River Road Recipes: Magnolia Mound Punch

You guys, Christmas is in exactly 3 weeks!

Why, oh why is it only the beginning of the month yet I feel so far behind? We haven’t even begun to shop. I picked up a few things at Hollydays a couple of months ago, but other than that I’ve gotten nothing accomplished. In fact, just last night, Brian and I were walking the dogs and I said “we have to get the Christmas presents built for the porch this weekend or we’re going to run out of time to enjoy them”.

That’s right.

My porch, the porch that I specifically requested in the building of our home so that I could decorate it for the holidays….is not done. I’d call it 50% decorated. And 50% decorated lands you on the neighborhood naughty list and no way are you winning the award for best decorated.

Sigh.

A while back, the Sales & Marketing Chairman for our River Road Recipes committee and I (this year I sat as assistant chairman and next year I’ll be moving up to chair- hooray!) set out to create a holiday feast using only recipes contained within the 4 River Road Recipes cookbooks from the Baton Rouge Junior League in which we serve.

Last week, our local magazine inRegister featured a lovely article highlighting our photo shoot, recipes and the most delicious photos from the talented Kaela Rodehorst. If you’re not local, you can read what we had to say about holiday hostessing here: Feast for the Eyes. And if you’re a member of the Baton Rouge Junior League, you’ll spot some of these same photos on the cover of the December newsletter hitting mailboxes any day now.

I’ll be sharing more of the holiday decor photos and a few recipes here and there right here on the blog and some insight into why we chose what we chose. With 4 cookbooks filled to the brim with time tested recipes, the task was actually a little more daunting than you would think!

When it came to selecting a holiday cocktail though, I wanted something with some color, or something we could garnish to bring in some holiday red or green.

Anything peppermint was too expected. Eggnog? The same. Expected.

The Magnolia Mound Punch found in River Road Recipes II, though,  couldn’t be easier and rather than serving it punch bowl style, I elected to serve it individually as cocktails allowing the strawberries to take center stage.

Because, well, they’re red with green stems!

The addition of the Merry Christmas Y’all napkins (quite possibly THE highlight of a recent Tuesday Morning shopping trip) keeps things feeling festive.

Here’s the quick and easy recipe for you.

Do you have a holiday cocktail recipe you love to serve? Or do you just spike the eggnog and call it good?

That’s usually what I do.

Photos: via