From Me To You

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”  Pablo Picasso

Gift giving is something many of us associate with birthdays and Christmas, at least I know I do. But in reality we should not have to wait for a certain date to share a gift with those we love.  And I am really enjoying the trend of "paying it forward", when people do something nice for a complete stranger without expecting anything in return.  The world is so crazy right now, that those on the side of peace, love and tolerance, need to step up our game and give more of us to the world.

There are people who are natural givers, including my sister-in-law and my friends Rosi.  No matter how busy they are and how hard life is at a particular moment, they always find time for others and in my opinion, there is no better gift to give than your time and your presence.

But going back to my recurrent theme of all things Italian, I wanted to share with you how much I appreciate gift giving in Italy, as many people still give culinary presents to each other.  And I'm not talking about a box of chocolates they picked up at the store, I'm talking about jellies and preservers, garlic-flavored olive oil and spicy pepperoncino, all home made.  I can only imagine the amount of time and work it took the cook to peel, cut, process and bottle a preserve.  I don't care if I get onion jelly in a jar that used to hold tomatoes, I don't care if the presentation is not as fancy as the one from the store.  Home-made-with-love is the only label I really care about.  (PS. have you every tried onion jelly? yummo!!)  And all the jars used for these culinary presents are reused and recycled.

A couple of weeks ago, when the season for lemons was in full swing, we received a whole bunch of organic lemons from a friend of ours.  Son#2 made tons of lemonade and I baked my friend Laura's Lemon Cake, but my husband really wanted to try making home-made Limoncello.

So today, from me to you, here is my Hubby's Limoncello recipe:

Peel the lemons making sure you are only taking the yellow part of the peel (leave the white part behind, it will make your limoncello bitter).  Pour the alcohol in a big glass container and add the lemon peel.  Leave the concoction to macerate for 11 to 15 days.  Shake the container every day.  After your long wait, make a syrup with water and sugar (bring the water to a boil, pour the sugar and mix until it dissolves) let it cool completely.  Pour your alcohol mix through a strainer or cheese cloth to get rid of the lemon peel.  Add your alcohol mixture to your cool syrup.  Mix well. Pour your home made Limoncello into glass bottles and keep it in the freezer.  Enjoy a chilled shot glass after dinner.

Arrivederci, and pay it forward whenever you can!