Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade
Nothing says summer more than a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade. Well, maybe Jersey tomatoes. Oh and blueberries. But you get my drift. As much as I love fresh squeezed lemonade, I have managed to go nearly 38 years without ever having made it myself at home. I kind of stuck with Country Time Lemonade. I know, it seems silly that I haven’t made it. To tell you the truth, it’s always been because of the whole simple syrup step. Just some dumb mind block. Even though it only takes a few extra minutes, it always seemed easier to just mix powder and water together and call it a day. Silliness. Laziness.
Until recently…
I’ve been promising Nicholas, my fellow little lemonade lover, that we would make lemonade at home this summer. And then when I spied a recipe for lemonade that omitted the whole simple syrup step altogether, I was even more eager to follow through on my promise. Last night was the night. Armed with 10 organic lemons from Whole Foods, we made half a batch of lemonade. Tomorrow’s mission is to find a pitcher large enough to accommodate a full recipe, but halving worked just fine in the meantime.
It does take a few minutes to squeeze the juice out of ten lemons, but I promise the effort is worth it. When drinking lemonade, I tend to find that it’s either too tart or too sweet, but I’ve got to say, this one was perfect. It was tart, but not so tart that I found myself reaching to add more sugar. In just a few hours, the entire pitcher we made was gone, devoured by adults and kids alike with refills all around.
So go on and taste a bit ‘o summer. You’ll be glad you did.
Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade
Recipe courtesy of Cooking Light, July 2003
3 cups fresh lemon juice (about 20 lemons)
2-1/4 cups sugar
12 cups chilled water
Combine juice and sugar in a one-gallon container; stir until sugar dissolves. Stir in water. Serve over ice.
Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 cup)
Nutritional Information
CALORIES 120(0.0% from fat); FAT 0.0g (sat 0.0g,mono 0.0g,poly 0.0g); IRON 0.1mg; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 32.1g; SODIUM 6mg; PROTEIN 0.2g; FIBER 0.2g
June 27th, 2008 at 6:17 am
I remember my grandmother making lemonade when we were kids and she never used syrup… good old sugar. Ah those were the days :)
June 27th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Very relaxing picture. The sun makes it.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:08 am
This was so good. I tend to say away from Lemonade because it’s always too tart for me. I’m a sweet tea/ice tea person. But, I LOVED LOVED LOVED this Lemonade. I could have had the whole pitcher. I’m even going to make this at home.
Yes, I’m going to sqeeze the lemons.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
They do this same thing around here at Fairs, except they do it in individual sizes. They squeeze half a lemon, add a teaspoon of sugar, fill cup with water, stick another cup on top (like you were shaking a mixed drink) shake vigorously and voila one cup of absolutely the best lemonade you’ll ever have!!
June 28th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Rachel, you’re right, they definitely do, but I never knew the ratio for an individual glass. Will try yours tomorrow. :)
July 19th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Just got this recipe from a Lemon Shake-up vendor at the fair.
Add to 16 oz of water and ice:
1/2 a lemon, squeezed and cut up
1/4 cup sugar
shake shake shake …viola! One delicious and refreshing lemon shake up! Ahhhhhhhhh!