What better way to mark the last days of the best summer ever than with a fabulous lemonade from the Beekman Boys! Tart and sweet with notes of vanilla and lavender this refresher is a thirst quencher and treat for the senses.  The recipe is fairly straightforward, and I’ve made it several times this year with rave reviews each time.

Ingredients:

½ cup sugar

2 tsp dried lavender

1 vanilla bean split lengthwise

1 cup water

Pinch of salt

1 ¾ cups fresh lemon juice, about 8 lemons

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, lavender, vanilla bean and salt with the water. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain. Combine the syrup and lemon juice and serve over ice.

The syrup can actually be made in advance and stored in the fridge, in which case you may be inspired to try some over that plain pound cake you have in the back of the freezer. (its really good that way). Or try the syrup over ice with limoncello instead of lemon juice for a great cocktail.  

This recipe can be found in the Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook. We reviewed it several months ago and found it to be one of our favorite cookbooks ever.  The first two seasons of “The Fabulous Beekman Boys” have been picked up by Cooking Channel – we should see them there this fall. Plus, Brent and Josh will be competing on the Amazing Race on CBS starting on September 30^th.

Be sure to check out our review of the  http://www.hotfromthekettle.com/food-and-drink/2012/4/10/the-beekman-1802-heirloom-cookbook-review.html Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook from earlier this year.