Hubs likes Arnold Palmers. Those half iced tea, half lemonade drinks. And they are good. And lemonade is, like, the official drink of summer in this house. So I decided it was time to get off my duff and commit to making it from scratch this year. (Especially since he bought a couple cans of the pre-made AP stuff and it's loaded with high fructose corn syrup, which is bad for you and is everywhere and I might as well do my part to keeping my family healthy. Let's make a sugar drink, why don't we? Ok!)
So the other day, at my request, he came home from the store with lemons. A ton of lemons. He wasn't sure how many to get, so he figured more is better. Ok then. We are not short on fresh lemon juice in this house, let me tell you.
I put my 12 year old to work. Brilliant. Everyone should have an enthusiastic 12 year old kitchen assistant. They are cheerful and think it's fun to juice 100 lemon halves.
So. I guess there are two approaches to lemonade. The boil-and-make-a-syrup way and the way that does not involve playing with Sophia. I decided to go for it and make lemon syrup, since I'm really too lazy to stir up the sugar in the bottom of my lemonade pitcher each time and I'd prefer to just pour it, thank you. Plus, this way I could get tricky. And Sophia and I are still in a growing phase of our relationship.
I used parts of this recipe (mostly the measuring parts).
Scratch Lemonade
lemon syrup
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (this was probably 6-7 lemons of our stash)
> boil water, add sugar and dissolve. Add lemon juice. (I also added some honey and vanilla. Mmm. Good.)
Add lemon syrup to 4 1/2 cups water. Stir. I tossed in a sprig of fresh mint when I poured my first glass. Heaven. Really, I think it's shame to mix it with tea at this point for the Arnold Palmer. But at least I can feel better about the ingredients. Hubs, I loves ya.
And... I have a lot of lemon juice left over. Plenty for Jen (a la Cottage Nest) recipe for Lemon bars. I even saved some of the rinds so I could use the zest for those...yum.
We have a lot of lemonade around here too... the Wyler's Light powdered variety! ;)
Yours sounds much better!
So that's what it's called when you mix lemonade and iced tea???
Posted by: Jade | June 05, 2008 at 04:05 PM
Arnold Palmers are a new concept for me. But I'm a dab hand at lemonade, so I'll have to give one a try. All I need is some sun for encouragement.
Posted by: Ali | June 05, 2008 at 04:58 PM
that sounds divine! would the recipe be the same for limes, i wonder?
Posted by: kirsten | June 05, 2008 at 05:16 PM
i need a lemon tree.
Posted by: beki | June 05, 2008 at 07:24 PM
Mmmm. We love lemonade.
I have a ton of mint and I often make mint lemonade. I add the mint to the syrup.
Posted by: lera | June 05, 2008 at 08:47 PM
Oh my.... that sounds heavenly. I actually feel warm enough right now to enjoy a cold drink. Amazing how when one gets just a wee bit south how things seem to warm up. It is suppose to be in the 80s here tomorrow! Yippee.
Posted by: Liz | June 05, 2008 at 09:16 PM
My mouth waters!
Posted by: Amanda | June 05, 2008 at 10:09 PM
I love lemons in food! LOVE! But I HATE lemonade? strange. I do love LIMEade though. Made the same way, but with limes. I will have to make those Lemon Bars this weekend. They sound very yummy.
Posted by: mary | June 06, 2008 at 09:07 AM
Dang, girl. It's all yummy over here - lemons and berries. I must now go eat lunch.
And I'm more of a shandy girl myself - half lemonade and half beer.
Posted by: laeroport | June 06, 2008 at 12:11 PM
I banned high-fructose corn syrup in your house almost 2 years ago...not 100% but close. I also have a new juicer that the kids like to use so we are trying this recipe for sure. Spring seems to have skipped us and gone straight to summer huh?
Posted by: julie | June 06, 2008 at 12:37 PM