Homemade Gift: Bloody Mary Kit with Spicy Bloody Mary Mix with Herb Infused Vodka

Christmas is two days aways - ahhhhh! I bet you're still looking for that perfect gift for that person that has everything . Well search no more, you've found the answer right here.  (Note: This gift is geared towards adults so if you're looking for a child's gift I'm sorry our search will continue.)  If you love to brunch & imbibe this one is for you or your friends or both! Just a few words - bloody mary kit.

You'll need to find some cool bottles or recycle old ones you have. I bought mine at fishs eddy (these & these). Some cute labels (like these) &  a marker. Oh & a cute box or gift bag to wrap it.

Then you'll need the most easy & delicious recipes for the best customized bloody mary, EVER, which I found while reading one of my favorite vegetarian blogs, Oh My Veggies, (totally worth checking out even if you eat meat!) the other day.  I stumbled across the brilliant kit ideas in the potluck section.

Sherrie from With Food and Love posted how-to make her insanely beautiful & easy rosemary infused vodka & linked to her bloody mary recipe. She had me at bloody mary & next thing I know I'm whipping up my own bloody mary kits with herb infused vodka thanks to her inspiration for gifts(!).  Be sure to check out Sherrie's post on making rosemary infused vodka here, & get her original bloody mary recipe here.

Read on to see how I put my own twist on Sherrie's great gift idea!

Ingredients for bloody mary mix adapted from this With Food and Love recipe:

• 2- 14.5 ounce cans of Muir Glen Organic Diced Tomatoes (no salt preferred)
• 1 cup filtered water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce - I love the salty taste of this ingredient so I used twice as much!
• 1 teaspoon horseradish - again -i'm aggressive with my kicky ingredients - so I used 1 tablespoon instead
• 2 teaspoons tabasco - I used a bunch of sriracha instead
• juice & zest from 1 lemon 
• juice & zest from 1 lime
• 2 teaspoons of sea salt
• 1 teaspoon of ground celery seed (if yours isn't ground mash it up with a mortar & pestle like I did)
• 1 teaspoon of Old Bay Seasoning - I added 1 tablespoon -I know living on the edge!
• generous pinch of black pepper

Make the bloody mary mix!

1. Combine all the ingredients into a food processor or blender or a large bowl & use an emersion blender like I did, pulse until the mix is smooth.
2. If you're not pouring with a spouted bowl or mixer stick a funnel in your bottle & ladle the bloody mary mix into the funnel into your bottle - this will save you a lot of messy clean up time.
3. Secure the top on each bottle & label with a cute label!

Ingredients for herb infused adapted from this With Food and Love recipe featured on Oh My Veggies Potluck:

• vodka
• fresh herbs - I used rosemary, thyme, dried red chilies (if you can find organic - why not?)
• citrus (optional) - I used lemons - sliced thinly

Make the herb-infused vodka

1. Place herbs & lemons in a glass mason jar (stuff as much will fit in the jar for the strongest infused flavor!)
2. Pour your vodka into the glass jar.
3. Secure the lid on the jar.
4. Store the rosemary vodka in a dark cool place for 5-7 days - I stored mine in the gift boxes I was gifting them in.

Important notes via Sherrie: During this process the vodka will start to turn an amber color. This is important to remember–if you are gifting this to someone you might want to assemble it immediately before hand. Because as gorgeous as this amber color is, the vodka is strikingly beautiful with the vibrant green sprigs inside of it. So if gifting, throw the vodka and rosemary in a jar, put a bow on it, run out the door, and party away!
This is the vodka after 6 days of infusing. At this stage remove the the rosemary sprigs, seal the vodka up and store it as you would any other liquor in your home.

pick some kitchy names for your vodka ;)

are you noticing my turquoise & red color combo happening, like it did here & here?