Lemonade Extravaganza

Two weeks ago, Nathan and I shot our friends Kathryn and Rami's wedding in Iowa. It was one of the most spectacular and special events I've been to in a really long time.


Kathryn's main color was yellow, with white and navy accents. Lemons (being the perfect shade of yellow) had a major role to play, in decorations,


place cards,


and beverages.


Ever since the wedding, we've been very into lemonade.
The traditional ratio for lemonade is one part sugar to one part water to one part lemon juice (plus extra water to dilute).
I took a lazy (or some might say smart) route and used bottled lemon juice.


If you have a few minutes, it's worth it to make simple syrup* with the water and sugar-- just combine equal parts water and sugar in a small saucepan over med-high heat. Stir occasionally until the water becomes clear, and the sugar is dissolved. Presto! *Be sure to use two parts simple syrup to one part lemon juice for your lemonade base.

OK, this weekend, we may have gone overboard, because we decided to make three different types of lemonade.


Lemonade #1: Strawberry Basil, based on this recipe.
I used our immersion blender, but I bet you'd be OK using a food processor or traditional blender.


Lemonade #2: Cucumber, based on this recipe.
I did use Sprite to top off the drink, with a little less simple syrup, so it wasn't overly sweet.
The longer you let the lemon juice and simple syrup stand with the cucumbers, the more "cucumbery" the flavor will be. I let ours stand for maybe an hour and it was delish.


Lemonade #3: Spiked Lemonade w/ Mint based on this recipe. The only real change was that I muddled mint with the simple syrup before I put it all together. (I also used ready-made vanilla vodka rather than making my own.)


All of the recipes were a smashing success. My favorite was the strawberry basil and Nathan's favorite was the cucumber.

If you have another lemonade recipe, feel free to share, because I suspect this will be the summer of lemonade.