Fresh Lemonade

Fresh Lemonade is the classic American drink of summer time. Countless glasses have been consumed on front porches all across this great country. Simple to make and loved by all, I hope this recipe gets a lot of use by all of you this summer. Let me say it now however that under no circumstances should this lemonade be made with lemon juice from a plastic container that's labeled "Lemon Juice". I don't know what that stuff is folks, but it's not lemon juice. There is no replacement for fresh lemon juice so please don't even attempt to do so! Now that I got that out of the way, here is what you'll need to make fresh lemonade.

1½ cups freshly squeezed lemon juice (About 6-7 Lemons)
6 cups of cold water
1 cup of sugar
1 lemon for slicing

Cut the lemons in half and use a citrus juicer, either electric or manual, to extract as much of the juice from the lemons that you can. A good tip to really get the juices inside the lemon loose is, before you slice them in half, rolling the lemon along to counter with a bit of pressure from your palm.

In a small sauce pan, add one cup of water and the one cup of sugar together. Over medium heat, stir the sugar and the water together just until the sugar has dissolved completely. What we did here is made a simple syrup - this is a great way to sweeten iced tea too! Allow the syrup to cool just slightly. While the syrup cools, slice the remaining lemon into slices.

In a large pitcher, pour in the lemon juice and the five (5) remaining cups of cold water. Add the lemon slices and the simple syrup to the pitcher - stir to combine. Chill the lemonade and pour into glasses half filled with ice and a sliced lemon wedge on the rim as a garnish.

Hey, you know what they say! When life gives you lemons...make some lemonade!! And sometimes....if life hands your more than lemons....just add a little vodka!!