A new crush.

I’m smitten.

With a kitchen appliance.

A cheap one.

I’ve talked in the past about my love affair with my coffee maker. I’m continually shocked at how deep my feelings go for a machine I bought at Target for under $30. I feel a great sorrow when we are separated, and such daily joy each morning when we meet. Doesn’t that sound like true love to you? But there’s a new appliance in the house…and I’ve got my eye on it.

My new JUICER.

Ever since I tried the recipe for honey-ginger sparkling lemonade with rosemary when my close friends visited, I have kept a pitcher of it in the fridge. Yes, it’s that good. And nothing says AHHHHHHH on a hot summer day more than a refreshing glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade. It was a huge hit at our July 3 fiesta. I brought it along for our outdoor movie date. It’s awesome as a cocktail mixer and scrumptious all on its own. I love this lemonade.

But it’s a huge pain to make, mostly because of the lemon part.

My method for juicing lemons has been old school and time-consuming. I’ve been using a hand-held, classic juicer. One batch of lemonade takes about 15 lemons. Considering how often I make it, that’s a lot of squeezing by hand, not to mention my ghetto seed-straining set-up.

Enter this little honey.

It caught my eye at Bed, Bath and Beyond. With a $29 price tag, I had little faith that it would function well. My hand-squeezing method wasn’t difficult; it just took a really long time. I confirmed that I could return it if I wasn’t super happy, made a point of safely pocketing the receipt, and headed home in doubt.

Filled with skepticism, I examined the contents of the box. This little tiny thing is going to make my life easier? Whatever. Temporarily intrigued by the option to select how much pulp I preferred, I set up my cutting board and BIG bowl of lemons. Let’s see whatcha got.

Less than 10 minutes later, I had 16 lemon carcasses in the compost bin. I had more juice in the pitcher than I had ever gotten using good, old-fashioned elbow grease. I had stars in my eyes and kept mumbling things like, This is incredible. Is this really happening?

YES. This was really happening. Fresh-squeezed lemon juice, free of seeds and extra pulp, ready to be used in the rest of my beloved summer recipe. I can’t stop thinking about it.

I told myself that there was room in my heart for TWO cheap kitchen appliances. But I’ve been around long enough to know how crushes work. I’m totally twitter-pated now, this is true. I’ll spend a lot of time with the juicer in the coming months. The coffee-maker, while still a daily relationship I’ll continue, might not feel the love. But let’s be honest- when the warm weather fades and the snow starts to fall, who wants ice-cold lemonade? A hot, steaming cup of coffee will win every time.

For now, I’m happy to have a full pitcher of homemade lemonade in my fridge.