Sparkling Roasted Vanilla Lemonade

Recipe from Martha Stewart Living Magazine and Tested in Alice's Kitchen
Makes 6 1/2 cups; serves 6 to 8

We had our brave friends, Nathan and Janet, over for a dinner last night in which every dish and drink was an experiment for the blog. (So the recipes had to pass the taste test of two husbands.) Nathan had two helpings of this lemonade while we conversed on the porch before dinner. I served the delicious drink with crackers and goat cheese from Lost River Market & Deli. Vanilla seeds roasted with lemon halves and sugar offer a surprising flavor in this sparkling lemonade. Roasting the lemons takes the edge off the acidity.

10 lemons, halved crosswise, and seeded
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, pod reserved
1 1/2 to 2 cups club soda
simple syrup, if needed (recipe on this blog)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place lemons, cut side up, in a very large baking dish. Sprinkle with sugar, then add the water and vanilla seeds and pod. Roast until edges of lemons are golden brown, about 30 minutes to an hour. (It took about an hour in my oven for the lemons to turn golden brown on the edges.) Let cool.
Squeeze the juice and pulp from lemons into a blender. Remove vanilla pod, and add syrup left in the baking dish to the blender. Puree, then strain through a sieve into a pitcher, pressing to extract liquid and some pulp.
At this point, the lemonade mixture can be put in the fridge for up to 3 days in advance of your party.
Fill glasses with ice. Pour 3/4 cup lemonade into each glass. Top with 1/4 cup club soda. We added a bit of simple syrup to sweeten the lemonade a bit more. Check this blog for the recipe for simple syrup.