Orange-aide

This past July, while we were on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Owen fell in love with this lemon-lime-orange-aide sold at the farmers’ market across the street from our house. It came in big plastic cups, and since Owen has yet to master drinking vessels of the non-sippy variety, much of it ended up on the front of his shirt and pooled in his sandals. Oh well. He’ll get there. He’s getting bigger everyday!

In fact, yesterday was his second birthday. Even when you’re only turning two, I believe everyone deserves a special birthday cocktail, so I decided to recreate Owen’s beloved beverage at home. (In addition, I’ve been battling a nasty cold, so a mega-dose of citrus sounded pretty good to me, too.)

My first challenge was finding the electric juicer someone gave us for our wedding. I finally located it way in the back of a cabinet, behind my ice cream maker, spice grinder, and an unidentified plastic appliance. Possibly part of the ice cream maker? Who knows? I probably should have thrown it out, but what if someday I need it? This is the same line of reasoning that has led me to save the vast majority of my Sweet Valley High collection, the t-shirt from every race I have ever run, and issues of Cooking Light from 2007.

But enough about my hoarding tendencies. We were talking about juice. This recipe is a snap and comes together in about five minutes. You need two cups of juice, which I got from three oranges, two lemons, and two limes, using the aforementioned electric juicer. Handheld citrus presses aren’t quite as efficient, so if that’s what you are using, you may need additional fruit. This is great by itself or topped with club soda. If you’re not sick, and not two, add a shot of bourbon.

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Orange-aide

This citrus-aide bears resemblance to lemonade, but includes fresh lime and orange juice as well.

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 6

Author Cheating Vegan

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 4 cups water divided
• 1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, simmer the sugar and 2 cups of water until the sugar dissolves. Transfer to a pitcher. Stir in the remaining water and the orange, lemon, and lime juice. Chill before serving.