Start the new year with a new Bloody
Mary recipe. Photo © S. Mario | Fotolia.

The world is full of them:

• Bloody Mary variations without tomato juice: Bloody Bull, Bloody Eight Ball, Bloody Mariner and even the Bloody LeRoy, which replaces the tomato juice with barbecue juice (in case you have some barbecue in the fridge to go with it).
• Latin-inspired Bloody Marys: Bloody Maria and Chipotle Maria
• International Bloody Marys that replace vodka with the local favorite: Danish Mary, Highland Mary, Russian Mary and more.

As cocktails go, the Bloody Mary, with vodka, tomato juice, citrus juice, seasonings, and a celery stick, is as healthy as it gets. If your New Year’s Resolutions include dieting, switch that sugar-laden Appletini, Cosmo, Mojito or Margarita for the Mary of your choice (well, maybe not the Bloody LeRoy).

• Get all of the Bloody Mary recipes above.

You become a butcher! “Julie And Julia: My Year Of Cooking Dangerously” author Julie Powell has released her next book, “Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession”, her “Julie and Julia” marriage gone awry “set against a backdrop of butchery.”

Most of “Cleaving” was written while Powell was an apprentice at Fleisher’s, a grass-fed and organic meat butcher shop in Kingston, New York. We haven’t read the book, but a colleague who did passes on her wishes for “more food and less sex—does anybody care about Julie Powell’s sex life?” (Yes: People who buy books to make into films will probably like it just the way it is.)

Fleisher’s has launched a formal butchery apprentice program that has already graduated three successful butchers. If your New Year’s plans include training in the culinary arts, learn more about Fleisher’s butcher classes.

As the Fleisher’s folks say, Carne diem!

• Learn your cuts of beef and cuts of lamb in our two popular meat glossaries.

This could be you, learning the craft (and
trade) of fine butchering. Photo courtesy Fleisher’s.

This is the second part of our “The Best Of 2009”: the Top Pick Of The Week specialty and gourmet food products that have become a permanent part of our lives. This week, our picks are the sweet stuff.

Since we’ve chosen “everyday foods,” our list doesn’t include the fabulous boxes of gourmet chocolate that are special-occasion buys. But don’t worry: All of our picks are indulgences.

You can click to the original reviews via the bulleted links below, or read our “Best of 2009” full review to learn why these have been added to our favorite treats list.