Over the long weekend we had several barbecues to attend, and I got the idea to make a little homemade hostess gift to bring along to each party. I felt like a real rockstar for coming up with the idea, some homemade limoncello infused with a lemon thyme simple syrup, and getting them packaged up in pretty glass bottles tied with baker’s twine and fresh thyme sprigs. Let me tell you what was not a rockstar move: forgetting them all in the fridge before we embarked on our day of BBQ-hopping! I didn’t realize until I got home that night, that all of my cute hostess gifts were still chilling in the fridge. The good news is, the recipe won’t go to waste — you can find it below to DIY yourself — and the drinks won’t go to waste either. I’ll be pouring myself a limoncello and soda spritzer tonight! 
- 8-10 Lemons
- 2 Cups of Vodka
- 2 Cups of Water
- 1 Cup of Sugar
- Fresh Thyme Leaves
- Peel the skins off 8-10 lemons, trimming away any of the white pith.
- Put all of the lemon peels in a large jar or carafe, and cover the peels with the vodka. Cover the container with plastic wrap and set aside for 4 days at room temperature, letting the vodka extract flavor from the peels.
- After four days, strain the vodka mixture to remove the lemon peels and set aside.
- Heat water, sugar, and thyme leaves, plus 2-3 reserved lemon peels from the vodka mixture, on the stovetop until the sugar dissolves and the syrup reduces by about one half.
- Cool the simple syrup and combine with the vodka mixture.
- Pour into bottles to gift, serve over ice by itself, or chill and serve with a splash of soda water.
SHOP THE POST
These are so so so beautiful!