Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Lets Make Lemonade!

The wonderful folks at Takeya USA are allowing me to review TWO of their awesome products this summer, and additionally allowing me to give each of the items away to one of you fabulous readers as well!! How fun is that?!

The first product that I'm going to review and giveaway will be their Flash Chill Lemonade Maker - we love lemonade, and honestly what drew me to this product was the ability to juice and strain the pulp from the fruit.


Here is the product as it arrives at your door... lovely simple packaging!!


I pulled everything out of the box, washed it and set out to make a new Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade!
(recipe at the end of the post)


One more shot of the pitcher and box with my citrus bowl... such pretty summer colors!


You'll learn the details in the recipe below, but I had to make the strawberry puree to begin the recipe.


Blending up some strawberries with sugar, water, and a little lemon juice.


Next up, juicing the lemons. Now I used this product twice before writing this review... the first time I followed the instructions on the box, but my sugar didn't dissolve as well as a would have liked. They have you fill the pitcher with ice, juice the lemons, add sugar, then add water, and mix it up... which make instantly cold lemonade. If you can delay the gratification a little bit - I think this product works even better for the recipe I made for these photos.


The lemon juice collecting in the bottom of the pitcher.


The lemon seeds and pulp stay at the top of the pitcher while the juice falls through to the bottom.


I had so much pulp and stuff - I had to stir it around a little bit to get it all out.


My little kitchen helper, James... Tyler watched from his high chair across the room.


The gorgeous finished product!!


Don't you want a sip?!

Overall, I really liked this lemonade maker, it was easy to use. It does just what it says it will by keeping the pulp and seeds at the top while allowing you to make lemonade without dirtying a juicer and a pitcher. The pitcher is a really nice slim design that easily fits in your refrigerator, and is made of a material that washes clean like glass - but I believe is actually plastic. It is as light as plastic... but is perfectly safe for all you health nuts out there. I think this would make a great addition to your kitchen items!


Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade

Yield: 6-7 cups
Ingredients:

For the strawberry syrup:
1 heaping cup chopped strawberries
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. cold water
Pinch of salt
For the lemonade:
1 cup very hot water
2/3 cup sugar
1¼ cups freshly squeezed lemon juice
4½ cups cold sparkling water or seltzer
Directions:

To make the strawberry syrup, combine the strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, water and salt in the bowl of a food processor or blender.  Puree until smooth.  Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds, pressing down to extract as much liquid as possible.
To make the lemonade, combine the hot water and sugar in a pitcher.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Mix in the lemon juice and water.  Stir in the strawberry puree.
To serve, rub a wedge of lemon or one of the spent lemon halves around the rim of a glass and then dip in sugar.  Fill with ice if desired and then lemonade.  Garnish with sliced lemon or strawberries.  Serve immediately.
Want one of these for your house?!

I will give one away - deadline for entries is midnight on July 5th. (one entry per comment, please)
-- 1 entry for following this blog
-- 1 entry for following my recipe blog (Kim's Cuisine - new posts going up here this week as well)
-- 1 entry for going to Takeya's website and telling me what product of theirs you would love having
-- 1 entry for telling me your favorite go-to summer drink
-- 1 entry for telling me something exciting you plan on doing this summer

13 comments:

  1. The fruit fusion pitcher looks neat. Nothing beats homemade juice

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my that looks good!! I wonder how many glasses that would make? My family loves lemonade, but I hate buying the powder mix; this would solve that!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yay for giveaways! I follow your recipe blog!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, I already follow this one! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. My favorite summer drink is nothing frilly...it's just good old sweet tea although I'm on a water kick lately. I guess it's a good habit to have!

    ReplyDelete
  6. My something exciting is to come visit YOU, of course!

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Fruit Infusion pitcher is AWESOME. I love that sort of thing in the summer, but don't have a way to make it. One of the best infused waters I've ever had was cucumber! It's so refreshing!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks to Becky for Tweeting about this giveaway... 1 entry for her!

    Becky Branch

    ReplyDelete
  9. Went to takeya's website and I want the Flash Chill Lemonade Maker, I love lemonade (I'm drinking some from chick-fil-a right now!)

    ReplyDelete
  10. In the summer (and all the time) I drink water to quench my thirst but I do love some lemonade too!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Very little exciting going on here this summer, I'm taking two summer classes on top of working full time. But, we are squeezing every bit of excitement we can!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comments. I really enjoy getting feedback on my writing!