Madeline's Bourbon Mary

My big brother is getting married. MY BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED!!!

Here he is being subjected to what everyone is subjected to when they come to my house:

But hey, at least there’s cocktails.

And here is my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, getting indoctrinated, as well:

She’s a keeper.

Especially because she routinely suggests things like: vertical Bloody Mary tastings. What?! Can I marry her, instead?

So there we all were, Fourth of July weekend, trying to decide which type of Mary to have for brunch, and because none of us had really had anything too outside the traditional recipe, Maddy decided we needed to try them with all of the alcohols. Because that girl’s a problem-solver.

She swiftly whipped up a batch of her own very special Mary concoction, and we then proceeded to mix it, in turn, with vodka, tequila, and bourbon. Just to see what we liked best. And to everyone’s surprise, hands down, we all obsessed over the bourbon version.

So here ya go:

Madeline’s Bourbon Mary (about four servings)

• 4 cups tomato juice (here’s a great recipe for a fresh one)
• 1 very heaping tablespoon horseradish
• 2 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• juice of one lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground celery seed
• Salt to taste
• black pepper to taste
• 8 oz. bourbon (we love Bulleit for this)
• lemon slices for garnish
• spicy pickled green beans for garnish (here’s a recipe for making your own)
• 1:1 tablespoon mixture of salt and ground celery seed for glass rimming

In a pitcher, mix tomato juice, horseradish, Worchestershire sauce, hot sauce, lemon juice, celery seed, salt and pepper. Prep four rocks glasses by running a lemon wedge around the edge and dipping in the salt/celery seed rim mixture. Fill glasses with ice (if you want to be real slick, make a second batch of tomato juice mixture the night before and freeze it into ice cubes), add 2 ounces of bourbon and a couple of green beans to each. Fill with tomato juice mixture, and garnish with a squeezed lemon slice.

Cheers to brunch dranks, and to awesome soon-to-be-sister-in-laws.