Archive of ‘Extras’ category

The BQC 2018 Christmas Shopping List

Where did the year go? I feel like I just prepared last year’s Christmas gift post! But here it is, Black Friday already, and after a great Thanksgiving dinner at Hotel Henry, it’s time to buckle down and whip out the shopping list.

(Reminder: I do this out of the goodness of my heart, and I do not earn any commission from any of these gift suggestions.)

Uncommon Goods sent me a catalog for some reason. How they got my address, I’m not sure, as I’ve never ordered from them but alas, their marketing worked and I went to their website to shop. My browsing turned up two cute Bloody Mary items:

Bloody Mary Cocktail Branches – $18 – Tired of your garnishes sinking into your drink? Then get this set of two stainless steel picks to hold ’em up. Bonus: They are made here in Buffalo NY!

Bloody Mary Diagram Glassware – $25 set of 2 – In case you forget how to make a classic Bloody Mary, these glasses will help you out (but shame on you for having to refer to them!!)

If you need to clean up after making your Bloody in those fancy glasses, with a ton of garnishes on the branch, here are a few good options.

Perfect Bloody Mary recipe tea towel – $18 – This towel is a super cute hand drawn Bloody Mary recipe (in case you forgot the recipe AND broke your fancy glasses from above). Even if you don’t need a recipe, it’ll look great in your kitchen or bar area.

Fighting Garnishes tea towel – $18 – Sometimes the garnishes just have enough of each other. Hand-screenprinted for your viewing pleasure.

Need something to wear to brunch? I got ya.

Vintage Graphic Bloody Mary T-shirt – $23.50 – soft, light weight and unisex, the perfect gift for everyone!

It’s What’s For Breakfast t-shirt – $22 – It may be what’s for breakfast but we all know it’s also what’s for lunch and dinner too.

Just need something small? Have a few stocking stuffers.

Bloody Mary Keychain – $4.50 – This is such a cute little embroidered key chain, any Bloody love would adore it.

Bloody Mary Bar Print – $5 – Running out of time to get someone a gift? This cute print is an instant download. Just get this pdf printed on a quality paper, get a cheap frame, and voila. Some nice wall art!

Don’t forget to check out last year’s list, or my Etsy Collection, as many if not all of the gift ideas are still available.

Happy Holidays and have a Bloody for me!

A Bloody Lovers Christmas List!

Do you think Santa drinks Bloody Marys? I like to think so! After a long season of having to crack the whip on all his elves so that the presents are ready for delivery, and then flying around the world for a full 24 hours, he needs to sit back and relax. I bet he gets back to the North Pole, puts the reindeer in the stable, and collapses into his big plush chair with a nice spicy Bloody. And if he spills any, no problem, it blends in with his suit! Santa’s favourite garnish? A candy cane, of course (ew?!)

Children always have a long wish list of gifts they want to see under the tree, but that doesn’t mean adults can’t have fun during the holiday season too. And face it, adults are going to need some liquid relaxation after all the political arguments and family drama.

So for the Bloody Mary lovers in your life, here is a handy list of things they might enjoy. That said, I have nothing to gain from this list, no affiliate links, I don’t know these people. I just thought it would be fun to see what kind of awesome Bloody Mary things are out there. And sure, I’ll take any of them if anyone feels like buying me gifts šŸ˜‰

For the drinks:


Bloody Mary spice gift box
– $25 – A set of 4 spices to improve your homemade Bloody Marys. Includes celery salt, bacon salt, ghost pepper salt and Berbere, an Ethiopian blend of toasted spices that is traditionally very hot, but made here more mild so everyone can enjoy it. This particular set sounded delightful to me because of variety of flavors it offered.


Bloody Mary Travel Mug
– $8.99 – You’ve seen the travel mugs that say things like “This may be vodka” etc, this time, add the tomato juice! And you can get it personalized, so everyone knows who the Bloody lover in the room is. And if you really want to emulate the true Starbucks experience, you could personalize it with some bastardized version of your name!


Tomato Juice Glasses
– $12 – Not Bloody Mary related per se, but look at these super cute tomato glasses. Not quite shot glass size, but not a full glass, they’re perfect for a beer chaser, if you are one of those kind of Bloody Mary drinkers. Since this is a vintage item, there is only one available, so if you want them jump on them right away!


Bacon Hot Sauce
– $7.99 – LOL Porcus Infernum! Bacon hot sauce with a hilarious name. Can’t vouch for the flavor, but it sounds like a good addition to a Bloody, and if nothing else you can laugh at the name forever. (Other bacon hot sauces also available in this listing).


Bloody Rebellion Spice Mix
– $4.95+ – A nice mix of classic Bloody Mary spices to spruce up your tomato juice at home. Available in a variety of sizes, it comes in a resealable pouch for easy storage.


For the home:


Bloody Mary Bar Sign
– $6.95 – A nice artsy Bloody Mary print for your kitchen or bar area (or bedroom, or wherever!) FYI, It’s an instant download, so you have to get it printed and framed yourself.


Embroidered Bloody Mary Towel
– $15.99 – A cute embroidered kitchen towel with a design from Urban Threads. Choose your color of towel, or if you want the design on some other kind of item, the seller can put it on virtually anything!


Bloody Mary Candle
– $22.95 – Look at this amazing candle! It looks just like a real drink! 7″ tall, the glass can be reused after you burn it, but WHY WOULD YOU? The standard scent is a sweet orange chili, but you can pick another listed scent or work with the seller for something custom.


To wear:

Those that know me know I loooove pins. My purses are always covered in them, but I have yet to sport a Bloody Mary pin. Here are 2 options, both are $10


And if you need something to put the pins on, here are a few shirts

And you can round out your outfit with some jewelry

This seller also has similar designs in earrings and bracelets


For the crafters:


Custom rubber stamp
– $14 – I haven’t used my rubber stamps in years, but if you’re a crafter, you might need this in your collection.


Bloody Mary prayer from Archer cross stitch
– $4 – This hilarious prayer from the show Archer is available as an instant download cross stitch pattern.


Cross stitch kit
– $9.99 – Another version of the prayer, a bit simplified. If you’re a beginner this one comes with everything you need to get started.


Ready made cross stitch prayer
– $20 – And if you’re not crafty at all but still want a cross stitched prayer, you can buy it already made!!

Last but not least, if you have a bunch of money burning a hole in your pocket, there are these:


Custom painted shoes
– $325 – Whaaaat? Custom painted Bloody Mary shoes! They are pretty awesome and well done, but (message to J) don’t buy me these!! I wouldn’t want to wear them and get them all messed up.

That’s it for now. Feel free to check out my Bloody Mary Goodies Etsy collection, where you will find all these items and more as I keep finding new, cool things to add to it.

I hope everyone gets all the Bloody Goodies they want for the holidays!

Bloody Snacks

I did some Christmas shopping at Premier Gourmet and Wines and came across these.

Snacks

Tyrrell’s English Chips in Worcestershire Sauce and Sundried Tomato, and Lord Nut Levington Rebel Mary Peanuts, spicy bloody mary peanuts. My British friends had sent me some Tyrrell’s chips before in Sea Salt and Cidre Vinegar, when they sent me a crisps care package, so when I saw these I thought they would be good, even if they didn’t taste like a Bloody Mary. And I couldn’t resist the nuts when I saw them, but once I got them home, J mentioned we had tried them before. I sorta remember that now. Ah well, we get to try them again!

The chips have a very mild flavor, no spice, but are quite good. They smell nice and earthy. The peanuts just smell like peanuts but you can see they are coated in spices. They are spicy, but not overwhelming. There is a bit of a tomato taste to them but not that much. They’re tasty, and I’m typically not a peanut eater. If I’m not careful I could see myself eating all of them right now haha.

Tomato Lime Cocktail Tea

My dear friend Tammy saw me complaining on Facebook about having lost the Tomato Lime Cocktail tea I bought from Teavana, so she bought me a whole big container of it for Christmas.

teavana

ā€œRich and sweet sun dried tomato, celery, beetroot, carrot, apple, plum and raisins get a quiet-heat and citrus kick from pieces of chili, lime, orange and cinnamonā€

The loose tea smells quite good, but not at all like a Bloody Mary or tomatoes, where the Numi brand definitely smelled like tomatoes. This smells more fruity, and as you can see itā€™s full of big pieces of dried oranges. It brewed into a deep red color, like beets. The brewed tea does not smell as good as the loose tea. It has a very sweet fruity smell with a weird faint underlying vegetable/dirt smell (perhaps itā€™s the beets again). Itā€™s made me scared to drink it.

Here goes.

Ok itā€™s not bad. But it is not at all tomato-y or any kind of vegetable-y. I donā€™t even taste lime. Itā€™s just weird. The over lying flavor is orange, apple and plum. Weird.

I think it might be better as an iced tea than a hot tea. But it does not at all taste like tomatoes, so if you want a tea that does, stick with the Numi.

Bloody Mary Tea?

A few months ago I stopped into Teavana to look around. I try to avoid going in there because I want to buy all of the teas. But if Iā€™m at the mall, which is rare, Iā€™ll get a drink to go and try not to look around too much so I can avoid temptation. However, I looked around, and I spotted a new tea on the shelf – Tomato Lime Cocktail. Hang on a second. I asked, is that a Bloody Mary Tea?? The girl explained that they had created a line of tea based on popular alcoholic cocktails, and yes, it was a Bloody Mary based tea. I had already ordered my tea to go, but I couldnā€™t not buy some to take home. So I bought a 1/4oz or so to take home, and it sat in my cupboard for a while – I wanted to find a special time to brew it and review it.

Now that Iā€™m working an odd schedule I thought now was the time. Only I couldnā€™t find it. What?! I unloaded my entire tea cupboard (yes I have an entire cupboard full of tea), I looked in all my other cupboards, thinking maybe I misplaced it. I blamed my mom for throwing it out when she rearranged my tea cupboard while I was on vacation. It is gone. Poof. *Sadface* Of course, I could just go back to Teavana and buy more, but it was the Christmas season and I avoid all retail locations at all costs from Thanksgiving to mid-January, and I figured with my luck, theyā€™d no longer carry it in store. So I was not about to brave the crowds just to find out they didnā€™t have it.

Also, Iā€™m a bit terrified of it. How could it possibly be good?

While I was waiting for Christmas to end, I was at Wegmans looking at tea (shocker), and came across Numi Organic Tea, and their Tomato Mint flavor. They have a whole line of ā€œsavoryā€ vegetable based teas, including fennel and curry carrot, which also sounded interesting. However those 2 were inexplicably expensive, while the Tomato Mint was cheap, so in the cart it went.

numitea

Admittedly Iā€™m a bit afraid of this one too, but here goes! It definitely smells like tomato with a hint of mint. Like youā€™ve been harvesting the garden, and have a basket of produce in front of you. Smells quite good. And it tastes like tomatoes. Warm watery tomatoes. Hmm. Iā€™m not sure if thatā€™s a good thing. The mint is very very subtle, more in scent than taste. I suppose itā€™s not awful, itā€™s not offensive. Iā€™m just not sure itā€™s something Iā€™d want to drink frequently. Perhaps it would make a good iced tea. That will have to be put on the list to try.

(Now that I went to Teavana.com for the links, they have a 75% off sale which includes Tomato Lime. Oh no. That is not good news for the wallet! But perhaps Iā€™ll have a review sooner than later.)

McClures Chips

Another one of my favorite things, potato chips!

mcclures

During the NYC trip, walking by a corner store I stopped in to see what kind of weird chips they might have, and voila there they were. McClureā€™s Bloody Mary chips (and spicy pickle, and garlic dill – also purchased). Iā€™ve been hanging on to them since, waiting to get together with my usual ā€œweird potato chip eatingā€ friend LeighAnne but schedules werenā€™t working out and I couldnā€™t wait anymore.

So here I am, live blogging! My first!

I wouldnā€™t say these taste at all like a Bloody Mary, but they are definitely spicy. They are spicier than most spicy chips Iā€™ve ever had. They are definitely tasty, they have a bit of a pickle-y taste to them, since McClureā€™s is first and foremost a pickle company. Thereā€™s a lack of tomato flavor that is the biggest issue holding them back from having a definite Bloody Mary taste. But they are good. Iā€™d buy them again if I saw them, because Iā€™m a sucker for spicy.

Jason bought me several jars of McClureā€™s Bloody Mary mix but I have yet to try them as since July our work schedules have been super weird and we havenā€™t had much down time for cocktailing at home. He has several other mixes heā€™s collected for me to try as well, winter project? Too bad Iā€™m the only one of our friends that really likes Bloody Marys or we could have a taste testing party.

Crisps!

Bloody Mary Crisps

Besides Bloody Marys I have a thing for strange flavored potato chips. I found these while on vacation in the UK in 2011, which is actually before my Bloody Mary search began. They just sounded interesting at the time. These were at the Lovibonds brewery in Henley-on-Thames which my friends took me to while I was visiting for the night. My facebook post said they were very good but honestly I donā€™t remember.