Homemade Limoncello

I made limoncello to give as Christmas gifts this year and just made a second batch.  This activity is so satisfying to me because mostly it's time that makes limoncello good.  Once you peel the lemons, there's little left to do but wait for the concoction to become delicious.  {OK, OK, there are a couple of additional steps, but it's so worth it.}

If you're inclined to try your hand at limoncello, here's what you do.  You'll need:

• 15 to 20 beauteous lemons
• 2 750-ml bottles of vodka (at least 80 proof) or Everclear
• Simple syrup (I like a 1-to-1 ratio of sugar to water)
• A large glass container to hold your concoction
• Jars or bottles for the finished product

If you're lucky like me, you're able to harvest the most beautiful, huge lemons from your in- laws' citrus trees in Arizona and then cart them back to California so they can live up to their full potential as limoncello lemons.  Make sure you choose lemons with nice skins that smell good.  I have a feeling that this batch of limoncello is going to be even better than my first one, as I had to use semi out-of-season lemons for it back in September.  This time around, I got huge, in-season fatties that smell heavenly.

Get your vodka or Everclear and decant it into the container you're going to use for your limoncello.  As you can see, I really did go for the cheapest vodka possible.  For your container, a big sun tea jar would be great.  I use a gallon glass container that I picked up at our local co-op.

Wash your lemons and dry them, making sure to remove any debris.  Then peel them.  I use a regular vegetable peeler, but you could also use a sharp knife.  Make sure you are only peeling the yellow citrus skin and not the white pith underneath.  If you leave a lot of pith on your skins, the limoncello will turn bitter.

Once you've thoroughly peeled your lemons, add them to the vodka, leaving at least 2 inches below the top rim of the container.  Seal it tightly and store in a cool, dark place for at least 2 weeks but preferably for a few months.  

I allowed my first batch to steep for 2 1/2 months, which really allowed the citrus oils to infuse the vodka.  If you're like me and enjoy checking on the progress of your projects, feel free to open the container every couple of weeks or so and swirl the peels around.  You'll notice that the peels will start losing their color after awhile, and the vodka will start turning yellow.  That's a good sign!

When the lemon peels have sufficiently infused the vodka, make the simple syrup and add it. For this batch, I'd use 3 cups of water and 3 cups of sugar.  Combine them in a saucepan, boil until the sugar is dissolved, allow to cool, and then add to your container.  For this batch, I'll have to divide it and get another container.  Put the jar(s) back into a cool, dark place for at least another 2 weeks.

When you're ready to bottle your limoncello, get a coffee filter or cheesecloth and strain your mixture through it, pressing out citrus oil from the peels.  I used coffee filters the first time around, but will use cheesecloth next time because I think it'll be easier and allow more of the oil to leak through.  Discard the peels (hopefully into a compost container) and bottle the lemony yellow liquid that you're left with.  Use recycled jars or bottles with tight-fitting lids, making sure that the bottles are completely clean.  Let the bottled limoncello sit for another week for drinking or giving it away.  Make labels to give the limoncello as a gift!

Store your homemade limoncello in the freezer because it tastes best ice cold.  It won't freeze due to the alcohol content.  For a tasty cocktail, pair it with champagne and a dash of Grand Marnier.  For a tasty treat, pour it over your choice of ice cream.

Don't forget about all of your naked lemons!  Juice them and make fresh lemonade or freeze the juice in plastic containers for later use.

I have so much extra citrus from Cole's parents' house that I may try my hand at orangecello or grapefruitcello.  Either would be just as good as limoncello, I think!

Happy Holidays

{Fat angels in our bay window in SF}

'Cause they're not over yet...we still have New Year's Eve to look forward to.

We're back in San Francisco and I'm excited to have a week to decompress from a busy Christmas in Arizona and play with my new camera some more.

Thinking

I'm trying to figure out why I find Mormonism so fascinating.  Part of it is due to the fact that I've lived in close proximity to large Mormon populations for most of my life, but I've never known very much about the history of the church or what they believe.  Part of it is due to the Mormon church's absolutely criminal involvement in the Prop. 8 campaign here in California, which still horrifies me.  Another part of it is due to my reading of a few blogs written by Mormon women around my age, to whom I can relate.  Mostly I suppose it's about reconciling all of these different aspects.

I decided to do some reading on it.  I started with Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, which I finished about a week ago.  {If you're not familiar with the book, it uses two murders by Mormon fundamentalists as a jumping-off point to discuss the entire history of the church.}  It's been on my mind ever since, especially this excerpt, which Krakauer uses to introduce Part III of the book:

One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous.  So I am told; I have not noticed it. ...

You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward the better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. ...

My own view on religion is that of Lucretius.  I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.  I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contribution to civilization.  It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that they became able to predict them.  These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others.

--Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian, and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects

There's a lot to digest that that passage, especially after just finishing Krakauer's book.  So that's what I'm doing--digesting, as I read Mormon Country by Wallace Stegner.

Small World/Smaller Neighborhood

In a very serendipitous turn of events, Cole saw one of my ilivehere: sf photos on a newish Bernal Heights blog this morning. 

This blog contains some serious Bernal Heights awesomeness, including old and new photos of sights around the hill.  Add it to your list of worthy work distractions.

One of My All-Time Favorite Looks

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I've always loved The Parent Trap--the original movie with Hayley Mills.  A big reason is the AMAZING house that the dad lives in in California.  I love the "Spanish hacienda from the twenties meets midcentury modern" design aesthetic.  In fact, it might be my favorite.  I always gravitate towards Spanish architecture from that time period.  When we were briefly looking at houses in Phoenix to buy (yes, thank God we didn't), the Spanish hacienda-type bungalows from the 1920s and 1930s were always the ones that I ooohed and ahhhhed over.  I think part of it is the bright white, thick adobe walls topped with an earthy tile roof; the Mexican tiled courtyards and patios; and the way that my favorite plants--cacti and succulents--look perfect as landscaping.

I guess I'm not the only fan of Mitch's California ranch house in The Parent Trap.  According to this site, Disney built the shell house on some land it owned south of Carmel on Placerita Canyon Road.  And this site has a ton of photos of the house in all its glory.

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A recent house tour on Apartment Therapy made me yearn for my own Spanish hacienda all over again.  Although some of this gentleman's interior design choices are a little too New York (his description, not mine) for my taste, what he did with this Los Angeles building makes me want to head down to Southern California to find my own building to rehab.  Maybe someday.

Viel Glück!

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Wishing my dad, Sam and Chris good luck when they ride in El Tour de Tucson tomorrow morning.  Wish I could be there to cheer them on and then snap photos of their exhausted faces as they cross the finish line.

Pescadero + Harley Farms

After leaving Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon, we took our time driving back up the 1 to San Francisco.  To our left was the ocean, getting brighter and brighter as the sun lowered in the sky.  To the right, lots of little towns and roadside stands beckoned.

Our first stop was at Pie Ranch, a farm founded to give inner city kids a place to experience agriculture.  I had read about Pie Ranch in connection with Mission Pie, an amazing little pie shop in the Mission in San Francisco.  Mission Pie gets some of its produce from Pie Ranch and in return, Pie Ranch sells Mission Pie-made pies.  Their pies and baked goods looked delectable.

After chatting with the salesgirl and picking out some produce, we hit the road again.  The fact that we left Pie Ranch with a bunch of kale, a basket of strawberries, and three winter squash is a testament to our willpower.

{A shop in Pescadero}

Our next stop, a few miles up the road, was Pescadero, a little town in the hills off Highway 1.  We walked around the main street, which is tiny and boasts a disproportiate amount of antique stores and galleries. 

I spied what looked like an old cemetery way down at the end of this street, so we drove over to check it out.  On the way, however, Cole was distracted by a big wooden cutout of a little girl with a goat.  We'd heard that there was a goat farm in these parts, so we decided to follow the signs.  They led us to Harley Farms, a restored 1910 goat dairy that sells a variety of goat-derived products:  cheese, milk, lotion and soap, and even fudge!

The farm and all of its buildings were really beautiful.  We got a little tub of Pumpkin Fromage (kind of a soft goat cheese spread) as well as an apricot pistachio goat cheese button.  I would really love to go to one of their farm dinners someday--but at $150 a head, it's, uh, a bit hard to justify.

{View of the farm from the cheese shop}

Before leaving Pescadero, we stopped at the old cemetery I'd seen from the road.  It was started in the 1860s as a Catholic cemetery and most of the tombstones and gravemarkers looked ancient.  If the sun hadn't been almost down, I would have taken a lot of pictures of the crazily-tilting tombstones.  Here's one that Cole took out the window of a weather-worn wooden marker.

The sunset was totally beautiful that night as we drove home.  A perfect ending to our trip.

Sea Creatures, Bicycles, and Butterflies!

{A smack of jellies at the aquarium}

That about sums up our awesome trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium and Santa Cruz this weekend.  We had a great time in perfect 70 degree weather without a cloud in the sky.

On Friday morning, we stopped at Dynamo Donuts as promised.  Their flavors are ever-changing, so we got to try Meyer Lemon Huckleberry and a sticky bun, along with the Apricot Cardamom donut we'd had before.  They did not disappoint!

{Me with an apricot cardamom donut...mmmm}

Our drive down the coast was so beautiful in the morning sun.  We got to Monterey just in time for the aquarium to open.  I was really impressed by the entire place.  It kind of made me feel like a kid again!  We saw sea otters, penguins, a giant octopus, the kelp forest, seahorses, tons of jellyfish, and much more.

{Cole as a baby penguin at the aquarium}

Two exhibits in particular were really amazing.  One was The Secret Lives of Seahorses.  The other was one that centered around pink flamingos but had a lot to do with climate change.

{Looking towards the Santa Cruz boardwalk on our bike ride}

After lunch at a beachfront restaurant and finishing up at the aquarium, we headed back up the coast to Santa Cruz.  The Dream Inn was just totally perfect--a 1960s beachfront hotel that's been updated with a modern design twist.  From our sixth floor balcony, we had a great view of the ocean, the boardwalk, and the cliffs to the north.  We could hear the waves even with our balcony doors closed!  It was lovely.

On Saturday morning after a delicious breakfast in downtown Santa Cruz, we rented bikes and headed up the bike trail on West Cliff Drive.  Aside from constantly having to dodge twin strollers and errant joggers, we loved riding along the trail, which runs right along the beach cliffs.

We rode up to the state beach, where there just happened to be a huge number of monarch butterflies resting in the eucalyptus groves there on their fall migration to Mexico.  It was such a peaceful scene, with tons of orange butterflies flittering between trees.

{Cole in the eucalyptus grove}

After checking out the butterflies, we headed back down the bike trail towards the boardwalk.  We saw lots of surfers out in the rowdy waves.  After a late lunch and some lounging on the beach, we headed back to the car and left Santa Cruz to meander back up the coast.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our trip--the places we stopped on the way back to SF!

To see the rest of our pictures from the trip, go here.

Dynamo Donuts

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Dynamo Donuts will be our first (and last) stop tomorrow morning before we head south to Monterey Bay for the aquarium and then back north to Santa Cruz for the night.  We've devoured these donuts twice now (both times with Sam, incidentally) and they are easily the best donuts I've ever tasted.  It's not just the imaginative flavors (Candied Orange Blossom, Maple Bacon, and Pumpkin Nutmeg, to name a few), but also the texture and freshness.  The Spiced Chocolate donut is simply not to be missed.  As we discovered last time, Dynamo also has an extremely cute back garden in which to enjoy your breakfast goods and coffee.

So great is Cole's love for donuts that she may have cooked up this road trip just to make a stop at Dynamo.  I wouldn't put it past her at all.

Spiced Up Brownies

For book club this week, I whipped up some Spiced Up Brownies, recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.  It was a great excuse to use some of the Mayan Cocoa that Eileen brought for us when she visited in July.  That stuff makes fabulous spiced hot cocoa, so I was excited to try it in baked goods.

Oh man, these brownies did not disappoint!  I wouldn't change a thing about the recipe--just one part of my execution of it.  I really need a real double boiler, or at least a large glass or stainless steel bowl for the top part of a makeshift double boiler.  Last night, I was working with a rather small glass bowl over a smallish saucepan, and it made for some awkward whisking once I added sugar and eggs to my melted spiced chocolate mixture.

That was the only hiccup, though.  These babies are tasty.

Heavy Boots

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I started a book club, and our first book, chosen by yours truly, was a doozy.  I knew from reading the blurb that the subject matter--a nine-year-old boy's quest to find out exactly how his father died in the September 11th attacks--would be intense.  And it was.  It was also very difficult to follow in parts.  And I never had that feeling of wanting to just really devour this book, which was a letdown.

I have mixed feelings about this book.  I kind of think that the author, Jonathan Safran Foer, who wrote Everything Is Illuminated (which I did not read, but saw in movie form), relies too much on gimmicks to get by with this story.  He switches from narrator to narrator, throws in photos, creates sections with just a word on each page, etc. 

But then there are things I really like about his writing.  One is "heavy boots," the expression that Oskar uses when he feels sad.  It's so descriptive.  I want to incorporate it into my personal lexicon.

I'm excited to hear what everyone else thought about this book when we meet tonight.

"We've been aware there's some very serious vampire activity in this town for some time."

--Edgar Frog, from The Lost Boys

The Santa Cruz Boardwalk

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We're going down to Santa Cruz for the night on Friday, so of course I had to pull out my favorite quote from The Lost Boys, which was filmed there (although it's called "Santa Carla" in the movie).  We're staying at a hotel that I've been lusting after for quite awhile now, the Dream Inn.  It's the only Santa Cruz hotel that's actually right on the beach, and it looks to have an awesome modern design aesthetic. 

I found a treasure trove of  historic photos of the hotel and had to share a few. 

{The beach before the Dream Inn in 1960; image via}

{Newly finished Dream Inn}

{Miss California contestants frolicking in front of the hotel in 1963; image via}

I'll be back with photos of the hotel in present day next week.  What I'm hoping to see is most of the 1960s design elements preserved, with the right kind of midcentury modern updates to furniture, lighting, and decor.

Before we check in on Friday, we're heading down to Monterey Bay Aquarium for the day!  This is another thing we've been wanting to do since we moved here (we're slowly checking things off our mental lists, one by one...).  Not only am I super excited for the Aquarium itself, Monterey Bay is a known gathering spot for all kinds of sharks at this time of year. 

So yeah...I won't be getting into the ocean :)

My 'Hood

I wrote a Neighborhood Guide for Apartment Therapy--check it out here!

Let's Hang*

Alas, even with our larger apartment, I'm running out of surface space for plants.  So not long ago we picked up this glass terrarium from Flora Grubb (my home away from home) that hangs from the ceiling.

Planting and arranging the succulents was challenging, but I eventually got them in there.  They're doing really well and only require a few sprays of water every couple of weeks.

*Not just the title of this post, but also the name of a line of impossibly cute key chains from kidrobot on Haight Street.

Room for Color!

This morning I woke up to an email from the Apartment Therapy editors notifying me that our kitchen was selected for the annual Room for Color contest.  Honestly, I'm honored just to have been selected and also humbled after seeing some of the amazing entries.  The winner gets a trip to NYC and the 4 finalists get 15 one-gallon cans of Behr paint! 

If you're so inclined, you can vote for our kitchen here.  Check out the other entries too!

My New Favorite Theater

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Cole's dad was in town on Friday night and we took him to the historic Castro Theater, a place we'd been wanting to see a movie since we moved here!  It did not disappoint.  While waiting in front of the theater for the doors to open, we had time to admire all of the fabulous original tilework on the walls and ceiling.  Entering the theater itself (which was built in 1922) was awesome--there's an old school concession stand right as you walk in, and the auditorium is much larger than you'd expect, with decorative touches everywhere.  We were there to see my absolute favorite Hitchcock movie of all time, Rear Window, which made the experience even more perfect in my eyes. 

At this theater, instead of being forced to sit through the moronic ads that modern theaters play before the movie starts, moviegoers are treated to the musical stylings of a very talented organist.  The Wurlitzer organ rises up out of the stage in a way that was probably quite dramatic when it debuted.  The organist played some of the songs from Rear Window, which was very cool.  And then the lights dimmed, the red velvet curtains drew back, and the movie started.  No shameless promotion, no nothing.  It was lovely.

It was AWESOME to see this movie on the big screen and with a large audience.  They were showing it as part of a Grace Kelly film festival, and I wish we could have seen more.  It seems like the Castro shows a good mix of old and new films, so I plan to go back next time I need an old movie fix.

Coastal Clean Up

Last Saturday morning we did our civic duty and took part in the coastal clean up that was happening all over San Francisco.  Last year Cole worked at one of the beaches, so this time we chose a bay-side area called Warm Water Cove, over on the edge of Potrero Hill in a semi-industrial zone.  We thought it'd be more interesting than an idyllic, sandy beach, and it was!  We worked around defunct industrial buildings and warehouses, a sad little forgotten park, and dilapidated piers and pilings...all of which is right up my alley.  Despite these industrial aspects, we were still working right at the water for part of the morning, and it was peaceful.

The group we helped out with gave us gloves and pickers, and we set off to fill our bags with debris, keeping track of what we found on a scorecard of sorts.  Here's a short of list of the more interesting items we found:

• A woman's Steve Madden heel in black
• A knob to a stove
• A small, metal letter E
• A strange, unidentifiable piece of organic matter that loosely resembled part of a brain
• Tires
• Bike tubes
• A wide selection of mustard packets
• A Presidio Pines golf ball
• A large tangle of rusted chain
• Tons of glass shards, styrofoam pieces, and cigarette butts :(

You might be glad to know that I faced up to my persisting fear of spiders once again in order to pluck many of these items from the rip-rap (little term I picked up during my days researching Army Corps of Engineers wetlands practices).  There were some crazy webs spun in between the rocks and concrete pieces that we were working around.

All in all, it was a great thing to be part of.  And afterward, since we were close by, we stopped at Flora Grubb, my beloved garden center, and picked out a glass terrarium to hang in the living room.  'Cause you can't have too many plants.

Heat Wave=Ice Cream+A New Find

Earlier this week, we San Franciscans experienced a rare treat:  true ice cream weather.  Ice cream weather demands temperatures that are so warm that you only crave two things:  big, sweating glasses of ice water and cold, cold foodstuffs.  We got that on Monday and Tuesday: mornings so sunny and warm that you didn't need a jacket to leave the house; soft breezes making their way through downtown streets at lunchtime; and the inevitable (not so enjoyable) late afternoon bus rides home on unairconditioned MUNI lines.

San Francisco is not a city that's prepared for heat of any kind.  Most apartments and even a lot of the stores and restaurants don't have air conditioning.  So it's rather wonderful that the temperature only rises to 80 degrees about twice a year.  When it does, though, watch out.  Everyone acts like it's the end of the world and begs for the fog to return.  To me, it just means that ice cream can be enjoyed as the refreshing treat it's meant to be.  {OK, OK, I did complain a little.  But only on hot buses, really.}

On Tuesday night, Cole and I headed into the Mission to Humphrey Slocombe, which you may remember from the fabled Shira Ice Cream Tour of June 2010.  It was a perfect, balmy evening, and damned if we weren't going to take advantage of it.  The Mission was busy with everyone out on the streets, fans blowing in windows, music wafting from markets.  Cole sampled the Balsamic Caramel ice cream (she liked; I didn't) and I had the strange but delicious Red Hot Banana.

As great as Humphrey Slocombe is, what piqued my interest on Tuesday evening was this old diner/soda fountain/ice cream shop called St. Francis, which we passed on our way down 24th Street. 

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This place looks spectacular at night, with all of its neon signs lit up, including a big, awesome vintage sign up higher on the building, screaming out the name in red neon.  It's got an old school soda fountain counter that's been serving up delicacies since 1918.  That's what I love about this city:  almost every place you stumble upon has a story to go with it.  You don't find the cookie-cutter chain restaurants that a corporation threw up in a week in a strip mall.  People worked hard to get these places started, and even when they're later sold to new owners, as in the case of St. Francis, there is an enduring respect for history and what has come before.

Turns out that St. Francis no longer makes its own ice cream (boo hoo); they serve Mitchell's (which was the first stop on our ice cream tour and my favorite, so I can't complain).  In any case, I have a feeling that the sundae combinations on the menu are all special St. Francis creations, not to mention the wide variety of diner food available.  In the running list of new restaurants to try that I keep in my head, St. Francis just jumped to the top.

{More} Entertainment from the Hood

I'd been wanting to capture this house and vehicle with my camera because they are both so over the top.  The faux street sign off to the left of the house proclaims it to be the crossing of "The Love Shack" and "John and Sandy Lane," and these people decorate to the nines for holidays.  The vehicle advertises some sort of mobile DJ service, and always sports this egregious amount of bling, along with various flashing lights.

I'm all for these people's self expression, but please remove the "It's all good!" sign immediately.  NOT A FAN.

Entertainment from the Hood

I've seen my fair share of front yard shrines, but this one takes the cake.  Did they bury Jesus up to his shoulders on purpose?  Did the bottom half of a once-whole statue break off in an unfortunate accident, prompting the owner to just stick the remainder into the ground?

Either way, I think it looks pretty awesome.  Almost as if Jesus is going to start rising from the white gravel at any second.

Livability

Not just any quote makes our chalkboard in the kitchen, but this one did.  This came from a contest that SFMTA held to define livability in six words or less.

I really like the winner; hence, my ensconcing it in colored chalk in our kitchen.  In fact, I think this six-word definition is pretty brilliant and perfectly describes San Francisco livability:

--accessible places = pretty damn good mass transit, bike culture, entirely walkable city
--natural spaces = tons of parks (including Golden Gate), beaches, woods, hills, community gardens
--minimal traces = SF's landmark laws regarding mandatory composting, green building, energy conservation

How would you define livability in your neck of the woods?

Our Little Cordyline

We have a tree well outside our building.  When we first moved in, there was a sizable stump in it.  One day, our downstairs neighbors removed that stump.  Ever since then, the tree well has been filled with a variety of weeds and grasses, along with some potatoes that our other downstairs neighbor planted there.  [I would never, ever eat anything that grew in a tree well on a city sidewalk.  I don't really care to have my fruit and veggies nourished with cat and dog urine, you know?]

[The offending tree well.  I told you it was unattractive.]

Anyway, on Sunday we finally made good on our plan to revamp that tree well.  We went to my favorite garden center in the entire world, Flora Grubb, and found a nice looking cordyline (in the sale section, no less!).  We chose this plant because it actually grows quite large and doesn't require much water.  Also, it meshes with the Spanish look of our building.  It would have been cool to get a full-size tree, but we were operating under the constraints of what the Volvo could hold.

Before we got started, we had lunch on our front steps in the sun.  We mused that yard work is much more tolerable when it's not 100+ degrees outside.

After assembling our tools, we got to work clearing out the weeds and grass.  Along the way we found several shards of glass, some coins, different sized potatoes that our neighbor didn't dig up, some trash, and lots of worms and bugs.

We added quite a bit of nice, healthy soil, plopped the cordyline in the hole, and covered the whole area with shredded redwood bark.  

We plan to put in something around the edge to finish it off.  Also, once the cordyline gets larger, it'd be cool to start a succulent garden around the base.