Ruth Reichl's Sweet Cherry Lemonade

It's Memorial Day Weekend, my daughter just graduated from high school, and we're on summer break until the middle of August! Woohoo!

On the flip side, my fridge and my air conditioner are broken so I needed a dish that was easy and wouldn't heat up the house at all. Ruth Reichl's Sweet Cherry Lemonade was just the thing!

This is a really tasty lemonade that comes together easily. A simple blend of cherries, a squeeze of lemon, and a bit of sugar.  No sugar syrup necessary.  No wait time. You can make this in a few minutes and serve it with at your Memorial Day picnic.

Hooray for Summer!!

Sweet Cherry Lemonade

Adapted from My Kitchen Year

by Ruth Reichl

Serves 4

1 quart sweet cherries

4 lemons

1/2 cup sugar

water*

 Note: Ruth's recipe doesn't say how much water to add to the mixture and this is entirely up to you. I liked a ratio of about 3/4 lemonade mixture to 1/4 water (or just a touch of water).

The joy of this drink, other than its slightly sneaky flavor, is that you don't have to remove the cherry pits. You do, however, have to remove the stems from a quart (about 2 pounds) of cherries.  Toss the cherries into a blender, whirring them until they've become a rough mush.  Some of the pits will be chopped too; that's fine because you're going to put them in a strainer and press hard, extracting as much puree as you can. Discard the solids.

Place the cherry puree into a pitcher and stir in the juice of the lemons and the sugar.  (If you like things really sour, you might want less than 1/2 cup sugar; if you've got a sweet tooth, you'll want more.)

This will keep for a day or two in the refrigerator. When you're ready to drink the lemonade, pour into glasses and add water (or sparkling water) to taste.

Want to turn this into cocktails? Add a few splashes of vodka or gin, and garnish with a spring of mint.