Recipes: Pink Lemonade & Orange Lemonade

The heat and humidity have finally hit Kansas.  We turned our air conditioning on for the first time last night but only to 77 to break the humidity that had a grip on the house.  It's the first day of summer vacation here and it's a perfect week to have some lemonade in the fridge.

I made this Friday when I had some of our MOMS Club moms and kids over to play.  Both lemonade's were refreshing, sweet, and so good.  Cranberry juice is what gives the Pink Lemonade it's lovely flavouring and colour.  The oranges were a very nice compliment to the lemons in the Orange Lemonade.

Both lemonade's are very high in sugar but were so simple to make.  I do recommend you buy fresh unsweetened orange juice for the Orange Lemonade as it took forever to squeeze the juice from 8 of them to make the 1-1/2 cups required.  I didn't have jug's big enough to fit all the lemonade so I used cleaned out cookies jars which worked and looked perfect!

OLD FASHIONED PINK LEMONADE
from Simply Recipes

1 1/4 cup sugar (if using unsweetened cranberry juice, 1 cup if using sweetened)
4 cups water (divided)
1 cup cranberry juice (I used apple-cranberry)
1 cup lemon juice

Make a "simple syrup" by heating sugar and 1 cup of the water in a small saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat.

Stir together the remaining water, cranberry juice, lemon juice and simple syrup. Make adjustments to taste. Chill for an hour, or add ice to cool.

ORANGE LEMONADE
from Taste of Home

1-3/4 cups sugar
2-1/2 cups water
1-1/2 cups lemon juice (about 8 lemons)
1-1/2 cups orange juice (about 5 oranges)
2 tablespoons grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons grated orange peel
Water

In a large saucepan, combine sugar and water. Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally. Cool.

Add juices and peel to cooled sugar syrup. Cover and let stand at room temperature 1 hour. Strain syrup (I didn't do this); cover and refrigerate.

To serve, fill glasses or pitcher with equal amounts of fruit syrup and water. Add ice and serve. Yield: 12 servings.

Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (1 cup) equals 136 calories, trace fat (trace saturated fat), 0 cholesterol, 1 mg sodium, 35 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, trace protein
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Enjoy!