Raspberry Lemonade

 Ahhhhhhh......summer.    Maybe it's not officially summer yet, but my kids are through with school and the weather is warm-- the lazy days of summer are in full swing around here.  This recipe for raspberry lemonade is the perfect refreshment on a hot day!

But first.......I need to give a shout-out to my baseball team, the Cardinals.  We won our semi-final game tonight and are headed to the league championship game on Friday.  What a great group of kids they are, so much fun to be around.  Go Cardinals!

Today's Playlist

• "All My Life"........The Foo Fighters
• "Last Night".......The Strokes
• "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"........The Beatles
• "Funky But Chic".........New York Dolls 
• "New Soul".......Yael Naim
• "Animal".........Neon Trees

Raspberry Lemonade (makes about 2 quarts)
Printable Recipe

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
•  1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh raspberries
• water

garnishes: fresh raspberries, lemon slices

sugar for the rims of your glasses

Gather your ingredients.  

Yes, water is an ingredient.  No I did not gather it with the ingredients.  I used a total of 6 1/2 cups of water. 

First, make a simple syrup.  Heat the 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water over medium heat, stirring often, until the sugar is melted.

You do not want this to boil.  The sugar will be melted before it boils.

Juice your lemons while you are waiting for the syrup.

Yeah, there are lots of lemons in my picture.  I dumped out the whole bag.  But it only took four lemons to get the 1 cup of juice that I needed.

My syrup was done by the time I finished juicing the lemons.

While you're waiting for the syrup to cool, puree your raspberries.  I used a mini (3 cup) food processor, but you can use a blender or a large food processor.

If you prefer, you could use fresh raspberries instead of frozen.

Add 1 cup of water to the 1 1/2 cups of raspberries and blend until they are pureed.

Like this.  It's easier to puree them when you add water.

Set a strainer over a bowl and drain the raspberries.  (If you don't mind raspberry seeds in your lemonade you can skip this part.)

The raspberry puree is sort of thick, and it won't completely drain through the strainer.  At least mine won't!

So I stir it with a spoon to redistribute the liquid.

Then I add the freshly squeezed lemon juice and that's how I get all of the raspberry juice to drain.

The lemon juice pretty much washes all the juice away from the seeds and through the strainer, so all that you are left with is a couple of tablespoons of seeds to throw away.

The syrup is just about cooled.  Now would be a good time to put some sugar on the rims of your glasses.

I used pink sugar, but as I was pouring the red lemonade into the glasses I realized that white sugar would have looked so much better.

To sugar the rims of your glasses, moisten the rims by running a lemon slice around them, 

and then dip them into the sugar.  I just put a couple of teaspoons of sugar onto a flat plate for dipping.

By now, your syrup should be cool enough to make your lemonade.

Put the strained raspberry puree/lemon juice mixture into a pitcher.

Add the syrup.

Okay, I need to go off-topic here.  See the crazy photo above?  What would have been really crazy is if someone would have taken a picture of me as I took that picture.  I am taking the picture with my right hand, of course, because the button to snap a picture is on the right side of the camera, and it is impossible to take a picture with my left hand.

But you will notice that the saucepan that I am pouring the syrup out of is also on the right side of the photo.  As if I am holding it with my right hand.

Nuh-uh.  I am holding it with my left hand.  My left arm is crossed under my right arm, and I am pouring the syrup out of that saucepan by twisting my left hand, which is under my right arm, to the left.  Have I confused you yet?

And to top it all off, as if contorting myself weren't enough, that 2-quart saucepan happens to be a very heavy Le Creuset cast iron saucepan.  So the only way I could leverage myself to have enough strength in my left hand so as to not drop the pan was to bend my entire upper body about 45 degrees diagonally to the left.  Hence the crazy angle of the picture.

I was exhausted by the time I snapped that picture.

And I was certainly ready for a nice, refreshing glass of ice-cold raspberry lemonade!

Okay, back to our recipe.

I added 4 1/2 cups of water to the raspberry puree/lemon juice/syrup in the pitcher.  You may need to adjust the amount of water that you add, depending upon your taste preferences.

Garnish your glasses with a lemon slice, add ice and float a few fresh raspberries in each serving.

This recipe made almost two quarts of lemonade, enough to fill four 16 oz. glasses.

Enjoy!!