Good Eats / Birthday Weekend / Bloody Mary recipe

Thursday was Maya’s birthday, and we celebrated by going to our favorite Dim Sum restaurant in San Francisco, then we did some shopping near Union Square with her gift cards. At some Dim Sum restaurants, you order off of a menu (like the place we went last year). At others, the staff bring food around to the tables, either on carts or on trays, and you say yes or no to each item as they bring it around. So they come by and say, “shrimp dumplings?” and you say yes or no, and if you say yes, they give you the shrimp dumplings and mark your check to show that you had it. It’s a great place to go if you are hungry, because you get food brought around almost immediately. The place we like brings the food around this way. The only bad thing is that if you are very hungry, you tend to say yes to the first things that come around, and perhaps are too full for something else that you may have wanted that comes later. So if they are in a shrimp mode when you first sit down, you say yes to 3 variations of shrimp dumplings, and then later they bring around some crispy duck and you are too full, but it would have been nice to have 1 variation of shrimp dumpling, and also the duck later on. This happened to us, sort of, but happily I had enough room for duck and an eggplant dish that came around at the end, as I ate fewer of the shrimp dumplings and stuffed mushrooms, etc. Anyway, it was a lovely day, Maya got some clothes and got to see the 2 story SF location of her favorite clothing store.

We always have a family party for Maya’s birthday, and this year it mashed up against Easter.  Ted’s cousin works on Sundays, so we decided to have Easter brunch/birthday party on Saturday instead. Maya wanted eggs Benedict, her favorite cinnamon bread from a local bakery, fruit salad, etc.  Ted’s mom make crab cakes to put in the eggs Benedict instead of Canadian bacon, but I bought some Canadian Bacon as well, because crab cakes get expensive, and if someone wanted seconds (there is a tall young man in our family that had 4ths) we could accommodate that need. Well, I decided I was going to up my game, and make homemade English muffins for the Benedict. I poked around the internet looking for recipes, and found one that looked good, but said it was a copycat recipe for a bakery that’s famous for their English muffins up in Napa. Apparently Oprah has the English muffins on her ‘favorite things’ menu two years in a row, and has them shipped to her all of the time. I decided a drive up to Napa sounded like more fun than a day in the kitchen, so on Friday, Maya and I drove up to Napa to get some English muffins. It was a beautiful day, the hills were a beautiful green, and there were plenty of wildflowers. The Model Bakery also makes sandwiches, and as I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, I had a breakfast sandwich that was made on the English muffins. SO GOOD. Then I bought 5 packs of English muffins, 6 muffins per pack, for $14 each. Spendy. But really, really good. 2 packs were to take to Easter, 1 pack was to give to Ted’s aunt, as her sister is in town and she wanted to treat her. 1 pack was for us. And 1 pack is for my friend Neva, who I am meeting for dinner on Tuesday, and who LOVES the English muffins from this place. Everyone said they were the best muffins ever, and didn’t know if they could go back to store bought ever again. You can have the English muffins shipped to you, but it’s expensive also. I don’t know how often I’ll be willing to drive to Napa just to get them, and if you aren’t in a wine tasting mood (Maya wasn’t, and I didn’t want to taste wine alone), there isn’t much to do in Napa. Maybe I’ll go with Ted or a friend next time. Our brunch was delicious, the crab cakes were super good, made with 1 Dungeness crab, and 1 can of crab from Trader Joes. This morning I had 1/2 of an English muffin for breakfast, with cream cheese and raspberry jam. Delicious. I love these muffins.

I also decided that I wanted to make Bloody Marys. The recipe I went with was the Barefoot Contessa recipe, and I made it virgin, with vodka on the side for anyone who is interested. They were delicious, and Ted’s cousin said that Bloody Marys need to be a fixture in future brunch menus. What made it different from other Bloody Mary recipes that I’ve seen is that you pulverize some celery and shredded onion in your food processor, and that goes in the mix along with the standard tomato juice, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, tobacco, salt, etc. I made a big pitcher of them, and served it with horseradish, Tobasco, and Worcestershire on the side in case someone wanted more (good idea with the Tobasco, as there were several people who wanted theirs HOTTER, and some who wanted them less so. There were olives with pimentos, celery stalks, and lemon for garnishes.

Overall, we have been eating really well this weekend. Tonight Ted is making a leg of lamb for our Easter dinner, from my Julia and Jacques cookbook.

Below is Ina’s Bloody Mary recipe, with my changes. So good.

Ina Garten’s Bloody Marys

Ingredients
3 stalks celery heart, including leaves, plus extra for serving
36 oz tomato juice (I used one from Whole Foods, which came in a 32 oz jar. I just kept all of the other ingredients the same.)
2 tbs prepared horseradish (I used 3 I think)
1/4 yellow onion
1 lemon, juiced (I used 2)
1 lemon quartered (for garnish)
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce (I added a bit more)
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp kosher salt
12 dashes hot sauce, or to taste
1 1/2 cups vodka

Directions
Chop the celery into chunks and add to a food processor with the onion. Pulse until finely minced. Add 1/4 cup of tomato juice while the food processor is running. Combine the celery mixture, remaining tomato juice, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, celery salt, kosher salt, and hot sauce in a large pitcher. Stir to combine. Chill, preferably for several hours or overnight. Add vodka, or serve on the side. Serve with garnishes.