Tailgating Treats!

Watching football on tv is fun, and we always make our football Sundays a good time.  Going to an actual NFL game on the other hand, is OFF THE HOOK.  Especially at our favorite Buffalo Bills!  My favorite part is the tailgating. It is a feast for the senses! I love nothing more than to sit in my chair, a beer in my hand, surrounded by friends, and taking in all of the sights, sounds, and smells around me.  Among my favorite smells are those of amazing food being prepared all around us.  Watching the creative things people come up with, along with their creative ways of cooking never ceases to amaze!

This year, I wanted to try out some new recipes.  Honestly, not all of them were stellar.  In fact, quite a few of them need some work.  Among the stellar recipes was my pull apart, ranch, bacon bread.  To be fair, we first ate this at Jay's cousin's farm at a family reunion.  Problem was that I couldn't find the exact recipe after misplacing my copy.  Here is what I pieced together to create a tailgating breakfast masterpiece!

Bacon Ranch Pull Apart Bread

6 slices of bacon, cooked until crisp and chopped finely
1 tube of refrigerated biscuits (I used Pillsbury Butter Tastin' Grands)
1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tbs. olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Liberally grease either a small sheet pan, or a bundt pan.  Open the tube of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters, placing pieces into a large bowl.  Add olive oil, packet of dressing mix, bacon bits and cheeses to the bowl.  Toss well to coat all of the biscuit pieces.  Pour into greased pan, and bake for 20-30 minutes until biscuits are golden, and cheese is melted and bubbly.  Serve warm!

One of my goals for a tailgating menu is always to incorporate beer in as many of my recipes as I can, because honestly, it just isn't tailgating without some!  My idea this time was to create some kind of drunken pasta salad.  Finding a good recipe for a beer vinaigrette proved to be quite the task!  After looking at several recipes, I threw this one together on my own...

Beer Vinaigrette

1/2 cup beer of your choice (I actually used Labatt Blue Light as I had this on hand... I am thinking this would be WONDERFUL with either a Hefeweizen or a good wheat beer)
1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar (again, I had this on hand... could use white vinegar or white wine vinegar as well!)
2 tbs. lemon juice
1 tbs Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
Ground black pepper, to taste

Place all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until emulsified.  Here's a tip for you... I, rather foolishly, decided to make this in a cruet, as I do most of my dressings, and just give it a good shake until it emulsified.  The beer DOES NOT like this!!!  The lid popped off, and I was covered from head to toe in said vinaigrette as was my kitchen!!  Lesson learned!  For my pasta salad I tossed this with elbows, cheddar cheese, green onions, black beans and red beans.  Another tip for you... whenever you make any kind of pasta salad only toss in 1/2 of the dressing when you first make it, then toss in the rest just before serving to ensure the salad doesn't dry out!

Finally I was left with the question of what to do with the remainder of the bacon.  I decided I wanted to try to incorporate it into some kind of dessert... a sweet/salty combo if you may.  I ended up candying the bacon and making maple chocolate chip bacon cookies.  This cookie recipe is a work in progress.  I wanted light, high, airy cookies, with a thumbprint full of delicious candied bacon in the center.  What I got was run of the mill, flattened out cookies that had the bacon all throughout them.  The cookie recipe is still being fixed.  The candied bacon however was AMAZING and I think that it would be a perfect accompaniment to a French toast breakfast! 

Candied Bacon (AKA... Pig candy!!)

6-8 slices of bacon
1/4 - 1/2 cup brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place an oven safe rack on top of a baking sheet.  Sprinkle sugar on one side of each slice of bacon, using your fingers to press it into the meat.  Flip over all slices and repeat on the other side.  Place all slices on top of the rack.  Place rack on baking sheet in the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes, until bacon is to desired doneness. 

And as always... eat up and enjoy!!!

Oh... and GO BILLS ;)