Sunday, April 27, 2008

Party Fare: Strawberry Lemonade

Today is a party for Ryan's birthday. For the beverages we are going to serve Iced tea and Strawberry Lemonade, which is one of our family's favorite punch type beverages.

Yesterday I made an ice ring with some of the lemonade and some fresh strawberry slices. This will go in the bottom of the punch bowl. All other ingredients should be chilled ahead of time so the ice ring doesn't melt too quickly.

Strawberry Lemonade
(Original recipe)

1 can frozen lemonade concentrate, mixed according to directions on the can
1 small container frozen sweetened strawberries, thawed and whirled in blender until smooth
1 two liter bottle of Sprite

Mix strawberries into lemonade, pour over ice ring in the bottom of a punch bowl. Slowly add Sprite and stir gently. Garnish with fresh lemon slices, if desired and available.

Altered Recipe: That nasty high fructose corn syrup lurks in almost everything these days, and while I couldn't avoid it in the Sprite, I thought I'd at least switch out the lemonade mix, so I bought Simply Lemonade, which is sweetened with regular sugar. It isn't a lot better, but I feel a little better about it! I also bought real strawberries and am using natural sweeteners (agave and turbinado sugar) on them instead of white processed sugar. If I had the time to experiment, I might look at what it would take to use club soda or some other carbonated beverage instead of the Sprite. Any ideas?

2 comments:

Bonita said...

This is such a great blog and I'm adding it to my sidebar. Thanks for the help in the kitchen!

Darci said...

I am going to make some of this soon. It reminds me of my Partylite candles, Porch Lemonade and Strawberry Fields, in an edible format.