felt I needed to end the year with a bit of a bang. And posting twice in one day sure is a special thing....isn't it :) Nah, I just have a lot of great party recipes and today feels like one of those days. The last big hurrah before things go back to normal. Bah humbug. So I decided to do something that means a lot to me and post a special family recipe that was passed down to me by my mom, who is not doing so well this year. It is on one of those recipe cards in her own handwriting, with all the special notations that family recipes are made of. It means a lot to me to share this recipe cause it means that a tradition in my family maybe gets to be a tradition in someone else's family. And isn't that what great recipes are for, right?

Fruit Punch

8 cups water

1 16-ounce can frozen OJ

1 12-ounce can frozen lemonade

2 46 ounce cans of pinapple juice

2 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 lime juice (or use lemon juice)

4 28-ounce bottles of ginger ale, chilled (or one 2 liter bottle works fine)

2 28-ounce bottles carbonated water or club soda, chilled

Fresh strawberries, oranges, etc cut into pieces (optional).

Combine water and juices, stir. Add sugar, stir. Chill. When ready to serve, slowly pour in ginger ale and carbonated water. Add fresh fruit if desired.

Makes 90 (4 ounce) servings

"Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance."

-unknown

Laughter is brightest where food is best.

-Irish Proverb

"Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all."

-Harriet Van Horne

"I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol."

-Steven Wright