Adults like lemonade too

I get creative about drink making generally around winter holidays and all summer long. I am always longing for something cool and refreshing in the summer. Yesterday’s trial was a strawberry lemonade made with fresh ingredients. I let Kerry try a sip of mine and the response was “OH DAMN” and followed by “you wrote this down right?” I get in trouble from time to time for making things up in the kitchen and not writing them down for future use. OPPS!

So I was thinking that since today is Friday I would toss this up so that you can stop on your way home from work for a bag full of lemons and start your weekend out with this wonderful and refreshing drink.

Ingredients

4 regular lemons (juice and skins needed)
Simple syrup infused with lemons (recipe below)
Limoncello (Lemon liqueur)
water
Strawberries (optional, or use a fruit you like in your lemonade)

Simple Syrup

I peeled the 4 lemons with a vegetable peeler only getting the yellow skin. Place those in a glass measuring cup, add 2 cups of boiling water and 2 cups of sugar. Stir to dissolve and let rest/cool. I placed the remainder in a canning jar with a plastic lid to use later. This would be great in tea or if you have a soda stream make your own lemon soda.

Strawberries and lemon juice

I placed my poor little peeled lemons in the microwave for about 20 seconds and then rolled them on the counter to juice them up. I then used a lemon press to juice them. You can use what ever method you like, but you must use fresh lemon juice.

While giant hunks of strawberries are fun I prefer something that I can actually get through a straw (keep your wise cracks to yourself). I placed a handful (maybe 8) strawberries in a blender with about 1/4 cup of sugar and enough water to pulse them into a nice chop. I had strawberries frozen in the freezer for occasions like this.

Making the delicious beverage

In a glass mix these ratios 1 oz water, 1 oz lemon juice, 1 oz limoncello, 1 TBL simple syrup, and 1 TBL of strawberry. This made way more strawberry and syrup than I need for this batch but I would prefer to squeeze the lemons fresh. My plan is to put 1 TBL of the strawberry in ice cube tray compartments and freeze for future use.  My guess is this made like 4 drinks. You may want to adjust the sweetness but this was a good starting point, still a little tart.

ENJOY!

Bonus info:

Now if you are creative and a do it yourself kind of person you will find recipes online for making your own limoncello. I tried this once and as I recall it took like a bag of lemons but just the peel and a bottle of vodka. I had placed the ingredients in one of my large vacuum sealer canisters and gave it a quick zap, removing enough air to keep the lid on. I walked to the entry way and opened the closet door, it was recommend to store this in a cool dark place. As I reached above my head with the canister to place it on the shelf it exploded, the lid came flying off and there was vodka and lemon peel all over everything. I purchased my limoncello after that.