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Strawberry-Basil Lemonade Recipe


Difficulty: Easy | Total Time: 1 hr | Makes: About 12 cups

Fresh strawberries and basil turn the drink kids love to make and sell into a sophisticated booze-free refreshment. Add plenty of ice or use an ice ring to keep it cold.

What to buy: Although bottled lemon juice works just fine in this recipe, it’s worth checking the refrigerated aisle for freshly squeezed lemon juice. If you’re feeling ambitious, squeeze the juice yourself (you’ll need about 14 lemons), straining out the pulp and seeds.


INGREDIENTS

For the strawberry-basil syrup:
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 pound strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced 1/2 inch thick
3/4 cup tightly packed basil leaves
For the lemonade:
8 cups cold water
2 cups lemon juice, chilled
Ice
1/2 pound strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced 1/2 inch thick, for garnish
1/4 cup tightly packed, blemish-free basil leaves, for garnish



INSTRUCTIONS

For the strawberry-basil syrup:
Place the sugar and water in a medium saucepan over high heat and stir until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a boil. Add the strawberries, reduce the heat to medium low, and simmer until the strawberries have softened, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat, add the basil leaves, and stir to incorporate. Cool to room temperature, about 45 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer set over a medium bowl; discard the solids. Cover the syrup and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the lemonade:
Pour the water, lemon juice, and 1 1/2 cups of the strawberry-basil syrup into a 3-quart pitcher or punch bowl and stir to combine. Taste and add additional strawberry-basil syrup as needed. Add ice and garnish with the sliced strawberries and basil leaves.

(source: www.chow.com/recipes/28510-strawberry-basil-lemonade)
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Wish I could say I had been on LadyOfWicca tropical island for the last week.

The whole mess started with a lot of muscle fatigue last week (6-10-2013). I took a nap after dinner and woke up with massive pain in my left thigh. The pain only got worse, so called 911.

They showed up and after a few seconds carried me downstairs. I had to look bad as they ordered two IV in the ambulance and ran the whole way with lights and sirens on. At that point still did not think it was super bad.

I had a lot of people working on me in the ER, in the morning they transferred me to ICU plus ordered a central line put in. That is when I knew it was bad for sure. I lost count of how many bags of drugs they hung up on the IV stands but it was by far the most I ever seen at two full stands worth.

They kept me there for three days and ordered a biopsy of the muscle in my left leg to see what was going on. They are still waiting as the results were odd and had to be sent to another specialist. I will hopefully know something next week after my followup with the Infection Specialist doctor. I spent the rest of the time in the surgical recovery wing.

This whole thing has been very strange. The doctors straight out told me later that they thought I might die that night. I have been thinking about that for days. I'm still processing it but plan to not worry about the small things so much. The most important to love the people close to me and make sure they know it.

I owe a big thanks to the Pasco Fire Department and staff of Kadlec Hospital for saving my life. I need to find out if Hallmark has a card for that.
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spoiled
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Hmmm.

This wasn't quite what I was expecting. I've only seen the first few eps, however...
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