This week I've been on vacation back home in Massachusetts. I'm staying with my sister-in-law and her family in their cabin by the lake and I've slept soundly listening to the loons calling every night. Last night Cayr asked if I liked Bloody Marys. I said "As much as I love brunch, I've never had a Bloody Mary." She looked at me as a playful smile emerged. "OK, then, tomorrow morning we're having Bacon Bloody Marys."
I will let you in on a secret. A deep secret.
I am a vegetarian.
That's not the secret.
The secret is that I like bacon, crispy, hot bacon. I know that this will get me thrown out of the Vegan Club but I love bacon. When Cayr told me that she had seen Bakon Vodka at the liquor store I volunteered to pick some up along with Bloody Mary fixings (mix ingredients + celery.)
This morning dawned 67 degrees and sunny as I pulled out the Bloody Mary ingredients, the Bakon vodka and the celery. I opened the bottle of Bakon and inhaled. There was a very slight bacon scent. I followed the recipe for Barefoot Contessa's Bloody Marys and wiped a lime across the rim of the glass. On a plate I had sprinkled some applewood smoked salt. I rolled each rim in the salt then added the Bloody Mary mix + vodka, topping it off with a celery stalk.
Out on the deck, with dogs at our feet laying in the sunshine and Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" floating out to the lake, I tried my first Bacon Bloody Mary.
I looked at Cayr. "Bacon. Bloody. Mary. Genius." Yes, it tastes like smoked bacon, yes for a Sunday morning this was a close tie with Bellinis and yes we would have them again served with scrambled eggs & cheddar and bagels with whipped cream cheese. (We'll save the Bellinis for the blueberry pancake mornings.)
We sipped, stared out at the lake and considered how amazing sunny Sunday summer mornings are, especially with bacon.