Because 2 days is never enough.

I realized the key to last minute holiday craft success is to limit the amount of time I spend sleeping. I’m starting to get circles under my eyes - it’s not pretty.

The good news is that I found 160 proof vodka in my neighborhood last night so I can attempt to make my own limoncello. I had a bit of a setback this past week since I was told grain alcohol is illegal in the state of New York. I contemplated asking my co-workers who commute in from New Jersey to pick some up for me, but I was worried they would think I was an alcoholic. This led to my insecurity about asking for 160 proof vodka in the liquor stores. Every time I went into a store to ask for it I felt compelled to explain that I needed it to make my own liquor. I figured you can’t just ask for 160 proof vodka without having a legit reason. My liquor store only had one brand at that proof and the bottle looks small-time, almost homemade, and it’s from a town upstate that I’ve never heard of. It’s called Devil’s Creek and has two primary warnings on the label:

1. Highly flammable.
2. Do not drink without out diluting it first.

Nice.

I was so excited about the vodka purchase that I peeled 11 lemons last night at around midnight, dumped them into an airtight container with the liter of vodka, and hid the concoction in a safe corner of my kitchen. When I peeked in on it this morning, I noticed the liquid already started turning yellow in color. I feel like a prohibition era moonshiner preparing my own hooch. I’ll report back in a few days to let you know how step 2 of the process turns out.