Mary Bilyeu | Contributor

I hadn't made sangria for ages and ages, until one evening it just seemed like the perfect thing to drink while sitting on the front porch on a beautiful evening. Champagne is for weddings, beer is for football games, and sangria is for sunny summer days!

And this variation — a festive holiday concoction featuring red wine, white sparkling lemonade and blueberry syrup — is ideal for today's Fourth of July celebrations.

Sangria is easy to make, is a gorgeous deep vibrant shade of red as the sun shines upon it and is sweet and refreshing. Pair it with burgers, chicken, ribs, corn, potato salad — all the traditional foods 'n' fixins — and you've got a party!

I've given instructions for making the blueberry syrup, but there's not really a recipe for the sangria, merely a simple "how to" for making this fabulous drink by the glass. And it's one of those things where you can modify the proportions to suit your own tastes, or even make a non-alcoholic version using cranberry juice (or one of the multitude of variations on that basic version). Feel free to multiply everything and place it into a pitcher for serving many.

Enjoy the parades, proudly wear your patriotic colors, offer thanks to those who've sacrificed for our freedoms, and toast the holiday with this celebratory sangria.

Red, White and Blueberry Sangria

Blueberry Syrup:

4 cups blueberries

4 cups water

1 cup sugar

Bring everything to a boil in a medium saucepan, then lower heat to medium; boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, then mash the blueberries. Strain out the solids and reserve the syrup.

Into each large wine glass, place:

1/4 cup blueberry syrup

2/3 cup red wine

2/3 cup sparkling lemonade

4 ice cubes

1/2 lemon slice

1/2 orange slice

Mary Bilyeu has won or placed in more than 60 cooking contests and writes about her adventures in the kitchen. She was thrilled to have her post about Scottish Oatmeal Shortbread named as one of the daily "Best of the Blogs" by the prestigious Food News Journal.

Go visit Mary's blog — Food Floozie — on which she enthuses and effuses over all things food-related. Her newest feature is Frugal Floozie Friday, seeking fun and food for $5 or less ... really! Feel free to email her with questions or comments or suggestions: yentamary@gmail.com.

The phrase "You Should Only Be Happy" (written in Hebrew on the stone pictured in this post) comes from Deuteronomy 16:15 and is a wish for all her readers as they cook along with her ... may you always be happy here.