I know, I know, this is a major no no to some of you but let me explain. Well I guess there is not much to explain except that my husband loves "drinks" (seriously when we go to restaurants he drinks at least 6 different flavors of lemonade before our meal comes out) and we don't drink alcoholic beverages so this leads me to finding creative ways to make yummy, delicious drinks for him.
This particular one started about 9 years ago. We were in the middle of law school (and by that I mean really my hubby was going to school but I was doing all the behind the scenes stuff like cleaning the house, making food, taking care of 3 kids, so really he couldn't of done school with out me--any one else with me on this?!!?). He had a group of would-be attorneys that got together with their wives monthly to eat dinner and unwind.
One of them, Steve, loved mint juleps. Every time we got together, he had an ice cold pitcher of mint juleps waiting for us--oh was it heaven in the summer! Back then I wasn't into asking people for recipes, mostly because too many people would say, "that's a family secret". Seriously--it's a recipe but that topic is for another day. So I never asked Steve how he made it.
Well this past Father's Day I wanted to make the hubs a knock your socks off drink that he would love. A lovely Russian lady had just given us some fresh mint from her garden and I knew what I was going to make. After scouring the internet and finding many comments about how it was a disgrace to not add alcohol to this lovely drink, I decided to risk it and we came up with a delicious, amazing creation that we all loved, even the kids. They kept asking for more "juice" and probably drank more than the hubby, which says a lot!
This would be amazing for any family friendly bbq and perfect for hot summer nights.
Mint Juleps (non-alcoholic)
6 mint leaves, rinsed
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 c. cold water
3/4 c. lemon juice
4 c. fresca (or any flavor of lemon-lime soda pop)
2 c. ginger ale
1. Place sugar, water and lemon juice in large bowl. Mix until sugar dissolves and add mint leaves. Let sit for 1 hour. Fill a large pitcher with ice and pour sugar, lemon juice mixture over ice. You can discard the mint leaves at this time. We left them in because we wanted a stronger mint flavor. Add fresca and ginger ale. Serve and enjoy!
