Cooking Lesson #916: Lemonade and Tequila Cocktail

…from the Perspectives’  Holiday Happy Hour Bar

How you doin’? It’s Labor Day weekend and it’s still very hot in many places around the country.
 
Here is my Labor Day Happy Hour libation—Lemonade and Tequila Cocktail. In keeping with many other cocktails I make, the lemon is balanced with a touch of lime and the finished drink has just a spritz of fizz from some ginger ale.
 
Seriously, if one can find true love in a cocktail, I’m there… even if it means cheating on my first love, the margarita—Sorry, Jimmy Buffett. This is nothing less than a simple and crisp end of summer cocktail. Let’s just call it my Labor Day Margarita Lite!
 
Prep time:  5 minutes
Yield:  1 cocktail
 
Ingredients 
2 ounces tequila (good quality)
1-1/2 ounces lemonade (see notes to make your own)
1/4 ounce lime juice
1-1/2 ounces ginger ale
 
Directions

1. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add the tequila, lemonade and lime juice.
2. Shake it like you mean it until ice cold.
3. Fill a Collins glass with ice; pour the contents of the shaker over the ice and top with ginger ale.
4. Lightly stir.
5. Garnish with a lemon slice and be sure to include a holiday, red-white and blue straw.

ChefSecret:  Use any lemonade you like. However, if you want to make your own like I did it’s easy… and fresh is really best.

1. 1 cup fresh lemon juice (approximately 6 lemons)
2. 3/4 cup simple syrup to taste (make simple syrup by combining 1/2 cup water with 1 cup sugar and heating until the sugar dissolves)
3. Add 1/2 cup of ice chips to mixture and stir; refrigerate as necessary.
4. Combine the lemon juice and simple syrup in a pitcher and stir.
5. This is the best lemonade ever!

 
Quip of the Day:  Wife: I love you so much, I could never live without you.
Husband: Is that you or the margarita talking? Wife: It’s me talking to the margarita. 
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well and be kind.

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