Lemonchell-OOOO.

My lovely boyfriend just got back from 12 days in Europe- without me. The bastard. His family went on an Italian cruise stopping all along the Italian coast, Tunisa, Barcelona, Nice and Monte Carlo. His mother is 100% Italian, but 3rd generation American. Growing up in said half Italian (half Norwegian) household, his wonderful mother taught him how to cook. This is a godsend for me because I don't. Not that I can't, I just don't. I bake. My WASPY family is all about white bread, meat and potatoes.

Boyfriend's family is totally different. They make homemade pasta and have a secret family recipe for red sauce. Their family cook book is amazing. So after his first trip to the homeland, BF and I got a great idea to make our own lemonchello.

So after work on Saturday, I picked him up and we booked it to Costco. We were stupid to think it would be an in and out trip. Why? Football. The great state of Oregon is serious about football. We don't have a professional team and we only have two NCAA Division I schools. Needless to say, Costco was swarming with green, orange, yellow and black. Boyfriend graduated from the University of Oregon (ducks) in Eugene and bleeds yellow and green.

Autzen Stadium  is known for its crowd noise. In 2007, when the Ducks beat USC, a record crowd of 59,277 fans was recorded at 127.2 decibels. Duck fans take their "Yell-O" very seriously.

My family has three generations at Oregon State University (beavers) in Corvallis. My grandparents met during a ballroom dancing class at OSU and were married for 55 years. Adorable. My grandmother got her degree in Home Economics. Super adorable. And me? I went to Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts 3,000 miles away. So I guess I'm a platypus because I really don't care who wins as long as the state of Oregon does well.

Back to Costco. We fought our way and bought a giant bag of lemons and made it home just in time for kick-off. During the Duck game (Yell-O), Boyfriend peeled all of the lemons. He only knocked them on the floor once when Oregon made scored a touch down (and beat Stanford- hells yes).

Lemonchell-O.

At half time we poured the Everclear in and gave it the "Italian Blessing." Here's to hoping that we have our own lemonchello in 4 weeks.

Oh, Everclear.