very productive

Even though it was a "school night", we had a lot of fun last night.  Lisa from Pot and Box and Andrew from Detroit Unreal Estate Agency came over.  We had a couple glasses of wine, ate some food, decided that the paint color I'd picked for the guest room looked horrible in artificial light and therefore must go, bought an axe (long story), and made some nocino!  And all while having a delightful time.

Nocino is a walnut liquor that's made by infusing grain alcohol with the flavor of walnuts.  (similar to how Limoncello is grain alcohol infused with lemons.)

Steven and I first had it at the home of family friends of Stevens, the Natoli, when we went to visit them in Sicily.  It was so funny visiting them in this small town where the family has lived, well, forever.  We walked around town after lunch one day with them and not only did they know every single soul we saw on the street, they were related to half of them!

One night after the most delicious (and large) dinner they brought out some nocino because, "it is good for the digestion."  It's very strange, pitch black, and smells like perfume, but it tastes good- if you like really strong drinks after dinner drinks like grappa.

We made it a couple years ago and gave a bunch away for Christmas and we'll probably do the same again this year.  But for now I'm kind of worried about what the recycling guy is going to think when he sees the 6 bottles of Everclear in our recycling bin!  

Here's the recipe:

Mettere infusione in 1 litro di alcol a 95%

15 noci a pezzetti

5 chiodi di garofanoun per 40gg

fare uno sciroppo con 1/2 litro d'aqua e1/2kg di zucchero

lasciar bollire 5 minuti, far raffreddare, aggiungere all'alol, mescolae e filtrare.  lasciar maturare qualche mese. cosi viene buono ma forte.  se lo volete piu leggero, fate bolire piu acqua.