It was exceedingly miserable this morning when I went to Kelso, to pick up my latest picture, which I bought from Gretel, from the framers. I also did a little bit of Christmas shopping, then stopped in Jedburgh on the way home for a bit more shoppping ...... the rain had got steadily heavier, and this was the view through the windscreen when I parked
This isn't the best photo of the picture - I'll take a better one once it has been hung
Now for the bliss - I had seen recipes for limoncello on a couple of blogs recently, then I saw a recipe in a magazine, so yesterday I bought the ingredients .......
...... vodka, unwaxed lemons and caster sugar (it might seem extravagant buying Smirnoff vodka, but it was on special offer and was the same price as the supermarket own-brand). The last ingredient needed was water. Having dissolved the sugar in the water, I added the lemon peel and simmered it for 15 minutes
The next stage was to add the lemon juice (it's not a good time to discover that you have a papercut on your finger, when you are squeezing lemons) and simmer it for another five minutes. Finally, I divided the syrup between two jars and topped them up with vodka. All that remains to be done is to gently shake them every couple of days for the next two weeks, before straining and bottling the limoncello (if you are reading this Stuart, yes, there will be a bottle with your name on it under the Christmas tree!)
Now for the blisser - when I was looking through a food magazine last night I found a recipe for Turkish Delight vodka . I thought I had reached vodka heaven when I had chocolate vodka years ago ........ but Turkish Delight vodka sounds even more delicious!! Very simple ingredients for this ........
....... vodka, Turkish Delight and rosewater, which I bought this morning. The recipe also has caster sugar, saying that the sugar on the Turkish Delight should be rinsed off ....... but that seemed a bit daft, so I just shook the excess off before adding it to the vodka (you pour some out to make room) and popping in the rosewater through a little funnel
Now it just needs a little shake every day over the next two weeks, then it can be bottled. The recipe says it will keep for a year ....... I doubt I will put that to the test!!
Oh dear - I've just read over what I had typed so far ........ I don't really drink that much vodka (I prefer wine), and I have certainlly never bought two bottles in two days before!!
It may have been miserable for most of the day, but finally the rain went off, and we even had a little bit of pink in the sky as the sun set!