By My friend Kara texted me this week saying she'd watched a cooking video on YouTube and thought of me — said I should be doing that. She's not the first person to suggest it. A woman from the community center workshop said it six months ago. My sister-in-law has mentioned it twice. And now Kara.
I've always had reasons not to. I'm not photogenic. I don't have a nice camera. My kitchen is a family kitchen, not a backdrop. I don't know how editing works. But I've started to notice that the reasons are getting thinner each time I list them, like I've been using the same arguments past their expiration date.
I talked to Gary about it Thursday night after the kids were in bed. He said, without any hesitation, "You should do it. You're better in a room than on a screen but you'd figure out the screen part." Which is both a compliment and a challenge, the way Gary's best observations usually are.
I didn't decide anything yet. But I did pull up YouTube on my laptop and watch how other home cooks structure their videos — how they talk while they cook, how they handle mistakes, how long the videos run. I took notes. That's not nothing.
Meanwhile: fall is officially here. I made apple butter this week from a flat of Honeycrisps I picked up at the farmers market, and the whole house smelled like cinnamon and October for an entire afternoon. Fifteen small jars, already labeled, ready to give away and keep. That's another kind of broadcast. Quieter, but it goes somewhere real.
I’m not ready to press record yet — but I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to share something you made, whether that’s fifteen jars of apple butter or a video where you talk to a camera while your hands do something useful. While I sit with that question, I’ve been making things that feel generous by nature, things meant to be poured into a glass and handed to someone. This raspberry peach lemonade is exactly that: bright, a little unexpected, and the kind of thing that travels well whether you bring it to a neighbor or just set it on the counter for whoever wanders through your kitchen first.
Homemade Raspberry Peach Lemonade
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 25 minutes | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh raspberries (plus more for garnish)
- 2 ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and chopped
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup water (for simple syrup)
- 1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (about 8–10 lemons)
- 4 cups cold water
- Ice, for serving
- Lemon slices and fresh mint, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Make the simple syrup. Combine sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves completely, about 3–4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
- Cook the fruit. Add raspberries and peaches to the same saucepan (or a fresh one) with 2 tablespoons of water. Warm over medium-low heat for 5–7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the fruit breaks down and releases its juices.
- Strain the fruit puree. Pour the cooked fruit through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl or pitcher, pressing with a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids. Let the puree cool.
- Juice the lemons. Squeeze lemons until you have 1 1/2 cups of fresh lemon juice. Remove any seeds.
- Combine. In a large pitcher, stir together the cooled simple syrup, fruit puree, lemon juice, and 4 cups cold water. Taste and adjust — add more lemon for tartness or a splash more syrup for sweetness.
- Chill and serve. Refrigerate until cold, at least 30 minutes. Serve over ice with lemon slices, fresh raspberries, and mint if desired.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 130 | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Carbs: 34g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 5mg