At the urging of Carol, I've decided to share the secret family recipe for the yummiest summer drink imaginable - limoncello. Keep in mind that you can make this recipe with vodka, but Keri and I come from a family who pronounces "Willow Creek" as "Willa Crick," so we use 190-proof pure grain alcohol. Sorry boys, we're already taken.
Here you go:
Using a peeler or microplane, remove the peels from twelve organic lemons and 1 organic lime. (You've gotta use organic otherwise the nasty chemicals will leach into your booze. Blech.)
Place the peels into an airtight container like a big mason jar and cover with one 750 ml. bottle of Everclear. Put the jar in a cupboard, let it sit, and shake it occasionally until the alcohol turns bright yellow and the peels have barely any color left in them. With Everclear this usually takes two or three days - with vodka it takes a couple of weeks.
Filter through a coffee filter or cheesecloth into a large bottle or jar and press down to remove all the alcohol and oils that you can from the peels.
Put four cups of sugar and four cups of water in a saucepan. Lightly boil this until the sugar is dissolved. Let this mixture sit until it's cool, then add it to the strained alcohol (if you add it to the alcohol while it's hot, the mixture will turn cloudy.) Some people say that you need to then let this mixture sit for another couple of days, but I don't really see the point in this.
You're all done! You can add filtered water or more simple syrup if it's too strong for you.
Limoncello tastes great straight from the freezer. We add it to lemonade, ice tea, seltzer water and fruit juices. We make a lovely martini with citrus vodka, limoncello and a scoop of lemon sorbet on top (that one's DANGEROUS.) It's also great poured over ice cream, splashed over pound cake and slowly drizzled down someone's sleek muscular abdomen.
Enjoy!
