Homemade Blueberry Lemonade Recipe

It never fails: when Mother Nature starts cranking up the thermostat, I start craving lemonade. Plain lemonade is great, but if you want to add a little pizazzz and aren't a fan of strawberries, you should try this tasty blueberry variation. This actually makes a batch of concentrated lemonade, which you then mix with water and ice - and it's pulp- and seed-free, because that's how I roll. No floaties for me, thanks.

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups of lemon juice (may take around 10-12 lemons, depending on their size)
1 cup sugar plus 2 additional tablespoons
2 cups water
A big handful of blueberries

First, you'll need to make a simple syrup. Stir one cup of sugar into two cups of water and bring to a boil in a small saucepan. Once the mixture begins to boil, drop the heat to low, let it simmer for one minute and turn off the heat. They don't call it simple syrup for nuthin'.

Then, after rolling your lemons on the counter for a while to loosen up the juice, cut them in half and start squeezing. Your fingers will cramp and tiny cuts you didn't know you had will start to sting, but no pain, no gain. Don't worry about getting seeds and pulpy pieces in your lemon juice - you can strain it after you add your blueberries.

Next, take your blueberries and puree them in a food processor with two tablespoons of sugar. If you don't have a food processor, just squish them up as much as possible with a potato masher. Squish 'em good - you want all that blueberry goodness for your lemonade.

Mix up that blueberry pulp and lemon juice, and pour through a fine mesh strainer into another bowl. You'll want to press the pulp against the mesh and get out every drop of juice you can - It's kind of a painstaking process, but once you see that lovely purplish blueberry-lemon juice, free of funky floaters, you'll be glad you did.

Finally, pour your juice and simple syrup into a canning jar or some sort of lidded container and shake it up to mix. To serve, pour 1/4 cup of the mixture over ice in an 8 oz. glass, add water to fill, and then a little sugar or more water, according to your tastes. Or, add the whole mixture to a pitcher full of ice and water if you're having company over. Keep any unused concentrate in the refrigerator.