Watermelon Lemonade

Today's weather could not have been more perfect.  

The morning spent at the baseball field, our first game of the 2012 season.  My team got their first win.....it's always nice to start the season with a victory.  Go Cardinals!

Then I spent the afternoon gardening: pruning, trimming, planting bulbs and seeds.  While I gardened and worked up a sweat, all I could think of was an ice-cold glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade.

By the time I was done gardening, I felt the need to add some fresh raspberry puree to my fresh-squeezed lemonade.  As usual, this complicated things........I had the ingredients for my lemonade, but I didn't have any raspberries.

So I went to the store, and they didn't have raspberries, either!  But there was some spectacular-looking watermelon.......so I found myself thinking, why not?

I've never even had watermelon lemonade before, much less made it myself, but I decided to give it a go.  I'm happy to say that it went well!

Today's Playlist

"Learn To Fly".........Foo Fighters

"Say It Ain't So".........Weezer

"Pumped Up Kicks"........Foster The People

"Basket Case".........Green Day

Watermelon Lemonade 

(makes 4 servings, approx. 12 oz each)

• 2 1/2 to 3 lbs seedless watermelon
• 1 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar

Gather your ingredients.

Remove the watermelon from the rind and cut it into chunks.

Place the watermelon chunks in a blender or food processor.  Add 1 cup of water.

Blend until pureed.  This took about 10 seconds.

Place a fine-mesh strainer over a bowl.

Pour the watermelon puree into the strainer.

Stir the slush around so that all the liquid gets through.  I used 2 1/2 lbs of watermelon, and not including the 1 cup of water that I added to the blender, I had 1 3/4 cups of watermelon juice after I strained it.

Juice your lemons.  You will need one cup of lemon juice.

Add the strained watermelon juice, PLUS two more cups of water, plus the lemon juice to a pitcher.  Add the sugar.  I added 2/3 cup of sugar.  Stir well.

Depending upon how much juice you get from your watermelon, you can adjust the amount of sugar to suit your taste.

More watermelon juice would mean less sugar, and vice versa.

Enjoy!