Pleasant House

It is mid-August and Zone 5 is blowing up. The hot weather and intermittent showers have brought forth juicy tomatoes by the bucket-load. It’s been a bit of a tomato rave around these parts with all of the salads, pastas, sauces, and gazpachos. When I transferred a load of ripe black cherry tomatoes into a gallon pitcher, I was reminded of two things: 1. How Bruce over at Chicago Green Roof Growers told me that I’d be amazed at these black cherry tomatoes when they start growing. I picked up my starter plants from him. 2. How great it would be if the pitcher holding the cherry tomatoes were transformed into a pitcher holding bloody mary mix. So! After some careful thought and calculations, The Pleasant House Black Cherry Bloody Mary Mix was born. Rich, tomato-ey, and spiked with Chelsea and Morgan’s grandpa’s horseradish and some rooster spur chili (thanks to Bruce once again) and few more “secret but not so secret” ingredients, this bloody mary mix is the summer garden deconstructed. That’s a little star-shaped basil ice cube that melts into the bloody mary as it is stirred. Oh, and it’s no secret that our bloody marys are mixed with gin, not vodka.