Homemade Limoncello: Part 1

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Before getting started on this post, I have an announcement that I am thrilled about.

I have been asked to contribute to a new online magazine called Honest Cooking.  I gladly accepted and am very excited about this opportunity to be a part of this community headed by Kalle Bergman.  The site launched today.  I think the look and content is fabulous.  Go check it out and decide for yourself!

Now onto more fun stuff:

Part 1:  Infusing the vodka with lemon zest.

I love making liqueurs.  Lemon seems like the perfect way to bring in the beginning of spring.  Anything citrus works for me this time of year.  I have jumped into the cyber world of Limoncello recipes.  There are serious opinions about how to make this liqueur.  My first shocker that it was highly recommended to use Everclear which is very unavailable, as in illegal to sell, in Pennsylvania. In PA, our alcohol use must be governed because we the people cannot make responsible choices.

The second shock was that people use this stuff as a cleaner.  Wow, all this time I thought it was for spiking punch, so the spiker could watch the spikees hurl their grits at the end of the night and laugh their loser butts off.  Funny stuff.  Yeah, right!  Oh well, that was the good old days when we were immature and immortal.

Spiced Apple Cidertini

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I finally bought a bottle of Calvados.  I have always bypassed it because it was a bit expensive and I didn't think I had enough uses for it. That thinking has changed.  I am the type of person to have bought liquor in the dark ages and still have it.  It takes a while going through liquor when you use 1/4 cup or less a year.  Liquor has a tremendous shelf life so it is not a problem, or is it?  Beware when your kids become teenagers. Strange things seem to happen in the liquor cabinet.  The traditional pumpkin pie flavored with Southern Comfort suddenly doesn't taste quite like it used to, sort of bland and lacking that Southern Comfort flavor.  Maybe a bit diluted. That is a story for another day.

Back to the bottle of Calvados.  Calvadoes is a French apple brandy that is used in drink and food recipes. I am also sure that a warmed brandy snifter would be a perfect vessel for this apple brandy as an after dinner drink or a digestif.   For now, I want an apple cider martini.  It is the season and it just seems right.  I love spiced or mulled apple cider based drinks and I just happen to have a jug of apple cider. I have had a few apple martinis but some were too sweet and appley, kind of like apple bubble gum.  So for the past couple of weeks I was determined to come up with something I liked and that friends and family would enjoy.  So guess who became taste testers.  That is right, family and friends. They were more than happy to help out with this task.  This is what we all agreed upon . . .

Fresh Peach Margarita on the Deck

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A good margarita is a favorite of mine and I hesitate to mess with the lime version as is.  Peaches are also a favorite and I have a ton of them.  And I have a nice little bottle of silver Patron tequila.  The stars are aligned and the deck is waiting, so who am I to argue.

Margaritas have always been my mixed drink of choice, on the rocks with salt and I want to be able to taste the tequila.  That is the nature of a margarita.  For such a simple drink, there are many variations just in choosing the tequila and orange liquor that can take a basic drink to something off the chart delicious.  How much you want to spend also comes into play, but keep in mind you don't have to spend that much to have a really good margarita.  Then there is changing up the fruit flavorings.  Essentially a margarita is tequila, orange flavored liquor and fresh lime juice.  It is summer, peaches are in season and it sounds like great combination.