Holiday Hangover

With the help of lots of quiet and a few Advil, I have almost fully recovered from our annual holiday party. Once a year, we roll up the rugs, deck the halls, and put on the ritz for 50 or so of our dearest friends. It's a lot of work and a long night - generally ending around 3 in the morning - but it's also wonderful fun.

To my amazement, the hit of the night was the Champagne Punch. I've never served punch before, and was a little nervous about how it would be received. (Our Crowd loves their champagne and is veddy veddy particular about it - Pol Roger and Louis Roederer being the current faves.)

I highly recommend this recipe, not least of all because it gives a lot of bang for the buck (don't even think about using Veuve or somesuch - go with Prosecco or a Spanish sparkling like we did) - and these days, that counts. This would also be magnificent at a brunch.

From Epicurious.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup Triple Sec
• 1 cup brandy
• 1/2 cup Chambord
• 2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
• 1 quart chilled ginger ale
• 2 chilled 750-ml. bottles dry champagne (prosecco is great too)
  

Directions
In a bowl combine the Triple Sec, the brandy, the Chambord and the pineapple juice and chill the mixture, covered, for at least 4 hours or overnight. In a large punch bowl combine the Triple Sec mixture, the ginger ale, and the champagne and add ice cubes.

The recipe says that it serves 12 - we doubled it for 50, but this wasn't the only thing we were serving.

Ooh! Now I need to invest in a proper punchbowl! Any suggestions?