Sunday Bloody Sunday

This weekend's cocktail in my calendar is a Bloody Caesar, in commemoration of Julius Caesar's assassination. Basically another Bloody Mary, but made with Clamato juice. I had a few Bloody Mary variants saved up unmixed from the last couple months, so I decided today should be a Bloody Mary fest.

The first recipe was for your typical Bloody Mary, from January 1st (a morning after drink): tomato juice, lemon juice, vodka, horseradish, tobasco, Worcestershire sauce. It was OK. I put in a little too much horseradish or Worcestershire or something, but drinkable.

The second one - well, I decided to wait on mixing it. They call it a Bloody Marie, adding a little anisette to the New Year's Day recipe. I'm not a big anise fan. I thought about using a little creme de menthe instead, but I think I'll wait till my liqueur collection grows a little larger to introduce another flavor.

Number 3 was a nonalcoholic version. I'm not messing with most of the non-booze recipes in my calendar, but I've got all this tomato juice to use up, so I decided to give it a try. It calls for lots of citrus: lime juice, lemon juice, orange juice, and then a vegetable garden - tomato juice, cherry tomatoes, garlic, scallion, cilantro, and the usual other stuff, with a little ice in a blender. I wasn't going to run out and buy scallions and cilantro just for this and end up throwing out the rest in 2 weeks, so I used some dried shallots and tarragon instead (the exception to my anise aversion).

Verdict: much better than I expected. It didn't taste like a cruise ship doped-up breakfast drink. You could taste the fresh tomatoes, but not the garlic, and maybe a hint of the shallots and tarragon. There's got to be a fully stocked fridge to make it, but I'd make it again for a special occasion or when I'd had had a long night.

Number - what number am I up to? - is your basic Bloody Mary made with Clamato juice. I don't think I've ever drunk Clamato juice before. I've led a sheltered life. I wondered if I'd be able to find it, but it was the first bottle on the shelf in the juice section of my local not so supermarket. And on sale too.

As is my wont, if not habit, I slugged a little first to see what it tastes like. This has clam something in it? The clams walked through it on stilts. It sort of tastes like an ancestor of V8 juice. And the Bloody Caesar - well, I have a bottle of Clamato juice to drink now. Hail Caesar!