I’m so bummed. Today was the Brooklyn Bloody Mary Fest, and I was not there. I really wanted to go when I first heard about it last year, but my job makes us choose our vacation time in November for the following year, and no date for the fest had been chosen yet when I was forced to pick my dates. Boo! Now I’m fantasizing about creating a Buffalo Bloody Mary Fest.

I also found out about “Embrace the Brunch”, a fundraiser for Embrace WNY, where various local restaurants donate a portion of their brunch proceeds to the organization. This weekend was Merge’s turn, but since I still can’t find anyone to go to brunch with me, I didn’t make it. I do a lot of things alone, but I feel like brunch alone would be the ultimate in sadness.

So much yumminess missed this weekend. I had to take things into my own hands.

I had to make my own. Since it was already in the fridge I decided to try out the Fat and Juicy mix that I had bought at Aldi, of all places, for $4.99. I garnished the special Buffalo skyline glass with 3 strips of bacon, 3 spicy green beans and a sriracha salt rim. The mix was very basic, tomato juice with a whole lot of pepper and a hint of celery. There was virtually no heat to it, and what was there might have come off the green beans. Meh, it’s a big pass. Perhaps it could be spruced up with my own ingredients. It looked nice, at least. (And it was our first nice day, so I got to sit on the porch and enjoy it, and then eavesdrop on my neighbors who were fighting ha!)