Beat the Heat - Lemonade

Anyone in my home town of Vancouver (and apparently those over on the Island too) is all too familiar right now with a little something we call "summer". Now I don't mean the piddly, mild and breezy summer we Vancouverites are used to. Noooooo - I mean SUMMER - East Coast style, Prairie Style, LA Style, heck this is even (gasp!) Sydney style summer. I mean, I'm wearing a boob-tube for god's sake. A BOOB TUBE! It's that hot, you know what I mean? Which brings us to that eternal question: how early is too early to crack open a beer? 10am? 8am? Personally, I can't drink during the day unless I'm prepared to forsake all productivity until the next morning. But then again, there's just something so thirst quenching about beer. Water just doesn't seem to work as well. What is a hot chick to do? The answer? Lemonade. Yes, real old fashioned lemonade, made with real lemons. No powders, no bottles, no lemon flavored "drink", real lemonade. Something our grandmothers hand made nearly every summer day. Ahhhhh. Still, that seems like an awful lot of squeezing on a hot day. Well take heart, thirsty friends and get out that blender you bought yesterday, for here is the easiest most deliciously drinkable home made lemonade you will ever taste on a hot summer's day: 1. Take a whole lemon, peel and all, quarter it and drop into blender. 2. Add a cup and a half of ice 3. Add a cup and a half of cold water 4. Add 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of sugar or Splenda. (use less than you think you need, you can always add more later) 5. Blend on high until all lumps are gone. 6. Pour the mixture through a fine strainer. You will need to mash to get all the juice out. 7. Serve over ice and enjoy! Note: you can add a few strawberries or raspberries for color and flavor, or just red food coloring to make pink lemonade! Kids not only love drinking this, they love making it!