Dawn Brocco's Life & Design Blog

(Wowza - 11 degrees with a wind advisory - brrr!)

Another recipe I've been wanting to try, though I have never tasted it, is Limoncello, the after dinner liqueur to settle the stomach.

Now, as I know it's not likely I'll ever have a full bottle of vodka hanging around, and 80 days to wait on the recipe to age! (though Giada's recipe doesn't take quite that long), I thought, what the heck, maybe I can do a faux limoncello that's quicker.

So, using what I had, I made a small batch of simple syrup - sugar, water and added 6 TBL lemon juice (1/3 c). I had no lemons to peel, just lemon juice. Cooked it down a bit as one does with syrup, and let it cool.

I then poured half syrup to half Vodka - whooo! Too strong for me. Tried 2 parts syrup to 1 vodka - nope, still too strong. The ratio I like is 1 TBL vodka to 3 TBL syrup. Not bad. It will do 'til I can make the real thing.

As I made this a week or so ago, I've been trying to remember exactly how much sugar and water. It was 1 c water and the lemon juice to probably 2/3 c sugar?

No other cooking today - there's enough food in the fridge for now. And I feel like having light food today, anyway - so I made a big batch (in my new blender!) of fruit smoothie - a container of vanilla yogurt (8 oz? 6 oz? those containers are getting smaller every day), 2 bananas, about 8 frozen peach slices, 4 ice cubes and a couple glugs of 2% milk. Whizz til smooth.