Around these parts, folks love a tailgate. No matter your team allegiance, the recipe for success is the same: good food and good company make for good times. Divide up the tasks, bring plenty of ice and, for goodness sake, don’t forget the meat.
“You just don’t go to a tailgate without chicken strips,” laughed Martha Nelson. She and her family have been tailgating faithfully at Mississippi State games for almost 30 years. They live in the Delta community of Stringtown, near Benoit, but Martha and husband Charlie built a house near Starkville in 2001 to use when in the Golden Triangle. With two grown children who are MSU grads and now grandchildren at State, the Nelsons and friends headquarter there for football weekends and special events.
“We’ve come for years and years and years, ever since our daughter started college there in 1985,” Nelson said. The oldest grandchild is a junior at MSU this year. “He’s grown up in those stands,” his grandparent said.
Chicken strips may be a given on the menu Martha and the tailgate group prepare for each game, but it certainly doesn’t stop there. Saturday’s spread for the MSU/UAB game had tables groaning with pork tenderloin for sliders, wraps and po’boys, breakfast casserole, cheese grits, a crunchy romaine salad, marinated salad and fruit salad. Stuffed eggs are a must, and chips and dips. For dessert there was bread pudding (one of Martha’s specialties), banana pudding, strawberry cake, brownies and chocolate cookies.
“And we always try to have boiled peanuts for people sitting around beforehand,” she added.
Teamwork
Nelson and her friend Robin Horton do a good bit of the cooking. Horton lives in Scott, near Benoit. She and her family make up six of the crowd who generally eat at the family-friendly tailgate (there have been as many as 60 or so, Nelson said).
Horton explained, “It’s usually a two- or three-day process — we usually shop and cook one day, then do some more cooking and shopping, and then load up very early on game day to get to the Junction. I enjoy cooking, and we have fun planning and making our menu — it’s just being able to be together.”
Both Nelson and Horton cited the Benoit Union Church cookbook as a go-to source for recipes. Horton also mentioned websites such as Taste of Home and Food Network.
Wherever the recipes come from and whatever campus it’s on, the real beauty of a good tailgate is in the people, the personalities, the sharing.
“It’s just a great time of fun and fellowship,” Nelson said. “I love to do that … just serving people.”
And you said
We asked around the Golden Triangle on Facebook for some of your tailgate favorites. In Columbus, Abby Davis voted for Trish McGrath’s meatball sandwiches. Steve Wallace prefers fried chitlins. Jan Miller’s pick is venison wrapped in bacon, stuffed with artichokes and hot peppers (“sometimes blue cheese, too — so good grilled!”).
Bacon-wrapped breadsticks rolled in Parmesan cheese were touted by Meredith Fraser. Bonnie Williamson Thames shared the simple recipe for one of her biggest hits, broccoli and cheese soup. (“They were scraping the sides to get it all.”)
Kristen and Joe Stevens in West Point like to make up biscuits filled with fried bologna, thick slices of cheddar cheese and Jezebel sauce. And Jim Beaty in Starkville likes the “meat candy” — sausages wrapped in bacon, rolled in brown sugar and baked for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.
Oh, yeah. It’s tailgate time.
SUNNY’S BREAD PUDDING
9 slices white bread, cubed
2 cups milk
1 large can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cup sugar
6 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick melted butter
Cinnamon
For the sauce:
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 small can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick butter
(Source: Martha Nelson, Stringtown)
BONNIE’S BROCCOLI SOUP
3 cans chicken broth (14 1/2 ounces)
2 each 1-pound bags frozen chopped broccoli
1 (10 1/2 ounce) can Ro-tel brand tomatoes and green chilies
10 ounces Velveeta cheese product (you may use reduced fat Velveeta)
(Note: To swap up the taste a little, I sometimes add a half cup of shredded Colby Jack and/or mozzarella for an interesting blend of flavors. You may also add a half cup of chopped onions. Sprinkling bacon bits on top of the soup when serving it up is always good, because who doesn’t like bacon?)
(Source: Bonnie Williamson Morris Thames, Columbus)
SPICY-SWEET PIGSKIN DEVILED EGGS
1 dozen hard-cooked eggs, peeled
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons mango chutney
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
Kosher salt, to taste
Sliced fresh chives, for garnish
(Source: Kate Blood, San Jose, California; Southern Living, September 2004)
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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