When life gives you lemons...

My daughter picked some lemons off of her little tree the other day and wanted to make something.

So... we found this recipe online.  We have made it a couple of times before and we love it!

Perfect Lemonade Recipe

• 1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

1. Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.
2. While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.
3. Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.
4. Serve with ice and sliced lemons.

Serves 6.

I also made a Lemon Meringue Pie.  (I actually made it twice, because I messed up the first one, but the second one pictured below was perfect and sooo good!)

Lemon Meringue Pie 

• 1 baked (9 inch) pastry shell
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons margarine
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
• 3 egg whites
• 6 tablespoons sugar

1. Combine 1/2 cup sugar, corn starch and salt in medium sized pot.  Gradually blend in water and cook over medium high stirring constantly until thickened.  Be careful not to burn. 
2. Beat together egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar.
3. Blend a little of the hot mixture into the egg yolk mixture a little at a time until it is about half.  Then blend all of the egg mixture into the hot mixture in the pot.  (There is a reason for this, I'm just not sure what it is.)
4. Stir constantly until it is thick and starts to boil, again taking care not to burn the bottom.
5. Pour it into the baked pie shell.
6. In a stand mixer, beat the egg whites until foamy.  Add sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition.  Continue beating until stiff peaks form when beater is raised.
7. Spread meringue around edge first, to touch crust all around and fill in the center.
8. Bake until meringue is lightly browned, about 10-15 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
9. Cool at room temperature and serve at room temperature too.

You may use any pie crust recipe, but I used this one with one modification.  My two year old son loved this crust, he didn't want the pie, just the crust!

Pie Crust

• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 5 tablespoons cold water

When I made this recipe, I found that I didn't have enough shortening so I used all I had and the rest I used butter.  It came out to about half shortening and half butter to make up 1 1/4 cup.  The butter gave it a good taste and the shortening gave it the flaky layers. 

Just mix all ingredients together stick it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.  Split it in half and save one for another time, then roll it out on a floured board and lay it in your pie dish and stab it a few times with a fork.

Bake it in a preheated 425 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes.