Moose - Fan fare: a playbook of great recipes for tailgating or watching the game at home

The Harvard Common Press
535 Albany StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02118
www.harvardcommonpress.com

Copyright 2007 by Debbie Moose

Cover photographs copyright 2007 by Joyce Oudkerk Pool

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Moose, Debbie.

Fan fare : a playbook of great recipes for tailgating or watching the game at home / Debbie
Moose.
p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-55832-338-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Outdoor cookery 2. Tailgate parties. 3. Sports spectators. I. Title.

TX823.M6568 2007
641.5'78dc22

2007002509

Special bulk-order discounts are available on this and other Harvard Common Press books. Companies and organizations may purchase books for premiums or resale, or may arrange a custom edition, by contacting the Marketing Director at the address above.

Cover recipe: Double Play Spicy Beef,

Back cover recipes, from left to right: Smoky Quesadillas,

For additional photo credits, see

eISBN 978-1-55832-533-3
v1.0715

For Rob,

the reason why my skies are always Carolina blue

Most importantly, thanks to all the food-loving sports fans who shared their recipes and stories for this book. And a big thanks goes to my colleagues in the Association of Food Journalists for advice and some great sources.

A team of intrepid tasters stepped up to the plate to help evaluate the recipes: Martha Waggoner; Art Eisenstadt; Mo and Bobbi Courie; Martha Abernethy; Sue Wilson; Jean Alderman; Gary and Judy Ogle; Kathy Wilson; Bill and Treva Jones (Treva, you pack the bolt cutters on our next trip); the Literary Lovelies; everyone who has come to our jambalaya Christmas parties over the years; all the UNC fans who have attended our Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament brunches, even when the Heels werent playing (hey, the food was still good); Tom Attaway; Chuck Small; my husbands coworkers; the Avent West MOB (Minds on Books book club); the Elan Group; and the Brookhill Steeplechase gang.

I owe big thanks to Anne Saker for her advice and support and to Ruth Sheehan for her brat expertise. Also, thank you to Arturo Ciompi for wine suggestions. Finally, a huge thanks goes to WSHA-FM in Raleigh for playing the best jazz soundtrack for writing a cookbook.

For their inspiration, Id like to offer special thanks to UNC basketball coach Roy Williams (Go Heels!) and to Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, because every epic struggle needs a good villain in addition to a great hero.

Finally, thanks go to my agent, Carla Glasser, with the Betsy Nolan Literary Agency, for her support and guidance throughout my literary journey.

As all fervent sports fans know, the day truly is won or lost in the tailgate.

Stats mean nothingthe sauce is everything.

The grilling game rules.

And extra points mean dessert.

Unlike on the field or track, everyone can be a winner during the tailgate, where hope rises like the aroma of grilling chicken. The superstitious may insist on the presence of certain talismansa lucky team hat, for example, or the potato salad that a friend brought to the last winning tilt. We all know that those offerings influence the gods of sport. And they taste goodin the case of the potato salad, at least.

While all tailgaters share passion for their teams, how they express that passion in food has different flavors in different parts of the country In Hawaii, fans of the University of Hawaii Warriors bring hibachis to grill fish from the waters around the islands, often caught by the fans themselves. Southerners take food and football seriously. In Raleigh, North Carolina, one dedicated fan of the North Carolina State University Wolfpack grills a chicken feast with his special family sauce for more than 50 hungry supporters. And in Wisconsin, hardy followers of the Green Bay Packers fuel up with grilled bratwurst and all the trimmings before battles on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.

Football games are the classic tailgate sites, but fans of other sports have to fuel up, too. Those who love the speed of NASCAR racing enjoy several days to a week of prerace feasting while camping with other fans. Even the mushers of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska partake of hearty fare along their chilly route.

Watching games at home requires the right kind of food, too. In addition, libations can flow more liberally there, in the absence of parking lot or campus restrictions.

Tailgate can be a noun or a verb, the result of impromptu inspiration or weeks of planning, outdoors or in the living room. But it always means good eating.

STRATEGY SESSION

For me, the link between fans and food all started with a Sausage ball.

In my first job, working at a small North Carolina newspaper, my apartment was a five-minute drive away. One fateful Friday, the first round of the annual Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball Tournament loomed. We University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill fans realized that we could get to my place and see a good hour of the game (the managing editor being lenient) on our lunch break. This was before newsrooms were festooned with TVs, so there was no watching in the office.

Being a good Southern girl, I felt obligated to offer my guests some refreshment, but I wasnt much of a cook back then. I did make a mean sausage ball, though, and they were easy, plus meaty enough for the big-eating group.

I warmed the sausage balls and we dug in. Suddenly, a call went against our boys in baby blue. Enraged, a fellow reporter, whose name the annals record as Bill Moss, expressed his displeasure with the closest thing at hand. He flung a sausage ball at the TV screen, following it with speculation on the referees parentage.

It was a moment that went down in sports food history. For me, after that day, food and sports were inexorably tied together. And each October, as college basketball season begins, I still stock an ample supply of sausage balls in my freezer. You just never know when some blind ref will make an idiot call.

Planning Ahead

A great game plan is to do whatever you can ahead of time, so that when you get to the stadium or track (or when its game time at home), all you have to do is have fun. The recipes in this book that are great for preparing the day before are noted, along with transportation tips. Here are some other timesaving suggestions for getting the food ready for the big event.

• Shape hamburger patties at home, stack them between pieces of waxed paper, and seal in zipper-top plastic bags.
• Store the filling for deviled eggs in a zipper-top plastic bag, then snip a small hole in the bottom and fill the eggs when you get to the tailgate.
• If you plan to cook with onions, garlic, carrots, celery, bell peppers, summer squash, hot peppers, etc., you can chop or slice them the night before and refrigerate them in separate zipper-top plastic bags.
• Wash salad greens or fresh herbs the night before, dry completely, and store them in zipper-top plastic bags.

What to Bring

The best tailgaters, like the best teams, are organized and prepared. Heres a basic checklist of items to take along when youre going on location, most of which can be packed ahead of time. Serious fans keep a plastic tub packed with necessary nonperishables in the car for the entire season, replenishing supplies as needed.