Lemonade

I tried many different recipes for lemonade, and all of them failed my expectations. I was looking for good old fashion lemonade. I finally came across a recipe around 10 years ago and tweaked it a little to my liking and am now satisfied.

(lemonade)

(strawberry lemonade)

LEMONADE 

(serves 10- 12)

Ingredients:

*1 cup water

*1 to 1 1/2 cups white sugar (I use 1 cup, don't like it to sweet)

*1 1/2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice (5-7 lemons)

*7 cups cold water

Directions:

~In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water.

~Stir and bring to a boil. Make sure sugar is dissolved.

~Remove from stove and let cool.

~Squeeze lemons, enough to make 1 1/2 cups juice.

~Remove any seeds that may have dropped in, but leave the pulp.

~Put lemon juice, sugar water, and the 7 cups cold water in pitcher, stir.

~Store in refrigerator, serve when cold.

Variations:

`You can use lemon juice from a bottle (ReaLemon), but I personally don't think it's as good

`freezing it makes for a great slushie.

`pour glass half way with lemonade and half with fresh brewed ice tea.

`Take 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup of fresh strawberries. Boil it. Strain mixture into your simple syrup (boiled sugar water), to catch all the seeds. Add to lemonade. (you could do this with raspberries, blueberries, kiwi, or mango's too) If you use a tart fruit add 1/2 cup sugar.

`Add a couple mint leaves to the picture of lemonade

`Replace the 7 cups water with soda water to make it a fizzy lemonade (also known as sparkling water, fizzy water and seltzer).

Helpful Hint: I put the lemons in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds and then roll them on the counter. It makes it much easier to juice them.