A drink with a name like this calls for a soundtrack by Ry Cooder, Little Feat and David Lindley.

Some of your guests on Thanksgiving will certainly enjoy it before their meal.

This recipe comes to us by way of My Key West Kitchen (Kyle Books, October 2012) by father and son team of Norman and Justin Van Aken. This book makes you hungry for a trip to the Florida Keys.

“Woman Gone Crazy” Bloody Mary

For a few months in 1974, we lived on the second floor of a building that had been a bar for about a century. Known as the Red Doors for a long time, it had once been called “the Bucket of Blood,” which points to a period of time when real pirates were part of Key West’s scene. Caroline Street runs along one side of the building and Jimmy Buffett wrote a very fine tune about a “woman gone crazy” on said street. I was mostly crazed from low funds during that time period. We drank Busch beer and fished off the nearby docks with our hillbilly pal Butch to augment our meager dinners. Thank God Butch knew a lot more about fishing than I did. 

Serves 1

11/2 ounces vodka

4 ounces tomato juice or 1 large ripe tomato, blended

3 to 4 shakes Tabasco sauce

1/2 teaspoon pickapeppa sauce (see Sources, page 185)

1 dash celery salt

1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon Sherry wine vinegar

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 lemon wedge

1 celery stalk

Place a few ice cubes in a cocktail shaker. Add the vodka, tomato juice, Tabasco and pickapeppa sauces, celery salt, lemon juice, vinegar, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper and shake well.

Strain into a pint glass filled halfway or more with ice cubes. Garnish with the lemon wedge and celery stalk. 

Cooking Note: What will seem crazy about this recipe is the sherry wine vinegar.

I ask you to make it for some friends— not telling them that detail—and see them react as mine did.

(* Recipe from My Key West Kitchen -Kyle Books, October 2012- by Norman and Justin Van Aken, all rights reserved, photography by Penny De Los Santos)