Rosemary Lemonade - Little Bit City,

Last weekend during a mandatory Saturday stroll through the OC Mix Mart Farmer’s Market, I happened upon a new vendor selling the most deliciously smelling rosemary. It caught my nose as I began to walk past in a way that made me stop and take a closer look. As I began to pick up the rosemary for a closer look, the grower struck up a conversation with me. We began talking about gardens, where he grows his herbs and vegetables and all the delicious foods you can incorporate rosemary in to.

I began to tell him how we had recently planed an above ground box garden in our backyard and already so many yummy veggies were starting to pop up. Then I went on to gush about how good the herb garden was, but between the smell of the rosemary and the sweet basil, I could literally sit there all day long. Then he told me about this delicious and easy drink you can make by infusing rosemary and adding it to lemonade. Even as I’m sitting here, it occurs to me that if you add a smidge of Vodka, it would probably make this drink just that much more heavenly.

I decided to try my hand at this rosemary infused lemonade to use my Memorial Day guests as my guinea pigs. After all, no one will tell you the truth about your recipe like the mouths of close friends, am I right? You are nodding your head because you know I’m speaking truth right now. And only since this recipe went over as a Hit at the party am I sharing it with you.

INGREDIENTS

Fresh Rosemary (store bought or garden grown)
1/4 cup of sugar in the raw or white sugar
1 1/2 cups of water

DIRECTIONS:

Add water, sugar and rosemary to a sauce pan and keep the heat on medium
When it begins to simmer, turn to low heat
Stir frequently as it cooks so that the sugar and rosemary can reduce
Leave on low heat for 15 minutes, then remove the sauce pan from the heat. It should look syrup-like
Let your reduction cool
Then add to lemonade and serve to your guest. I served mine in sugar rimmed glasses