Fresh Squeezed Lemonade

Here a recipe for freshly squeezed lemonade:

-  6 cups water

-  3/4 cups granulated sugar

-  3/4 cup fresh squeezed lemons

Bring 1/2 cup (of the 6 cups) water and sugar to a light boil.  Stir and make sure sugar is dissolved.  Once sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and let cool.  While the sugar/water is cooling, squeeze 1/2 cup lemon juice from lemons.  Place 5 1/2 cups (of the 6 cups) water in a pitcher.  Stir in lemon juice, sugar/water mixture, and store in the refrigerator.  You can also add in lemon slices and ice if you choose.  Enjoy!

Hot Cocoa

Here is a recipe for some hot cocoa on a nice, crisp, and cool day.  Got the base of the recipe from allrecipes.com, but added my own touches....of course.

-  1 cup whole milk

-  2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

-  1/4 cup sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-  1/4 cup heavy cream

-  1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

-  whipped cream (optional)

Heat 1 cup milk in a sauce pan over medium to high heat until warm (a couple of minutes).  Mix in unsweetened cocoa, sugar, vanilla extract, and heavy cream.  Stir for a few minutes and make sure all ingredients are well combined.  Lastly, add in the semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Pour into cups/mugs and serve warm.  Top with whipped cream if you like.

This recipe is good for about 2 cups/servings so if you want more....double or triple the recipe.  Also, this takes only about 10 minutes tops to make and beats the instant hot chocolate by a mile!

Here's to Cranberry Juice

Recipe for homemade cranberry juice:

-  5 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

-  12 cups water

-  1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

- 1/2 lemon juice

Bring 5 cups of fresh or frozen cranberries to a boil with 12 cups of water, in a large pot.  Make sure to cover with a lid. Wait until you start to hear the cranberries pop (approximately 15 minutes.  Once all or most of the cranberries have burst, pour cranberries and juice/water mixture into a colander lined with cheese cloth and set over a large bowl for the juice mixture to drain into.  Allow to drain completely. Once you have captured most/all of the juice, pour the liquid into a sauce pan, add the 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar (might need to adjust slightly depending upon how sweet you like your juice)
and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium, stir occasionally for about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat, squeeze the juice from half of a lemon (be sure not to squeeze in any seeds or pulp) and stir.  Allow to cool and pour into a pitcher that holds about 3 quarts (this should be approximately the amount of juice made) and refrigerate. 

* I did not want to wasted the cranberries that I drained (that burst), so I saved them and used half of them in a basic muffin recipe and the other half in a slushy/freeze.

** Also, if you buy the cranberries, granulated sugar, and lemons in bulk for your local discount superstore I figured to make roughly 3 quarts of juice cost about $2.00 to make....even less if you consider that I used the leftover drained/burst cranberries in two other recipes.