Lemonade

Sitting in the shade of a tree with a good book and a glass of home-made lemonade is one of the pleasures of summer Sunday afternoons.

Usually I drink water, sometimes with a squirt of lemon. It's thirst-quenching, healthful and natural.

I find most bottled beverages -- sodas, iced teas, fruit juices -- are overly sweet and taste of the chemicals they're made from. I bet if you avoided them for a month and then tasted one, you would notice the chemical flavor front and center.

So water it is.

But as a summer treat, it's hard to beat lemonade. It's too sweet to drink with a meal, but as a break on a hot afternoon, poured over ice, garnished with a sprig of lemon verbena, it makes a wonderful drink.

This recipe is from an old library book: Family Circle's Recipes America Loves Best. It's quite strong so when it's poured over a full glass of ice, it will still taste good as the ice melts. (I tend to fill my glass with ice, then half water and the rest lemonade.)

The birds like to preen in our lemon tree after bathing, so I wash our lemons well before I use them. If your lemons come from a store, scrub them with a little dish soap before using the peel.

I make a few batches of lemonade at a time and freeze them after adding the lemon juice. When I want to serve lemonade, I defrost a batch and stir in the 4 cups cold water. I probably lose a few nutrients in the freezer, but it's healthier, more delicious, and just as quick to make as any of the frozen juices you can find in the store. And it's real food.

Freshly made, it will last a week in the fridge, if you can hide it from your thirsty family.

Real Lemonade
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water
thin rind of 2 lemons (use a potato peeler, and just get the yellow, not the white)
1 cup lemon juice (from 3-5 lemons)
4 cups ice water

Combine sugar, one cup water and lemon rind in a saucepan over medium heat. Gently bring to a boil and cook until sugar is dissolved and mixture is syrupy. This will take 8-10 minutes. Remove the lemon rind and let the syrup cool to room temperature.

Add the lemon juice. (It can be frozen at this point.)

Pour into a pitcher and add 4 cups of cold water. Stir well.

Serve over ice cubes in tall glasses. Garnish with a sprig of lemon balm or mint, and a slice of lemon.

Makes 6 3/4 cups lemonade.