Recipes:

Jack's special bloody mary

Here's my contribution to the Carnival of the Recipes this week. I'm not sure if drink recipes are what Beth had in mind when she thought up this carnival, but hey, we need to drink as well as eat!!! Besides, this has gotten as many compliments as my beef stroganoff (which is by far my most popular post... I get more hits to that than the next three most viewed posts combined... if I had known that, I would have started posting recipes long ago)!!

WARNING: This is a VERY STRONG drink. I am NOT KIDDING. Please be responsible, both as an imbiber and as a host. If you plan to drink this, do not drive or operate heavy machinery for several hours AFTER you have the last drink, preferably after a night of sleep. This drink is deceptively strong and will kick your ass into next week when you think it's still last Sunday.

If you are a host, please help keep the imbiber from doing something stupid like proposing marriage to an inanimate object, accepting a marriage proposal from an invisible friend, or shaking their head too hard because then they'll think it came off and spend the entire evening looking for it.

The way I measure quantities is by how much the ingredients cover the bottom of my cocktail shaker, so it should scale reasonably well for different shaker sizes (I have a large mondo-sized shaker...). It comes out what I call "moderately spicy" so increase your favorite ingredients for spicier.

coarse ground cayenne (red) pepper - about 1/4 to 1/3 covered

coarse ground black pepper - about 1/3 to 1/2 covered

fine ground cayenne (red) pepper - about 1/4 to 1/3 covered

fine ground black pepper - about 1/4 to 1/3 covered

celery salt - just less than 1/4 covered

tabasco - about 1/2 to 2/3 covered (more for EXTRA hot)

worcestershire sauce - covered plus a bit more (maybe about 1/8 inch on the bottom, total, including the other spices)

lemon concentrate - 2 splashes

lime concentrate - 1 splash

fill the shaker about 1/3 full of ice cubes

fill the shaker with vodka just under to right at 1/2 full (I use Smirnoff Blue Label, the highest proof vodka from Smirnoff, when I can find it), it works best if you keep the vodka in the freezer beforehand (I don't know if any vodka snobs {well, maybe he's not a vodka snob, but he is the Vodka Pundit} will sniff in disdain at this, but hey, it helps the drink!!!)

fill the remainder with good quality tomato juice (NOT a bloody mary mix or V8, it's horrendous with V8...)

put the top on and shake thoroughly

rim your glasses with salt if you like

fill your glasses through the strainer on top of the shaker (I prefer no ice the glasses, but to each their own)

add a small amount of fine ground black pepper on top as a "floater", garnish with a celery stick if you have one

drink and enjoy RESPONSIBLY

---

Next time, either my Kinda-Southern Green Beans, or my special Mexican martini. I'll take votes.