Happy Canada Day!
July 1st, Canada celebrated it’s 145th birthday!
My mom’s Inukshuk shows our friends and family the way to our Canada Day Celebrations!
What does one serve 4 busy boys on a hot summer’s day to celebrate Canada Day?
Dairy and Peanut/Tree Nut Free Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles are the perfect cool treat solution on a hot day in the sun!
As soon as the hot weather hits…my boys are all over me to make Lemonade.
So refreshing! It’s the perfect combination of sweet and sour to quench their thirst!
Making a lemonade syrup, allows one to control the sweetness of each glass or pitcher of lemonade by the amount of water or sparkling water that is added to the lemon syrup.
The recipe is adapted from Canadian Living’s Country Cookbook‘s Lazy Day Lemonade. My boys love this recipe so much…they are always willing to help out with the stirring and squeezing of the lemons. There are always ‘sweet rewards’ for those that help me out!
Lemonade
1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups of water
2 tbsp of lemon rind
1 3/4 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice
In a small saucepan, bring the sugar, water and lemon rind to a boil stirring constantly.
Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and let cool. (I put in a mason jar and leave in the fridge until cooled…over night if possible… then strain the lemon rind…my boys do not like the ‘bits’!)
Stir in the lemon juice to the cooled syrup. I like to store mine in mason jars.
Refrigerate up to 3 weeks…if it lasts that long!
For a glass, pour 1/4 cup of lemon syrup and 3/4 cup of cold water and stir well. Play around with the ratio of lemon syrup to water. For a pitcher, I mixed 1 cup of lemon syrup to 1 1/2 cups of water…my boys favourite ratio…a little sweet but tasty!
Enjoy!
Tip: Double the recipe for enough Lemon Syrup for Lemonade and Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles.
Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles are a sweet cool treat to celebrate the ‘red and white’ of Canada Day!
With strawberries still in season, a strawberry base is easy to put together for this refreshing treat!
The recipe was adapted from Everday Food Magazine’s Summer Special July/August 2012 edition…Red, White, and Blueberry Pops.
Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles
2 cups halved strawberries
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 tbsp freshly squeeze lime juice
In a blender, puree strawberries, sugar and lime juice.
Strain through a fine-mesh sieve.
Divide between 6 popsicle molds. ( I purchased mine at PC)
Freeze until firm, approximately 30 minutes.
Make a pitcher of lemonade…1 cup lemon syrup with 1 1/2 cups water. Pour, very gently, over the frozen strawberry mixture, place the top of the popsicle mold on and freeze unitl solid. (I left them overnight)
Enjoy!
The evening ended with a fireworks show by the neighbours…and the boys had a ‘blast’ with the sparklers!
Wishing everyone a Happy Canada Day!
What is really great is how pretty those are. My homemade Popsicles never look that good.
Thank you! Pouring the Lemonade on top of the strawberry very gently is key! Although, next time I think I would just make them Lemonade as the boys preferred it to the strawberry…I loved the strawberry, especially mixed with the Lemonade! I am going to be trying Fudgesicles next!
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Dad and the Broski and I used to make those popsicle thingys all the time with juice. Even pickle juice once….that was super gross. We haven’t made them in a while… We never put fruit in though. In my opinion, if it has fruit in it, it’s not a dessert. ;)
We also haven’t used sparklers in a while. Aren’t we fun people? :P Dad was gonna buy a bunch of fireworks stuff online for cheap but Mom put a stop to that right away.
Pickle juice? Yikes! Shame about the fruit…I thought these were awesome! I am not one for setting off fireworks myself…I enjoy watching them. Gotta love the sparklers!