Monday, February 9, 2009

Strawberry Lemonade (for a crowd)

One bag of organic lemons (about 10)
2 quarts of fresh strawberries
2 bottles of Sprite, chilled
Sugar to taste -- about 1.5-2 cups
crushed ice

Press the juice from all the lemons into a bowl with about 1.5 cups of granulated sugar.  Mix thoroughly--there will still be a little sugar that doesn't dissolve but it will once mixed in with the rest of the ingredients.  

Core the strawberries and blend in the blender with 1/4-1/2 cup sugar, depending on how tart the berries are, and enough filtered water for them to blend well--maybe 1/2 cup?  These can be refrigerated until you are ready to use them.

When you are ready to serve the punch, pour 1/2 of the strawberries and 1/2 of the lemon juice mixture into a large punch bowl.  Add one 2 liter bottle of Sprite and enough ice to fill the bowl--I used about 1/2 of a bag.

I have made this before with frozen strawberries and frozen lemonade, and while it was good, it was MUCH better with the fresh lemons and berries.