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Upscale Mac and Cheese
By Joe Drozda

A reader (Kurt) sent me a recipe for Mac and Cheese that is not that bland kid’s stuff that your mother served you as a child. The ingredients for this dish are unique Food Network type items such as white truffle oil, shitake mushrooms, Adams Reserve cheddar, and Radiatore pasta. My problem became one of finding a grocery store that had the ingredients. I phoned Laurie, manager, at my local Fresh Market who said the magic words, “Sure I can help you with everything”! As we toured the market I realized that it was a truly unique grocery store.
They seemed to have everything! There were more than 80 cheeses with scores of confits (con-fees) compotes and spreads to ad zest. Their wine department had bottles from Dom Perignon at $179 to Portocolo at $6.99. Not only did they have truffle oil, but there were dozens of gourmet cooking oils and dozens of different olive oils. The produce department had the best looking vegies that I’ve seen anywhere.

Mac and Cheese
Ingredients:
1 lb. Radiatore spiral pasta
6 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup all-purpose Flour
3 cups cream, heated
6 oz. Adams Reserve sharp cheddar cheese, grated
6 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, grated
4 oz. PREMOO gouda-style whole milk cheese
4 oz. Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup of diced fresh Portabella Mushrooms, sautéed
10 slices of lean thick bacon
1 cup sourdough breadcrumbs
1 cup fresh shitake mushrooms, quartered
1/4 teaspoon salt & ground black pepper
2 pieces of grilled chicken, sliced
White Truffle Oil

Preparation: (1 hour)
Night before --Take sourdough bread and create 1 cup bread crumbs, set aside covered in a paper towel.
Day or preparation - Preheat oven to 350 F.
Boil pasta until slightly underdone (8 min.) & drain. It will cook more in the oven.
In a small pan sauté 1/2 cup diced portabella mushrooms, set aside.
In a medium saucepan simmer cream, add salt & pepper then set aside.
In a large sauce pan melt 4 Tbsp.  of butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour, then cream. Bring to boil. Remove from heat. Add Cheddar, Premoo & Jack cheeses mixing well.
In an extra-large bowl place pasta, mix in cheese mixture, add chicken, and sautéed mushrooms.
Fold in Gorgonzola.
Spray a large casserole dish with Non-Stick cooking spray, or grease with butter. Spread pasta mixture into dish. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.
Melt 1 Tbsp.  butter and drip over crumbs.
Bake in oven, uncovered 40 minutes and lightly browned on top.
Cook bacon, drain, pat off excess grease, and crumble. Cook remaining mushrooms in small amount of bacon grease while pasta is cooking, set aside.
Once top of pasta dish is lightly browned and done remove from oven.
Serve in bowls, top each with crumbled bacon and mushrooms. Drizzle white truffle oil around edges of pasta and serve.
Serves: 8

 

Going Bowling Part Three
By Joe Drozda

Last week (part two) I gave you the tip to use a disposable grill so you could cook tailgate food, even though you had to fly to a bowl game. Then I explained that cotton work gloves (wetted in an ice bucket) were good for turning meats on the grill. Now it’s time to talk about seating and side dishes. If you think about it, hotels have folding chairs that they set up for meetings and banquets all the time. Just look into one of the side rooms or an employee hallway and you’ll see a stack of them. Tip Four-These can be borrowed (with or without hotel permission) and used with your rental vehicle as a complete tailgate setting. Tip Five-Use your vehicle hood or trunk for a serving table. Your last job will be to go to a party store and buy colorful disposable table cloths and napkins in school colors. Now you are set for a memorable bowl game tailgating experience.
PB and Tomato Hummus Side Dish
Ingredients
Small 16 oz. container natural peanut butter
1 Tbsp. chopped parsley
4 oz. diced sun dried tomatoes
16 oz. portion of plain hummus from the deli
Pita chips (or baked tortilla chips)
Directions
Purchase hummus from a grocery deli and have them place it in a container larger than 16 oz. so that you can use the container to mix the ingredients.
Mix in approximately ½ cup of the peanut butter and sun dried tomatoes.
Sprinkle parsley over all.
Serve with the chips.

 

Going Bowling Part Two
By Joe Drozda

Last week (part one) I gave you the tip to use a soft sided cooler as your carry-on bag for your flight. That cooler, when loaded with ample hotel ice cubes, will work fine. Now it’s time to talk about the hot food you’ll want to serve. That’s right; you can still cook tailgate food at a faraway bowl game.
Tip Two -(more tips will follow next week). Purchase a disposable charcoal grill in your destination city. EZ Grill makes a readily available $10 disposable grill, loaded with charcoal and ready to light, that can cook chicken or brats enough for three people. Their larger size grill costs less than $15 and will work for a larger group of six or seven people. But what do you do about cooking utensils?
Tip Three – Pack a new pair of white cotton work gloves. These can be dipped in an ice bucket full of tap water so that they can be worn by the grilling person while he or she turns the food. An added advantage is that these gloves, when clenched into a fist, will drip water on the fire, thus cooling the coals. These gloves can be washed and reused.
Sweet Chili Tailgate Chicken
Ingredients
4 Boneless Chicken Breasts
8 Drumsticks
1 12 oz. bottle FRANK’S® REDHOT® SWEET CHILI SAUCE
Grilling
Place the breasts on the grill first and cook them a couple of minutes to sear the skin side.
Turn the chicken over, pour on Sweet Chili Sauce and cook for up to 10 minutes. 
Turn the chicken again and cook up to eight minutes after covering with the Sweet Chili Sauce.
Once the first turn is done on the breasts add the drum sticks to the grill.  Pour Sweet Chili Sauce as you turn them.
Test the breasts by cutting into the thickest one to make sure the meet is cooked as you like it.
Serve with deli salads on disposable plates. Serves four to six people.

 

 

Going Bowling

Part One
By Joe Drozda

A wonderful bonus for college fans is to be able to go to a bowl game, preferably in a warmer weather climate that makes the whole trip a nice vacation. To partake in one more game, with one more chance to socialize, and don the school colors, and bask in the sun is the most enjoyable way to end the season.  There is one problem, however, that’s going to take some good planning to overcome. How are you going to move your tailgate party to this distant location?
The Basic answer is that you aren’t. Unless you drive, most equipment you normally use will have to be left behind. Tip One (more tips will follow in the next two weeks). The airline regulations will require you to pack much less than a car or van trip, but you can still fly and tailgate. Carry-on baggage regulations allow you to tote a bag up to 40 pounds that measures no more than 22 by 14 by 9 inches. That means a 20 can soft sided cooler by Igloo ($15) would make a tremendous carry-on bag and double as a cooler at the tailgate party. Smaller sized coolers can be folded and packed inside along with other less important items like clothes.

Easy Bowl Game Shrimp Cocktail with Multiple Degrees of Heat
Ingredients
One 12 oz. bottle of Del Monte Chili Sauce
One 5oz. jar of Kraft Prepared Horseradish
0ne 16 oz. bag peeled, cooked, frozen shrimp
Pkg. of nicer disposable bowls
One large disposable bowl or aluminum baking pan
Fresh lemon
Preparation
In the large disposable bowl or aluminum baking pan place a good supply of your hotel ice cubes.
Place the shrimp on top of the ice
Divide the chili sauce into three bowls
In the mild bowl stir in a small amount of the horseradish (taste it)
In the medium bowl stir in more horseradish (taste it)
In the hot bowl stir in more horseradish (taste it)
Put a slice of lemon in each bowl as a garnish and to add taste
Serve in bowls from the package  of nicer disposable bowls

 

Thanksgiving week tailgate party with Turkey Soup
By Joe Drozda
It’s two days after thanksgiving and you are going to be having a cold/cool weather tailgate.  Don’t go out and buy a lot of stuff.  Use the Thanksgiving turkey to provide a warm and hearty tailgate treat.  Then serve the last of the pumpkin pie for desert.
Making Stock
1 Remove all the usable turkey meat from the turkey carcass to save it for adding to the soup or for making sandwiches later.
2 Break up the larger leftover bones of the carcass enough, so they don't take up as much room in the pot. Put the leftover bones and skin into a large stock pot and cover with cold water by an inch. Add drippings that weren't used to make gravy, and non-liver giblets that haven't been used. Add a yellow onion that has been quartered, some chopped carrots, parsley, thyme, a bay leaf, celery tops, and some peppercorns.
3 Bring this stock to a boil and immediately reduce heat to bring the liquid to a bare simmer. Skim off any floaties as they rise to the surface of the stock.
4 Add salt and pepper, and about 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper. It depends on how big your turkey is. You can always add salt to the soup later.
5 Cook for at least 4 hours, uncovered or partially uncovered (so the stock reduces), occasionally skimming off any foam from the surface.
6 Remove the bones and veggies and strain the stock through a very fine mesh strainer.
Making the Turkey Soup
With your stock already made, add chopped carrots, onions, and celery in equal parts. Add some parsley, a couple cloves of garlic. Add seasoning - poultry seasoning, sage, thyme, marjoram and/or a chicken bouillon cube. Cook at a bare simmer until the vegetables are cooked through.  Take plenty of the remaining turkey meat you reserved earlier, cube it into bite sized pieces and add to the soup Add salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes a dash or two of Frank’s Cayenne Pepper Sauce gives the soup a nice little kick.  Cool this soup overnight in the fridge or in a pot outside if the temperature is cold enough.
Game Day
The morning of the game, you should spoon off any fat from the top of the soup pot before heating.  Boil a large bag (16 oz.) of wagon wheel noodles (aldante). Heat the soup.  After the soup is hot add the cooked noodles.  Pack the soup pot in a cooler surrounded by towels and newspaper.  This cooler will keep it warm traveling to the game, or you can heat it on your grill or stove in the parking lot.  Serve with chunks from a long baguette for dipping.

Cold Weather Beverages
By Joe Drozda
Grown-ups that tailgate before a football game enjoy a variety of beverages throughout the season.  In the heat of September they can be seen enjoying drinks that will cool their body down.  These drinks range from fruit concoctions to beer.  As the weather cools substantially, adults begin to look for something to drink that warms their body.  In surveys with tailgaters across the country, there were two more popular cold weather drinks.  The most popular drink for November/December games is Hot Buttered Rum.  In second place was Irish coffee.  The nice thing about each of these drinks is that they are enjoyed by men and women alike.
Bill Page’s Famous Hot Buttered Rum (smells like hot apple pie, but tastes better)
Ingredients
8 oz. of good dark rum
23 oz. apple cider
3 cinnamon sticks
1 clove
3 Tbs. butter
1 squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Preparation
Heat the mixture about 10 minutes.  Do not boil it; just get it to a simmer.
Pour the mix into a thermos
Serving (6)
Be sure to serve in white mugs or cups so that nobody ingests a surprise cinnamon stick or clove.  Have pats of butter available if someone wants an extra as a topping.

 

Tailgating Cold Weather Chili

With Joe Drozda
Football season, in our state, begins around Labor Day and ends usually after Thanksgiving.  Early in the season temperatures are in the high 80s, for our tailgate party, with a hot sun that burns us.  This is when we need shelter from the sun, we hope for a breeze and we use sun screen to protect our skin.  This is the time of the year we serve cold foods and cold beverages.  In a short three months things change a lot.
Usually by late season we are expecting snow or freezing rain and dreading wind that blows a chill almost right through our bones.  This is when we eat hot foods and drink hot beverages.  This is when we try to look to sit in the sun and get some shelter erected so we can be out of the wind.
Cold Weather Turkey Chili
Turkey Chili
Made with ground turkey, this chili avoids a little of the fat of ground beef without losing any of the flavor we require for pre-game and post-game meals.
Ingredients 
2 lbs. ground turkey
3 pkgs. McCormick's Chili Mix (or your favorite)
3 28oz. cans whole peeled  tomatoes (un-drained)
4 15oz. cans dark red kidney beans (un-drained)
To Prepare
Brown the turkey in a large pot, drain it if you must, and then add everything else. Bring the mixture to a low boil and then reduce the heat to allow the chili to simmer for one hour. Stir the mixture occasionally.
Serve with oyster crackers or French bread.  If you have children at your party, you can float some hot dogs in this chili for 15 minutes and serve them on buns to  the kids.
WARNING!
Unless you tailgate with wimps, you'll need to have enough chili to serve everyone at least two bowls of this cold weather favorite!  The whole tomatoes become very hot and sooth one’s pipes in the sore throat cold weather post-game tailgate party.

 

There are a lot more food options when you watch the game on your dish network satellite dish, at home.  And now that you can get direct satellite installation of your satellite dish receiver and even compare satellite tv services at InternetLion.com, why go anyplace else?