Limoncello

What do you do when the world (or a farm in California) delivers you 10 pounds of rotten lemons? If you answered, "make lemonade", you are incorrect. Nobody likes rotten lemonade. The correct answer is make limoncello. Limoncello, a staple of the Italian diet, is a wonderfully refreshing apertif and digestif. It is starting to gain popularity here in the U.S., but often times the domestic version tastes more like jet fuel than the perfect lemon. Besides, this stuff is so easy to make at home, you will never even think about buying the mass produced store stuff. Here's how you make it:

• Start off with some really good vodka. Some recommendations include Stoli, Iceberg, Hangar One or even a local producer from Texas called Tito's Vodka. If you like your limoncello strong, you can use grain alcohol instead of vodka for a really potent concoction.
• I like to make my limoncello in mason jars, but any air tight, wide mouth bottle will do. If you chop the peel small enough, you can always use the bottle the vodka came in.
• You need about 6 lemons per fifth of vodka. I like Meyer lemons the best (they have a little sweetness to them). If you cannot find Meyers, no problem, pick up one or two tangerines or oranges to round out the flavor of the lemons.
• Wash and dry your lemons (and oranges if needed) really well. Peel them, keep the skin in tact as much as possible. Take a sharp knife and cut or scrape all of the white pith away from the back of the skin (it helps if you peeled big pieces of skin). Now you can cut the skin with the pith removed into very tiny strips.
• Place the skins of the six lemons into the bottle, add 1/3 cup of sugar, screw on the cap and shake vigorously. In fact, for the next three weeks, you should should shake the bottle each day. Keep the bottle in a cool, dark place for the next three weeks until the peels lose their color and the liquid looks like lemonade. Some people strain the liquid to remove the peels, but I leave them in the bottle.
• Store in the freezer after the three weeks. This creates a syrupy limoncello that is excellent on the tongue before or after dinner. Keep in the freezer in between servings. If the bite is too much, you can always add more sugar at any time.
• If you want to up the lemon flavor, you can always add candy lemon drops (Jolly Ranchers) work the best. Just don't tell my Italian grandparent or they will disown me.

Enjoy responsibly.