Nocino
Recently I hosted several Sacramento area food bloggers over for a potluck. Late in the afternoon, after most of the guests had left and the die hards remained, I pulled out some nocino, a spicy, sweet, slightly bitter walnut liqueur that I made a couple years ago to share with the group. The recipe comes from our favorite Parisian man-about-town David Lebovitz, from his terrific book, Room For Dessert. David recommends using nocino to flavor custards, or to pour over vanilla ice cream. We had ours straight. To any other group of my friends, tasting homemade nocino would be a novelty at best. To this group, it was an inspiration. A few friends looked around the yard and noticed that our walnut trees had plenty of perfectly young green walnuts on them. A few minutes later, one group was off to the store to buy a gallon of vodka. The other group was on ladders picking the young walnuts within reach. In short order, our kitchen was filled with cooks, chopping walnuts, parsing out sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and other ingredients to different glass canning jars. A nocino party! One of the guests even noticed churro remnants on the kitchen ceiling (that's another story) and knocked them down.
David recommends using nocino to flavor custards, or to pour over vanilla ice cream. We had ours straight. To any other group of my friends, tasting homemade nocino would be a novelty at best. To this group, it was an inspiration. A few friends looked around the yard and noticed that our walnut trees had plenty of perfectly young green walnuts on them. A few minutes later, one group was off to the store to buy a gallon of vodka. The other group was on ladders picking the young walnuts within reach. In short order, our kitchen was filled with cooks, chopping walnuts, parsing out sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and other ingredients to different glass canning jars. A 