Neither rain, nor sleet, nor mud or floods will deter a die-hard tailgater.

The Food Bowl

Eating and football are synonymous. Diet, is a four-letter word in football jargon.

Tailgating - eating - drinking - body paint, a uniquely American ritual.

For women who follow football, the first thing that may have led them to become serious fans of the sport was the - FOOD!

I, as an example, sought refuge from the kitchen on Sundays, by heading for the living room, where the guys were having a great time watching all the NFL action.

I quickly discovered that if you don't cook, you are still allowed to feast on all the goodies coming out of the kitchen.

Game watching is not synonymous with Weight-Watching and it would be prudent to avoid the scale and get back to the Lean Cuisine on Mondays.

But while it's football season, and we're wearing our sweats, stretch pants and other attractive figure-hiding winter apparel, we are definitely up for the pound-adding grub and the stomach-bloating brew.

P.S. Don't forget the matches! Click here for a printable Tailgate Checklist.

More great Tailgate Ideas Here

Piggy Cheese Dip
from Shawn Stofle

Ingredients:

1 lb. Bacon
1 lb. Sausage (I use Owens hot sausage)
2 lbs. Velveeta Cheese
2 Cans of Extra Hot Rotel

Habanero Tabasco Sauce to taste (I use more than my wife and friends can stand so there is more for me)
Few sprinkles of steak seasoning (I use some good stuff from a local steak shop)
2 bags of Tostito's Gold tortilla chips

Cook bacon and set aside.
Then cook sausage and add a sprinkle of the seasoning and a few drops of the Tabasco sauce. Cut the cheese into little cubes and put everything into a crock-pot. Stir every 7-10 minutes. After it is all melted add a little more steak seasoning and Tabasco sauce and stir it all in.

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Beer Boiled Shrimp
Matt an Oakland Raider Tailgater

This shrimp recipe is easy, and great for warm weather games. All you need is a camping stove, large pot, and:

2 pounds of large shrimp (don't shell them)
Six-pack of good beer (we prefer a dark ale)
1 pound kielbasa sausage
2 or 3 bay leaves
tbsp coriander seeds
salt and pepper

The night before the game...
slice the kielbasa into one inch slices. Wash the shrimp in cold water.

In the parking lot...
In a large pot, bring to a boil the beer, sausage, bay leaves, coriander seeds, salt, and pepper. Lower the heat and simmer for about ten minutes. Dump in the shrimp and bring back to a boil. Boil for about two minutes (shrimp should turn pink.).

We like to put the shrimp on ice and serve it cold, although it is also tasty hot. Although any bottled cocktail sauce will do, we prefer to make ours at home. Just mix together...

2/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup horseradish
2 tbsp hot pepper sauce (less, if preferred)
1 tbsp fresh lime juice

As I said, this is easy to make, and fun to serve. We always end up giving samples to the fans near us.

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Cheese and Sausage Chowder
From an LSU Tailgater

8 ozs. Reduced-fat smoked sausage
3/4 cup each whole-kernel corn & frozen onion seasoning blend
1-2 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
2 cups water
8 ozs. Medium sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup milk

Cook sausage, corn and onion seasoning blend in butter in medium saucepan over medium heat 4-5 minutes.

Stir in four; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add water and heat to boiling; reduce heat to low and add cheese, stirring until melted.

Add milk; cook until hot 4-5 minutes (do not boil).

Makes 6 servings (about 1 cup each).

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Deep Fried Turkey
Sandy, Colorado Springs Tailgater

Creole Seasoning:
13 oz salt
1 1/2 oz ground black pepper
2 oz ground red pepper
1 oz garlic powder
1 oz chili powder
1 oz accent

OR you can use Cajun Power Garlic Sauce

Depending on how much seasoning you want injected into the turkey depends on how much to dilute. We like a lot of spices...so we will dilute about half of this mixture to a consistency that will flow thru an injection needle. Then just inject the turkey to your heart's content!

When frying the turkey at a game you sure get a lot of spectators wondering what in the world you are doing and a lot of people just coming to see what the wonderful smell is. In any event you meet a lot of different people...such as The Commissioner of Tailgating...wondering what you are doing!

Hints:
Use a thawed turkey not to exceed 18 lbs.
Inject turkey with Creole Seasoning (diluted with water)
Fill turkey fryer with vegetable oil (make sure it will not overflow when turkey is put in)
Heat oil to 350 degrees
Cook for 3 minutes per pound plus 5 minutes more.

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Pammy's Sweet 'N Sour Smokies

Sauce: for every 1 cup of "Welch's" grape jelly, add 3/4 cup of "French's" mustard...(make your own amount)... heat in a sauce pan until hot.

Now pour sauce into a crock-pot and add "Little Smokies ". Let simmer on low until hot.

Easy and quick...people love them!!!!!!

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Suzie's Hot Wings
a Tennessee Titan's and Vanderbilt Tailgater

Chicken wings, tips discarded, any amount
1 Bottle of Zesty Italian Salad Dressing
1 Bottle of Louisiana Hot Sauce

Soak wings in Zesty Italian dressing overnight or several hours. Grill over medium coals slowly about 10-15 minutes. Take off grill, soak them with Louisiana Hot Sauce, and put them back on grill another 5 to 10 minutes.

My husband and I have season's tickets to the Tennessee Titan's and Vanderbilt football. We do ALOT of tailgating, mostly at the Titan's games. I'm always looking for new recipes that I can fix, the more different the better. We've done everything from Shroom 's to shrimp balls, broccoli slaw to deep fried turkey's, dove breasts and duck. We're big Titan's fans.

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Eagle Steak
From Kevin Gibons a Philadelphia Eagles Tailgater

I've been tailgating at Eagle games for many years, one of the things my group does is to use a theme based on the visiting team...i.e. if it's Miami we would use a fish theme.when the Cowboys play the Eagles the theme is beef. This is a very successful recipe I have used called "Marinated Flank Steak".

2 flank steaks about 2 1/2 lbs.
2/3 cup of soy sauce
1/2 cup McElhenny Pickapeppa sauce or some other brand of sweet slightly hot pepper sauce
1/3 cup Worcestershire Sauce
4 tblsp dry red wine
4 tblsp red wine vinegar
2 1/2 tbsp dark brown sugar
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tblsp A1 Steak Sauce

Mix all ingredients [except the steak] into mixing bowl and then pour
Over the steaks for at least 24 hours but two days would be better. Remove the steaks [but save the marinade] and grill over hot coals till done about 5 minutes a side. Meanwhile bring to a boil and reduce the marinade in a saucepan by about 1/3. Let the steaks rest 10 mins or so cut on the grain and serve with reduced sauce poured over. We bake potatoes and spoon some of the sauce on these as well...then it's off to the Vet.

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Chesapeake Bay Grilled Shrimp
from Darrell, "The Chesapeake Explorer"

Shrimp..Peeled.. And de-viened. With tail shell left on for a handle 1 lb, 2lb or what ever you have any size but bigger is better and easier to prepare!

Butter 1/2 stick
"Old Bay" Brand Seafood Spice 1 to 2 tablespoons

Put a seafood-cooking grill on the regular BBQ grill, so shrimp don't fall through. Melt butter and add spice. Put shrimp on grill. Baste with a bit of butter and spice mix. Turn shrimp. Cook till pink, about 10 minutes.

You can't make enough of them!

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Green Bay Kielbasa
Vincent and fellow tailgaters from Hofstra University in New York

Now traditionally, I've always used my uncle's concoction of a sauce for the Green Bay. This dates back to college, where this delight of a sandwich was created at 5am one summer morning when a friend of mine and I returned from a night out in Buffalo. Originally, we fried this sucker up on a range stove and iron skillet- it tasted fantastic, and since then it's moved to the BBQ.

Hillshire Farms Kielbasa (any variation)
White American cheese, sliced and NOT processed!
Long French bread, hard style without seeds
special BBQ sauce, ours is a proprietary blend mixed up by my uncle, prepared in the summer, settles in time for the fall.

Stoke up the grill; old-fashioned briquettes are favored as we're purists here. Take the Kielbasa link- split the horseshoe in half so you have two lengths. Take the links and split them up the middle- wing out length, but keep it together so it could fold.

After a couple of minutes on the grill, place the white American slices in the folds of the kielbasa. Let them melt a little.. Add the special sauce on top.

Cook the sausages a bit; let them brown and the cheese melt. Baste the links with some more sauce.

Split open the French bread. You may add some sauce so the sausage sits on a bed of it.

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