Fresh Lemonade

I made this for our Wednesday night bible study a few weeks ago and forgot to post on it. Until now, I have never been successful at making lemonade, but this was so tasty. For those who try this recipe, adhere to the directions and use extra fine sugar so the lemonade isn’t gritty. Also go ahead and double the recipe because you will want several glasses :-)

Fresh Lemonade (page 32)

Fresh Lemonade

I never realized how easy it was to make fresh lemonade until a few days ago when I made Ina's recipe. It was truly delicious and refreshing. And you can't beat the smell of fresh lemons when you squeeze the juice out!

As you can tell, my girls were fans of the lemonade. And the lemons, themselves!! I will make the again, no doubt. The only thing I was disappointed in was that it didn't fill a bigger pitcher!!

Lemonade

I made the lemonade this afternoon to take to the 1st Barefoot Contessa Dinner Party. I doubled the recipe and my juicer made it so simple. I got a juicer for a wedding present and it really comes in handy. :) My sous chef or should I say half naked chef, Hudson, helping me with the lemons.

To make the lemonade seem extra fancy, I took a wet paper towel and wiped the rims of the glasses then dipped them in sugar.

Dinner Extraordinaire

Made by Jessica and Julie

We decided since everyone else has baked, cooked or made about 8-10 things already, we needed to do a whole bunch of recipes to try and catch up. (4 to be exact). First also let me say cooking in partners has been so so so much for us!! Not only do you get to split the costs, you also get to have one on one girl time, it fabulous!

Okay now lets get into the “meaty” part (ha ha ) that was a joke. Well anyway you know what I mean. First we made Contessa’s Fresh Lemonade. This recipe is fabulous if you make it I recommend doing a double batch. Our double batch didn’t even see sundown! We would also like to say this recipe is very easy to do and is even easier if you have a lemon squeezer, and Darby is correct you must use superfine sugar. Which we could not find at Whole Foods, but did find at the new HEB/Central market on Buffalo speedway. Great prices!!

For our next course if you will, we called it and appetizer was the Lamb sausage in puff pastry. We originally picked this to make because Jose and Terence liked it when Julie and I were reading names out of the cookbook to them. Although when we looked it up we were a little disappointed to see that Miss Barefoot decided not to put in a picture. Therefore the problem was neither of us knew what a puff pastry looked like? I don’t know what most things look like, but then this is when I look to my trusty skilled baker and cook friend, this time no help there either. So we just went with it. There is something in the freezer section of the grocery store called puff pastry. We substituted lamb sausage with T’s favorite kind called Chappell Hill Beef garlic sausage. We cut the pastries into triangle shapes so when we rolled them they looked a little bit like moons. They taste really good; we all decided we liked them much better than regular “pigs-in-a-blanket” because they have a much lighter taste. The pastry is flakey and very light. Miss Barefoot is correct when she says this is best served with mustard; our choice was grey poupon, Perfect!

"The Big Dinner” as well put by Mrs. Johnson (Carissa’s mom) was our main course. Now this one was really fun, and I think Julie would agree the had most “look-backs” at the cook book to check to make sure we did everything correctly. It tastes better than it looks; for us picture people. The other attractive feature about this dish is that you can prepare it the entire thing the night before keep it covered and then warm it up the next day and it tastes great. We even ate it as leftovers the day after and it tasted better the 3rd day. So for those of us who don’t like left overs (me included) try this one it is a winner. Since Julie and I were making so many things we did take advantage of this re-heat option. This recipe is one of those, I am told by Julie that you just follow the directions to the tee and it comes out great, and of course she was correct. We didn’t use the Burgundy or Chianti red wine she suggested just because we didn’t know what that was and none of us drink red wine, so we used Merlot. The only other change we made was due to cost. We searched high and low, and the best price we could find for filets was $25.99 per pound, so we finally asked the butcher and her said new york strip medallions were the closest in tenderness and taste. They tasted great.

Now dessert everyone favorite part, we chose Peach and Raspberry Crisp. This one only needs one word YUMMY! But since this is a blog I guess we should elaborate a little. First I can say Julie who doesn’t even like this kind of dessert peeled and sliced 14 large peaches, which was by far the hardest job of the night. I will say, though blanching the peaches first before peeling makes the process much easier. The rest of the assembly was really easy, especially if you prepare the dry ingredients ahead of time so that you can just bake the crisp while you are eating then it is hot and ready to serve with ice-cream right out of the oven. I have to say the only thing that we changed from the recipe is we used splenda instead of sugar, and we could not taste a difference.

Lemonade: 101
by Jenny and Jude Johnson

You've heard, "If life gives you lemons, then make lemonade." Well this is the story of what happens when you spill that lemonade all over the counter and onto the floor....

Four year old Jude was my junior chef today. Notice the tiny hands. He was really enjoying the process- the clinking of the juicer parts, the stickiness, the satisfaction of squeezing the life out of something. After all, he abandoned his perfectly good peanut butter and honey sandwich just to get in on the action, so I was proud. Then, when we were about half way through the lemons...

... the mug tumped over!

I calculated how much

could be done with three lemons. Not much- about 2 fancy glasses worth. We 'pressed' on. I refigured the sugar, the water, & the ice accordingly, and dumped it in the blender. Blenders are always a hit with kids.

The frothy goodness made for a great afternoon pick-me-up. Jude said it was kind of "tart," though when I tried to persuade him to donate it to his mother, he wouldn't relinquish his glass.

And, as a bonus today, when flipping through channels, we happened to come across Ina. Jude insisted that we stop (Ina over Noggin?!) He sat couch intensely watching her make pan- sauteed salmon, lentils, and chocolate dipped pecan bars for almost an hour. When she was making the bars he said, "I wish I could eat those with her. Mom, would you like to eat those with her?" Yes, Jude. Yes, I would.

Our review: Two, sticky thumbs up!