Nothing brightness up a gloomy day like a big pile of lemons and an tall pitcher of citrus green tea! Amongst all the other winter produce, citrus are a favorite in our family, so much so, Kaly themed her whole wedding around lemons, oranges, grapefruits, and limes. However today some tea sounded like it would hit the spot…
Citrus have the power to lend a perfect squeeze of balance to recipes. They also ward off germs, provide much needed comic relief in restaurants when the baby is getting restless and you give him a lick, that other kind of relief from the first shot of tequila, and they are just so darned beautiful.
We are grateful that our friend Russ gifted us this glorious pile of Meyer lemons to play with this week…. Well, actually, he more like gave them up with a challenge: “Bet you can’t make a meringue pie as good as my late Grandma Hattie!” To give you an idea of what we are up against, here she is: Grandma Hattie….not sure we could do anything better than that wonderful woman, but we will give it our best shot! While we are working to perfect the lemon pie to match Grandma Hattie, we thought you might like a lemony something to sip on to zing up your afternoon…. Ps. this one can help fight off that knarly cold a pre schooler wiped on you too.
- 4 lemons
- 2 mandrins (use whatever combo of citrus you have on hand)
- A few sprigs of fresh basil and/or mint
- 1 teaspoon peeled and thinly sliced ginger
- ⅛ cup of honey
- 3 bags green tea
- your favorite 2 quart-ish pitcher
- you can stop here, but we had some fresh strawberries and raspberries laying around so we tossed those in too
- Heat two cups of water in micro for 2 min.
- Steep tea for about 3 minutes and then mix honey with warmed tea.
- Slice fruit and cut herbs to desired sizes and throw in pitcher.
- Add honey tea and fill up the pitcher with ice water the rest of way, and store in fridge.
- Its great warmed up too!
