What’s That Saying About Life And Lemons?

I love lemons. I love most things citrus actually so I was excitedly inspired to make Limoncello after seeing Dayna’s post on Vegan Vistor. I just happen to have half a bottle of Vodka in the house since making my own Vanilla Extract and lemons are plentiful at the grocery store at the moment so I thought I might give this a try.

Limoncello

(I halved this recipe because I only had half the vodka.)

• 8 organic Lemons, peeled
• 3 cups Vodka
• 1 cup Caster Sugar
• 1 1/2 cups Water

1. Scrub each lemon until oils begin to release.
2. Peel lemons with vegetable peeler.
3. Put vodka and lemon zest in a sealed jar for a week in the fridge.
4. Strain zest from Vodka.
5. In a saucepan, make a simple syrup with the sugar and water by heating the mixture until the sugar is dissolved completely.
6. When cooled add half the simple syrup to the alcohol and then continue until it tastes to your liking.
7. Put back into sealable jar and store in the fridge between uses.

It’s almost a week since I made this and oh my word, does it smell good. Tomorrow I’ll make the simple syrup and finish this drink.

Of course after the zest was removed from the lemons, we had to make lemonade! This lemonade was absolutely delicious! The recipe was found thanks to Food Gawker. Lily did most of the lemon squeezing.

Lemonade

• 1- 1/2 cup fresh squeezed Lemon Juice
• 3/4 -1 cup Caster Sugar
• 1 cup Water
• 3-5 cups Water
• Ice and Lemon Slices

1. Make a simple syrup with the sugar and 1 cup of water by heating the mixture until the sugar is dissolved completely.
2. Squeeze juice from lemons and put in a pitcher. We used 4-5 to get about 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice.
3. Once cooled, add the simple syrup to the lemon juice and then add cold water until the taste suits your liking. Refrigerate 30 minutes if you’d like it cold.
4. If too sweet, add more lemon juice. Optionally serve with ice and sliced lemons.