Margaritas !

Wow,  I had a few weeks of celebrating my 50th birthday and even before that got to travel with my husband on a business trip to Philadelphia, so it has been a busy time for me.  Enjoyed seeing the Liberty Bell, Indepedence Hall and Winterthur (the DuPont estate, botanical gardens and home that houses his collection of American antiques).  Then enjoyed a camping/riding vacation with my girlfriends that I have ridden with for many years and we brought in some much needed rain to our area, so we are now calling ourselves the Drought Busters.  If you need it to rain, we can just plan a trip :)

So back to thinking about ways to substitute packaged processed foods for something real.  I bet you would have never guessed I would blog on margaritas !  The ladies at Zumba were talking about margaritas this past week and then someone mentioned mixes.  It hit me, nooooo, not a mix, use the real thing, a lime, 100% de-agave tequila and some nice triple sec or cointreau !  Anyway if you are going to drink a margarita then why not drink one that doesn't have a bunch of added chemicals, colors, artificial flavors and corn syrup ?  So here is my world famous margarita recipe, at least that is what my daughters call it and always brought home friends, (when they were in college and over 21 ) to imbibe. 

Getting started.  It helps to have a glass reamer or a citrus electric juicer.  Cut limes in half and juice, straining out seeds, and collect juice in a Pyrex measure cup.  Then add equal amounts of water to your juice.  I then add real maple syrup, a tablespoon at a time to sweeten.  Stir and taste.  You want it to get to a palatable sweetness but still be tart.  I will add about half a cup of this lime juice to a glass with ice (crushed ice if you have that) and then add 1/2 oz of tequila and 1/2 oz of triple sec to the glass, stir and enjoy.  If you brew your own kombucha, this makes a wonderful addition to the lime juice and we call these kombucharitas :) Or even just kombucha with tequila and triple sec.  Anyway, it is fun to experiment with other flavors, like mango, papaya and orange juice too.  Get creative, but just do it with real food !