When Life Hands You Limes...

When life hands you limes....use every bit that you can! 

Another love that I seem to have gotten from my Dad is my love of limes. Love those things! I cook quite a bit with fresh citrus, using both the juice and the zest from lemons, limes and oranges. Often, I only need a small amount of zest. One day I was baking and only needed some zest and got the idea that I would start saving the zest from my citrus and dry the extra for those times that I only need the zest. I can easily find lemon and orange zest at the grocery store, but not lime zest.

I start by washing the lime very well and then letting it dry completely.

My zested lime:

I have found that these micro-plane grater work better than anything else that I have tried to use. I just rub the entire lime across the grater working over a bowl the entire time.

To dry the zest, I spread all the zest on a plate in a thin layer and let it dry on its own. It doesn't take that long and I just give it a stir every once in a while until it is completely dry. After that I store it in a spice jar and it is ready to use whenever I need it.

When I finish zesting the limes they look pretty naked, but that's okay since I will then juice them. 

Sometimes I am just zesting a lime or two for a specific recipe and I will also use most of the juice in the same recipe. 

Other times, I zest a bunch of limes at one time because I am wanting to make one of my favorite summertime drinks: 

LIMEADE!

Limeade

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Make a simple syrup by adding the water and sugar to a medium saucepan and cook that until the sugar is completely dissolved.

1 cup lime juice

4 cups cold water

Combine the simple syrup, the lime juice and the cold water and stir to mix well. Pour over ice and enjoy.

***I like my limeade and lemonade to really pucker my lips so if I am making this for just me, I use about a cup and a half of the lime juice.