Gramma's Gifts: A Lemonade kind of Day

With the temperature at around 9- and the humidity high this was the perfect day to sit back and just enjoy a cool lemonade. We of course had none! I was able to make a pitcher of sun tea and enjoy that in the quiet of the afternnon while the kids were still at school. It is very hard to work on earflao hats and think winter when the weather gets like this.

Perfect Lemonade Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutesIngredients
1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
1 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)
Method
1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.

2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.

3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.

Serve with ice, sliced lemons.
Yield: Serves 6.
Sweet Tea Recipes

Recipe #1 Southern Sweet Iced Te
Ingredients
3 Family size tea bags
2 Cups of cold water
1 Cup of sugar
Directions
We in the south make the best iced tea you'll find. Maybe it's how it's done, or maybe it is the water in the south, or maybe it's just that a southern belle has put a lot of TLC into making the tea. Who knows!
We recommend Luzianne Tea Bags if available.
Place the two cups water in a pot and add the tea bags. Bring to a boil, do not continue boiling. Remove from heat and let steep. Pour warm tea into empty pitcher. Add the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Fill remaining pitcher with cold water.

Optional - some women say they use less water and add ice to the tea.

Recipe #2 Southern Sweet Iced Tea

Ingredients:
3 Family sized tea bags
a pinch baking soda (about 1/4 teaspoon)
1 to 1 1/3 cups of sugar
Directions:
Here is my never fail sweet tea...
Everyone (even yankees) loves it.
Bring 3-4 cups of water to a boil. Add a pinch of baking soda to the water and add 3 family sized tea bags. Remove from heat and cover. Allow to sit for at least 10-15 minutes. Pour into gallon pitcher and add sugar. Then fill with cold water. Refrigerate.
*the soda takes out the bitterness and darkens the tea....this small amount doesnt change the taste.

Recipe #3 Sun Tea (no cooking!)
Ingredients:
3 Family sized tea bags
1 quart water
Glass or translucent pitcher
Directions:

Here is my easy, no work needed...Sun Tea
http://www.grits.com/tea.htm

Put the water and tea bags in the pitcher. Put in the Sun and let sit. In about 30 minutes to an hour you have tea. Add cold water to desired strength. Refrigerate.
This recipe is great for guys who can't cook!
Note: The sun does not usually heat water up enough to kill all the bacteria, so you should take proper cleaning procedures and throw out the tea if it ends up looking weird (extra thick, has strands in it, is syrupy).

Lemonade Cookies

Lemonade Cookies Printable Version

1 1/3 cups flour

¾ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup butter or margarine (1 stick), softened

1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In small bowl combine all the dry ingredients.
In the mixer beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. (This will take a few minutes on high)
Beat in egg and vanilla until blended.
Reduce speed to low and beat in flour mixture just until combined, scraping the bowl with a spatula.;
Stir in the lemon zest
Drop dough by heaping teaspoons, 2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes or until just brown around the edges.
Icing

3 Cups powdered sugar

2 TBSP Lemon Juice

2 Tbsp Light Corn Syrup

2-3 Tbsp Water

Mix all of the above together to form icing.

Put ½ in one bowl with 2-3 drops of red food coloring to make pink icing. The other half of the icing goes in another bowl with 2-3 drops of yellow food coloring.

Spoon icing onto cookies as desired and allow to cool!

http://savingthefamilymoney.com/lemonade-cookies/

I really have been bad at getting things done and listed with graduation, family and everyday stuff.