The Meyer lemon tree has been pretty happy over the winter months here. I am quite relieved as the balcony does not get any direct sun over the winter. Not knowing this when we bought the tree, I thought my biggest problem would be the cold nights, but the lack of sun was actually more of a problem. The tree did come inside for some of the months of November and December when the nighttime temperatures were close to freezing. Once it warmed up a bit again, it went right outside. While I loved having it inside, having to contend with the moths that were constantly sprouting out of the dirt was not something I wanted to put up with for very long. We harvested one of the lemons two weeks ago for our Dutch Baby pancake, and when I went outside to check on the lemons, there was one more to pick. It was so tiny, the name Lilliputian Lemon sprang to mind.
In getting ready to take this picture I found that I have misplaced my ruler for sewing, hence the lateness of this posting. I have turned the entire house upside down looking for the ruler to find no trace of the thing. It is pretty disappointing as I am working on a project for myself, something I honestly do not usually do. I am making myself a dedicated dance bag. I usually just use one of the canvas bags that I take to tutoring or the store or places like that, but I am constantly worrying that I have forgotten to slip my zills or foot covers or some other small item into the bag. Then the bag checks begin, where I dig around while walking to catch the train to a dance session hoping whatever I have decided is missing is actually packed. It almost always is! So, to ease my troubles, I am making a dedicated bag that I know will
always have those items inside. This will also help to curb the neat piles of organized items that tend to fill the Fabulous Pants sewing space... usually resulting in missing items.... like my now missing ruler! I have decided to wait for Dan's fresh set of eyes to look with me tonight and to instead lose myself in this delightful dance bag project. It is easy to forget the lost things when you are working with something as beautiful as this fabric:
Well there are bags to be sewn, living rooms to be cleaned, and headdresses to be practiced. I guess it is time to quit fretting over lost tools and start sewing. Making lemons into lemonade so to speak! New dance bag, here I come.
Sorry for the radio silence on the blog as of late. I have been super busy with commitments and blogging has not fit into the schedule as I had hoped. The seasons have drastically changed here. We went from a super chilly summer into a couple of short lived heat waves after summer was officially over. Then, the temperatures around here dropped like a rock and the rains returned to the San Francisco Bay area. This weekend is supposed to be rainy just like last weekend. This rainy weather is not met with worry though as I have jars of sunshine to get me through the winter months.
A while back, one of my acquaintances blogged about buying a house and acquiring a new lemon tree. She was looking for things to do with all the lemons. She also was looking for some canning lessons. I traded her canning lessons for some lemons, and out of the trade came not only a great friendship, but also these awesome jars of strawberry lemonade concentrate. She had made some of this as well, so I had her notes to go off of for tweaking mine. I used the Ball book that I have for a recipe, and she got her's off of the internet somewhere. In her recipe, she said that the concentrate ended up being way too sweet even when watered down. This was good to know, so I cut my sugar levels by quite a bit. I like lemonade to be a bit sweet but not cloying by any means. I also strained my strawberry pulp, as Dan is not a big fan of the seeds in strawberries. This extra step took quite a while and also cut the yield I had on strawberry pulp by a bit. 
I ended up with four pints, one from Dreah and three of my own, to take me through the winter. I had a little left over that I placed in the fridge and recently got out to test. It was quite good. The mix of the different types of Meyer lemon and regular lemons made for an interesting lemon flavor that was not too harsh. The strawberry flavor was a nice enhancer but was also not overwhelming. The sugar being cut down was also a good move as it was just the right amount of sweetness for me, and if someone else wants it more sweet, they can always add more to their glass. I think this could also be great as a daiquiri or margarita base if one wanted to use it that way or it could be cut with lemon lime soda or club soda as the Ball book suggests. Needless to say, I will be trying to get more lemons from my friend next year to make this one again! Now off to work on those perplexing socks I am trying.
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