Ordination Punch Recipe

In addition to my volunteer work, I have been doing events support at a large Protestant church in Boston. Most weeks, I do basic housekeeping around the church kitchens (a commercial-size kitchen and two small kitchens) and organize the coffee hour supplies. The holidays obviously bring special events on Sundays and during the week, from the Christmas pageant to a lenten adult study series. I have also had the pleasure of setting up the receptions for two ordinations.

Both of these events were marked by large amounts of fancy finger food and non-alcoholic punch. The original punch recipe, which was used for several years at coffee hour, consisted of a 2-liter bottle of ginger ale, 1 bottle of fruit punch (64 oz), 1 can of pineapple juice (46 oz), and a package of rainbow sherbet (1 quart). My preference is to use 1/2 a bottle of fruit punch and 1/2 a bottle of cranberry juice cocktail to give the punch a little more tartness, since it is basically sugar water.

Directions:
1) Mix fruit punch (32 oz), cranberry juice (32 oz), and pineapple juice (46 oz) in large punch bowl.
2) 5-10 minutes before serving, take sherbet out of freezer to thaw.
3) Five minutes before serving, add ginger ale (2 liters).
4) Add sherbet to punch. Mix well so that it is well distributed through the punch.