Lemonycello and the Blueberry Pancakes

We had a Pancake Day here at the homestead. Blueberry pancakes actually.
This past Tuesday was Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday. The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday when Lent begins.
In many countries Shrove Tuesday is the day of parades and much merriment as Lent is observed with abstinence. The reason for pancakes is that religious families abstaine from eggs and dairy begining Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday. So in order to use up all the eggs, milk and butter...PANCAKES !
I no longer observe Lent, however always the one looking for a good excuse to make pancakes (actually I make them at times with no excuse whatsoever..) I thought Larry and I would join in with Gusto.
Gusto being the Lemoncello of a previous posting.

Years ago (don't ask how many) I hitch hiked out to CA and ended up in Venice Beach. Every week some friends I stayed with would treat me to brunch at a little German restaurant. And every week I would have German pancakes. Very thin, crispy around the edge, rolled up with powdered sugar and lemon sprinkled on. I would butter those babies up, pour on the maple syrup and thank the carballicious Gods for putting me in that exact spot in that exact moment.

Ever since, whenever I have made pancakes, I sprinkle them with lemon juice, in memory of that time. Plus I just love them that way.
Well, this past week when I wrote my Lemoncello post, a friend of mine suggested drizzling vanilla ice cream with it. And I will be doing that very soon. But now I was making pancakes, and I had no fresh lemons and then I remembered what she said about drizzling it...HEY, I know,
add it to the soy milk to make buttermilk for the pancakes, stir it into the syrup....the ideas were bombarding my brain.

And I did it, I stirred 2/3 c of maple syrup together with a tablespoon of Lemoncello, and I added one tablespoon to a cup of soy milk for the blueberry pancakes and then I thanked those carb Gods all over again.

Lemoncello Tutorial and Gas Tank Martini's

Well I've been threatening to for about a year and finally bought a bottle of Lemoncello.
An Italian liquor...Lemon.

I love anything lemon.
I first heard of this on Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals show.
She drizzled it over a store bought sponge cake, added lemon curd then covered it in fruit.

I like liquors. I use Triple Sec in drinks and I also add a tablespoon to my cheesecake batter, really smooths the taste out.
So I had to try this.

And when we returned home from our trip to the big city (it's not that big, I just call it that because there is a Lowe's and a Wal-Mart there) I just had to Google Lemoncello to see what I could make with it.
And I found this over at Hope Studiosa tutorial for making your own Lemoncello.
I also found via Google, a bunch of recipes for drinks and desserts using Lemoncello.

We already brew beer and make wine. And I did make cranberry liquor about 20 years ago to give as Christmas gifts. It was awesome. Pretty much the same as they did in the linked tutorial.

Well it's almost 5 PM here and since you're immune from being labeled a "problem drinker" as long as you wait until after 5 for your first drink (this is an old family joke),

I shall gather my implements to partake of a "Lemoncello Martini". Yes, even those of us who choose to live out where "turn left at the pigs" is part of the directions to our place, drink martini's.
Even though this is my first lemoncello one, and all the martini's I have had up to this point have tasted like something I want to pour into the tank of the riding lawnmower.

Well there was the time I got creative and added cranberry juice to a batch and it made them better. Larry laughs at this.
He says "it's pretty bad when you add cranberry juice to something to make it taste better (he does not like cranberry juice, and also said "it's like adding a dog turd to something and it actually improves the flavor")

Ahhh Lemoncello, your lemony color attracts me like no other liquor can. Just this side of neon.

I have my stainless steel shaker and my martini glass. And look, just to be on the safe side, I have sugared the rim of the glass.


Well my camera's battery needs to go to the charger for the rest of the evening, so no pics of the actual martini, but suffice to say....the grass shall be cut at least one more time.
(Wonder what a set of Martini glasses are going for on Ebay....)

Larry is a huge fan of Baileys Irish Cream. So I am looking up a recipe for that. A little drink of that, late evening, for a nightcap. Sitting by the fire. A little Sade or Chris Botti playing. Oh I'm in the moooood for loooove.......

Anyone else out there ever brew beer or make a liquor?