Your Favorite Bloody Mary

We went to Birmingham last weekend so Christian could cheer on the Rebs and I could visit with the girls.  While watching (more like not watching and halfway listening) to the bowl game, I was sipping on a Bloody Mary - a daytime drink that just feels so right.

I can remember my grandmother making me virgin Bloody Marys at family get-togethers.  She taught me a few important details for the drink -- lots of olives, lots of celery and serve it in a McCarty glass.  Well I don't have McCarty glasses (yet) Grammy, but I can remember the rest!

When I came home, I was determined to shop around in efforts to find what looked like the perfect Bloody Mary...and I definitely found it.  I followed this recipe of an NYC bartender's and added a little more of this and that to taste, but she's dead on -- this is the best Bloody Mary you'll ever have!

This recipe makes two delicious drinks.  

4 oz. vodka
16 oz. tomato juice 
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 
Juice of one lemon  (keep peel to use on the rim of the glass)
2 tbsp. olive juice 
2 tbsp. horseradish 
1 tsp. hot sauce 
Freshly ground pepper 
1 tsp. Old Bay, plus extra for the rim

Garnish with:
2 stalks of celery 
A few olives
Two lemon slices

Mix the top ingredients together (without the vodka -- that comes later), whisking well to make sure the horseradish is blended properly.  Run the lemon peel from the juiced lemon along the rim of your drinking glass(es).  Pour some Old Bay seasoning on a flat dish or your cutting board and dab the glass rim in the seasoning.  Fill your glass(es) with ice, pour the vodka and fill the rest of the glass with Bloody Mary mix.  Toss some olives and celery in that baby and add a lemon slice if you're feeling really fancy.

The hubs doesn't drink tomato juice.  In fact, just looking at it gives him the willies -- whatever kid, I can double fist Bloody Marys anyday.