Lemonade Concentrate

It's that time of year! Hot summer days and warm summer nights call for iced cold lemonade. The grocery stores sell all sorts of lemonade, but most of them are packed with high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors and tons of sugar. Why not make your own? It's super easy, super fast and the taste will blow your socks off. Nathan is my lemonade lover and he begged and begged for us to make homemade lemonade. We whipped up this batch together...it didn't last more than 2 days in the fridge, and that was because I told him he couldn't have anymore the first day. This is yum, yum, yummers!

Look for lemons that feel heavy for their size and give them a good sniff. They should smell lemony, not waxy. I use my citrus handheld juicer to juice the lemons, but you could use a reamer, a fork and your brute strength, or if you have an automatic juicer, you could use that. I've found that 6-7 good sized lemons produces about a cup of lemon juice.

Lemonade Concentrate
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar or less, depending on your taste...I usually use only 1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup water
1 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice
3-4 quarts water

1. In a non-reactive saucepan, combine the sugar, water and lemon juice. Bring to a low boil and simmer until the sugar has dissolved.

2. Turn off the heat and transfer the lemon concentrate to a glass jar and allow to cool to room temperature. Put on a lid and store in the fridge until ready to use.

3. When ready to use, pour half of the concentrate in a pitcher and add water to taste. I usually use 2-3 quarts of water to 1/2 the concentrate, but add according to how sweet your like your lemonade.