I’ve always adored lemonade. I see it as being the patron drink of summer, and the idea of a tall, cold glass of lemonade coupled with a good read makes for my idea of summer heaven (added bonus: abundant sunshine). Last week when the sister and I were grocery shopping I saw lemons on sale and immediately began sorting through them. Sister shook her head, as this happens often:
Sister: “So, what are you doing?”
Me: “Lemons! The lemons! They’re on sale! And look how pretty they are!”
Sister: “…And do you know what you plan to do with them?”
Me: “Oh, well, I hadn’t thought of that yet. But something. Oh! Lemonade. I’m making lemonade.”
Sister: “Do you really need so many of them, though!?”
She worries about my culinary sanity, I think, for I often get over-excited at the store over ingredients without set plans on how or when to use them. It’s always been an issue (“Elle a les yeux plus grands que l’estomac!” was often said of my by my parents) in that I tend to prefer the picture or the idea of the food rather than the food itself. This must explain my early-on interest in food styling. :)
Elise at SimplyRecipe’s is another culinary idol/favourite of mine, so I opted to follow her wisdom in this recipe. I learned the lemonade basics: simple syrup is what gets out that grainyness (if you watch Food Network, Giada’s a simple syrup obsessor, it seems) but I can now truly see the merit in this process (its slight resemblance to caramel frightens me, but I shall ignore this and pretend I’m a whiz at caramel). Therefore, ‘lo and behold this very yummy (but rather sweet- will definitely reduce sugar next time) recipe for something delightfully cool and crisp:
Home-Made Lemonade
Following Elise’s Perfect Lemonade Recipe at SimpleRecipes
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar (even this was too sweet for me, so feel free to go down to 1/2 cup)
- 1 cup room-temp water (for the simple syrup- more later for the actual lemonade)
- 1 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice (took me about 8 lemons, small-to-medium-sized)
- 5 cups cold water (to dilute; could have even gone with a 6th)
- 1 lemon cut into slices for deocration and too add extra lemon-y-ness
Process:
- Get out a small pot and place in sugar and simple syrup water, and heat together on medium or so until the sugar is fully dissolved into the water.
- While the simple syrup is heating, juice your lemons into your jug (I used one with a lid so I could shake it well. If you haven’t a lid, then you may want to juice into a lidded container before placing in your jug/bottle/etc)
- Add the simple syrup to the lemon juice. Then add in about 5 (or even 6, depending on how you like your lemonade) cups of water to dilute it. I’d suggest tasting a tiny bit after every added cup to make sure you don’t go over and hit the point of no (lemonade) return.
And that’s it! Super simple (syrup) and easy to make, and oh-so-delicious on a hot summer day. And considering the fact that lemons are about 6 to a dollar in most stores at the moment, this comes out far cheaper than purchasing your own (which is probably ladden with HFCS and waiting to destroy your health, anyway)- so why not make yourself a pitcher? It’s a terrific excuse to go vintage glass bottle shopping, if nothing else…
