This Homemade Hard Lemonade for Two is everything great about summer lemonade, tart, sweet, refreshing, but with the added kick of vodka.
Happy Fourth of July! If you are in the US, how are you celebrating this year? My whole family is in town, and we’ll be doing a pretty low-key celebration, cooking steaks on the grill (with my favorite steak marinade ) alongside macaroni salad , and whatever else I decide to make between now and dinner time. 😉
Since it’s a holiday, I’ll keep this write up short and sweet so you can get back to celebrating. Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been sharing some simple small-batch lemonade recipes. First, it was classic Lemonade for Two , then Strawberry Lemonade for Two .
Today, things are getting just a little more fun with Hard Lemonade for Two. This recipe’s everything great about summer lemonade, tart, sweet, refreshing, but with the added kick of vodka. For a little extra extra, you can use sparkling water as well. I’ve made it with and without many times and they are both great.
Like the other lemonade recipes I’ve posted this month, this Hard Lemonade is super simple to make and makes just one quart, enough for two to four glasses. I especially love that serving size for hard lemonade since it’s something I love making, but don’t necessarily want to be drinking for days at a time.
Long story short, if you’re looking something refreshing this summer with a little extra kick, give this Homemade Hard Lemonade for Two a try. Now go have a safe and delicious Fourth of July! I’m doing my best to have the same. 🙂
Ingredients
Special Equipment
- ▢ Citrus juicer optional but nice to have
Lemonade
- ▢ 1/2 cup ( 100g ) granulated sugar
- ▢ 2/3 cup filtered water
- ▢ 2/3 cup vodka
- ▢ 1 1/3 cup sparkling water (or flat) plus more to taste
- ▢ 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice ( 2 to 3 medium lemons)
Instructions
- In a small pot, dissolve sugar in 2/3 cup of the water. Bring to a simmer and cook just until sugar dissolves completely. Cool for 10 minutes.
- In a small pitcher or 1 -quart mason jar, combine the cooled sugar water, vodka, sparkling (or flat) water and lemon juice. Stir together. Add more water until lemonade reaches your preferred level of sweetness. Serve over ice and enjoy!
Notes
This No-churn Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream is creamy homemade vanilla ice cream with swirls of peanut butter, chunks of Oreos, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Minis throughout. What could be better?
Looking for more sweet, frozen treats? Try my Cookies and Cream Popsicles , Smoothie Popsicles , and Apple Pie Sundaes !
Happy Saturday, folks! Do you have anything fun planned for the weekend? I do! My birthday’s tomorrow, so I have a long day of good company and good food ahead of me, but before I run off to do that, let’s have a little chat about some ice cream first.
I had a couple different names for this recipe. In my editorial calendar, it’s written in as It’s My Birthday, B*tch Ice Cream because when I was coming up with something fun and decadent to post around my birthday, I immediately knew this was the over-the-top flavor combo I wanted work with.
When I shared the ice cream with other people, I called it Parent Trap Ice Cream since for a lot of us 90’s kids, that’s where we first learned about the delights of combining peanut butter and Oreos .
But, in the end, SEO won out, so the official title’s No-churn Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream.
And sure, the title may be a little boring, but this ice cream is definitely not.
The vanilla ice cream base is your standard super-easy no-churn ice cream combo of one can sweetened condensed milk and 2 cups heavy whipping cream, whipped with vanilla. It’s a fabulous rich and sweet base that pretty much begs you to add something fun to it. For this Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream, I chopped up some Oreos, added a handful (okay, like three handfuls, let’s be real here) of mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, and then I swirled some melted peanut butter into the ice cream.
Six ingredients, about eight minutes to throw everything together, and then you just cover your creation, pop it in the freezer, and wait four to six agonizing hours until it’s ready to go.
And it’s worth every single second of the wait. This ice cream is a frozen summer dream come true. It’s creamy and perfect, with ribbons of peanut butter running through it and big chunks of Oreo and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups alongside.
If you’ve felt like your summer’s a been a little lacking in delight this year, take two scoops of this and call me in the morning to tell me how much better your summer is now. 😉
Ingredients
Special Equipment
- ▢ Freezer safe container loaf pans work great for this
- ▢ Handheld electric mixer or stand mixer
No-churn Ice Cream
- ▢ 2 cups heavy whipping cream chilled
- ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ▢ 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk chilled
Mix-ins
- ▢ 15 Oreos roughly chopped
- ▢ 3/4 cup Reese’s Minis
- ▢ 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine heavy cream and vanilla. Use an electric mixer, starting on low, working up to high, to beat cream until stiff peaks form. Turn mixer down to low and mix in condensed milk.
- Use a rubber spatula to fold in Oreo pieces and peanut butter cups. Pour half of the mixture into your freezer-safe container.
- In a small, microwave-safe bowl, microwave peanut butter for 20 seconds and stir until peanut butter is smooth and pourable. (Continue to microwave in 10-second increments if necessary.) Pour half of the peanut butter over the ice cream in the container.
- Add the rest of the ice cream to the pan and pour the rest of the peanut butter over the top. Use a butter knife to swirl everything together. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, freeze for at least four hours and enjoy!
Adapted From Martha Stewart
Make a big batch of these two-ingredient Watermelon and Yogurt Frozen Dog Treats to keep your pup cool this summer!
Looking for more dog treats? Try these High-value Dog Treats and Gingerbread Cookies for Dogs !
I’ve been having a ton of fun making people popsicles all summer (popsicles for people , not popsicles from people –this is not that sort of food blog, or is it? ).
There have been Yogurt Smoothie Popsicles .
There have been Cookies and Cream Popsicles .
And there have been (my personal favorite) Homemade Pudding Pops .
And every time I eat one, Ella sits at my feet, staring mournfully up at me, just begging me to drop the last little bit of popsicle on the stick–which, admittedly, I do sometimes because I’m a sucker.
So I figured it was about time to spread the popsicle wealth and make some to share with our four-legged friends. I mean, they’re having to suffer through the heat of summer with the rest of us, so they may as well get in on the fun.
Last year I dipped a foot into the pupsicle (<–that word will never stop being so delightfully stupid) pond and made Birthday Cupcake Dog Popsicles . This summer, I wanted something a little simpler and just happened to have a big container of yogurt and some watermelon handy, so I whipped up these Watermelon and Yogurt Frozen Dog Treats.
These treats are just those two ingredients, pureed watermelon and yogurt, frozen together. The end. I used an immersion blender to puree my watermelon. You can use a blender or a food processor, or if you’re feeling real lazy, you can skip the pureeing and just mash the heck out of it with a potato masher–it wont be completely smooth but your dog’s not going to care.
For the treats in these photos I used these cute silicone molds , but you can make them in an ice cube tray, a mini muffin pan, or even a regular muffin pan if your dog is on the larger side, and your dog will love them just as well.
Aside from being super easy and a great way to use up leftover watermelon and yogurt, if your dog likes watermelon, they’re going to go NUTS over these treats.
Ella did! I wanted a picture of Ella with the treats, but they were too cold to hold, so I just put the plate of them on the floor and tried to get a shot of her chowing down on one from the pile. Those pictures turned out like garbage, but I wish you could have seen the pure joy on her face when she realized she had permission to dive into the entire plate of treats.
She basically attacked it like a monster. 🙂
Please note, watermelon and yogurt are safe for dogs to eat, but some dogs don’t process dairy well. If that’s the case for your dog, you can omit the yogurt. And as always, check with your vet if you have any questions or concerns about what you’re feeding your pets.
Dogs should be supervised when eating frozen treats. That goes double for these as they will stain your carpet if your dog wanders off and leaves a piece of one to melt somewhere!
This recipe calls for plain, unsweetened yogurt. DO NOT use yogurt that has been sweetened with xylitol, as it is toxic to dogs .
Watermelon and Yogurt Frozen Dog Treats (Pupsicles)
Ingredients
Special Equipment
- Immersion blender or blender or food processor
- Silicone treat molds or ice cube tray or mini-muffin pan
Frozen Dog Treats
- 2 cups chopped seedless watermelon
- 15 tablespoons (just under 1 cup) plain yogurt *
Instructions
- Puree watermelon chunks until smooth. Add 1 tablespoon of yogurt to each space in your mold or ice cube tray. Fill the rest of the way with watermelon puree. Freeze until solid, about 4 hours.
- Remove treats from mold* and store in an air-tight container in the freezer.
Notes
Nutrition
Homemade Hard Lemonade for Two
Ingredients
Special Equipment
- Citrus juicer optional but nice to have
Lemonade
- 1/2 cup ( 100g ) granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup filtered water
- 2/3 cup vodka
- 1 1/3 cup sparkling water (or flat) plus more to taste
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice ( 2 to 3 medium lemons)
Instructions
- In a small pot, dissolve sugar in 2/3 cup of the water. Bring to a simmer and cook just until sugar dissolves completely. Cool for 10 minutes.
- In a small pitcher or 1 -quart mason jar, combine the cooled sugar water, vodka, sparkling (or flat) water and lemon juice. Stir together. Add more water until lemonade reaches your preferred level of sweetness. Serve over ice and enjoy!
