Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

The best Bloody Mary I ever had, bar none was in a restaurant in St. Helena, Ca. Can't remember the name but the secret ingredient was
cocktail sauce, not a lot, just a little, try it!

My cousin's husband used to make mine with Clamato juice. I was surprised at good that was! Horseradish, pickled okra and/or pickled green beans and Frank's hot sauce if no horseradish make it tasty to me. Personally, cilantro is too bitter for my taste.

Maple sausage and apple stuffing.

1 lb maple sausage
6 medium apples (I use a mix of Gala and Fuji), peeled, cored, and diced
1 medium red onion, diced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 cups breadcrumbs
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 egg
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt

Brown the sausage, remove and let drain on paper towels. Saute the apples, celery and onion in the fat until softened slightly. Remove from heat and stir in the sausage. When thoroughly mixed, stir in the breadcrumbs, seasoning, salt and pepper. (Sometimes the egg is not necessary to bind it together, but sometimes it is. Depends on how fatty your sausage is.)

I'm not a fan of "wet" stuffing, so this usually gets put into a baking dish until it's crispy and browned on the top. Often I'll just put the stuffing, sans turkey, into a pie crust, top it with a handful of parmesan cheese, layer with another pie crust, and cook until the pie is GBD. Soooo good. :)

I grew up having to pick around the oysters in the Thanksgiving stuffing (not a bivalve fan here) so now that I make it, I just leave them out. I bake a big pan of cornbread with all the traditional green herbs already in it like sage and thyme. Then I saute some garlic, shallots, celery, and carrots in butter and add some chopped pecans in to toast in the same pan. I mix an egg with some chicken stock and mix it all together with the cornbread and bake it. Someone else does the bird in my family so I always make "dressing".

Oops, I left out the key ingredient, lots of chopped celery greens. I'm not a fan of the vegetable part of celery but I love the greens!

Many years ago, my husband asked his cousin for his personal recipe for a Bloody Mary because it was the best we had ever tasted. He sent us his recipe on the email and I've been making my version of it ever since.

His had key lime juice, Angostura Bloody Mary seasoning (a liquid like their bitters) and both V-8 juice and Clamato juice in it. I ran out of Clamata awhile back so I've been using V-8 and Sacramento Tomato Juice and they have been really good.

I switch off the hot sauces and try different ones each time. He uses a local one down in FL that we can't get up here without ordering through the internet so I use different favorite ones. I have a whole collection of hot sauces (over 80 bottles at this point) so I try a different one every time.

Absolut Peppar vodka and plain tomato juice. The vodka adds all the spice needed.

Thanx to all for the Bloody recipes. I haven't had a good one since I quit cruising! RCCL used to have the best ones ever (but I'm sure they came from a "mix"). I'll have to try each one here and find the best. Thanx again!

I, too like Svedka as a reasonably-priced but respectable vodka. The big one goes for $18 at the local Costco. (Or you can pay Jewel $25, if that makes you feel good.)

In this vein, did others see the article in the "Weekend" section of the WSJ that described how many of the makers of premium-priced, designer vodkas produced their pricey masterpieces? They start with a RR tank car or tank-truck load of industrial-grade beverage alcohol (97 proof) from Archer-Daniels-Midland and cut that with some kind of fancy water (melted iceberg ice, anyone?) an arty-farty label, a tricky name, and a price to impress the fashion-conscious.

You know who you are.

I'm gonna try some of the suggestions here, including the horseradish, the Sriracha, the aquavit, the cilantro, the celery salt, and the Clamato.

Maybe not all at once, though.

Oh yummy -- all these recipes are making me really want one right now! And I'm in total agreement with the morning/afternoon-only people. I guess it's still afternoon!

I like V-8 or Clamato, but I add my own spice. Worcestershire, Tabasco, lime juice, celery salt, black pepper, no horseradish please. Usually go for a pepper vodka but can't wait to try the gin. Has anyone tried the Tabasco tequila for a Bloody Maria? It's not bad.

Garnishes -- absolutely! We call it "salad" instead. Pickled green beans, pickled okra (guess it's a Louisiana thing), green olives stuffed with ... well ... anything, and a celery stalk with a wide bottom to scoop out the olives. A rim of celery salt or a special Worcestershire/salt mixture adds a kick, too.

BTW, an oyster IN a Bloody Mary is divine! Shrimp, too. Yes, the glasses are enormous!

Bloody Mary’s are traditionally "rolled" (pouring the drink from shaker to shaker) instead of shaking due to the viscosity of the tomato juice. This will incorporate all the ingredients without overly aerating the tomato juice.

I like mine as a Caesar, actually.

Swap out the tomato juice for delicious clamato juice (much more complex savoury flavour) and add a nice rim of celery salt. Keep the 'worster and the tabasco, garnish any way you please (I like olives) and you've got a lovely Sunday morning. In Canada.

One glass to another sounds fine, but if the problem is frothy tomato juice, whatever happened to just stirring vs. shaking? And I mean in the shaker, not the glass in which you're serving the drink.

For a healthful as well as tasty treat, I recommend a snack that all my crunchy-granola, back-to-the-land friends in Northern California make...they call them "Ganja Goo Balls", and they're essentially a healthy no-bake cookie. Cream the pot butter with some sweet substance (brown sugar, honey, agave nectar) and fold in any number of healthy and yummy things...start with rolled oats and add maybe some flax or wheat germ...add in some chopped dried fruit (dates are really good in this...figs, too)...some good quality unsalted nuts (walnuts are great for Omega-3s)...perhaps a little dark chocolate? I like to them roll the "batter" into a log and slice off into discs...keep in the refrigerator. Good luck, and I hope your friend finds some respite.