It was a hot Saturday. We're talking 100-plus degrees. In the shade. Ryan and I had made a trip down to Torchy's for breakfast tacos, and then over to Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop to look for an earth-friendly messenger bag. We left with a pair of Earth-friendly shoes and a t-shirt for Ryan, and with an unquenchable thirst that kept begging the question, "Where should we stop for lemonade?"Not wanting to pull over yet again and shell out more cash for a beverage when we'd done enough shopping already, we decided to make it at home.
Talk about hitting it out of the park.
We made a simple syrup on the stove--1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water, reduced to the perfect thickness. We minced up the rind from a lemon, and squeezed about 3/4 cup lemon juice. We mixed the sugar syrup, lemon juice, and rind, and put it in a glass pitcher. We filled the pitcher with ice, and then topped it off with filtered water. I surprised Ryan with a little homey touch: mason jars meant for canning the next weekend were pulled from the cupboard and filled with ice and tangy lemonade. We added mint for an extra-special touch.
The pitcher of lemonade didn't last long--but it absolutely did the trick. That evening, I continued the lemon theme and tried to make lemony ricotta and basil pasta. It was quick and easy, and we used up some on-the-brink ingredients (the fresh basil from our CSA was on its way out, and I had just enough pasta left for two)...but the overall effect, while beautiful and fresh and summery-looking, didn't quite pack the punch we were hoping for.
Then again, we could have just been lemon-ed out.
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