Tailgating Ideas – Don't Just Tailgate, Tailgate Better

Ingredients

• 2 lbs fresh jumbo shrimp
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup catsup
• 3 dashes hot pepper sauce
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 lb bacon, (or more)

Instructions

Shell and devein uncooked shrimp. In a bowl, mix next 5 ingredients. Marinate shrimp in mixture 30 minutes to 1 hour at room temp. Cut bacon into thirds or halves and wrap bacon around shrimp. Thread onto skewers. Grill until bacon is crisp, 10 to 12 minutes. Turn several times and brush with reserved marinade. Bacon drippings will cause the grill to flare up, so keep the water spritzer handy. Serve at once with lemon wedges.

Notes:

I came across a file with thousands of BBQ recipes. They look at least 10 years old and most don’t have any type of credit of where they came from. If you recognize a recipe please let me know so I can give proper credit.

Original recipe by The BBQ Grail can be found HERE.

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

While many of us have been caught up in complaining about the summer heat, seeing gas prices rise, watching the 30th Summer Olympics in London and catching the mud slinging political attack ads between Obama and Romney, unless you are a farmer you may not know we are experiencing one of the most severe droughts in United States history.

Financial Times: US drought threatens food price surge

The drought is considered the worst the United States has faced in a half century and the federal government is estimating that close to 12,000 square miles of farm land has been abandoned by farmers after the lack of water has caused irreparable damage to the crops. 12,000 square miles is roughly the size of the state of Maryland.

How is this going to affect you, the tailgater? Simple. Expect to pay higher prices for the foods you plan to bring to your parking lot party.

The crops most heavily damaged by the drought have been corn and soy beans. You’re probably thinking, “I don’t eat corn on the cob and who eats soy beans?”. You may not be a big consumer of corn and soy beans but farm animals love them.

If the cost to feed those chickens, pigs and cattle goes up, guess who will eventually get nailed with the price increase? That’s right, you the consumer.

Consider this. Corn is one of the most versatile foods out there used in almost everything that we eat. The obvious ones would be those tortilla and corn chips we love to serve while out tailgating but corn is also a big part of processing foods. Go through your kitchen pantry and read the ingredients labels on any box, bottle or can. More than likely corn is an ingredient in whatever you pick up.

So what’s a tailgater to do? One thing you can do is try and stock up now before the residual affect of the drought has not hit the prices in the grocery stores and warehouse stores. If you have the means, (and the storage/freezer space) we would suggest loading up on those items you know you will be wanting to have while tailgating. Bacon, ground beef, hot dogs, etc. will all be seeing price increases and more than likely those prices will leap right around the middle of football season. Prime tailgating season indeed.

Another suggestion is to buy a number of bags of chips knowing that the expiration date will probably be a few months from now and they will not go bad if unopened before the end of football season. If you have the freezer space, stock up on beef, pork and poultry and freeze them now. With a little bit of planning you can try to avoid the higher food prices that will assuredly be coming.

If you don’t have the storage space or the financial wherewithal to buy all your tailgating foods up front, start clipping coupons and be on the look out for sales and specials at the grocery stores.

Most people do not like surprises, especially surprises that hit you in the wallet. But if you are prepared now for a price increase that is almost as sure as death and taxes, you can make the proper preparations so it won’t hurt as bad when it really hits.

With Valentine’s Day rapidly approaching, you tailgaters out there may be scrambling for Valentine’s Day ideas that are unique and creative but also has a hint of your own personal style. Although Valentine’s Day may be a holiday where the women tend to get the better end of the deal, we have an idea for you that would please any tailgater, male or female. And because Valentine’s day is supposed to be romantic, we couldn’t think of a more romantic way to express yourself than with bacon. We present to you a “How To” guide on making your own bouquet of Bacon Roses.
Read the rest of this entry »

We as members of Tailgate Nation typically like bacon. (Honestly, other than vegans, who doesn’t like bacon?) Also, we tailgaters tend to enjoy an adult beverage or two. So it was a no brainer that the folks at Black Rock Spirits contacted us and asked if we would be interested in doing a product review of Bakon Vodka. I love bacon. I love Vodka. Bacon flavored vodka? Bring it on.

You have probably seen all the different types of flavored vodkas out on the market. They tend to lean towards the more fruit flavors like citrus infused vodkas or berry flavors. That’s fine and all but bacon infused vodka on the surface just screams that it is a manly vodka. Before I even received the sample bottle (Full Disclosure: The sample bottle of Bakon Vodka was provided free of charge but in no way influenced our opinion of the product.) I figured just the mere fact of having bacon flavored vodka at a tailgate party would give your parking spot that “wow” factor. Based on the uniqueness of the vodka it was already starting off on a positive note.

Checkout this news report on Bakon Vodka.

When the bottle first arrived and I took it out of the box, I liked the look of the bottle. It was not your typical round bottle but had square sides. Very cool and makes it stand out a little more. The logo of a bacon strip on the front removes all doubt that this is going to be another ordinary vodka.

Upon opening it I took a sniff to see if I could smell the bacon. It was definitely the first thing I smelled but it wasn’t overpowering. The folks at Bakon Vodka say their signature drink is the Bakon Mary. Basically a Bloody Mary but using Bakon Vodka. We still had some Jimmy Luv’s Bloody Mary Mix on hand so we mixed up a batch of bloody marys. The first sip was a bit cautious to make sure I was not missing anything. My initial reaction was, “It’s tastes as if crumbled up a crisp strip of bacon and sprinkled it on top of my bloody mary”. Needless to say, it was a great experience.

Upon finishing the bloody mary I then moved to shots. No need to call the Betty Ford Clinic. I was merely doing this purely for research sake.

I poured myself a regular 1 oz. shot and took it down. The Bakon Vodka shot was smooth and not harsh at all. The after taste was pure bacon. (Honestly, if someone asked me the one taste I would like to have permanently in my mouth, bacon is my top answer.)

I then started researching what other recipes might go well with Bakon Vodka. Here are a few that caught my as as either unique and original or just sounded like they would taste great.

Swine Flu Shot
• 1 part Bakon Vodka
• 1 part Jaeger
• 1 part Goldschlager

The Elvis Presley
The King himself would have loved this amazing combination of flavors.

• 1 part Bakon Vodka
• ½ part hazelnut liqueur
• ½ part banana liqueur
• splash of cream

Shake with ice and served like a Martini -or- strained into a shot glass.

Bakon Vodka Marinated Steak (Serves 6)

• 1/3 cup Bakon Vodka
• 1 tablespoon sea salt or 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 2 tablespoons black peppercorns, crushed
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped thyme
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• A slice of beef cut from the top of the rump, about an inch thick or 24 ounces

Combine marinade ingredients and put into a closed container with the beef, making sure to evenly coat with herbs. Marinate for 3 hours at room temperature. Or for superior results, marinate for 1 to 3 days in the refrigerator before cooking.

Cook to preferred temperature, and enjoy.

So now that you have seen just a few recipes for Bakon Vodka you can check out more at bakonvodka.com/recipes.

After sampling Bakon Vodka in a bloody mary and just straight out of a shot glass, the verdict is we liked it. Check that. We loved it. Some flavors and smells are good to themselves and don’t play well with others. We were happy to learn that bacon and vodka not only play well together but we are wondering how this combination was not thought of before.

We would highly encourage you to try Bakon Vodka. Because Bakon Vodka is relatively brand new to the market it is not in every liquor store or bar on the map. Make sure to check out their website on where to find Bakon Vodka to see if it is carried near you. If not, they do offer purchase via mail order to certain states.

To learn more about Bakon Vodka and to possibly purchase a bottle for yourself, please visit: bakonvodka.com.

As a tailgater, watching this kind of made me feel like I was watching porn…

The entire 30-minute version of this 1965 industry video is available at the Prelinger Collection.