Mixed Drink Monday: Homemade Lemonade

If you've been following my Mixed Drink Monday series this summer, you may recall that waaaaay back in the beginning I said I was going to try to do some booze and non-booze drinks.  Then I posted six straight with booze in them.  Oops.  In the summer I pretty much only drink: water, milk, sun tea, and the drinks I post here.  That's probably 90% of what I drink.

BUT, just like last week, I had some hand squeezed lemon juice (from what? I don't remember) in the fridge that I wanted out of there and since I was already half-way there, in terms of juicing lemons, I decided to make lemonade.  Literally taking lemons and turning them into lemonade, but also figuratively because I was taking something that I wanted out of the fridge and turned it into something delicious to drink.

I had never made lemonade from scratch before and it was surprisingly easy.  The juicing part only took a few minutes and it left me with nice prop lemons.  The hardest part was making sure nothing went all over the counter when pressing through the sieve and really, that's not hard, just potentially a little messy.

I enjoyed drinking this.  Matt enjoyed drinking this.  Luke enjoyed drinking this and took great pleasure in pouring his own glasses (once it was transferred to a lidded, plastic pitcher for spillage reasons).  Lemonade is perfect for summer, light and refreshing.  And it tastes even better when you know you made it yourself.  I definitely recommend trying, at least once.  Plus, the lemons look awfully cute sitting on the counter until you get around to squeezing them.

Homemade Lemonade
yield: about 2 quarts (½ gallon)
Ingredients
-1½ cups sugar
-10 large lemons (will probably need more than 10 if they are small)
-8 cups water

Directions
1) Thinly slice two of the lemons, trying to pick out and discard most of the seeds.  In a large bowl, combine the lemon slices with the sugar and, using a potato masher, mash until the sugar is completely wet, about one minute.

2) Juice the remaining 8 lemons.  You will need 2 cups of lemon juice, if you don't have enough, juice more lemons.

3) Add the lemon juice and water to the large bowl with the lemon slices and sugar.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved, 1-2 minutes.

4) Pour the whole mixture through a mesh sieve into a large pitcher.  Press the lemon slices to get as much juice as you can and then discard.  Refrigerate or serve immediately!

Source: Mel's Kitchen Cafe

 __________________________________________________________________________
In the summer I aim to make a new drink every week and share them all here, good or bad!  See them all in chronological order by following the "Mixed Drink Monday" tag here or check out my favorites by scrolling down to "Mixed Drink Monday" on my recipes page!