Overnight Taquitos

For our breakfast tailgate last Saturday, I made about 40 taquitos. I learned this trick from a friend who went to an early morning tailgate at a Texans game. Most everyone knows how to make an egg, sausage or bacon and cheese taquito, but the technique to get them ready the night before is the trick! Every one enjoys a nice warm breakfast at the tailgate and these are easy to grab and eat while getting other things set up and ready to go. Since they are made the night before, there is little to do the next day except to reheat. Delicious and a crowd pleaser!!

Egg, Sausage or Bacon and Cheese Taquitos

2 18-count large or extra large eggs
2 packages of bacon
1 package of breakfast sausage ( I like Jimmy Dean Hot!)
Grated chedder and Monterrey Jack cheese
40-50 6" flour tortillas
foil sheets cut in half or regular foil torn into 5 in pieces
Salsa

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, place bacon strips on foil lined baking sheet and bake for approximately 15-20 minutes until bacon is crispy and browned. Place on to paper towels until cool and chop into 1/2" pieces. Set aside. Wrap about 20 tortillas in a stack in foil, repeat 2 times and place all 3 into the oven to warm. Place sausage in large nonstick skillit and cook throughly, into little crumbles. When sausage is cooked thru and nicely browned, place on to paper towels to drain. Wipe out skillet and spray with cooking spray, heat on medium. Crack 18 eggs into blender and mix until lightly frothed and completely combined, pour into skillit and cook eggs, scrambling on medium heat until just cooked almost dry. Cool slightly.

Set up an assembly area with warmed tortillas, eggs, bacon, sausage, grated cheese and foil. Take a tortilla and place about 2 T of scrambled eggs, then either bacon or sausage, then grated cheese. Fold in both sides and roll tightly like a burrito. Roll in foil tightly and close ends of foil. Use 2 half-size aluminum pans to hold the rolled taquitos.

Half size aluminum pan

Put bacon taquitos in one pan and sausage in the other. Cover the pans securely with heavy foil and write "Bacon" on the top of one and "Sausage" on the top of the other. Put into the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, either warm in the over for about 45 minutes. If you want to warm them at the tailgate, place both pans in a full size aluminum pan that has 1/2" water in the bottom.

Full size aluminum pan

Put the full size pan holding the 2 half pans into your preheated grill. Heat 30 minutes on 350 degrees, checking the ones in the middle every so often to see if they are warmed.

Remove and place into warming tray and serve with Salsa.

Ina’s Cheddar Corn Chowder

Soup is not my first choice for tailgating in Texas because it's usually too hot for soup. However, the Barefoot Bloggers are making the Barefoot Contessa's Cheddar Corn Chowder as one of the October recipes. Since it makes a big pot and got rave reviews on the Food Network, I thought I would give it a try for the tailgate this Saturday. I'll have to make some adjustments to the recipe because I can't in good conscience use bacon fat, olive oil AND butter in one soup! I think we'll just go with a little bacon fat!!

Find your inner prep chef, because there's a lot of chopping to do! Chop the BACON, chop the ONIONS, chop the potatoes and slice the CORN off the cob! The recipe called for TURMERIC which is not a spice that I use often. It was expensive to buy a whole jar, so I headed to the bulk spice section of the store. I only needed a ½ t. but bought about 2 t. for ONLY $.06!!!

I didn't use the olive oil to fry up the bacon, just a little spray of PAM in the pot to keep the lovely bacon from sticking!

Whew! 4 large yellow onions chopped is a lot of onions!!

If you cut the corn off the cob while standing it up in a large bowl, the corn will end up in the bowl and not all over the kitchen!!

Stirring in the flour, salt and pepper into the lovely sautéed onions!

After adding the broth!! You know it's really hard to get a good photo of a steaming hot pot. The steam kept fogging up the camera lens J

Okay, I AM taking the soup to the tailgate BUT I had to try a bowl!! Yummy! Ina knows how to make great chowder! I think it will even taste better after sitting in the frig for a day. The sweet corn will meld with the potatoes and onions to become a dish of delish! Be prepared. This recipe makes a BIG pot! Personally, I might like a little hot sauce because we Texas girls like a little spice in everything! The only alterations I made to the original recipe were to eliminate the olive oil and butter, and I also took out 2 cups of potatoes before adding the corn and pureed it in a blender. I added the pureed potatoes back into the soup to give it a thicker texture. What's not to like about a little crispy bacon on top!!

On Saturday, I will heat the soup at home and put it in a beverage cooler to keep it hot, but we we'll use a ladle to serve the chowder and not the beverage spout!!

TV messes with my menu

At the beginning of the season, I make a tentative schedule of what the menus will be for the tailgate. I take into account time of year (how hot it will be!), the opponent, crowd favorites and usually something different to keep it interesting! However, there is always that one little issue - TV. As soon as the game is picked up to be on TV, kickoff time is usually moved and then I'm back to the drawing board! Plan A - BBQ before the game and Baked Potatoes after the game. Plan B - now that kickoff is at 11:30am, we'll have Taquitos for breakfast and BBQ after the game. It's all good, remaining flexible is the key. . . that and remembering to check for schedule changes!!!

Houston Chronicle and Tailgating

Here's a good article on tailgating from today's Houston Chronicle. Most media articles are just the same ol' same ol', but this one is well written and includes recipes!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/food/6631232.html

Dessert Ponderings

On Saturday, we are having a Burger Buffet before the game and Breakfast in the Park after the game. I am trying to decide on a dessert to bring and I'm considering http://www.bakerella.com/easy-and-easier-valentine-treats/. I think they will come out in our school colors of maroon and white! I'm wondering if they will be too much trouble but I think it's kind of fun, especially since the shape of the cookie mimics a burger :-) Any other suggestions?

Barefoot Bloggers and Chocolate Cake!

Recently, I joined a blog group called the Barefoot Bloggers, http://barefootbloggers.wordpress.com/, fans of the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. Every 2 weeks, we make and review a preselected recipe of Ina's. This week, we were to try Beatty's Chocolate Cake http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beattys-chocolate-cake-recipe/index.html-recipe/index.html. Oh, what a chore - making deep dark dense chocolate cake with a light fluffy chocolate frosting with a hint of coffee!!!















Buttered and floured with parchment paper in the bottom of pan!

The batter looked very runny for a cake batter so I was a little worried, but Ina's recipes are usually perfect so I didn't worry too much!

yummy, chocolatey goodness! Try taking a photo while pouring cake batter!

A delicious duo ready for the oven!

Ready to take to the tailgate! The layers came out of the pan completely level and had a lovely texture. The frosting was a little light for me, but held up in the heat of the afternoon! I like a thicker buttercream but this frosting was lovely.
*I used 9" pans because I didn't have two 8" pans and it worked just fine. However, I reduced the baking time by a few minutes.

Gameday #2

Always a crowd pleaser, Fiesta Fajitas are my gameplan for this week's tailgate. You just can't beat the flavors of Tex-Mex while getting ready for the big game. It's kind of amazing that nation-wide people enjoy fajitas and queso on gamedays. It doesn't matter if you are from New England, Oregon or Beaumont, Texas, fajitas just make for good eating! We'll have the usual chicken and beef fajitas with all the fixin's, but I usually shake it up a little by adding in some well seasoned shrimp, squirted with a little fresh lime and cooked up quickly on the grill. My friend, Mary, is also thinking of doing some pork fajitas, and Robin is bringing her uber-delicious homemade quacamole (seriously kids, I could eat an entire bowl of her quac!).

Usually, we grill everything at home, slice it and store in ziplocs which are easy to pack in the cooler. Then, we reheat everything at the tailgate. This week, we are bringing the new grill and special caddy. I'll have to post some pictures of this grill that we won last year in the HEB and Texas Beef Up Your Tailgate contest!!

Who's ready for some football! ME!