Porch time: Strawberry Rose Lemonade (Part II)
This post and story about Strawberry Rose Lemonade was the first on my blog years ago! Click here for Part 1. Thank you to my special assistant John. Enjoy!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this life, it’s that for every joy there is a sorrow. The Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran’s “On Joy and Sorrow” says that the deeper sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. That we can’t have one without the other. That this is what it means to be alive. We have to find some way to accept, don’t we.
Ruth, my sister-in-law, just two years after that war-torn visit to Beirut to get her baby, started coughing a lot, and for an inexplicably long time. It might be pneumonia. It might even be a fungus, Ruth said, and she laughed at what an awful word fungus was. But there was a more awful word she heard, definitively, from her doctor, and that word was cancer, cancer that had already found its way all around her tiny self, cancer that would take her life despite the fact that she was a new mom to a baby boy with curly hair and brown eyes who she adopted from a foreign country in the middle of a war.
This topic may, I understand, seem incongruous for a blog post about lemonade, and for our first heart-to-heart conversation here. But some relationships take off quickly when old souls meet, and matters of the heart just seem to fall out on the table. Plus, this lemonade is special. This lemonade is about hope. It’s about the hope Ruth had as she fought hard to stay alive right up until she died a year and a half ago, and the hope that her children, her daughter Ellie and her baby boy, John, gave her. It’s about wishing such a deep sorrow never had to be carved into any of our beings. It’s about wanting that original rose water that welcomed my family to Lebanon to taste as perfect as that moment seemed.
Now that it’s summer again up north here in Michigan, I’m making rosey strawberry lemonade for my nephew John, who’s five now, and sharing a very drinkable glass with him on the front porch.
Strawberry Rose Lemonade
Ingredients
Base for the Lemon Syrup
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Base for the Strawberry Rose Syrup
- 2 cups strawberries, hulled and coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon rose water
Instructions
- For the lemon syrup, combine the sugar and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once the liquid reaches a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved, 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and strain the lemon juice into the syrup. Stir and set aside to cool.
- For the strawberry rose syrup, in a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the berries and sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer 3-5 minutes, until the berries are very juicy. Use a metal spoon or a potato masher to break up the berries. Add one teaspoon of the rose water and taste, adding more if you like (but do it a little at a time, and pour into a measuring spoon away from the saucepan…it can spill over all too easily, ruin the berries and make this an irritating, rather than a satisfying, experience). Strain the syrup–there should be about 1/2 cup of syrup–and set aside the berries for another use (vanilla ice cream doesn’t hurt anything).
- To mix the lemonade, fill a pitcher with lemon syrup and the strawberry rose syrup. Add four cups of ice cold water and stir to combine. Taste. If it’s too sweet for you, add more cold water. If it’s not tart enough, add more lemon juice. If you’d like to taste more rose in your lemonade, add a little more rose water. Add ice to the pitcher just before serving, and serve in iced glasses. This strawberry lemonade, in the glass, takes on a lovely orangey hue.
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I'm so glad you're here! You'll find among these pages the fresh and classic Lebanese recipes we can't get enough of! My mission is to share my tried + true recipes -- and to help our Lebanese food-loving community keep these culinary traditions alive and on the table. What recipes are you looking for? Let me know!
I’m on my way right now to buy strawberries…can’t resist…hard to believe John is five already. I’ll be back up to Traverse City on Sunday and I heard the heat is on its way up too. That lemonade will be just the thing!
Beautiful, Maureen. Beautiful.
Means so much coming from such a great writer as you, Cindy.
Love the piece, love the blog, and love you! So proud of you, Maureen. What a gorgeous little nephew you have, and what a lovely tribute to Ruth. Keep writing!
Tears were welling up in my eyes as I read this; what a sensitive and touching tribute to a lovely woman; life is so mysterious and absurd, and we just have to move along and keep smiling at it no matter what, just like this little (charming) boy is doing.
You are so right, Joumana. Thank you for your beautiful words.
Hi Maureen — I accidentally came across your blog today and wanted to compliment you on how well-written it is and how wonderfully photographed your Lebanese creations are. I was shocked to see you reference your brother, Chris and his family. You see, Chris and I met via telephone several times during 2006 and 2007 as we both tried to navigate the same experience: a wife adopting a son in a war ravaged nation without the right paperwork to get them both home on the last boat out! Later, we navigated the waters of DHS and humanitarian parole in parrallel boats, not sure how we got into this mess, but knowing that we were going to move heaven and earth to get out of it, to bring them home safely, to do it as quickly as possible and to guarantee our sons will have an easy life. I was so excited to see that one of Chris’ family was the author and that I might be able to reconnect with that time in our lives.
When I turned the page of your blog, I was so shocked and saddened to learn that our lives had continued to parallel each other, as our wives have both battled cancer since returning home that hot summer, and was truly devastated to see that he and John have lost Ruth. What a tragedy. I hope that John, who could be my Logan’s brother with his big zeytoon eyes and his mop of dark curls, will know that his mother fought for him and protected him more in his first four years than many mothers do in a lifetime of parenting. Please give Chris my best and tell him that he still has a friendout here in Boston!
Scot
Wow Scot, that’s all so amazing. I’m sorry to hear that your wife has battled cancer and I hope she is doing better. Zeytoon eyes!! Nothing better. More on email to you…thank you for reading and writing. What a wonderful coincidence.
So beautiful, Maureen. Thank you.
Thank you for reading, Diane.
Went to get the recipe for rose water and it led me to page that says it is private. How do I get it? Thank you, love your blog!
Thank you Marilu–the link should be fixed now!
hello maureen !
i’ve been reading your blog for about a year now and i absolutely love it !
I accidently came across this post today and i was really touched . I lost my dad six months ago ( cancer sucks ) and i still haven’t found peace yet . it hurts and it will continue to hurt till the day we meet again … i’m sorry for your loss . my prayer goes to her adorable kids who helped her a lot in this endless battle . i hope they’re doing well .. thank you for sharing your story with us . will be coming again very soon 🙂 stay safe. lara.
Lara, how special–thank you so much for taking a moment to write. My your dear father rest in peace, and my you find comfort and healing.
Hi Maureen,
I came across your blog looking for middle eastern recipes. Your last name made me even more curious to read your blog and was so pleasantly surprised to find that you are Chris Abood’s sister but saddened to know that he lost his wife so soon. I used to work with him in the SICU (University of Illinois-Chicago) during his neurosurgery residency. I will not forget the day I met him in the unit. He asked me “Your last name is Abood?…why??…how come???” I replied “Why not.” I think he was just puzzled why an Asian would have the same last name as he does 🙂
Let me compliment you for such a wonderfully written blog. I asked my husband why we haven’t thought of Popcorn with olive oil and Za’atar, the Fatayer looks yummy but the Lemonade story is the best. The story of your sister in law and her determination to bring her son home is truly a story of hope and it warms my heart…Thank you. Carmen A.
What a great memory and note, Carmen Abood, thank you!
You writing is very moving and extremely personal. It is a gift that you can share such intimate moments with your readers. May you always be happy.
How very kind of you. Thank you Steve.
Ah! I’m bawling. That’s one lucky little boy, to have had a mother who loved him so. What a beautiful tribute to her and, though some time has passed since you originally posted this, I’m still sorry for all of your terrible loss.
I will be making this lemonade soon.
Jane
Thank you so very much Jane. He is a blessing to all!