If Life Gives You Lemons

You know it - make lemonade!

A while back I posted a picture of our lemon tree here.  That was back in February and since that time I have made pounds of lemon bars, cleaned multiple times with lemons, freshened the garbage disposal, and yes, made lemonade.  I still haven't made a dent on that tree.  I am making a very gallant effort though.

I can't claim credit for this lemonade recipe - it comes from Paula Deen.  However, it is very simple to remember.  Two cups of sugar/two cups of lemon juice and a gallon of water.  What makes this recipe perfect every time is a trick I call - start HOT and end COLD.  Anyway, here's the recipe:

2 c. sugar (or Stevia/Truvia or other measure for measure sugar substitute)

2 c. fresh lemon juice

1 c. hot water

enough water to fill remainder of 1 gallon container

ice

Put the 2 cups of sugar in the bottom of a dry gallon pitcher.  You can use all sugar substitute instead of sugar as long as it is the kind suitable for baking (i.e. Stevia).  I personally think using all sugar substitute adds a little bitter aftertaste, but it isn't overwhelming.  Recently, I've been combining 1 cup sugar with 1 cup sugar substitute because I'm trying to cut back on sugar.  I didn't notice any difference in taste.  If you don't have a problem with sugar, by all means use all sugar.

Here's the HOT part that is genius.  Heat 1 cup of water and add it to the pitcher with the sugar (or sugar substitute) and stir until completely dissolved.  As a kid, one thing I always hated about lemonade or sweet tea is that I always seemed to have sugar grains at the bottom of my glass.  If you use Paula Deen's HOT trick, it won't happen again.

After dissolving the sugar in the hot water, fill the remainder of the pitcher with water.  Stir well.  Here's the COLD part that may sound obvious, but maybe not.  Serve the lemonade over ice.  A lot of ice.  The more ice cold, the better.  Lemonade actually tastes better over ice, even when it is cold.  Garnish with a slice of lemon or a sprig of mint.

Best lemonade ever and a great Southern recipe from Paula Deen.  If my family drinks a couple of gallons a day, we might clear that tree before the fall!

cindy

Southern Cooking

The last couple of months I have been longing for comfort food I remember from my southern family.  My dad used to make a couple, and my mom made a few too.  Some things I definitely don't miss - brussel sprouts, liver & onions and "greens".  (However on a recent trip to Louisville, we had some great "greens" with spinach sauted in pork fat - yum!)  The two I've been particularly interested in making were chicken & dumplings and peach cobbler.   One of the interesting things about these dishes is that my husband and I both remember very similar recipes from our childhoods.

For those of you with "northern" families, I'm not talking about chicken & dumplings that are big round globs of flour dropped into boiling water.  I'm talking about the thinly rolled and cut dumplings that are gently placed in a pot with lots of chicken and broth.  My mom and grandmother never gave me a recipe for this fine dish, but I recently found a promising one on allrecipes.com.  I'm not listing it here as a recipe, because I'm not quite sure I perfected it - a little too soupy for me.  I also didn't roll the dumplings quite thin enough or have the water boiling enough.  Have to try it again.

In the meantime, it's peach time and I'm ready to try some peach cobbler.  I was wimpy (and not true southern) by using pre-made sugar cookie dough as the bottom crust, but hey, I did try grandma's pastry crust for the top.  My results were OK, but not quite good enough.  Here's the peach filling before I put the crust on:

I used white peaches, which I don't think were as sweet.  Being wimpy on the bottom crust wasn't very satisfying, but the top pastry part was promising.  I'm going to have to give this one another try too.

I'd love to hear about your favorite childhood comfort food.  In the meantime, I'll keep working on mine.

cindy