A cool summer drink and a weekend in NY

Three years after making Limoncello as Christmas gifts I have decided to give infused liquors another try.  The family lemon verbena plants are growing out of control this summer and I was trying to figure out what I could make with the sweet and lemony smelling leaves.  If vodka infused with lemons makes a good drink vodka infused with lemon verbena should too right?  Only one way to find out! After consulting with my friend at the restaurant about proportions, I set off last week to buy some vodka! The guy at the store was skeptical when I brought several liters of vodka to the counter but he wished me luck and I was on my way to making lemon verbena vodka! 

Lemon Verbena Vodka

Ingredients:

4 cups of lemon verbena leaves (taken off their stems and washed)

2 liters of good vodka (I used grey goose but I’m sure anything not in a plastic handle would do just fine!)

Directions:

Put the lemon verbena leaves in a 2-3 liter jar.  Pour in vodka and stir!  Complicated right?  Let “steep” for as long as you want.  I thought it would take a lot longer for the verbena leaves to infuse the vodka but after two days the vodka smelled like lemon and looked as green as grass -nothing like the limoncello I made that needed to sit for at least a month to fully infuse. I’m sure I could have let it steep for a few more days but the leaves were starting to turn light yellow which to me meant their had given all they could.   Time to take the leaves out! I mixed the infusion with soda water and ice and it made the perfect summer drink.  Cool and refreshing and satisfyingly home made.

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I took a last minute trip this past weekend and escaped to Brooklyn for a great weekend of family, food and cocktails!  We had a fantastic dinner at James and fun cocktails at the Clover Club.  I don’t have any recipe posts but I have a little photographic tour of the details I saw around Brooklyn instead.

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens A little friend hanging out in the herb garden at the BBG My aunt’s kitchen