Homemade Strawberry Lemonade Cocktails! (A Pin a Day #3)

Welcome to the third installment of my A Pin A Day project! Today's pin is actually a mash up of 3 different pins I've seen floating around, so I thought I'd test them out for you and see how well they actually work!

I bring to you...

Homemade Strawberry Lemonade (Cocktails)! Or for a kid friendly version, just omit the booze people. Family friendly recipes from me to you!

Strawberry Lemonade Caipirinha!

So here's a great thing to do with all those strawberries and lemons before they go bad. And on that note, here's the first tried and true pin of the day... How to keep Strawberries Fresh! and it really does work! It's just a simple rinse with 1 part white vinegar to 10 parts clean water, soak for a few minutes, drain and let dry! Simple and easy tip that I will actually use, and I did, and it worked like a charm. I bought these strawberries last week and here they are, still fresh and not even kinda moldy!

So! Back to the drink I know you're dying to try in this heat...

You will need;

• 2 lemons (plus one more for garnish)
• 10-15 strawberries (plus another handful for garnish)
• sweetener of your choice (I used agave nectar)
• water

That's it!

Quarter the lemons, and throw them into the blender, half the strawberries and put them in there too. Add your sweetener, and 2 cups water and blend until pretty smooth.

Next you need to strain out the pulp, trust me you're going to want to do this, unless you like drinking bitter bits of rind and zest. Every time I have to strain something I always curse myself for not having a fine mesh strainer. DAMN IT! SO I had to do it the old fashioned way and sit there with my wire skimmer and strain it slowly.

After you've removed the bulk of the pulp, you will want to add more water, taste and adjust the sweetness. We like things pretty sweet around here, so I added quite a bit more agave to it. Now comes the fancy part. If you plan on just sitting in your undies on the couch drinking this alone, I'm sure you could forgo the fancy part, unless you like feeling fancy, then by all means...

I wanted a bit of pulpiness to my lemonade, so I added some macerated strawberries to it. Easy peasy... check it out.

Take those extra strawberries you set aside for garnish, and roughly chop them. Add about a tablespoon of sugar - the granules help break down the fruit because of the abrasiveness of them - and mash with a fork until syrupy. Then add to the pitcher! And if you wanna get even MORE fancy...

You can make these adorable lemon slice flowers! Our next tried and true pin! Simply take the big part of your fruit zester, the scorer I think it's called, and peel away strips of the zest to create petals. I made 8 by first doing it into quarters, then eighths. Then simply thinly slice slices and you've got pretty little flowers to garnish your beverages!

Add ice, taste, adjust, stir, serve. We added cachaca, a Brazilian rum, but feel free to experiment with other boozes. I think this is a nice refreshing drink, with or without alcohol, Charlie was expecting a more "strawberry flavor" because I think he thinks artificial flavors are what fruit really taste like... I like it.

Fancy!

It's always sunrise in Philadelphia

There is nothing worse when traveling than an extra long, unnecessary layover in a strange city. Unfortunately I had one that lasted slightly over 3 hours after a red eye flight into Philadelphia, fortunately Alex, who helped design the Epicuriosity Logo lives in Philly, which means I had someone to visit with, joke with, and most importantly have breakfast with.

The Philadelphia Airport Marriott has a sky-bridge from terminal B directly into the hotel, making it totally convenient for hungry travelers to spend copious amounts of money in the one restaurant in the lobby, The Riverbend Bar & Grille.

Alex and me forcing early morning smiles.

Alex was ever so nice as to meet me there for breakfast at 7am. That's right! 7-freaking-am. I told him if he were to come and keep my company for a couple hours, breakfast would be on me and he obliged despite the early wake up call.

To help us wake up, Alex got some coffee, and I had some jasmine green tea, as the sun rose over the Philly skyline.

Jasmine Green Tea and Coffee (with 2 sugar in the raws and cream).

I ordered off the "healthy" menu and got the "Crunchy French Toast". It's dipped in an egg beater batter and then rolled in crushed corn flakes.

Crunchy French Toast with sliced fruit.

It came topped with sliced strawberries and bananas and a side of low calorie syrup.

Knott's Berry Farm's Low Calorie Syrup.

Alex got just regular old french toast. I'm sure he liked it very much as he cleaned his plate, but come on, mine looks soooooo much better right?

Alex's boring old french toast.

I had to catch my plane shortly after and had to rush off to go through security again, but it was a great finish to my crazy layover in Philly, and now I've got a craving to find some good crunchy french toast recipes and try this at home.

Thanks again Alex for keeping me company.

You are a super awesome time waster and breakfast date!