Strawberry Lemonade (Swiss Style)

The hot desert weather has officially arrived in the Okanagan BC, and to celebrate this beautiful weather I thought I would make some homemade strawberry lemonade. Of course it wouldn't be a real celebration unless I made the lemonade with vodka! That is the "Swiss" part.

The only reason why I am dedicating this to the Swiss is because they love to put alcohol in everything! Well, the Swiss couple I know at least. I was at their lovely bed and breakfast for dinner (yes I was invited over for dinner, not breakfast) and it seemed that every meal was accompanied with alcohol.

When I first arrived I was offered a nice cold beer while dinner was being prepared. Once we finally started to eat we had red wine to accompany our steak. Then for dessert, we had ice cream drizzled with what seemed to be a blackberry sauce infused with alcohol. This sauce was in fact 63% alcohol, "diffused" with red wine and berries. The berries had pretty much soaked up all the alcohol which made each berry the equivalent to taking a shot of vodka. After dessert it was tea time, which was good timing since I was starting to feel a bit tipsy after all the alcohol. But as I drank my tea I felt like it tasted a bit strong. Fritz told me that he likes to mix several tea bags together but he didn't mention that he also like to put rum in it too. Rum and tea, never thought I would put that combination together, but it actually tasted quite good.

So now you can see why I am dedicating this lemonade to them. You can definitely make this drink without the vodka, but trust me, if you drink it as is, you'll feel like your missing an ingredient.

Strawberry Lemonade

• 2.5 cups of water
• 1 cup of sugar
• 6 lemons, or 1 1/2 cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice
  
• 1 pint of fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
• 2.5 cups of club soda
• Vodka
  
• Strawberries and lemons to garnish

Directions:

1. In a medium sauce pan bring the water to a boil and mix in the sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves and remove from heat. Stir in the lemon juice and let cool completely.
   
2. In a blender, puree the strawberries and then combine with the lemon juice into a pitcher. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
3. Once you are ready to serve the lemonade, mix in the club soda and pour 1 oz of vodka into each drink. Garnish with strawberries and lemons.