Homemade Lemoncello!

When life gives you lemons...soak 'em in booze! 

I love the idea of homemade booze...who knew?  When I think about all the stuff you could soak in Vodka it makes me all woozy!   Vodka is a neutral spirit, it goes with everything!

This is stuper easy (a little boozy  humor).  Steep lemon peels in your favorite vodka for about 5-7 days...add some simple syrup and you are locked and loaded (more boozy  humor)...crack myself up!  Oh yeah, fun photo shoot friends, very fun photo shoot...hicuup.

Ingredients

1 fifth Vodka
2 pounds lemons (about 10)
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
Sterilized container with tight fitting lid (like a large jar)

Peel yellow skin off of lemons being careful not to get the white pith (it will make your Lemoncello bitter and kinda pith ya off).

Mix Lemon peelings and vodka in large jar with tight fitting lid.
Store for 5-7 days in a cool dark place.  Give it a shake a day if you can...

Combine sugar and water in saucepan.  Heat to boiling and cook for 10 minutes until all sugar is dissolved.  Cool to room temperature.

Drain lemon peels from vodka and toss.  Pour desired amount of sugar mixture into vodka.  I used about 1 1/2 cups...but whatever tastes good to you!

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Blueberry Pie Bars

If I were a Blueberry, I would want to land my big blue butt in this pan...what a way to go out...if your a Blueberry I mean.  Seriously, these are some killer bar cookies...and easy?...oh, get me started! 

 I found several variations of this recipe on Pinterest (cause' that's where all the groovy recipes are).   I eventually settled on Kleinworth & Co. version.  Why?.. well they had the best picture of course so they must be the best, turns out I was right!

 You can use fresh or frozen blueberries and I'll just bet you could substitute Raspberries, Apples or Peaches...oh yum, Peaches sound perfect for next time!



Blueberry Pie Bars

Topping

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2  cup sugar
pinch salt
1 1/2 sticks cold butter (cubed)


Filling

 2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sour cream
pinch salt
3 cups fresh blueberries

Instructions

Grease 9x13 glass baking dish- set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Add flour, sugar, salt and cubed butter to mixing bowl, beat until combined and crumbly.

Take 1 cup of mixture and set aside. (I really tried to forget this step so I'm giving you a visual)

• Take remaining mixture and firmly press into your baking dish, covering the bottom. Bake 15 minutes.
• While crust is baking- whisk eggs in a large bowl.
• Add sugar, sour cream, flour and salt.
• Gently fold in blueberries. (if frozen, you may want to wait just until you are ready to pour into the crust so they don't go all purple on ya)
• When crust is ready - remove from oven and add filling. Gently spooning over the top of the crust.
• Sprinkle with remaining crust mixture you had set aside.
• Bake 1 hour or until top is lightly browned.
• Cool a bit before serving to make easier to cut.
• Print and save this recipe...your going to be making it a lot!

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BBQ Chicken Soup with Cornbread Croutons

Soup with a twist and a secret ingredient...I LOVE secret ingredients! 

 I've never heard of BBQ Chicken Soup until I had it at SODO Kitchen, a lovely restaurant located in the Seattle Starbucks Headquarters building. The food is fresh from local Farmers and the staff is lovely! The Catering Manager was nice enough to share this recipe with...Thank you Laura! 

 This has turned out to be one of my all time soup faves and I love me some soup so that says alot.

So, what is that secret ingredient??  It's a cup of brewed coffee and of course I used Starbucks...I got a few pounds of it hanging around.

NOTES:

• This soup is as good as the BBQ sauce you use...so be sure and use one you like.
• Perfect recipe to use grocery store purchased Rotisserie Chicken!

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