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What I’m listening to: Lay Down Your Sorrows, Kate York
Happy August! We had a stretch of gloriously sunshiny, warm days last week, unbroken by fog, rain, or cloud cover. They were lemonade kind of summer days. You know the ones.
Although we planted rhubarb this spring, it’s not yet producing. But we have neighbors who have a mature rhubarb and who were kind enough to share a large bag of the beautiful red and green stalks with us. I truly think rhubarb is one of the prettiest pieces of produce to grace my kitchen.
When a friend of ours was over to our home and spied the rather large bag of rhubarb on the counter, he turned to me and asked, “You’re going to make lemonade out of that, aren’t you?” Although I had never made nor tasted rhubarb lemonade, I immediately knew the idea was genius. Why yes, yes I am going to make rhubarb lemonade. And how about some strawberries with that? Even better.
Sheesh this is good. It’s just the perfect amount of sweet and tart. And the color from the rhubarb and strawberries is so pretty, so vibrant. Here’s to more lemonade summer days.
Strawberry Rhubarb Lemonade
Adapted from [Epicurious|http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Strawberry-Rhubarb-Lemonade-200669]
Yields: 6 servings
- 3-1/2c water
- 2c rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1-inch slices
- 2c strawberries, sliced
- 3/4c sugar
- 2-4 large lemon zest strips (I use a vegetable peeler or paring knife for this)
- 1/2t vanilla
- 1c fresh lemon juice
In a saucepan stir together the water, rhubarb, half of the strawberries, sugar, 2 strips of the zest, and the vanilla, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, and simmer it, covered, for 8 minutes.
Let the mixture cool and strain it through a coarse sieve set over a pitcher, pressing hard on the solids. Stir in the remaining half of the strawberries and the lemon juice. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve over ice.