WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS

First of all, I just want to apologise for the horrible post title. I couldn't resist.

Secondly, welcome to summer! (if you live in the Southern Hemisphere at least). This is my grandma's recipe for lemon cordial, which when mixed with soda water makes an excellent, all natural, super refreshing lemonade. If you're going to try any recipe I've posted on this blog so far, try this one. It might seem like a bit of work to juice 7 lemons, but the end result is totally worth it, plus it makes a huge amount (considering you mix it with 5 parts water), so it will definitely last you for the whole summer, depending on how many lemonade stands you want to set up outside your house!

Lemon Cordial for Lemonade

NEED:

zest of 5 lemons

juice of 7 lemons (around 500ml)

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

DO:

Cook sugar and water in a pot until sugar is dissolved, bring to the boil and cook until a thin syrup forms (around 15 mins)

Remove from heat, add lemon juice and zest, and leave to stand for 5+ hours

Strain the cordial and pour into sterilised bottles. Mix 1 part cordial to 5 parts water/ soda water and serve over ice and mint leaves for ultimate Summer refreshment.

Note: Unless the bottles are completely sealed & airtight, I find it is best to keep it in the fridge. Alternatively, you can add half a teaspoon of citric acid when adding the lemon zest but I find that this changes the flavour slightly & makes it not completely ‘all natural’- but it does mean you don’t have to store it in the fridge.

BEVERAGE

Having coffee in a Melbourne laneway on a cold winter's morning, shopping & (Nicole) drinking iced tea on a sunny day off, ciders (or good German lager) at the pub on a Friday night after a hard week: sums up my favourite drinks in my favourite places.

I had a very full-on week, trying to finish my most challenging assignment to date; creating my very own font (might post the finished product later but can't stand looking at it at the moment...or in the near future).Tonight was one of those nights where I was really craving a drink -in a non-alcoholic kind of way- even if the pub's cider selection was limited to 5 Seeds. I've got to say that the only difference I can tell between the new 'cloudy' 5 Seeds and the original is that the cloudy version looks more...well, cloudy. To me, they taste pretty much exactly the same.

Two more assignments then hello, 3+ month break! I'm in the process of neatening up the blog a bit (changed header, making all images roughly the same size) and will definitely start posting a lot more in the holidays, hopefully heaps more food-related things. Stay tuned!