Thunderstorms and lemonade

This morning I found myself at Meijer while the rain poured down, the thunder clashed and the hail hit the roof so hard it was almost all you could hear in the store. Since I was without an umbrella, I found myself shopping a little slower, trying to wait out the storm.  While browsing around the produce section I came across strawberries in the marked down basket. They looked ripe, but not too mushy and it was a big ole pack for only 0.98 cents! That's a deal I couldn't pass up, after all it seems everytime I buy strawberries I have to throw out almost half because they are too cruddy anyway. I figured even if I threw out half of them, I would still be ahead. Once I got home I noticed that I also had a few lemons that needed to be used up, and so the idea of fresh strawberry lemonade was born!

I was shocked to see how nice the berries looked!

First I googled strawberry lemonade and came up with a recipe from Heather's Dish.

http://www.heathersdish.com/1/the-ultimate-strawberry-lemonade/

She suggested using the whole lemon rind included, which I had never heard of.  I did use a simple syrup recipe instead of adding the water and sugar separately.  This is basically bringing a cup of water and a cup of sugar to a boil on the stove top and then allowing to cool.  

After blending the lemons and syrup, I added 1 cup of strawberries and blended.

This is how it looked.

I would be happy to drink it with all the pulp, but I know my kids would not like it that way, so I strained the pulp and kept the juice.  Afterward I added water to fill the pitcher.  

I do have to say, I had to add more sugar.  I think the rinds add a more tart taste so it's not as sweet as when you just use the juice.  Next time I would just use the lemon juice and leave out the rinds.

  

Not to say it tastes bad, because it doesn't. 

It was very tasty and fresh.  I would just leave out the  rinds so I wouldn't have to add more than a cup of sugar. 

 It's a sugar control thing and not a taste thing. 

Get it? If your a mom, I think you do.  

So it's not only tasty but beautiful too.

I still had lots of strawberries left over after this, so I also made a strawberry juice concentrate and froze it for another day.  I'll post the recipe for that another time. 

:)

And so it was me and my lemonade on a rainy spring day, dreaming of summertime. . . .