Make Lemonade

I haven't been blogging for awhile, but those who follow me on other social media and in "real" life probably know by now that Jonathan and I are moving from our beloved country parsonage in southwest Iowa to Cedar Rapids. The big move is two weeks from today.

This move wasn't something we had planned for this summer, but it's part of the clergy life, so here we are, living among boxes and packing tape for the next couple of weeks.

Part of the moving process is wrapping up projects we had going on here and saying goodbyes. I have been teaching Sunday school at church and I wanted to have an end of school year celebration to honor my student (yep, one student, it's a small church). So I invited her family members to join us during the Sunday school hour and talk about what she's learned and what's going to happen in the future. I made little cupcakes and I'd planned to buy juice but I forgot to pick it up! Well I really like to solve problems using things I already have, and in this situation what I had was lemons! 

So I made lemonade! It's really easy! All it takes is lemons, sugar, and water.

1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (I used about 6 or 7 small lemons)

1 cup white sugar

1 cup water plus 2 or 3 cups

In a small pot, bring 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to a simmer, stirring, until all the sugar is dissolved.

Add to lemon juice, then add more water to taste. I used about 3 more cups.

Refrigerate to cool, then enjoy!

See, easy!

When I finished, I saw all those lemon peels sitting there and I realized I didn't want all that great lemon zest to go to waste, so I decided I should make some sort of shortbread cookie, and I thought lemon would go great with the fresh rosemary we got from our Loess Hills cCSA! So I made lemon rosemary cookies. I wasn't happy with the recipe that I used and I had to make adjustments, so I don't know exactly the amounts I put in these cookies, so I would recommend using a shortbread cookie recipe you like and adding about 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon zest, 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of finely minced rosemary, and a 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice, or adjusting those additions to your taste.