Scroll to the picture of beef to skip over a whining ramble.  Even more than usual.

PSA:  Don’t get married during football season.  I don’t know how many people reading my silly drinks need to hear this.

As  I will be at my cousin’s strolling reception in Ann Arbor from 1-5.  I will be playing the game of chicken with my phone on checking the score, someone mentioning the score in a place where everyone is trying to make polite small talk or perhaps people just screaming aloud around us.

Part of enjoying the game for me is following twitter and my group text messages with my friends where we talk about the game.  That’s obviously a non-starter. 

I’ve heard the arguments:  It’s only one game for one year, its bye week, it’s a noon game.

Here’s the deal:  You can never predict how a season or game will unfold.

1st wedding my friend subjected me to was 2002.  The game ended like this.  The marriage lasted only a few years.  My hatred for missing this game has lasted longer. 

 

The 2nd was in 2009, again early September.  The heart of the Forcier era.  That is Notre Dame 38-34 game.  An out of state wedding, we saw none of the game.  At least they are still married.  It was probably the highlight of the Rich Rodriguez era, we were all summer children then.

          Actually I wouldn't mind a Head screwed on right Forcier this year

Maybe, it is only one game for one year.  But once the years and kids add up, it becomes another problem.  Fall wedding, lead to fall anniversaries.   When older, anniversaries are celebrated on weekends usually a convenient one for everyone that can be an issue with kids, jobs and babysitters.  When we ask this friend hey let’s go to this game together.  It invariably gets squashed.  “Hey that’s my anniversary I can’t swing that.”

So remember it’s a bye week, or nothing game this year.  But your anniversary is every year.  As soon, as you try to play the time game. The TV Gods say Wisconsin at noon Saturday, Northwestern 2000 at night or Manningham vs PSU in 2005, and you are making your friends the jerks trying to watch the game on their phones.

                             These guys have killed some Brunch Buffets                 

Wisconsin Bloody Mary

So when I decided to writing these last year, The Wisconsin Old Fashioned was the primary reason why.  I really liked the drink and it he has an interesting history behind it.  Here’s the link to the better drink.

https://mgoblog.com/diaries/mgococktail-wisconsin

For a state that has the highest bar to grocery store ratio in the country and the most lenient DWI laws on the books, there’s nothing much of interest that comes out of Wisconsin bars.

Much like their offense for the last 30 years, their modus operandi is to take something that works and modify it a little.  The Wisconsin Bloody Mary is basically the epitome this phenomenon. 

Brunch became popular with a certain age group, so the Bloody Mary has experienced a renaissance in the last 10-15 years.  Well as much of a renaissance a drink can have that has the flavorless vodka as its spirit and then overpowered with a pungent mixer of spiced tomato juice.

Then the next step was to make the drink ready for the “Insta”.  So an arms race ensued. Our bloody mary has olives, celery garnish or bacon garnish,  or cheese burgers, or a whole roasted chicken, or an Ortolan or a lobster claw or 1985 Ford Tempo.  I only made up two of those.

                     WTF is this? 

It becomes nothing about the drink and everything about the gimmick. 

The origin of this cocktail is somewhat debated.  Some bars claiming possession of a Vodka/ Tomato Juice mixture as far back as 1921.  Most credit French bartender, Fernand Petiot.  I struggle to give anyone credit for mixing vodka and tomato juice, just like giving credit to someone for the dive play.

The name might be the most interesting thing about this cocktail.  It started out as the Bucket of Blood in Paris.  Then when transported to the US, Petiot called it the Red Snapper.  It is almost assuredly not named after Queen Mary I.  Most likely, it was named by combining the Bucket of Blood name with a bar patron’s girlfriend’s name or a waitress.

Noon game.  Brunch. Let’s make this Bloody Mary Wisconsin.  The only real difference besides the Wisconsin Food products as a garnish, and the beer added to the cocktail as well as a beer chaser.  The beer chaser does have a Wisconsin origin.  Vodka was scarce in the 1950’s (or was considerd commie)  so they used beer instead.  But they wouldn’t use all 10 -12 oz’s of the beer can to mix it.  Not going to waste that precious beer, so you got the “snit” of beer on the side. 

                                       And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Ingredients:

10  oz tomato Juice

Garlic powder, garlic salt, red pepper to taste

1 dash fresh horseradish

1 dash A-1

1 dash Worcestershire

1 oz Guinness Stout (I wouldn’t waste a full beer on this normally)

2 oz Vodka (cheaper the better)

Celery salt

Beer chaser about 4 oz (Probably MGD, but drink local!)

Garnishes.  Blue Cheese stuffed olives, lemon, cheese curds, sausage sticks, baby pickles, Mozzarella cheese.  Beer chaser

Take the 10 oz of Tomato juice and add garlic power, garlic salt and red pepper to taste.  Then add dashes of A-1, horseradish and Worcestershire.  Stir until the horseradish is dissolved/suspended.  Add your Guinness and Vodka.   Pour into a 20 oz goblet, or whatever large size glass you happen to have.  Garnish and sprinkle the top with the celery salt.

Honestly, just buy the mix.  McClure’s is local and wonderful. 

Take a double rocks glass and fill with whatever lager or light beer you might enjoy with your Bloody Mary to make it “Sconsin” .  Drink it by itself or add it to the drink as you go along.

M Go Salut!