I remember the first time I had a Bloody Mary that didn't gross me out. We were in New Orleans, eating breakfast at the counter at Stanley's. I ordered a mimosa and Paul ordered a Bloody. I had one sip of mine and one sip of his and knew I was NEVER going back to mimosas.
Since then, I am always and forever on a quest to find a great Bloody Mary. Restaurants often rely on a mix which tends to make the drinks too sweet and too watery. They also tend to be either WAY too big - who needs a 32 oz drink at 10am? - or way too small. Not ideal.
So Paul and I have created a recipe that we think is a winner. And just for fun, last weekend, we threw in bacon stirrers. As you can probably imagine, they were amazing.
We like to make the "mix" in a pitcher (or in our house, a giant measuring cup) and then just pour as needed and mix with vodka and ice.
For your mix (serves 4 people one drink or 2 people two drinks)
- 2 cups tomato juice - something without sugar and "real juice" is best
- the juice from two fresh lemons
- the juice from one and a half fresh limes
- 1/4 C Worcester sauce
- a decent bit of pepper
- probably some salt (depends how salty your tomato juice was)
- optional Tabasco sauce (to taste)
Mix that all up well. Pour a little over 1/2 cup of mix and 1 oz of vodka into your glass. Add a few ice cubs. Get extra fancy and throw some green olives on a stirrer. Get even fancier and throw in some celery. Go all in and add some bacon...
To make our bacon stir sticks, Paul wrapped bacon around BBQ skewers and cooked in the oven at 400*F for 25 minutes (you may want to go a bit longer for extra crispiness). The grease dripped right off into the pan below, which was awesome and the bacon came out shaped like a curly-Q. Perfectly fancy to throw in the drink. (And absurdly delicious to eat).
Cheers! It's the weekend!
SIDENOTE! when I was pregnant I drank virgins of this ... same exact mix, no vodka and it was crazy delicious. Highly recommend.
