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
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I remember my grandmother making lemonade when we were kids and she never used syrup… good old sugar. Ah those were the days :)
Very relaxing picture. The sun makes it.
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.
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!!
Rachel, you’re right, they definitely do, but I never knew the ratio for an individual glass. Will try yours tomorrow. :)
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!