Kitchen Essentials

Tailgating

As a friend of the blog noted recently, "Saturday night's Saints game is going to be wild...it is the only game where people do not have to go to work the next day. People are going to be real drunk."

If you are going to cook, you might as well learn how to do it outside of the confines of your kitchen. Cooking in an outdoor environment presents a unique set of challenges. Why if you want to win Top Chef, it is almost a guarantee you will need to cook Alaskan Halibut in Times Square using a Fry Daddy.

You are going to need a grill. Any model will do, but it is probably easier to use a gas grill for tailgate applications. You want a metal spatula and a few rags. A cooler filled with water so you can clean up your gear and paws wouldn't hurt either.

For food-you could grill sausages, burgers, and tube steak and have a perfectly fine time. But for tailgates, I like to keep it simple and do as much work ahead of time. Plus, giving people something unexpected is as nice as a 13-0 start. So here is what I recommend.

Make a meatloaf the night before, use ya momma's recipe. After it cooks, let it cool and then cut it into individual portions. Bring those out to the tailgate. You can serve them cold, or sear them off just like you would if it was a burger. Let's be honest this is a burger that requires less cooking on site. Get some nice grill marks on each flat side, place in between two slices of bread, slathered with Blue Plate mayo, you will have people nodding dey heads like whoa. If you add some ketchup and hot sauce to that mayo, more power to you.

Or another crowd pleasing option is wings. Wings are cheap and can be eaten with God's utensils. To give the wings added flavor, toss them in a coating of Crystal and salt, let them sit in the fridge overnight. Grill them and serve as is. If you have blue cheese dressing that would be good for the wings or any vegetarians who may co-habitat with you.

Saturday night is going to be a wonderful night for the City of New Orleans. What are you cooking? Maybe we should have a Blackened Out and Gold Tailgate Cook-off this weekend? Winning team gets a cookbook?

Tell us where you are tailgating, and we will pay you a visit. Who Dat!