Recipe: Lemon-Up Soda

Lemon-Up Soda

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• boil :

  to cook a food in liquid heated to the point of gas bubbles and steam forming (boiling point is 212 F at sea level).

• squeeze :

  to firmly press or twist a food with fingers, hands, or a device to remove its liquid, like shredded potatoes, frozen and thawed spinach, or tofu.

• steep :

  to soak a food, like tea, in water or other liquid so as to bring out its flavor.

• strain :

  to separate liquids from solid foods or remove bigger food particles from smaller particles using a perforated or porous device like a strainer, sieve, colander, or cheesecloth.

History of Soda!

• A soda is a carbonated soft drink. A soft drink is a non-alcoholic sweetened drink, with or without carbonation. 
• Soft drinks developed hundreds of years ago in the Middle East as fruit-flavored drinks sweetened with honey or syrup. We get the English word "syrup" from the Arabic word "sharab," meaning "beverage" or "syrup." These drinks eventually arrived in Europe. In late 17th-century Paris, lemonade was a popular soft drink.
• Carbonation was developed by British chemist Joseph Priestley in 1767 when he discovered a way to infuse carbon dioxide into water. Later, other British, Swedish, and American chemists and physicians improved upon his methods and eventually added artificial minerals and flavors, like juices, spices, and wine, to the "soda water." The equipment to make carbonated water was sold to pharmacies. 
• A German watchmaker and amateur scientist, Johann Jacob Schweppe, was the first to develop a way to bottle carbonated mineral water. His company, Schweppes, sold the first bottled carbonated mineral water in 1783. 
• In the 1800s, pharmacists added birch bark, dandelion, fruit extracts, ginger, and sarsaparilla root to flavor carbonated mineral water, which was thought to be a healthy drink. 
• Phosphate soda, with added phosphoric acid, was created in the late 1870s. Soda fountains had popped up in pharmacies and ice cream parlors in the United States, and phosphate sodas became one of their more popular drinks from 1900 until the 1930s.
• In the latter half of the 1900s, soda began being sold in cans. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 45 percent of soda is packaged in aluminum cans, 33 percent in plastic bottles, and 17 percent in glass bottles. 
• Home carbonation systems started being sold in the US in the 2010s and have become an economical alternative to purchasing soda in the store. 
• Soda consumption has dropped in recent years due to concerns about sugary drinks and obesity in adults and children.

Let's learn about England!

• England is ruled by a Monarch, a Prime Minister, and a Parliament. Windsor Castle is the oldest royal castle in the world that is still being used by the royal family.
• England is on the island of Great Britain, along with Wales and Scotland. It is also part of the United Kingdom, which consists of those three countries and Northern Ireland. 
• Did you know that there's no place in the UK that is more than 70 miles from the sea?! 
• Stonehenge is a construction of immense stones that the early inhabitants of what's now Wiltshire, England, began building around 3100 BCE. The final sections were completed around 1600 BCE. Scientists are still not sure how or why they built it. One theory for its purpose is an astronomical observatory. It is very popular with tourists.
• Other popular tourist spots in England include the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament (Palace of Westminster), the Roman Baths and the city of Bath, and the Lake District.  
• London, the capital city, wasn't always called that. In the past, its name was Londonium.
• England took part in the briefest war in history. They fought Zanzibar in 1896, and Zanzibar surrendered after just 38 minutes!
• There have been several influential English authors, but perhaps the most well-known is William Shakespeare, who wrote classics such as Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet.
• English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the World Wide Web.
• The British really like their sandwiches—they eat almost 11.5 billion a year!

What's It Like to Be a Kid in England?

• Most schools in England require students to wear a school uniform. 
• Sports kids play include football (soccer), cricket, rugby, tennis, netball (similar to basketball), and rounders (similar to baseball). They also play video games, watch the telly, and ride bikes or skateboards.
• Boxing Day is a unique holiday kids celebrate in England the day after Christmas, December 26. The official public holiday is the first weekday after Christmas if Boxing Day falls on a weekend. When the English created the holiday, it was the day to share the contents of alms boxes with the poor. Today, it is mostly a day off from school and work, although some small gifts may be given out to family and employees, or collected to give to the poor.
• English kids may have different names for everyday items also found in the United States. For example, a kid will call his mom "mum." Their backyard is a "garden." A big truck is called a "lorry," and the trunk of a car is a "boot." Biscuits in the US are closest to the British "scones," and cookies in England are "biscuits." A TV is usually called a "telly." Bags of chips are referred to as bags of "crisps." French fries, like those from a fast-food hamburger place, might be called "fries," but if they are thicker, like the ones typically served with batter-fried fish, they're called "chips" (fish and chips). Finally, kids call the fish sticks they might have for lunch "fish fingers.