Groundhog Day Bloody Mary (1971)

Happy Groundhog Day!

Phil has predicted that there is more winter yet to come!. At the moment it definitely looks like 6 more weeks of winter here–I don’t know how much snow has fallen, but school was closed yesterday and I have a delay today.  However, it is forecasted to go up into the 50s the end of this week.

So who knows!

Anyway, it’s time once again to bring out Gourmets & Groundhogs to celebrate the occasion.

I went straight to the Drinks chapter.

One day I will make Groundhog Punch, but for now I made Groundhog Day Bloody Marys.

When Mr. Sauce, Esq. and I traveled to Punxy 3 years ago, we didn’t know what to expect.

It is important to note that the Bill Murray movie lied to us–the proclamation doesn’t happen in the center of town. And, yes, I know that the movie was shot in Iowa or something and not Punxsutawney. Gobbler’s Knob is a  wooded hill in the middle of nowhere.

So this is how Groundhog Day goes down.:

• Stay up all night getting shitfaced in the Wal-Mart parking lot
• Board a school bus to Gobbler’s Knob
• Drink some more accompanied by patriotic music and a firework show (it was actually the best fireworks I’ve ever seen)
• Watch Phil (If you can see him) do his thing
• Avoid getting killed by the throng of people fighting to get back on a school bus to go back to the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Once back to the Wal-Mart, you have two choices:

1. go to sleep
2. go into town for breakfast and then go to sleep

We chose breakfast since we didn’t know that we were supposed to stay up all night.

We showed up at the VFW or wherever it was and we were just handed pancakes.  Which was lovely, but where were the Bloody Marys?  There should be Bloody Marys!

I mean, there’s a recipe in the Groundhog Day cookbook!

I was wary of the jalapeno because I thought that it would overpower the entire drink, but that wasn’t the case. It was spicy but a completely different spicy than the horseradish versions. The horseradish you feel up in the nose, whereas the jalapeno is more of a mouth heat.

The salted rim–just plain ol’ salt–was a nice addition. I also liked the use of chilled glasses instead of ice–the drink didn’t get diluted. But you do have to drink it quickly so it doesn’t warm.

The only complaint that Mr. Sauce, Esq. had was that it was a bit on the thin side. Do you have any idea how to remedy that? Adding some tomato sauce to the tomato juice? Throwing some fresh tomatoes into the blender?

I may have to experiment. I appreciate any suggestions.

This is what we actually ended up with at the pancake breakfast: