Growing up meal time was a "fend for yourself" time. Generally. We did have meals together. Sometimes. As a general rule if you were hungry, you found something to eat or went hungry. After getting were married, I remember my husband asking me what we were going to have for dinner. To me it seemed a funny question. I told him I was going to have cereal and asked him what he was planning to eat. It seemed a perfectly logical to me. (I should say here that my husband was one of six children and they ate nightly meals together). He asked in his very sweet way, “Don’t you think we should make something and eat together?” I was baffled. After all, it wasn’t a birthday, Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving. It was a regular
day. It wasn’t even Sunday. “Seriously?” was my response. Probably not what the poor guy wanted to hear. The next night we had meatloaf. I was very proud of myself. It was a regular day, and I had cooked dinner. Again my sweet husband asked (so kindly as to not offend), “Do you think we should have
something with the meatloaf…like potatoes, rice or corn?” “SERIOUSLY???” I had just cooked a main course, which to me was a big deal. The idea that he thought there should perhaps be more on the table was totally foreign. We’ve come along way since then. I now usually cook a nightly meal, not to mention making breakfast & lunches. Cooking has become something I usually enjoy. We are busy with 3 children so meals have to either be very simple and fast, or planned ahead of time. And yes, we do still have cereal for dinner every now and again.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Brazilian Lemonade

 4 juicy limes (try and find ones with thin, smooth skins; they’re the juiciest and the thin skin cuts down on the chance of your drink being bitter)
1 c. sugar
6 c. cold water
6 Tbsp. sweetened condensed milk

Mix cold water and sugar very well and chill until ready to use. This step can be done ahead of time.
Wash limes thoroughly with soap (I just use hand-dishwashing soap or regular hand soap); you need the soap to get the wax and pesticides off of the limes because you’re using the WHOLE lime, baby. Cut the ends off the limes and then cut each lime into 8ths.

Place 1/2 of the limes in your blender.
Add 1/2 of the sugar water, place the lid on your blender, and pulse 5 times. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a pitcher (the one you’ll serve the lemonade in) and pour the blended mixture through the strainer and into the pitcher. Use a spoon to press the rest of the liquid into the pitcher. Dump the pulp and stuff in the strainer into the trash. Repeat with remaining limes and sugar water. Add sweetened condensed milk; DO NOT leave this step out unless you will die of a horrible sweetened condensed milk allergy because this is the secret ingredient! You may want to taste test it at this point; I used giant, thick-skinned limes tonight and didn’t test it and it came out a little bitter. If it’s bitter, just add some more sugar and maybe a little more milk.
Serve immediately over lots of ice. This does not keep well, so don’t make this in advance (although you can cut the limes, mix the sugar water, and measure the sweetened condensed milk in advance). Serves 4, although I can pretty much guarantee you that people will want more; I usually plan on 1 1/2 servings at LEAST per person.
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