Life hands me lemons pretty much every day.

Had a surplus of lemons and limes, and also a box full of glass bottles to be filled with something (we use them for simple syrup and homemade kahlua), sooooo:

Juice two ripe* lemons, strain out seeds, separate pulp. Add 1 1/2 cups of sugar to 1/2 cup of water, boil down, stirring constantly, for simple syrup**. Add the lemon juice and pulp, if desired. Congratulations! You now have lemonade concentrate that you made yourself!! Chill until ready to use. Add 4 1/2 cups of ice water for ready-to-go, homemade lemonade!!

(I made another batch using four limes and one lemon, + 1 1/2 c. simple syrup, calling it lemon-limeade.)


*My lemons were overripe, so I did not have to do this, but this recipe recommended softening them either by poking holes in them with a fork and sticking them in the microwave, which we do not have, or dunking them in boiling water for thirty seconds and rolling them around the counter top.

**See above re: bottles of simple syrup; I added 1 1/2 cups of our pre-made simple syrup from the fridge.