Frau Blucher!

*Whinny!*

Back in 1987, my friend Jon and I spent New Years Eve house/dog-sitting for a friend of ours in San Angelo. Snooter (or SNUTR, for those in the know) was a shy lovable hound who had a strange taste for paintballs. Anyway, Jon and I occupied ourselves with the Commodore 64 and a few bottles, one of which was a bottle of Sambuca, a licorice-flavored Italian liquor. Somehow, we associated the name of the drink with the dour matron in the now-classic Young Frankenstein and every time someone mentioned "Sambuca," the other would whinny and we'd all roll on the floor laughing. We were well into the bottle(s), as you can imagine.

Anyway, my friends Alan and (especially) Theta are into homemade liqueurs made with store-bought distilled spirits. For the past two Christmases, I've brought back a bottle of Theta's peach schnapps to share with Jon and his wife. This summer, Frau Theta (whose sunny West Texas accent makes her anything but dour -- she's also a professional produce harvester) gave me a bottle of blueberry liqueur and a page of recipes! Most let you turn a bottle of cheap rum or vodka into delectable ambrosia! As I browsed the commissary spice shelves for coriander seed, whole cloves, and other goodies called for, I found a jar of anise seed and heard a spectral whinny in the distance.

Google "homemade anisette:" boil some sugar and anise seed/oil + vodka = Sambuca *Whinny!*

Who needs freakin' fruit?