My favorite non-alcoholic beverage is lemonade. I crave it year round. Homemade. From scratch.

For most of you, making lemonade has meant lifting the lid off that can of frozen concentrate or opening that big green bottle. Well, the bottle says “Real” so what can be the problem? I actually do like the concentrates, but they are not fresh and they are very, very sweet. Plus they have all those nice chemicals.

As for the bottled stuff, I have never, ever made a satisfactory glass of lemonade from it. I’ve tried varying the water and sugar but the flavor is just not right. The brightness of the lemons is long gone, replaced by a dull taste that coats your mouth like some kind of citrus sludge.

So, “homemade” means using real lemons. That’s “real” with a small r. But how many? You’ll find recipes that call for one or two cups of fresh lemon juice. That’s a lot of lemons. You can plan on at least 12 per cup of juice. It takes time to do all that squeezing and afterward your kitchen is as sticky as a flytrap. And then there is the matter of cost. At a New York City Korean market, you can get 2 or 3 lemons for a dollar. A cup of lemon juice now seems to be colored golden, not lemony. For that price, you might as well switch to good single malt.

Of course, you kids might not like the single malt, and you really want lemonade, so here is what you need. A recipe that is not time consuming. That does not leave a mess. That does not use a mound of lemons.

Here is just that perfect recipe. It’s really as simple as 1-2-3 and is quite delicious. After the core recipe, I’ve given you several alternatives below. Take a look, break out a couple of lemons and grab your blender. In five minutes you will have the best lemonade you have ever had.

Just a preview, spring seems to be here so I’ll be in lemonade mode. I’ll be blogging some great options: strawberry and blackberry lemonades for example. You beverage portfolio is about to expand.

Brian’s Perfect Lemonade 1-2-3

Yield: just under 1 quart

Ingredients:

1 cup of sugar
2 lemons, ends cut off, quartered, seeds removed
3 cups cold water

Preparation:

Wash the lemons, cut off the ends, then quarter the lemons vertically. To a reasonable degree, remove the seeds. Don’t obsess, but try to get out the easy ones.

Put the lemons, sugar, and water in a blender. Put the blender on low to break up the lemons then shift to high for 3 minutes.

Pour into a pitcher. Chill. Serve in glasses filled with ice.

I said it was easy.

Alternative #1:

Do you like pulp? If so, then you are really done because there will be a lot of pulp here. If you want a “cleaner” drink, then pour the blender contents through a sieve to strain out the pulp.

Alternative #2:

You can adjust the amount of sugar down, especially if you are sieving. A full cup of sugar makes for a sweet lemonade — yes, some of my friends and family have complained. If you prefer it tarter, then use only ¾ cup of sugar and add that to the sieved liquid. I have never backed off to just ½ cup of sugar and I am not going to.

Alternative #3:

I know I said this was my favorite non-alcoholic drink, and it is, but you do have the basis for an great cocktail here.  Put 6 ounces of lemonade into an ice-filled glass and top with 1 ounce of citrus-flavored vodka. My choice here is Absolute Mandarin. The cocktail will tap your senses, not overpower them. It’s a soft accompaniment to a plate of veggie appetizers with a strong dip. Carrots, peppers, and dill dip are a suggestion.

Source: Brian O’Rourke

The recipe calls for walnuts, but I opted for pecans. You do need to use some add-in here, either nuts or chips. Any recipe that has this proportion of nuts will change dramatically if you add nothing. Technically, the mass of the nuts truly affects the cooking time.

If you have a cookie craving and are in a hurry, this recipe is fast and easy. In half an hour you can be sampling cocoa at its best.

Donald’s Chocolate Drop Cookies

Yield: 36 cookies

Ingredients:

½ cups shortening or butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
5 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups flour, sifted
¼ teaspoon salt
1  cup walnuts [or pecans] chopped

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.

Cream shortening or butter. Add the brown sugar and the egg. Mix thoroughly with the next five ingredients, adding the nuts last. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Source: Cookie Time by Marilyn Miller Wasbotten

Tomatillo salsa can be made with raw tomatillos, cooked ones and canned. Last week, Part 1 offered a raw salsa from Rick Bayless. Today, in Part 2, there is a cooked tomatillo salsa again from Rick Bayless. This is the perfect opportunity to contrast two recipes: same author, nearly the same ingredients, and just one shift in the preparation technique. The modest differences in ingredients are the addition of a small amount of onion, increased garlic and decreased cilantro.

The real shift, of course, is that in this recipe the tomatillos and garlic are pan roasted before being added to the blender with the chiles and cilantro. The onion below is not blended but added only after the salsa has been created.

How about the results? What do you get for roasting the tomatillos? There are important differences in the two salsas. This cooked version has a darker color, is more viscous, and offers you a more complex flavor. I personally like the raw tomatillo salsa for its simple tangy flavor which is the perfect match for chips and margaritas. The cooked salsa has multiple flavor levels that, like a complex wine, reveal themselves over time. This cooked salsa is the one for your main courses: chicken, beef, and shrimp.

Like the raw version, this cooked salsa can be refrigerated and enjoyed for several days.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Yield: 1 ½ cups

Ingredients:

4 medium tomatillos, husked, rinsed and halved
2 large garlic cloves
⅓ cup cilantro, loosely packed, roughly chopped
½ small white onion, finely chopped
salt
water

Preparation:

Set a large (10-inch) nonstick skillet over medium-high heat (if you don’t have a nonstick skillet, lay in a piece of foil). Lay in the garlic and tomatillos, cut side down. When the tomatillos are well browned, 3 or 4 minutes, turn everything over and brown the other side. The tomatillos should be completely soft. [Brian note: using tongs you will know immediately when the raw, hard tomatillos have truly softened.]

Scrape the tomatillos and garlic into a blender or food processor and let cool to room temperature, about 3 minutes. Add the chiles, cilantro and ¼ cup of water.  Blend to a coarse puree. Pour into a salsa dish and thin with a little additional water if necessary to give the salsa an easily spoonable consistency.

Scoop the chopped onion into a strainer and rinse under cold water. Stir into the salsa. Taste and season with salt, usual about ½ teaspoon.

Source: Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless

Miller’s recipes are spicy, authentic, and appealing from the first glance. In his new book, Tacos, Miller offers many recipes you’ll enjoy, but this one is Suzen’s favorite. The word charro refers to the original New World cowboys. These Mexican and Spanish men needed serious food at the end of their day, and they had one pot to make it in.

This dish will remind you of chili, but it’s something different. The spicy aromas will fill your kitchen. As you peer into the pot, the combination of beans and spices will form a broth quite unlike what you’ve seen before: rich, thick, dark red, and obviously potent.

You can serve this with tortillas as Miller suggests, put it in bowls and garnish with sour cream, or do what Suzen and I did: heap it into a large baked potato and savor the combination of mellow potato and outrageously spiced beans.

Charro Beans with Blacked Tomatoes

Yield: 8 tacos worth

Preparation Time: 2 ½ hours

Ingredients:

1 cup dried pinto beans, rinsed 3 times and picked over for rocks
3 cloves garlic
1 small white onion, halved
6 ½ cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil (preferably Spanish)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapeno chiles, dry-roasted
1 pound tomatoes, blackened and cut into ¼—inch dice [directions below]
1 teaspoon tomato paste
¼ teaspoon chipotle puree
½ teaspoon smoked salt
¼ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro leaves
8 (5 ½-inch) soft yellow corn tortillas, for service

Garnish: strips of soft beef or game jerky

Preparation:

To cook the beans, in a large pot, simmer the beans, garlic, ½ onion, and the 6 ½ cups of water over medium=low hat, partially covered, until the beans are almost falling apart, 2 to 4 hours. Add water as necessary during cooking so the mixture does not dry out. After the beans are cooked, drain the bean liquid into a saucepan and return the beans to the large pot. Over medium heat, reduce the liquid until it is thickened (not too much liquid will be left), about 10 minutes; reserve.

Meanwhile, cut the remaining ½ onion into ¼-inch dice. Ina skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat and sauté the diced onion until it begins to caramelize, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 30n seconds (don’t let the garlic burn); set aside.

Into the ;pot of cooked beans, stir in the sautéed onion and garlic, chiles, tomatoes, tomato paste, chipotle puree, smoked salt, oregano, cilantro, and the thickened bean juice, and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve immediately, or keep warm in the pan until ready to serve.

To serve, the tortillas side by side, open face and overlapping on a platter. Divide the filling equally between the tortillas and top with salsa and jerky strips. Grab, fold, and eat right away. Or build your own taco: lay a tortilla, open face, in one hand Spoon on some filling, top with salsa and jerky strips, and eat right away.

To blacken the tomatoes, preheat a heavy skilled, cat-iron preferably, over high heat. Add the whole tomatoes and cook, turning occasionally until the tomato skins split and are blackened, about 5 minutes. Remove and let cool.  Peel the tomatoes, discard the stem ends and coarsely chop the tomatoes.

Source: Tacos by Mark Miller

There, I wrote it. What did you first think? Awful stuff? Too sweet? Red neck food? Manufactured junk? Or did you think where is my spoon?

Crème or cream or fluff is not highly respected. It’s considered a manufactured food, something that does not have the up-from-the-grass-roots mythology of fudge or brownies or chocolate chip cookies. Actually, it does have an up-from-the-bootstraps background. According to Wikipedia, Archibald Query starring selling his version door-to-door in the early 20^th century. By 1917, the recipe had been sold to Massachusetts candy makers, for the great sum of $500. By 1940, the familiar glass jar was there for us to forever try to scoop the stuff out.

I always have a jar, or two, on hand. And, I regularly, religiously test the quality by taking a spoonful. Somehow Suzen always seems to notice. I get a sharp glance and a sharper comment along the lines of “Had your blood sugar tested lately?” I’m not allowed to kiss her until I have washed my face.

Yes, it is sticky. Getting it out of the jar is a task, and you always leave a good third in that jar. But, if heated, it’s much more manageable. If seriously heated, you can even spread it. And that is the secret of this great cookie.

This recipe, from Cookie Time by Marilyn Miller Wasbotten in 1992, is wonderfully old-fashioned. A secret of this cookie is to melt the butter, then stir it into an egg rich batter.

I have promised to blog my favorite cookie from Cookie Time but I made a mistake. I began to go through Cookie Time from the front. The recipes are arranged alphabetically in Cookie Time and this one is called Aunt Sally’s Mississippi Mud. We’ll be tasting the B’s next week.

Oh, I should mention that there is cookbook called The Marshmallow Fluff Cookbook. I would not describe it as terribly sophisticated but it is delicously sweet.

Aunt Sally’s Mississippi Mud

Yield: 18 large squares

Cookie Ingredients:

1 ½ cups flour
2 cups sugar
Pinch of salt
4 eggs
1 cup butter [margarine in the original recipe]
⅓ cup cocoa
1 ½ cups pecans, coarsely chopped
1 7-ounce jar marshmallow crème for fluff

Cookie Preparation:

Sift together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix well. Melt the butter, and stir in the cocoa. Pour this cocoa mixture over the four and egg mixture. Mix well.  Add the pecans. Pour into a 9X11X2” pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes. Turn off the oven. Spread a layer of marshmallow crème over the maxed cookies. Return the oven for 3 minutes to soften the fluff. Remove from the oven and spread the crème evenly with an offset spatula.

Frosting Ingredients:

¼ up butter, softened

⅓ cup cocoa
1 box confectioners’ sugar
⅓ cup milk

Frosting Preparation:

Melt the butter and stir in the cocoa. Add the confectioners’ sugar and milk.  Stir until runny. Pour over the smoothed fluff. Cut into square and remove from pan.

Source: Cookie Time by Marilyn Miller Wasbotten