For the love of a Bloody Mary.....

Happy Friday!!! 

Let me start by introducing myself.  

{That's me on the left, my beautiful sister on the right}

I am Dani, and I blog over at Inspire.Motivate.Love on an almost daily basis, however, the wonderful Miss Ashley is out enjoying Watershed, a country music festival going on quite literally in the middle of our great state of Washington.  

 {Do you see who she gets to listen to this weekend? Be jealous. I am.}

She has asked me to babysit the blog for her while she's gone, and of course I jumped at the chance! 

Ashley and I have become fast friends thanks to blog land, and being that we only live about 4 hours away from each other, I can't wait until we meet! 

While we've been discussing/planning our meet up, we have carried on a continuous conversation about Bloody Mary's.  We, along with Meghan over @ ShineOn, seem to all have a shared love for the tomato, vodka, must have a salad or we will send it back drink.  

No joke - Ashley said she sent hers back because there weren't enough vegetables to top it off once! I am not surprised by this - and would probably do the same thing.

After a week of discussing this wonderful drink - I started thinking that I didn't have a "favorite" recipe that I went to.  I usually just throw stuff in the glass and away I drink.  

Sometimes I put horseradish in, sometimes I don't. 

Sometimes, I have worcestershire sauce, sometimes extra pepper, sometimes this, sometimes that. 

Well, thank you to Pinterest - I now have about 100 different recipes to try, and I thought I'd share my favorites, based on ingredients because I haven't made them yet, with you all today, in honor of Ashley's weekend of drinking fun, and our planned bloody mary fest. 

{Credit: Bon Appetit Mag}

This first one, care of Bon Appetit mag, says it's the "Best Bloody Mary."

Now - if you're all for cooking your own vegetable juice before making your drink, it sounds fantastic.  I mean, it has everything I love, horseradish, pepper sauce, chili sauce, lemon AND lime, and of course pickled veggies! This will definitely be on the list....however...I am not sure about putting Guinness in my bloody mary? Have you ever heard of doing this? I haven't.

{Check it out here}

The next one, from Food52 calls for a homemade horseradish vodka.  I'm sorry, what?! 

Count me in.  I will be trying this one asap. 

Like this weekend, perhaps. 

{Recipe here}

On to the United Bartenders of America.  You can bet they probably have millions of AMAZING recipes for anything.  Their bloody mary collection did not disappoint. 

There's a Bloody Caesar, Bloody Mary, Bloody Maria, and Bloody Bull (which apparently has beef bullion in it?). 

I never knew so many different versions existed.  I want to try them all!

The Bloody Caesar uses Clamato juice - of which I have actually decided I like.  You either like it or you don't. (It has shellfish properties, so be careful)

The Bloody Maria consists of tequila instead of vodka.  I don't think I've ever tried it this way?

{Credit: Sandra Lee}

Now, if any of you watch any kind of Food TV like the Foodnetwork, I am sure you have heard of Sandra Lee?  She's filmed some of her shows in the Seattle area, and comes up with the great ideas.  

This bloody mary recipe looks like it might be another one that is a win. 

I mean, who doesn't like a little Old Bay Spice and Grilled shrimp?!! 

I'm in. 

{Recipe Here}

The next recipe is a little more on the spicy side, but I could eat spicy ANYTHING every day.  I love it.  A Cajun drink would fall into that category. I came across a food blog with said recipe, and fell in love.  Basically, add creole seasoning and chili powder.  Yum!!

Check out Ezra Pound Cake for the recipe!

Most of those recipes call for just tomato juice.  Not a bloody mary mix.  This next one I found, on another great blog, calls for Trader Joe's bloody mary mix.  I had no idea this existed.  I will be going to TJ's today to find some.

This site has a TON of fantastic drink recipes.  

Check out Mint Love Social Club to find this one, and then stay and browse around!

Now that everyone is thirsty, because I know I am! 

The last thing I wanted to share is probably the best idea I've ever heard of or seen.

Meghan mentioned this earlier in the week, and then I came across this post.

{Credit: Foodgal.com}

A bloody mary bar. 

GENIUS! I'm all about it, and will be making one on a smaller scale for my grandmother's birthday BBQ this weekend.  

{The Symmetric Swan} <~~ Check out the full post here.

I'll be sharing my bloody mary experiment over on my blog after the weekend is over - and I'll review some, if not all, of the recipes above.  

I don't think you all understand how excited I am to do so! 

Besides a good martini, these are my favorite things to drink!

Can I use anymore exclamation points in this post? I am not sure....

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, and why don't you all try a new recipe while you're at it! Let us know how it turned out.  

We shall all also hope that Ashley's liver makes it out of Watershed alive.