shivery

I love the chance to promote food, books and lemons! And there's another event which allows me to do just that.
A quick perusal of my previously recommended books shows I haven't featured one of my favorite childhood ones: The Lemonade Trick.

Kerby is an absent-minded boy, and doesn't mean to be late for dinner, or forget to clean his workbench, or spill his milk. In fact, part of the reason he's late for dinner at the start of the story is he stops to help an older woman free her high heel from a grate. As a thank you, she offers to bring a magic chemistry set next time she's at the park.

Kerby is thrilled when she follows through, and the next day (while his mother is out shopping) he tries his first experiment. Nothing exciting happens when combining a couple of drops from one of the beakers with water, but as he's about to pour it down the drain (and try something different), he catches a whiff and can't resist drinking the delicious-smelling fluid. Suddenly, Kerby finds himself wanting to be good--he immediately goes out and does a superb job mowing the lawn (including trimming and cleaning up), fixes lunch and begins to clean up the basement. It wears off by morning, and now Kerby has to decide what to do with this potion. Use it himself again? Give it to the neighborhood bully? Ignore it?

Focusing on this book also means I get to use one of my favorite cookbooks: Luscious Lemon Desserts by Lori Longbotham. As tribute, I decided to make lemon sorbet (partly to use my ice cream maker again--it's been collecting dust due to winter!), which is a sort of frozen lemonade.

This recipe uses approximately 6 lemons.

1 ½ c water
1 ½ c sugar
1 T finely grated lemon zest
1 ½ c fresh lemon juice
pinch of salt


1. Bring the water and sugar just to a boil in a medium saucepan, over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat, add the zest, and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.


2. Pour the syrup through a strainer into a medium bowl and stir in the lemon juice and salt. Let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate the mixture, covered, about 3 hours, or until thoroughly chilled.


3. Transfer the mixture to an ice-cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. The sorbet will be soft, but ready to eat. For a firmer texture, transfer to a freezer container and freeze for 2 hours before serving.

Check out this list of the Trick books!

Book recommendation: The Lemonade Trick by Scott Corbett
Recipe recommendation: Lemon Sorbet
Restaurant recommendation: Chez Jacques