BrittanyMakes

Hey readers! It's summer where you are, right? Well, today it's a little overcast here in the bay area.  I've spent all day fantasizing what it was like last week, when summer was actually alive and I didn't have to wear socks with my shoes.  All day I've been thinking of my favorite things about summer: ponytails, tank-tops, sandals, BBQ's, froyo, bike rides, tanned skin, fireworks… the list goes on! I also thought of my favorite beverage of summer: an icy glass of fresh squeezed lemonade. 

I lucked out. Our neighbors with the giant lemon tree in their front yard just moved out! Score! My BF and I ran over and stealthily picked all the ginormous ripe lemons off the tree, then ran home.  Look how big they are!

They smell soooo good too! The lemons from the grocery store never smell this good! Can you smell them? I'm wafting their fragrance over to you right now :P These lemons only had one calling – to quench my thirst for some icy-cold summery lemonade!

A few weeks back I read a few blog posts on how to make your own lavender lemonade, which reminded me of the tastiest lavender lemonade ever at Cafe Chole in San Diego, you must try it some time!  I decided to try and make my own lavender lemonade with these luscious lemons.  I doubled Centsational Girl's recipe on how to make the lavender syrup, then added it to my own fresh-squeezed lemonade recipe.  Here's what you do:

1. heat 1.5 ~ 2 cups water with 3/4 ~ 1 cups sugar in a saucepan, bring to a low boil and stir until sugar dissolves
2. remove from heat and add 6 ~ 8 french lavender buds to the sugar water, let sit for about 10 mins
3. squeeze 3-4 large lemons over a strainer and into a pitcher (the strainer will catch any seeds and excess pulp)
4. fill the pitcher up with about 6 cups of water and 1 cup of ice
5. pour the sugar water through the strainer and into the pitcher (the strainer will catch the lavender buds)
6. taste it! Add more lemon juice if you like it more tart, add more sugar if you like it sweeter

Pour into a glass and indulge! Add some extra flair by tucking a lavender twig in the glass or throwing in some lemon slices.  For the grown-ups, follow this recipe and swap some water in the above recipe for 3/4 cup vodka + 1 cup club soda.  Sounds so refreshing, right?

I picked little bit of our own French lavender from our front yard for this recipe

I would love to get my lavender lemonade to be this color:

imgs via pinterest

or slightly tinted this color:

You can probably mix a little food coloring and add it to the recipe, like Centsational Girl did. How delicious does lavender lemonade sound to you? The BF liked it, so it must be a win :)