On Deck and Edible Gifting: Infused Vodkas & Extra Virgin Hot Chili Oil

I`m combining posts cuz I am lazy and at home at the moment. It was a ridiculous day for me since the office closed for holiday at 2, I didn`t get there until 10:45 and I had a meeting off site with my board chair at noon, so I only really went in to grab the stuff for our meeting and was at work for a grand total of 75 minutes. Ok, so yeah, I did go to work late, but even if I got there at 10, I would have only been there for like, 100 minutes, so, yeah, dumb.

Anyhoo, this year I did all foodstuffs for gifts, some were my favorites products with recipe cards and some stuff I made. Here are a few things.

I started with a Rosemary-Meyer Lemon Vodka. It became on it`s own, pretty close to a limoncello, but without the simple syrup – it`s pretty sweet naturally and became a bit more viscous, like a liqueur, but go ahead and add the simple syrup if you want. This is redonkulously easy.

What I used:

4 -5 Meyer Lemons

2 5 inch sprigs Rosemary

Vodka, I used Stoli, even though my go to is Luksusowa. Whatevs, just use a decent vodka, something you would drink straight or with perrier/soda

A Big Mason Jar, I think it was like 32 OZ

Some bottles for packaging – these from The Container Store are dirt cheap and if you are in Manhattan, they will messenger them to you. Guess how they came to me? Hint, I am lazy and delivery service is my friend.

A funnel

What I did:

Clean the lemons since you are using the whole thing. Slice them all up skins on and all. With the meyer lemons, you don`t have to worry about pith ruining the drink and making it bitter.

Put the lemons in the in the jar, put the rosemary in the jar whole. Pour vodka to the top. Screw the lid on and shake it. Put it in the refrigerator 3 days-up to 2 weeks. It will get more infused the more you leave it in there. Every time you go into the refrigerator to do something, pull out the jar and shake it. Taste it after a few days and see how you like it. I pulled my first batch off after 5 days and bottled it as a gift and left the rest in for another 2 weeks. The the longer infused batch has more color and is more like a liqueur, The early batch was more like a standard infused vodka.

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