When life gives you limes...

Ok, so that’s not how the saying goes, but we’re going to make limeade.  Mint limeade to be exact.  Mint and lime might sound like a strange combination, but it’s sweet yet tart, refreshing, and fabulous.  For me, it’s like summer in a glass.  It’s quick and easy, and you’ll have a whole pitcher in the fridge to get you through these miserably hot days. 

It reqires only four ingredients:

5 or 6 limes
1 cup sugar
2 sprigs of mint
8 cups water

The first thing we’re going to start on is the syrup.  Pour your sugar and 2 cups of the water into a saucepan.  Turn the heat to medium-high and stir frequently until the sugar has dissolved.  Continue to heat until it comes just comes to a boil. 

 

In the meantime, make sure you wash your mint well.  Leafy herbs like this tend to get little critters down in the leaves, and personally, I prefer my limeade to be bug free. 

When the syrup has just reached a boil, turn off the heat and throw in the mint.  Just throw it in, stems and all, and stir it into the syrup.  Allow it to steep for 5 minutes. 

While that’s steeping, time to juice the limes.  I have to show off the nifty press juicer Hubby just bought for me.  Isn’t it purdy? 

If you don’t have one of those, you can use any sort of citrus reamer, or even just your brute strungth.  You need 1 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice.  I was able to get that out of 5 limes, but just use however many it takes to get a cup and pour that into a glass pitcher. 

Next, measure two cups of ice and pour in just enough water to fill the crevices.  (that’s how we know it’s really 2 cups of water)

Pour that into the pitcher, remove the mint sprig, and pour in the hot syrup. 

Stir until the ice has melted completely.  Add the remaining 4 cups of cold water and voila!  You have mint limeade.   

Pour over ice, drink half of it, and refill your glass before putting the pitcher in the fridge.  If you have guests or want to feel like you’re treating yourself, garnish the pitcher and your glass with lime slices and sprigs of mint.  Relax, and enjoy!   

 

Update:

For those of you following my cross country journey, I have an exciting update.  We found a house!!  Only a handful of days left before we get to move in, and finally have a place to call home!  Here's where I'll soon be making a proper home cooked meal, something I haven't done in almost two months.