FanHouse TailgateCentral

If you weren't careful with last week's recommendation you might still be drunk, so I'm going to take it easy on y'all this week. Now, I'm pretty sure I'm not the first person to come up with this, but I haven't seen it anywhere else, so there was a bit of trial and error involved.

So the concept is this: take four foods no good tailgate is without, mash them together. Enjoy. Jalepenos, sausage, bacon, and cream cheese... all wrapped up in a nice little package. Continue on for more...

Tailgate Central had a couple of bye weeks while I moved cross-country, but it's back and we're dispensing with the whole "food" thing and focusing on a fascinating (and relatively new) invention: Firefly sweet-tea-flavored vodka. Some weeks ago my friend Charlsie mentioned this stuff to me. I was instantly intrigued. It combines two of my favorite things: sweet tea and getting toasted a nice, relaxing drink.

The basics: Firefly Vodka is an actual, honest-to-goodness, 70 Proof liquor (they have a Muscadine-flavored version that's actually 80 proof). I bought a bottle with my own hard-earned dollars (unfortunately, no favors from the folks at Firefly) and -- in the name of science -- I've made myself a number of drinks with it. Do you see the kind of mess I endure for you all? Recipes and review below the fold.

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has some variation on the theme of processed cheese-food, cream cheese, and some sort of favoring. It's almost required that you bring something of this ilk to your tailgates. Some go with the traditional block o' velveeta with Rotel tomatoes, but that's kinda boring, isn't it? Instead, try using some fresh vegetables.

The great thing about a dip like this is that you can really do whatever you want to it. Add ingredients, subtract, whatever you want. The cheese provides a neutral enough base for you to create whatever sort of masterpiece you want... it's nearly impossible to screw up. Nearly.

The college football season kicks off tomorrow, and the next 24 hours can't tick away quickly enough. If you're like a lot of football fans, though, there's more to the season than wins and losses, fumbles and touchdowns, making fun of Lou Holtz, and hoping Corso doesn't put on your mascot's head. Almost as important as the actual games are the tailgates that go with them.

This week's culinary concoction? Bourbon Cupcakes. I know, I know. When you think "tailgate" you probably don't think "baked goods"... but when you think "football" is "Florida Atlantic at Texas" the first thing that comes to mind?

I didn't think so.

If the boys are going to be playing cupcakes, we might as well be eating them, too. And if we're going to be eating cupcakes, they might as well have some liquor in them, no?