Limonciello - Here we go...

Step One - Peel The Lemons


You can use a peeler or knife to slice the peels away into any sizes pieces you want, but I find it easier to cut the lemons into quarters first and then scoop out the fruit leaving just the peels.

Step Two - Fill The Jar


Once you've peeled all ten lemons, place the peels in the mason jar and open your bottle of grain alcohol.

Step Three - Adding the Hooch


Now pour the contents of the bottle of grain into the jar and over the peels so that they now soak in the alcohol.

Chesterfest Limonciello - The Ingredients

For anyone who wants to join in the fun, here's what you'll need to make your own Limonciello...


10 Fresh Lemons
One Bottle of Grain Alcohol
One Mason Jar
700 Grams of Sugar
One Liter of Water


Graves Grain Alcohol! The name says it all. 190 proof?! I honestly don't think I've bought grain alcohol since high school when we used to dare each other to do straight shots as it was supposed to make you go blind. What the hell were we thinking?! You know that clip that's been going around the internet of the kid who sets his face on fire doing a flaming shot and dunks his head in the toilet? Well I saw that live before my eyes a few times about 17 years ago courtesy of this stuff! Ah, the good old days...

Going, Going, Gone...

On our trip to the Amalfi Coast in Italy, Mutsumi and I were treated nightly to Limonciello, a strong local liquor made from the large lemons that grew in the area. It was served after every meal, and was quite tasty but stong as hell. We couldn't leave Italy without it and brought two bottles of Il Limoncello Di Masaniello back with us.


I usually don't keep liquor in the house, but for this stuff we made an exception. And now, slowly but surely, meal after meal, our Limonciello reserves have dwindled. We now find ourselves with only about half a bottle left, less than what you see in this picture.


So two weekends ago when I was back at my parents' home in CT, their neighbor Vinny Bassani drops by for a visit. (Long time readers will remember how fondly I speak of Mrs. Bassani's lasagna.) We get to talking about Italy and Limonciello comes up. I tell him our tale of woe about our supply soon running dry, and he asks very matter-of-factly in his smooth Italian accent, "Why don't you just make it yourself?" I must have let out an audible "Wha.. huh?" because he quickly followed that up with, "It's easy, let me tell you the recipe." And he did.

Now I've thrown my fair share of parties, consumed copious amounts of beer and liquor, and mixed plenty of drinks over the years, but I'm getting into new territory here now. So over the course of the next two weeks, I'll be documenting my first attempt at making an actual alcoholic beverage here on Chesterfest.

Everybody Loves Runaways!

EW baby!!

Congrats to Brian, Adrian, Craig, Takeshi, Christina, Randy, Jo and Mac!

One Man Army Club?

We went to this club called The Next Level at The Docks in Toronto and the hand stamp you got at the door looked like this:

If I didn't know any better, I'd say DC sponsored the event. We kept looking down at our hands all night thinking "OMAC is watching!"

Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate

Star Wars and Naruto... two great sets of characters that look so good together!

The Sith vs. ninja?! I see a dojinishi in the making here! The story would just write itself.

Frodo and Fatty

From the mouse of Nick Lowe...

Frodo in Chesterfest

In Toronto on Saturday, I finished a nice lunch and was heading back to the con as I had a panel to do. I wanted to stop by and see Skottie and Josh and get my bag before going to the panel as I wanted to take a few pictures at it to post here. But I got waylayed on the con floor and decided to go right to the panel instead as I figured there wouldn't really be anything exciting to take pictures of anyway. My mistake...

When the panel wrapped up, I went back to the VIP room to use the washroom (as they say in Canada) and grab some water. And no sooner do I walk in than the show's organizer Aman grabs me and tells me there's someone he'd like me to meet. He leads me over to this kid playing a guitar and says, "Elijah, I'd like you to meet my friend C.B."

And Frodo Baggins himself looked up from the guitar. It was Elijah Wood!

He put down the guitar, shook my hand and introduced himself. Then he asked what I do and we got into a nice conversation about comics and movies. I haven't met many celebrities in my life, but Elijah was such and honest and cool guy. No ego whatsoever, just a normal dude hanging out at a show, complaining about how much money he spent buying stuff and worried about how he was going to get it all home with him. He even asked if I could get him a job wiritng comics if his movie career ended up not going anywhere. I told him I didn't think he had to worry about that happening.

I then geeked out a little and told him I would love to get a picture with him, but that I just had to run up and grab my camera. (Arrgghh!! If only I went to get it before going to the panel!) He said he had to run but could hang out and wait a few minutes. I fought my way through the fans, got my backpack and rushed back downstairs, but to no avail. He'd just jumped in a limo and jetted. Oh, well... I'm going to see if Nick Lowe can't work his Photoshop magic and get a pic done up of me and Frodo for you all.

Oh, and as I met Sean Astin about a year ago (that's a story I'll save for a rainy day for you), I've decided one of my new goals in life is to try and meet all the hobbits from Lord of The Rings. With Frodo and Samwise now down, I have Merry, Pippin and Bilbo to go. Anyone got any phone numbers or addresses?

Con FYI

Now most people who read this blog have been to a comic con and understand the world I work and play in. But I'm slowly finding out that some of the readers here don't know what goes on at these kinds of events. It's not all comics and artists as one might suspect. These days, more and more media stars from genre TV shows are showing up and selling pictures and signing autographs, just like Johnny Drama and his Viking Quest signing on Entourage. ("Victory!!") So I snapped a few pics of some of the "stars" who showed up at the Toronto con for you to check out.


Margot Kidder, Lois Lane from the Superman movies


Back to the Future's George McFly, Crispin Glover


Marina Sirtis, Star Trek's Counselor Deanna Troy


Erica Durance, Lois Lane from the Smallville TV series
(Having met her, I don't know how she passes for a teenager. She's a beautiful woman, don't get me wrong, but she looks a lot older in person.)


And Grace Park, from that last Star Trek series no one watched

No Smoking... Or Else!

I wish we had warning labels like these on our cigarettes in the States...

Now this one is pretty direct:



But I think this one sends a better message:

Clyde Is Still Watching!

Sit-In Protests

Neither Clyde or Lotto wanted me to leave for Toronto today so they staged a sit-in (sleep-in?) protest in my suitcase.

Yes, I lied. I did indeed mention that Chicago was the end of my con season, but here I am at the Canadian National Comic Book Expo in Toronto. However, this con is always more fun than work as Aman is always kind enough to invite me up as a guest to speak on panels and do portfolio reviews every year. It's much more relaxed, and often a lot more fun, than a lot of the other cons I attend every year. This show also draws cool media guests, and in the past I've found myself drinking beers and doing shots with people like Mini-Me, Billy Dee Williams, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, some of the Buffy hotties, and even Lieutenant Uhura from teh original Star Trek. Elijah Wood is here this year so maybe me and Frodo can share some hobbit ale. Who knows?

Whatever happens, Finch, McNiven, Bagley, Takeshi, Skottie, Middelton and a whole bunch of other friends are all here, so we're guaranteed a good time! (But not too good a time, Mutsumi. I promise!)

Bobby Flay Who?

It's obvious from looking at me that I enjoy a good meal. What many people don't know is that I also like to cook. However, as most of my specialties are of the meat variety and my recipes call for lots of butter, oil, garlic and hot sauce, Mutsumi prefers I stay out of the kitchen and leave the cooking to her. But to help wrap up my "food finds" weekend, I jumped in on the ol' BBQ and roasted up a meal for the family. The main course... lamb!!

We found lamb was actually cheaper in CT than it is here in NYC, so we bought quite a bit, as you can see. (That's for six people!) I marinated it the night before in extra virgin olive oil, ground black pepper, canned diced garlic and fresh chopped garlic. It sat for about 18 hours, letting the oil and spices sink in. Then all I did was grab the tongs and drop the meat on the grill. One thing to keep in mind though is that it's a shame to let the extra marinade go waste. There's a lot of flavor in it and you don't want to just throw it out. So what I recommend doing, as seen here, is slicing a few peppers in half and filling them with the leftover marinade as you grill. They end up quite tasty!

And just so you have the full menu, the lamb was accompanied by fresh corn on the cob, salad with a lemon-mustard dressing Mutsumi made, and a side of Tabasco-infused mac and chesse that Erika whipped up.

Those Crazy Swedes!

Regular readers of my ramblings here have probably figured out that I'm part Swedish. For those that didn't know, well, I am. My mother's "right off the boat" as they like to say, having moved here from Sweden over 40 years ago. So I grew up with a lot of Swedish in my life. (Not many bikini teams dropped in though, unfortunately.)

When we were younger, we used to get together with a tight knit group of Swedish friends and have parties and celebrate holidays and things. As we kids got older and moved away, these gatherings became less and less frequent. However, one tradition remained, the annual crayfish party! Every summer all the families and as many of the kids as possible would all get back together in Fairfield, CT at the same home to catch up, drink and eat... lobster. (See, it used to be crayfish, as per Swedish tradition, but there's not enough meat on those suckers, so it was changed to lobsters years back.) This year was no different, and last Saturday the party was held and my gourmet weekend continued. It was a Swedish feast with herring and meatballs and Johnson's Temptation and breads and cheeses, and even more of my mom's special cookies! And of course there were lobsters...



And what kind of party would it be without drinking?



That's me, my sister, Erika, and my brother, Roman.

And more drinking, with even my dad joining in...

Clyde Is Watching!

Chesterfest meets Oysterfest

After AQUAVIT, we headed back to CT to hang with my parents and just chill in the country. That evening's dinner was had at the Connecticut-only, king of fast food chains: DUCHESS. If you've never had Duchess before, I suggest you get in your car and head to Connecticut now. You don't know what you're missing! The chicken sandwiches, chili cheese dogs and double cheeseburgers with fried onions cannot be passed up! Their food is backed by the Cebulski family money-back guarantee!

We got up bright and early the next morning and skipped breakfast before running a few errands because we knew we needed our appetites later that afternoon as we would be eating our fill at the Milford Oyster Festival!

We began with a few cold brews as we got the lay of land then started with some friend clams stips and a dozen clams on the half-shell. This was all a warm-up to keep us heldover as we waited for the fresh oysters. It was a long line but well worth the wait. 10 different kinds of oysters to choose from, opened right in front of you. One dollar per oyster, take as many as you like. Mutsumi and I went to town and filled up with a two of each variety.



And those twenty slowly but surely disappeared!

Feed A Cold

Ever since I got back from Wizard World Chicago a few eeks back, I've had this summer cold that just won't go away. It sucks. So this past weekend, I decided to live by the old adage "Feed a cold, starve a fever" and with the help of my family, I went on a bit of a food binge and splurged on some good eating. Given my size, it's not like I needed to stuff my face with gourmet treats, but I love to eat and thoroughly enjoyed myself!

The weekend started with a wonderful meal at AQUAVIT in NYC. It's a Scandanavian restaurant run by Marcus Samuelson and I highly recommend it. One of my brother's best buds is a PR guy for celebrity chefs and he reps Marcus, so he booked us a great table and hooked us up.

We started with an assortment of herring...



Moved on to some gravlax...



And then went on to a main course of crayfish.



In between the dishes (but not pictured) we had an amazing trout roast in a garlic/apple soup, swedish meatballs, a fantastic baked salmon, and plenty of beer and aquavit to wash it all down!

Recommended Comic!

Sometimes you read a comic that, once you've finished it, you put down and just go, "Wow! That was a great read!" I just had one of those moments. I read the Ultimate Spider-Man Annual and truly believe it's one of the best comics I've read this year. Granted I have a natural affinity for these characters as I worked in the Ulitmate office for three years, but this is one of the first Ult, spidey comics I had not read the scripts for that I was reading cold for the first time in its published format. This comic is so worth it. Bendis nails the characters and the tender teen moments and makes us remember what it's like to have a crush again. Thanks, Brian!

Crazy Japanese Item of the Week

Taking ergonomics to the next level...



Thanks to UDON's Erik Ko for pointing this one out to me.

DRAIN - Chinatsu's History

As told in Sana's newest double-page spread...