You don’t just want to eat at this weekend’s tailgate — you want to feast. Here are some tried-and-true tailgating recipes to make your last home game of the season memorable. Don’t be the disappointing friend that brings in stale Fritos (besides, who really, honestly likes Fritos?), and bring in the best food for the least amount of time and effort. If all goes to plan, you’ll eat so much that you’ll have to be rolled into Williams-Brice.
If you live for tailgating: Bacon Cheeseburgers
Since it’s the last game of the season, why not pull out all the stops and bring a main dish? Cheeseburgers aren’t as time-consuming as you would think — all it takes is a grill (or a pan), a few essential ingredients and roughly half an hour to make the best burger of your young life.
Ingredients:
1 pound of ground beef
2 tablespoons of Trader Joe’s South African Smoke Seasoning Blend
4 hamburger buns
Cheese slices of your choice
4 slices of bacon
Instructions:
1. Start up your grill to a medium heat. If you don’t have a grill, put a big pan on the stove and turn the heat on high.
2. Put the beef in a bowl, and mix in the spices. Be careful not to over-handle the patties. Shape them as quickly as you can without playing with them too much — this will ensure that your patties retain juice while cooking.
3. Put the patties on the grill and cover. Five minutes in or so (depending on how well you want your burger done) flip the patties and cover again for five more minutes. If cooking on the stovetop, flip burgers about four to five minutes in for medium burgers. For the last two minutes on either the grill or pan, put your cheese on to melt it.
4. While the burgers are cooking, fry your bacon.
5. Heat your buns either on the top rack of the grill or in the oven for about one to two minutes.
6. Assemble your burgers with all toppings you want.
If you have a sweet tooth: Lemon Bars
While this sweet and tart dish is a little more time-consuming, it’s also so worth it. Also, there’s really no way to screw them up. Just find enough willpower to wait until they’re completely cool to cut them.
Ingredients:
For the crust:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup powdered sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on bars
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons butter (1 1/2 sticks), at cool room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces
Filling ingredients:
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest, from 2 large lemons
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, from 3 to 4 large lemons
1/3 cup milk
Pinch of table salt (about 1/8 teaspoon)
Instructions:
1. Place an oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 9-by-14-inch baking pan with foil or parchment paper and lightly grease the foil/parchment.
2. Stir together the flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch and salt (this can be done in a food processor or in a large bowl by hand). Add the pieces of butter and cut the butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender, two knives or your fingers (taking care not to melt the butter too much — you might try freezing the butter and grating it into the dry ingredients on the large holes of a box grater) or process in the food processor for eight to 10 seconds and then as needed until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle the mixture into the prepared pan and press into an even layer on the bottom and about 1/2-inch up the sides of the pan. Refrigerate for 15 to 30 minutes. Bake until golden brown, which should take about 20 minutes.
Filling instructions:
1. For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt and flour in a medium bowl and then stir in the lemon zest, juice and milk to combine.
2. Pour the filling onto the warm crust (it’s important that the crust is still warm!) and reduce the oven temperature to 325 F. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until the filling feels slightly firm to the touch. Cool it to room temperature, sprinkle with additional powdered sugar and cut into bars.
If your fingers are so cold they might fall off: Homemade Hot Chocolate
Nothing is better than seeing your breath in the air and holding a hot cup of cocoa to stay warm. Sure, you could just buy a run-of-the-mill hot chocolate mix and be done with it, but where’s the fun in that? This homemade hot chocolate beats any packaged one and won’t break the bank.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. of Hershey’s cocoa powder
½ cup of sugar
1 ¾ cup of skim milk
¼ cup of skim milk (to be used separately from the other milk)
Instructions
1. Stir together the cocoa and sugar in a medium saucepan.
2. Turn the burner on to medium-high heat. Stir in the ¼ cup of skim milk and mix the milk and cocoa together. It will be thick, and you’ll have to stir constantly. That’s OK. Force them to love each other (or at least mix until the sugar is completely dissolved).
3. Pour in the rest of the milk. Add more milk if you like it less chocolatey and less if you want that chocolatey goodness. Heat the entire mixture up until it’s warm enough for you.
4. Pour it into a cup and, for the love of all that is holy, add some marshmallows.
If you want to watch the calorie intake: Honey Lime Fruit Salad
It’s hard to diet around friends, so instead of bringing stalks of celery and a weak, defeated smile, bring something healthy that everyone loves: fruit. I can’t name one person who doesn’t like fruit. If you want to up your fruit salad game, top off all of the random fruit you threw in a bowl with the dressing you never knew you needed.
Ingredients:
All of the fruit you want, totaling to the amount of a medium-sized bowl
¼ cup of honey
Zest of 2 medium limes
1 tablespoon of lime juice
Instructions:
1. Combine all of your fruit in a bowl.
2. Combine the honey, zest, and lime juice to make the dressing. Pour over the fruit. Ta-da.
If your wallet is full of cobwebs: The Best Tailgate Dip
You’re begrudgingly contributing to your friend’s tailgate, but you want to hide that. That’s where this dip comes in — it only has four key ingredients that will run you under $10. If a friend pitches in chips, you’re golden.
Ingredients:
8 ounces of Velveeta cheese
1 block of cream cheese
1 pound of Italian sausage
1 small can of Ro-tel (spicy or not, that’s your prerogative)
Anything else you want to add (more meat, corn — all up to you.)
Instructions:
1. Cook the sausage in a pan over medium-high heat and drain the excess oil.
2. Mix everything together in a medium-large saucepan over medium-low heat.
3. Dip your chips in and enjoy.
If you’re in a hurry: Corn dogs
Buy a box of frozen corn dogs and pop them in the oven. Go take a shower and get dressed. Fix your hair a little. In approximately 25 minutes, your corn dogs will be ready. Corn dogs are the best. You’ll be popular among your fellow tailgaters. I promise.
Ingredient:
Frozen corn dogs
Instruction:
1. You all can follow instructions on a box, right?