Remember the good old days when folks spent their summer evenings sitting on their front porch, watching the neighborhood activity with a pitcher of iced tea or lemonade nearby? In recent years, home construction has seen a comeback of the good ’ol front porch!
More and more homeowners enjoy relaxing in their front yard after a hard day’s work—watching their children play or just chatting with the neighbors. Many people building new homes now specifically request a front porch to recreate that slower lifestyle of bygone days. So what if your home is porchless and porch construction is not an option? A new trend in landscaping is to create a front patio—equipped with “setting a spell” furniture and a side table to hold that lemonade! I have designed quite a few front patios over the past several years. Some have been small and intimate, others have been large and multi-functional. A front patio, as an additional benefit, offers the opposite sun exposure enjoyed in the back of your home.
These patios can be any shape and size, and can be made of stamped concrete, paver stones, or other materials. They are created to bring a new socialization area to the homes where none existed before—the front yard.
Many neighborhoods have seen a resurgence in neighborhood get-togethers, and many of those occur in the front yards. Parents watch their children in the front of their homes. Or maybe a social visit with friends calls you to the front yard. A designated sitting area is functional as well as an appealing way to enhance the entrance to your home.
Life seems to travel in full circles. Could it be that we are destined to repeat traditions of long ago by slowing down our busy pace and relaxing “on the porch” with our family, friends, and neighbors? That would be a wonderful legacy to leave. And here’s a recipe for some old fashioned homemade lemonade, courtesy of www.SimplyRecipes.com
Remember the starting proportions - 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water, 1 cup of lemon juice. (This ratio makes a pretty sweet lemonade. Reduce the amount of sugar if you want your lemonade less sweet or if you are using Meyer lemons which are naturally sweeter than standard lemons.)
The secret to perfect lemonade is to start by making sugar syrup, also known as "simple syrup". Dissolving the sugar in hot water effectively disperses the sugar in the lemonade, instead of having the sugar sink to the bottom.
Homemade Lemonade Recipe
Serves 6
Ingredients
1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
1 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)
1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.
2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.
3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.
Serve with ice, sliced lemons.
