When Life Gives You Lemons - Limoncello!

Rain rain rain rain rain ..... today it is coming down in sheets, sideways. Like a Hollywood set with rain machines and humongous fans blowing it in horizontal waves across our neighborhood. An atmospheric river, according to the weatherman, gesticulating like a bad dancer at a worn-out wedding.

Life seems to be giving me lemons today, weather-wise anyway.

And what is the adage? When life gives you lemons, make lemonade?

Well, as it happens, I bought ten fresh beautiful Meyer Lemons last week to make limoncello for refreshment on hot sticky days to come. It takes awhile to make, patience is required.

Today's gloom beckons optimistic me to create a little sunshine. Instead of lemonade, the limoncello process has begun. I wash the lemons, hold a sharp paring knife like a scalpel, and begin removing peel in very thin layers, no bitter-white allowed.

Immediately citrus scent permeates the soggy shadowy gray even as curtains of rain-rivulets dribble down my window panes. The storm is no match for repeated spritzes of lemon oil. 

My hands deliciously smell of the yellow, oily bits.

I am smiling. Summer has entered my home. 

Golden peels, delicately placed into a jar, are covered with one liter of vodka, and left to befriend one another. 

For one week.

Until Step Two.

Soon, after more ingredients are mixed, heated, and added, there will be lovely narrow-necked, whimsically labeled bottles tucked away in the freezer, available for perfect moments with the best of friends and family. Thoughts of sharing limoncello plants a smile on my face and zippidy-doo-dah in my heart.

It may be a lion of an April day outside, but sunshiny summer skies are alive and well in my heart.