Punch Line

Our children love watching Alton Brown's Good Eats. Me, too. More than a year ago, one of my sons memorized Brown's recipe for punch. Never mind that it was alcoholic,  and he can't drink it. He memorized the poem-recipe, and his heart was set on making it.

I finally gave in on Twelfth Night earlier this month, but we made a non-alcoholic version, too, for the kids. This was another occasion to break out the snack trays and other "fancy" dishes like our punch bowl.

Grown-up punch

Broken hand ice in kids' punch

Unbroken hand ice in kids' punch

And, yes, that is hand-shaped iced in the punch bowl. That was another of my concessions to my punch-desiring son. 

For the record, Alton Brown's punch recipe was good. This is the rhyme-recipe: "One part sour, two parts sweet, three parts strong, and four parts weak." Instead of the recipes found on Food Network, we substituted what we had on hand. No pun intended.

The kids' recipe used lemons, mango juice, sugar, and sparkling water. And don't forget the nutmeg!