Quart Jar Lemonade

I love lemonade. Like it just makes me happy. Sitting on the porch drinking an ice cold lemonade after working out in the field or yard, it's like my reward for a job well done I guess you could say. Know when I talk about lemonade, I don't mean the nasty store bought powder kind, I'm talking about the fresh squeezed kind. It's probably so good because I have to put my own sweat into making it. Either way, y'all the fresh squeezed is the way to go.

Anyways, I first became obsessed with lemonade last summer when I was in charge of making it for the BYU-Idaho Fashion Show. I was in a catering class and somehow I volunteered to make the lemonade. I'm pretty sure I volunteered because I thought it would be the easy job (I know, I'm pathetic). Well, this "easy" job didn't turn out to be so easy. I didn't have a recipe, so I was flying by the seat of my pants. Then in preschool earlier that semester we made lemonade as a class, and it turned out really good. So I was going off of memory. First off, BAD idea. Always, and I mean ALWAYS have a recipe.

I started making it using the store bought lemonade powder because we had a lot of it on hand. I made it, and it was just plain gross. So I started experimenting by throwing a little bit of this, and a little bit of that in there, squeezed so many lemons that my hands started severely cramping. Also not my smartest idea of experimenting when I was going to be serving this to hundreds of people. Never experiment when it's for other people, especially a large amount of people.

Then my professor comes over and starts tasting it, then I look at her face. Something was seriously wrong. So then I taste it, and y'all, I do not know what I did, it was seriously the worst. But since I had used majority of the resources, I had to doctor what I had and hope and pray that it would turn out okay. Y'all, I do not know what I did to doctor that lemonade, but somehow it turned out SO good. We had tons of people ask for the recipe and the sad part of this all was that I didn't write ANY of it down. I was running off of adrenaline and prayers and can't remember it.

So, I learned my lesson, ALWAYS write down what you put in something when you make it. That's exactly what I did when I decided to try to mimic the fashion show prayer lemonade. Somehow, I sort of recreated it - it doesn't taste nearly as good, but it's close enough for government work. And thus, the quart jar lemonade was born.

I love drinking this stuff after a long day, on the porch swing, reading a good book. I usually make this once a week and it lasts me the whole week. So, if you're a lemonade drinker, then try this out.

**Note: I like my lemonade a little more tart, so if you don't like it tart and you like it more sweet, add more sugar.

Ingredients:

- Juice from 3 lemons

- 1/3 c. sugar

- 1 tsp. lemon juice from the store

- 6 oz. fresh raspberries or strawberries **

Directions:

1. Squeeze the juice into the quart jar.

2. Add the sugar and lemon juice with a little bit of water. Mix until sugar is dissolved.

3. Fill the jar with water until the lip of the jar.

**Optional: When I made this for the fashion show, I made a raspberry lemonade. I used a cheese cloth to squeeze the juice out of them and used that for the lemonade. You can add some raspberries or strawberries if you want to add a little flavor - just make sure to squeeze them to get some juice out of them.