Coming of ade

To close out my personal mission to find recipes for every fruit and veggie that is perfectly in season this month, I tried a very simple recipe: Limeade, based on this lemonade recipe from "Simply Recipes". Apparently, the trick to a perfect cold beverage is to use heat! [Cooking for Engineers concurs.]

Boil together 1 c. water and 1 c. sugar, until the sugar is completely dissolved. [Making this "simple syrup" actually keeps the sugar dissolved, so it won't - pardon the scientific parlance - crash out of solution and form that icky sludge at the bottom of your glass.] Let it cool to about room temperature.

While the sugar syrup is boiling and cooling, juice your limes. You will need 1 c. lime juice altogether, which for me was 8 limes worth. Each fruit gives about 2 Tbsp. juice by normal squeezing, but if you have a good citrus juicer you might get better mileage. I also strained the lime juice to avoid getting pulp and/or seeds in my drink.

Mix together the syrup, lime juice and another 2-6 c. cold water/ice, depending on how sweet you like it, and serve. For the record, we added about 4 cups water, and enough ice to fill our glasses. Makes 6-8 servings.