Dark Cherry Limeade and Blueberry Lemonade

These recipes were originally posted on my Thoughtful Eats column on the Woburn Patch.


Dark Cherry Limeade

Ingredients:
juice of 20 limes
2 cups of sugar
2 limes sliced for garnish
handful of dark cherries, pitted and halved
12 cups of filtered water

In a gallon pitcher, add the lime juice, sugar and water. Stir. Take a handful of dark cherries, pit them with a cherry pitter and cut them in half. If you don't have a cherry pitter, just cut two pieces of the cherry off the pit with a paring knife. Stir again. Serve with ice and lime slices as a garnish. This will keep for up to 2-3 days in the fridge.

Blueberry Lemonade

Ingredients:
8 lemons juiced
1 lemon sliced for garnish
1-1/2 cups of blueberries, or 1/2 cup of blueberry juice
2 cups of sugar
12 cups of filtered water

You can buy blueberry juice but I prefer to make this with fresh blueberries. Take the blueberries and rinse them. Put them in a shallow container with a flat bottom and mash them with a potato masher. Then add the blueberry mush to a large piece of cheesecloth and squeeze all the juice out with your hands. Make sure you have a separate bowl underneath to catch the juice. You can also just push the mash into a fine-meshed sieve.

Add the lemon juice, sugar, water and blueberry juice into the gallon pitcher. Stir. Serve with ice and lemon slices as a garnish. This will keep 2-3 days. Don't keep any longer than this because it will go bad fairly quickly.

Tip: To make either of these drinks a "fizz", fill up a glass about 3/4 of the way with the limeade or lemonade and then top off with some soda water. Stir once with a spoon.