B is for: Bacon Bloody Mary

I’m so honored to be throwing a bridal brunch shower next week for my friend Kim Grubbs. As much as I love to cook and host, I’ve never actually hosted a shower of any sort. Probably because a lot of my friends and family live in other cities (Seattle, San Diego, L.A., etc). Of course, I have been menu planning and brainstorming for months.

I may have mentioned this in the past, but Kim can’t eat any meat. This is not something of her choosing, as she would eat duck every week if she could. Her body can’t break it down properly. But what we DID discover is she can eat cured meats. Yup…she can have bacon. I would venture to say that if I was only allowed to have one type of meat, bacon would be right up there.

So as I was starting to make lists of possible breakfast foods, bacon kept popping up in all of my ideas. And then it hit me…what if we did a bacon-themed shower?!? (Don’t worry, I’m not ruining any surprises. This is definitely something you want to clear with a bride before you move forward. For the record, Kim was stoked about the idea). Then I remembered having a bacon bloody mary at Tractor Room in San Diego. Done and done.

In doing some research, I also discovered a product called Bakon Vodka. (Yup, there really is such a thing). I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous dropping almost 30 bucks on something that could be totally disgusting, but I’m happy to report it was delicious. I don’t know what you would use it for outside of bloody mary’s and maybe a chocolate bacon martini if you were feeling super adventurous, but it definitely works for my brunch theme. I also decided to use some oven-cooked bacon as one of the garnishes and also grind up a piece to mix in with the bloody mary mix as well. (No such thing as too much bacon).

I also made my own celery salt (it’s super easy) as well as a bloody mary rimming salt (also easy). I used the chopper attachment to my immersion blender with the little plastic guard to keep the spices from flying around too much.

From there…mix up your bloody mary mix. To do this, I added all of the ingredients to a blender, along with a piece of crumbled bacon. This way, you can get the bacon minced into little pieces to further infuse the bacon flavor in the drinks. (Credit to everythingbutthe.com for that one). I included a basic bloody mary mix recipe, but feel free to use your favorite recipe (or just improvise as you go).

Rim your glass by taking a cut lime and rubbing it around the edge of the glass and dipping in the rimming mixture. Combine ice, about a cup of bloody mary mix and a shot of Bakon Vodka and garnish with a piece of cooked bacon, and whatever other bloody mary garnishes you desire. (I like those just about as much as I like the drink itself). Cheers to Sunday Funday! (And to Kim next week!)

Bacon Bloody Mary

by Jaymee Sire

Keywords: cocktail breakfast gluten-free bacon vodka tomato

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Ingredients

For the bloody mary

3 slices thick cut bacon (preferably applewood smoked)
2 cups tomato juice
1/2 teaspoon celery salt (recipe below)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons hot sauce (such as Tapatio or Tabasco)
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
1 teaspoon olive brine
juice from 1 lemon
juice from 1/2 lime (reserve other half for rimming)
fresh ground pepper
bloody mary rim salt (recipe below)
3 ounces Bakon Vodka (or regular if you don’t have it)
limes, celery sticks, spicy green beans, olives for garnish

For the celery salt:

1 tablespoon celery seeds
1 tablespoon Kosher salt

For the bloody mary rim salt:

1 tablespoon celery salt (see above recipe)
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
a few grinds of black pepper

Instructions

For the bloody mary:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with foil and place a rack on top of it. Place bacon on rack and sprinkle with fresh cracked pepper. Bake until evenly cooked and slightly crispy (about 20 minutes). Cool and drain on paper towels.
Combine next 9 ingredients (tomato juice down to pepper) in blender and add one piece of cooked bacon, torn into pieces. Blend on high until everything is well combined and bacon is minced into tiny little specks.
Rim two glasses by rubbing with a cut lime and dipping in bloody mary rim salt mixture.
Fill glasses with ice and a shot of vodka each. Pour in bloody mary mix (about a cup each) and stir. Garnish with bacon slices, celery, and any other garnishes you like!

For the celery salt:

Combine celery seeds and salt in a spice grinder and pulse until seeds are ground and everything is well combined. Seal in an airtight container or spice jar.

For the rim salt: