Bringing back memories - Mulled wine

Clearly its too early in the day [and the week for that matter] to be fantasizing about tucking into a nice mug of mulled wine, but I just had to post this recipe from Pip over at Meet me at Mikes.

My first memory of mulled wine was when I lived in Norway as a child - there it was called Glögg. We brought a few bottles of the 'base' back to Australia which were promptly relegated to the back of the pantry. Not surprising considering the weather here in Perth is not terribly conducive to rugging up and sipping steaming wine.

Pip's Gluhwein
3 bottles of red wine
1 litre of orange juice
2 cups of water
1/2 cup brown sugar
2tbsp honey
1 tbsp golden syrup
a slosh of vanilla essence
1 tsp mixed spice
4 cinnamon sticks
1 sliced lemon
1 sliced orange - peel and pith removed

Put all these things in a big pot and heat gently until nearly boiling. Taste it and make sure it's sweet enough for you - if not add more sugar. Turn off the heat and let the flavours develop for a couple of hours. Reheat until steaming but not boiling and serve. Serves 8 wine liking people.

Pour into thermoses and take on outdoorsy type trips to stay very, very warm.
Substitute cranberry juice for orange juice if you prefer.

Pip has also recently started a blog which contains all of her amazing recipes from the main blog and some lovely links to other gourmet sites.