Lemons and Limes--oh my!!!

Okay, I confess.  I love all things lemon!  But I hate buying one lemon here and one lemon there.  When I do that, they end up going bad in my refrigerator.  All because it's not worth juicing one lemon!  I mean, come on!  There's not even a container in this house that will hold the juice of one lemon???!!

Instead, I go nuts and buy a crazy amount to do this...

I break out my food processor with it's juicer attachment and juice the afternoon away!  It smells so good and I love the cups and cups of juice it produces.  About 16 of these guys yields about 2 cups of juice.  I freeze them in one cup containers.  I love the convenience of having fresh lemon and lime juice whenever I need it.

I don't usually juice limes, but heck, they were .25 cents each at the commissary the other day.  You can't pass that up.  The lemons, I buy in bulk bags, it's cheaper.  When we lived fairly close to Brian's dad's in Phoenix, we used to rake in the lemons from their lemon tree.  Unfortunately, that tree didn't survive, but it sure produced enough to support our Caesar salad craze for a year.

These days, I find that I use lemon in a lot of my chicken marinades and of course, in my favorite quinoa recipe.  Most of our juice though, is consumed in our new favorite whiskey sour recipe!  Fresh is always best!  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

If you ever have a little bit of time to squeeze your own fresh lemons and limes, try using it in this whiskey sour recipe.  It's time well spent, and the reward is delicious!

Fresh Whiskey Sour

.  3/4 cup whiskey

   (We recommend Jack Daniel's.  We tried Basil Hayden, but prefer the taste of Jack--smoother.  For this drink anyways.)

.  1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

.  1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

.  2/3 cup sugar syrup

   (Bring 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar to a boil.  Simmer until sugar is dissolved.  Chill before using.)

.  ice cubes

.  Maraschino cherries

Combine whiskey, lemon juice, lime juice and syrup.  Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with ice and pour in the drink mix 2/3 full.  Shake for 15 seconds and pour into glasses.  Add a maraschino cherry and serve ice cold!