Making Freshly Squeezed Lemonade With Leftover Baking Lemons

I adore lemons so I use them frequently for cooking and baking but inevitably end up with 3/4's of a perfectly good lemon that desperately needs a purpose.  Intro music...freshly squeezed lemonade.

Here is what a typical "used" lemon looks like for me.  No zest (poor thing) and barely any juice to speak of; its perfect!

How To:

1. Slice a few slices of lemon for garnish.
2. Squeeze juice out of lemon being careful to remove the pits.
3. Do not discard outer casing but throw them into the pitcher.
4. Make a separate mixture of sugar water (here I used 1 teaspoon sugar for every 1 cup water).  Usually I use Splenda but its currently on my shopping list.
5. Add sugar water to pitcher and top with ice and one garnish.  This top garnish makes the pitcher a little more eye pleasing as opposed to the destroyed lemon halves.

I like to put a lemon flower into the bottom of the glasses before serving.  To do this you make one slit in the slice and pull the ends together one on top of the other as if you were making a swirl.  Wedge it into the bottom of the glass.

Play with the concentration of the sugar until you find your desired sweetness...the above is my personal preference (not too sweet but not terribly tangy).

I hope you enjoy and never discard a 3/4 lemon again!

xox

Dish