Labor Day 2012 –
We had an indoor picnic. (Don’t want to be out among West Nile.)
The menu was super simple, with no fancy table settings. We enjoyed being together.
Queso dip and chips are a boy pleaser.
The panini sandwiches were delicious. Everybody made their own sandwich to their own liking. Sandwich Sprinkles from Penzey’s Spices are our secret ingredient. (Penzey’s does not know me. I happen to like the Sandwich Sprinkles, and wanted you to know.)
Number One Son had seen a recipe for Perfect Lemonade (original recipe) from the Food Network. This recipe had been on his radar to try, so we thought, “Why not today.”
He adapted the recipe because some of the reviewers thought the recipe for perfect lemonade was not so perfect – too sweet. We tend to like rather tart lemonade, and so he omitted some sugar and added more lemon juice . His version was s0-o-o-o good, and we did like it! It is refreshing and delicious! Here is his version.
Make a simple syrup.
Remove wide strips of lemon peel (zest) with vegetable peeler. Do not get the white pith. It will be bitter. Kindly ignore the old ugly fat hands.
Combine lemon zest, water, and sugar in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar. Then let the syrup cool. We placed the syrup in another bowl to cool in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes. You could certainly make the syrup ahead of time.
Juice lemons.
Pour simple syrup, lemon juice, salt and more water into a pitcher. Serve over ice. It was delicious with just the right sweetness and tartness for our taste. You can certainly easily make the lemonade to your taste. The original recipe said to have ice in the pitcher, but our pitcher was full (and it was a large pitcher), so we just added the ice to the glasses.
It is purty if you garnish the glasses with lemon slices.
Looking forward to making this again. Thank you Number One Son.
Blessings to you and yours,
Lemonade
By Published: September 5, 2012
- Yield: 8 Servings
Delicious and refreshing lemonade.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice
- zest from 3 lemons use a vegetable peeler to peel off the yellow zest. Be careful not to get the white pith., or it will be bitter.
- 1 cup sugar use more sugar if you want sweeter lemonade.
- 4 cups water divided use
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Juice fresh lemons until you have 2 1/2 cups lemon juice. We used 8 lemons.
- With a vegetable peeler, peel the zest of 3 lemons. Be careful not to get the white pith or it will be bitter.
- Combine lemon zest, 2 cups water, and sugar. Bring to a boil until sugar is dissolved. Cool syrup. We put the syrup in another bowl and put it in the refrigerator until it was cool - about 45 minutes. You could make the syrup ahead of time.
- Combine syrup, lemon juice, salt and 2 additional cups of water.
- Serve over ice. Garnish with sliced lemons.
- Skill Level: Easy