Birthday Tailgate

For many years we have had a birthday tailgate party for Ashley.  Her birthday, being at the end of October, has been the same weekend as Homecoming at Mizzou for a very long time.  When she started college, this made a lot of sense because we could invite her college friends over to help celebrate.  Now that she's been out of college for four years, the tailgate has become just her dad, Eric and me.  From time to time one of her friends will be in town and we invite them over.

The birthday girl!

The tailgate is always so much fun to plan.  We made a Facebook Event invitation and let everyone know where we are going to be.  This year we plan to tailgate by the hospital parking garage.  Hopefully we can park fairly low so that we won't have to cart too many things up and down the stairs.

We are having Buffalo Chicken Chili, corndogs, funfetti cake pops, a sausage and cheese tray, a vegetable tray, jello shots, apple cider tinis  and various drinks.  The food is always fun, and people always bring great things to add!

The Buffalo Chicken Chili was soooo good.  The recipe was simple.  I loved that there were so many veggies in it!

1 large onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, chopped
3 large carrots, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
2 ribs of celery, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
1 28 oz can chopped chili tomatoes
2 lbs of ground chicken (you can used chopped or shredded chicken, too)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 T cumin
1 T paprika
1/3 c chili powder
1 c Franks Hot Sauce
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can kidney beans, rinsed
1 can chili beans
1 c water, if needed

Chop veggies.  Fry chicken in olive oil in a large dutch oven.  Add garlic, cook until translucent.  Add veggies, cook until softened.  Add beans, tomatoes, hot sauce, spices and water.  Cook until flavors blend.  Can cook in crock pot for 8 hours on low.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add more (or less) Franks sauce to taste.

 

You can see a mini corndog in the bowl.  These are so simple and so good on a tailgate.  The recipes calls for 4 boxes of jiffy cornbread mix, a package of cocktail wieners, eggs and milk.  Make up the cornbatter mix, scoop it into prepared muffin tins.  Insert a cocktail wiener into the center of the muffin batter.  Bake at the recommended temperature for the recommended time.  Yummy!

We also made pumpkin fluff!  Ashley loves all pumpkin things so this was a great little snack to have before all the food came out.  The recipe I used was the most simple:  1 container of cool whip, thawed, 1 can of pumpkin puree, 1 T pumpkin pie spice, and 1 box of butterscotch pudding.  Mix them all together and let set in the refridg for an hour.  Serve with vanilla wafers and gingersnaps. So good!

The apple cider tinis were a great hit as well!  I didn't take a photo, my error, but the recipe is very easy:  in a Pampered Chef mix and pour pitcher pour in 1/2 c butterscotch liquer, 1 cup of whipped cream vodka, and fill the rest of the pitcher up with apple cider.  Serve in Mizzou cups for the best flavor!

Thank you for coming to Ashley's birthday tailgate!  David was also at the party, just MIA at the moment!