Tailgating Ideas – Don't Just Tailgate, Tailgate Better

By the looks of the above photo and the name of the recipe, you would think this chili recipe would burn a hole is a cast iron pot. Well, not quite that bad but if you like a spicy chili that will give your sweat glands a run for their money, you should try this one.

Before we get to the ingredients and instructions, some history on this recipe. I was invited to tag along with an old college friend of mine who is big in the home brewing circles here in Southern California. He was going to the Super Bowl party of a friend of his who just happens to be the brewmaster of none other than Stone Brewery. Yes, that Stone Brewery that is famous for Arrogant Bastard Ale. My friend told me that Mitch and his wife Kathleen have been hosting a Super Bowl party for years and that it has grown to include a chili cook-off contest of sorts. Not wanting to make a bad first impression I emailed my sister who is the keeper of the recipe boxes from our parents and asked her to send me the recipe.

This recipe made its way into my family by virtue of when I was a kid. The step-dad of one of my childhood friends came up with this chili recipe. Not sure why this recipe is “No Mercy 2″ and not quite sure what was not perfect about the “No Mercy 1″ recipe. But as it stands it its current form, it will make a lot, feed a lot and will cause a few people to wipe their brow.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs stew beef, cubed
• 1 1/2 lbs hamburger (Preferred to use “chili ground” beef because it is it’s a courser ground beef.)
• 1 lb pork sausage, bulk
• 1 lb pork chorizo, casing removed
• 2 TB seasoned salt
• 8 diced onions or grind in food processor
• 2 garlics (full heads) peeled and ground in food processor
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
• 8 tsp chili powder
• 1 TB New Mexico chili powder
• 2 tsp oregano
• 2 tsp cumin
• 5 tomatoes ground in food processor (can use canned and juice)
• 2 tsp Accent (MSG)
• 1 can Coors Light
• 10 yellow jalapeno peppers
• 3 jalapeno peppers (or could use serranos)

Instructions:

Toast yellow jalapenos and jalapenos in frying pan without oil. Place in hot towel in covered pot. Let steep then peel and crush in food processor. Longer the toasting, easier to peel. If you don’t want to go to this trouble, just food process the peppers raw but don’t de-seed. Food process well to the point the peppers are ground up so well they are more like a paste or a milk shake consistency.

Brown cubed beef. Towards end of browning, add seasoned salt. Add hamburger, pork sausage, and chorizo. Add onions, garlic and broths. Simmer.

Add tomato sauce, chili powders, oregano, cumin, and tomatoes. Let simmer. Add yellow peppers and jalapenos, Accent, and Coors Light.

Tailgating games have come a long way since the tailgate party lifestyle really starting to gain popularity. It seems as though many tailgating games were originally backyard, lawn games brought to the parking lots. But all of that has changed in that people are inventing new tailgating games and combining elements of already established games with the new one. We recently discovered Pong-O and it certainly appears to be a nice combination of two different tailgating games.

Back when we started this tailgating blog in 2007, we discovered the first “hybrid” tailgating game, Sholf. Sholf took elements of shuffleboard and golf and combined them. Shuffleboard + Golf = Sholf. Although Pong-O doesn’t combine the names of the two games it has combined, it certainly melds the two together in a fun and exciting new tailgating game. Take a look at their intro video for an explanation and display of how Pong-O is played.

As you can see from the video, the tossing elements of Pong-O are identical with beer pong (although the configuration of the cups is not in a traditional triangle) and the defensive element is a lot like Polish Horseshoes. Most everyone knows beer pong and how it is played so no need to explain that. Not everyone is familiar with Polish Horseshoes. In Polish Horseshoes, if the flying disc knocks off the can or bottle, the defending team can catch it to score defensive points. Much like in Pong-O, if you catch a missed ping pong ball, that team earns points. So for all means and purposes, this is a lot like beer pong but with defensive scoring much like Polish Horseshoes.

As you can see in the above photos, I took Pong-O to the parking lot and set it up while tailgating. A lot of people saw it and commented that they liked it and how it was a new twist on the game of beer pong. It wasn’t until I started explaining the defensive rules to the game that they realized it was not just a free-standing beer pong stand that eliminated the need for a table. Many people remarked that it was similar to Point Pong in that the cups have their own stand and can be placed at varying distances. Most people also like the fact that Pong-O eliminated the opportunity to bounce the ball into the cups.

Although it was not created or invented to be a free-standing beer pong game, you can certainly use it that way. Get two of the Pong-O stands, set them up at your next tailgate party and you are playing beer pong without the table and without the bounces. (If you really like to bounce, you can easily insert a card table in the middle to still allow for bouncing.)

The craftsmanship of the Pong-O game is top notch. After all, the same guys that created Bog Toss and make those cornhole boards are also the same guys who came up with Pong-O. It comes smartly packaged and there is some assembly required once it arrives. Not to worry. This isn’t “some assembly required” like you are putting together a kid’s toy on Christmas Eve until dawn. If you can hand tighten a few wing nuts and follow a few instructions, you will be playing Pong-O in minutes.

Because Pong-O is brand new, because it is truly a unique game that combines two different tailgating games and because of the high quality of the game, we are definitely going to deem it “Tailgate Approved”. We liked this product so much that we decided to offer it for sale in our own online tailgating gear store, shop.tailgatingideas.com.

Pong-O normally sells for $49.99 per unit but we are offering a limited sale price of $44.99 for one + $9.99 shipping. If you want to buy two units and play Pong-O like beer pong, we’ll ship the second one for free. We are not sure how long the guys at Pong-O will allow us to offer these sale prices so if you think this would be a great game to play at your next tailgate, we would suggest picking up one or two because we don’t know when the sale prices will no longer be valid. You can buy Pong-O by clicking HERE.

Today is New Year’s Day 2013. More than likely you spent the day binging on college football bowl games and drinking massive amount of water and sports drinks to rehydrate yourself from ringing in the new year with a few too many cocktails the night before. In between bowl games and watching over and over Jadeveon Clowney’s huge hit in the 2013 Outback Bowl, we spent the day looking back at the year that was 2012 for us here at TailgatingIdeas.com.

We started the year off by attending the Sports Licensing & Tailgate Show out in Las Vegas checking out some of the newest tailgating gear coming onto the market. Later that month we joined forces with Tailgating Digest to help that magazine get off the ground. Sadly, it was just not in the cards for Tailgating Digest to put out their inaugural issue as projected and the magazine cited a lack of advertisers for the reason they were unable to publish their first issue. In June, Tailgating Ideas reverted back to the look and theme prior to joining forces with Tailgating Digest and continued to publish articles and blog posts on product reviews, recipes, cartoons and humor pieces.

As in years past, Tailgating ideas was recognized in a number of mainstream publications. Regular readers of Tailgating Ideas have grown accustomed to some of our more significant posts getting picked up by Sports Illustrated in their Extra Mustard section. 2012 was no different with at least three or four mentions in Sports Illustrated last year. In addition to SI, Tailgating Ideas was also featured in the Costco Connection October 2012 edition. Most might not think of the magazine that promotes people to shop at Costco being a big deal but it is actually a really big deal. Costco Connection has over eight million subscribers so landing in a magazine of that size is quite significant.

In October 2012, Popular Mechanics relied heavily on information they pulled from Tailgating Ideas to put together their 7 Gameday Gadgets for Your Next Tailgate feature. With an average monthly circulation of over a million readers we were quite pleased to land on the pages of Popular Mechanics.

Although the results of our involvement in the Visa #MakeitEpic Super Bowl campaign won’t be seen until 2013, we did fly to New York, got to meet Hines Ward and they filmed me talking about how to make your Super Bowl party into an epic tailgate party themed party. The footage in this campaign will be released via the Visa online social media channels and we will keep you posted on when those come out.

All in all, 2012 was a good year for Tailgating Ideas. In looking at our traffic statistics, our number of visitors in 2012 increased over those from 2011 and the years prior. Steady growth is always what we are striving for and that includes increasing the number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers as well. So now that we have gotten enough of the chest thumping and back patting out of the way, let’s list the Top 10 Blog Posts from 2012 that appeared on TailgatingIdeas.com.

10. Frost Boss – Coming in at number 10 was our product review of the Frost Boss. Admittedly, we were a bit skeptical of a device that spins a canned beverage in ice and takes it from room temperature to ice cold in two minutes without making it fizz or explode upon opening. We were sent a sample during the summer and ran it through it’s paces thoroughly. Needless to say it passed the tests with flying colors. Apparently a lot of you were also equally impressed and made it our No. 10 most popular post of the year.

9. Conversion Vans – Surprising to us was that a guest post, written by Blake Arbogast on tailgating with a Conversion Van made it into the Top 10. But after re-reading it, it was sharply written and included a lot of great information for those not quite ready to make the leap to RV tailgating but wanted something more than tailgating out of the back of your pick-up truck.

BasketPong angled

8. BasketPong – It takes a lot for a new tailgating product to make us take a step back and say “wow”. While out in Las Vegas for the Sports Licensing & Tailgate Show, Basketpong did just that. Basically what it is is a game that has taken the game play and fun of beer pong, taken it vertical and implemented elements of the game of basketball. Did we also mention that on top of all that it can float in water? Just remove the bottom and middle posts, plug the base with the included plug, take the top post and insert it into the base and it can float in water. By making it the eighth most popular post on the website in 2012, apparently you readers were as impressed with it as we were.

7. Krewe of Monroeaux Tailgating Trailer – From time to time we feature what we call “Righteous Rigs”. Those are either tailgating trailers, RVs, converted ambulances or other vehicles specifically outfitted for one thing; tailgating. The Krewe of Monroeaux, an LSU tailgating group submitted photos and a description of their tailgating trailer and we shared them with all of you. Our feature of their righteous rig got a lot of attention and ended up getting passed around on social media and ended up on a few LSU message boards.

6. Tailgating Intervention – Back in July before football season started, we found this clever video on YouTube that spoofed the popular TV show on A&E “Intervention”. Instead of the addict being addicted to something like drugs, alcohol or gambling, this spoof featured a guy that had an addiction to tailgating outside of football season.

5. Margaritaville Tailgating Grill Eulogy – Any long time reader of this tailgating blog knows how we felt about the Freedom Grill FG-50 and the Margaritaville Tailgating grill. It pained us dearly in March of this past year when we had to publish the Margaritaville Tailgating Grill Eulogy. In order to tell the complete story of the Margaritaville Tailgating Grill we had to tell the story of the Freedom Grill FG-50 as their history and stories were intertwined. The writing was on the wall in the spring of 2012 as these grills become more and more scarce and nearly impossible to buy. The FG-50 and Margaritaville were never given a proper burial but we hope our eulogy provided adequate closure to those who loved these tailgating grills as much as we did.

4. Red Solo Cup Koozies – Red Solo party cups are as common at tailgate parties as 40 year-old virgins are at comic book conventions. Although country music artist Toby Keith sang the praises of the Red Solo Cup in 2012, the main drawback is they do not insulate your beverage very well. We had the opportunity to test out and review a fun new drink koozie that not only keeps your beverage can cold but resembles a Red Solo Cup. Little did we know that our Red Solo Cup Koozie Review would become the fourth most popular blog post in 2012.

3. Holiday Gift Guide 2012 – Every year it seems as though people are stumped to find gifts for the tailgaters in your life. After all, what do you get the tailgater who already has everything. Hopefully each year we put out our Holiday Gift Guide for tailgaters it provides a little bit of help and a possible suggestion to make someone’s holiday gift giving experience a little easier. This year’s guide was picked up by Sports Illustrated which gave it a boost in visitors despite only having been published on the site with two weeks to go before the end of the year.

2. Father’s Day Gift Guide – Based on the past successes of our holiday gift giving guides we thought we would introduce the Father’s Day Gift Guide. Our suspicions proved to be right on in that Sports Illustrated picked up on this gift guide and posted it in the June 11, 2012 edition of Hot Clicks. They even gave it a shout out and made a comment that the iPhone case that is a bottle opener was quite intriguing. On the strength of the visitors coming in from Sports Illustrated plus the overall interest, vaulted the Father’s Day Gift Guide to the No. 2 most popular post in 2012.

1. Bacon Roses – It is no secret here that our love for bacon runs deep. And seeing how Valentine’s Day is typically not a holiday for tailgating seeing how football season is done and baseball spring training hasn’t even started, we thought this would be a fun way to bring a little bit of tailgate flavor to an otherwise boring holiday. The step-by-step instructions are right there so if you need a Tailgating Valentine’s Day Idea, you are good to go.

That wraps another year of tailgating fun and instruction. This past August marked the five year anniversary of this tailgating blog after starting it in 2007. We hope to do many of more of these yearly wrap-ups and hope that 2013 is our best year yet. If current trends keep up by improving on the previous years, that is one new year’s resolution we can keep.

Tailgating is, for me, in its simplest terms about enjoyment. It can be the enjoyment of spending time with friends, family and fellow fans of our team. It can be about enjoying the anticipation of a big game. In my book, tailgating is all those things but the enjoyment of the food is where it’s really all about for me.

I’ll be the first to admit that finger food normally doesn’t appease me all that much. As a matter of fact, I like to think of finger food as anything edible I can hold in one hand. I guess you could call that fingers food. But there is one small bite that encompasses everything that is great about tailgating food. It’s called the MOINK Ball.

If you go to a fancy restaurant, the chef may send out a small single bite appetizer meant to entice your pallet. It’s called an Amuse-Bouche, and literally translated it means “mouth amuser”. The MOINK Ball is a small single bite bit of mouth amusing or your tailgating events.

Why the strange name? There’s a long story behind it, but basically it’s a little bit of MOO (cow/beef) and a little bit of OINK (pig/pork) = MOINK. They are simple to make and I promise you, if done correctly, they will be the hit of your tailgating experience.

The Original MOINK Ball

Recipe Type: Appetizer
Cuisine: American
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 90 mins
Total time: 1 hour 50 mins
Preferred Cooking Device: Smoker
Serves: 2

Moink Ball Ingredients

• 24 frozen (1 oz size) Italian Beef meatballs, thawed
• 12 strips thin sliced bacon
• Favorite BBQ Seasoning/Rub
• 24 toothpicks

MOINK Ball Glaze

• 1 bottle BBQ Sauce (use one you like that’s not overly sweet)
• 1 cup raspberry jam
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• Chipotle powder to taste

Instructions for MOINK Balls

1. Cut your bacon strips in half.
2. Wrap 1/2 slice of bacon around each meatball and secure with a toothpick
3. Season, liberally, with your favorite BBQ seasoning/rub
4. Set aside until MOINK Balls are to room temperature.

Instructions for MOINK Ball Glaze

1. Combine BBQ Sauce, raspberry jam, balsamic vinegar and chipotle powder in a sauce pan and eat over low heat. Stir until all ingredients are combined.
2. Set aside.
3. Bring your grill to temperature. If you are using a smoker set it up to cook at about 225 to 240 degrees. If you are using a charcoal or gas grill set it up to cook with INDIRECT heat at as low a temperature as you can get.
4. You need to cook the MOINK Balls slow over indirect heat. If you try this over direct high heat the bacon will flare and burn.
5. Cook the MOINK Balls until the bacon is almost completely done (crisp). This should take about 75 to 90 minutes depending upon your temperature.
6. Sauce each MOINK Ball with the glaze and return to the smoker or grill for another 20 minutes to set the sauce.
7. Serve immediately…and get ready for requests for more.

Larry Gaian is the founder of The BBQ Grail. Follow him on Twitter @BBQGrail.

You may have already found that perfect gift for that tailgater on your holiday gift list (undoubtedly thanks to our Holiday Gift Guide 2012 we published a few days ago) but what about that extra small thing that fits into their stocking? The biggest complaint gift givers this time of the year have is finding that perfect stocking stuffer. The challenge is clear finding something cool and unique that isn’t a gift card but is small enough and light enough it won’t rip down the stocking off the mantle. Have no fear, we are back with another edition of Stocking Stuffer Ideas for Tailgaters 2012 Edition. Without further delay, let’s get to it…

Scorzie

You want to keep your drink cold and you want to play any of the numerous tailgating games like cornhole, washers, ladder toss, etc. You don’t want to put your drink down but you do want to keep accurate score while playing. The dilemma has been solved with the Scorzie. The Scorzie is a can koozie that not only keeps your canned beverage cold but also helps your keep score. The Scorzie has red and blue scoring bands that can be moved to keep score of your tailgating game. No need to keep score in your head or use one of those bulky scoring boards where you are moving clothespins. Now you never have to guess the score because you can keep the score and keep the party going all in your hand. The Scorzie is less than $15 and can be purchased HERE.

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