Thirsty(ish) Thursday: Bloody Mary Tomatoes

This recipe needs to be made about 3-7 days in advance.

I ran out of time (after being out of town until 2 days in advance), so my recipe had only 24 hours to marinate.

People still loved it, so I can only imagine how much better these will be over time.

The recipe is here from Oprah.

My only notes is that A) I couldn't find pepper vodka, but I did find Absolut New Orleans, which worked just as well, I imagine. (And it helps a good cause, so bonus!)

B) I didn't have a lot of patience for poking holes in the tomatoes (big surprise), so I took one of those double pronged corn cob holders and ran it completely through each tomato, twice.  It was the most time consuming (active) portion of this recipe.

Not too shabby, I think!

Thirsty Thursday: Blue Lagoon Margarita

secret ingredient!

Over ice, with diving fish

I love fresh margaritas.  Freshly squeezed lime juice and tequila can pretty much make my day.  However, when I was told the family was going to host a "Margarita-Off" competition, I wanted to go a little off center from the norm.  I wanted blue with fish.  The rest is just made up.
Ingredients:
2 oz pineapple juice
1 oz blue curacao
1 oz tequila
1 oz lime juice - I love the Key Lime juice, but fresh is always amazing.
about 4-6 Sweedish fish

Blended.  To achieve the swimming effect, pour half, place fish, blend more, add to top off.

Introducing... Thirsty Thursday!

Sorry for the absence, I was a bit waylaid by some out-of-town guests and then a vicious head cold.  However, one of my visitors, my Aunt Mary, inspired me for a (semi) regular segment around here – Thirsty Thursday!   Here was the combined inspiration of last weekend…

I love Marieta’s, the best Mexican restaurant within two miles of my house!  Actually, it’s one of my favorite restaurants that I’ve found while living here (so far), be it Mexican or otherwise.  And their margaritas, well, they’re the freshest, least hangover-est margaritas I’ve ever had…bonus!

Since I’ve alluded to one beverage in this blog already (what?  We did??  Quick, scroll back if you don’t believe me), I figured out start there, and move on as I can.  Aunt Mary has already promised to teach me her world famous Bloody Mary recipe, so that’s a start.  Plus, I’m sure I’ll find at least one new recipe to try a month that we’ll love.

So, back to Mother’s Day/Father-in-Law’s birthday.  Remember this?  It was yummy.  In fact, the punch was a slightly tweaked Paula Deen recipe that Thomas found online.  Once we had realized that we had a lot more watermelon than we knew what to do with, Thomas started researching some recipes to make a refreshing punch.  We already had enough supplies for mimosas, so we needed something a little different.  (Still confused about what I’m referring to?  It’s in the watermelon in the top right corner of the picture.)

Und…Voila!



We connived convinced our best man, Manfred, to cut the lovely design in the top of the watermelon.  Thomas followed the recipe for the punch, MINUS the simple syrup.  The reviews online all said that the syrup made it too sweet, and then we ladled and enjoyed.

If it were up to me, we would have used this as a base for watermelon martinis, and maybe kicked up the tartness with more lemonade concentrate, but I love tart drinks, so that might just be me.  That being said, it’s summer, it’s refreshing, and any vehicle for alcohol is generally acceptable, and it’s even great without any booze.

Cheers!