Miller Park 2015

Saturday was my first trip to Miller Park to cheer on the Brewers. My friend invited us to enjoy a tailgate and celebrate her 30th birthday at the game and we jumped at the chance. There was a special on tickets and on select food items in the stadium for this game, so it made it even a better trip.

We coordinated before the big day to figure out the tailgate food and everyone brought something to share. We had brats, burgers, beer dip, taco dip, guacamole, sour grapes, cookies, Jell-o shots, veggies and dip, pasta salad and cake. Everything was DELICIOUS and we couldn't ask for better weather for the tailgate. Our tailgate neighbors were celebrating a bachelor party and brought a Justin Bieber pinata. It took two guys to bust it open and in addition to a lot of candy inside, there was a Playboy. Ha ha.

After indulging in copious amounts of food and tasty drinks in the parking lot, it was time to head into the game. A heads up that it takes a little longer to get into the game this season because of the metal detectors that everyone must go through. You need to remove your cell phone and any large metal objects and place them in a bin. Purses also are searched as you walk through the detector. It went rather smooth but it still slows down getting in.

The birthday girl selected us seats on the 300 level between first base and the right field player. We were in the front row! They were great seats and the Brewers got things off to a great start.

By the 3rd inning, we decided to wander for food and I had read about the Deep Fried Nachos on a Stick. I'm always one to try new food and so we went on a hunt to find them. After walking around our floor for a bit, we found a sign that told us they were right by our section if we would have just turned left instead of right. So we headed back and ordered it up ($9 for two sticks) along with a $4 beer and $1 soda (specials for the day).

The nachos on a stick look like corn dogs but are beef and refried beans with nacho cheese Doritos crumbled on the outside as the breading. Then its deep fried and drizzled with sour cream and nacho cheese. It's served with a side of salsa.

Right away I was bummed with the little bit of sour cream and nacho cheese on the outside. I'm a fan of both and love my nachos smothered in them, but I was ready to give this a shot.

My first bite was......interesting, crunchy on the outside and a refried bean consistency inside. Right away I knew this wouldn't replace my Cactus League Nachos. I prefer the crunch of a chip and being able to choose what toppings I scoop on the chip with each bite. The nachos on a stick definitely lacked the nacho cheese that make nachos, nachos.

I ate one and a half of the sticks and decided against finishing the rest. It really wasn't a replacement for nachos and it was a lot of bean and beef inside. I'm glad I tried it, but I will pick the mashed potato parfait, Cactus League Nachos, brat with secret stadium sauce or waffle fries with nacho cheese, ice cream sundae or anything else in the stadium before ordering that again.

It didn't damper my spirits of the game and the team played an incredible ball game winning 6 - 0. The Racing Sausage Race had a little controversy again with Pittsburgh. The catcher cut off the Italian during the race. Boos could be heard throughout the stadium for about 10 minutes straight. The Polish won that race. I quickly jumped on Twitter after the race to see what fans were saying and this by far is the best tweet I found from @ADBinMKE - "Francisco Cervelli interfered with the Italian sausage in the sausage race. Talk about irony. #brewers"

As for the Brewers, this was the first win of the season and everyone in our group agreed they won
because we were there! I'm definitely excited for more games, tailgate fun, and trying some other
new (to me) foods at the stadium this season. Go Brewers!

Packers Playoff Game - What to Eat?

The Packers have a huge game this weekend after a stellar win over Dallas on Sunday! Seattle is a strong team and the Pack is going to have an uphill battle, but I have faith in my green and gold boys!

I bet there will be very few people in Wisconsin on Sunday that aren't glued to a TV and if you are one of those people, you are going to need some tasty bites to get through the game. Here are some of my past posts that feature great Packer party treats, eats and ideas.

From way back in 2011 before I realized the importance of using images in every blog post (sorry). These sliders were fabulous!

Cheddar and Guinness Dip was a huge hit at a Packer Playoff game in 2013.

 You can't go wrong with Olive & Pickle Rolls with Ham.

How about a tailgate burger party - the weather is supposed to be in the upper 30s for the weekend, bust out those grills! 

Doing a "bar" is an inexpensive way to feed a lot of people and cater to all different tastes. Taco and baked potato bars are two of my favorites.

Sloppy Joes also serve a large group and when you serve on little sweet Hawaiian buns, it's even better!

For these ideas and even more, check out my Pinterest Page. Especially the Snack Attack, Superbowl, and Crockin' Boards.  

I don't know where I'm watching the game yet or what I will be eating, but from 2 - 5 pm on Sunday, I will be off the radar and glued to a TV - GO PACK GO!

Football Party on a Budget

My friends and I love to get together to support our teams (Brewers, Packers & Badgers) with tailgates and parties. Its easy to tailgate before a Brewer game because tickets are reasonable and the team plays locally. Badger & Packer tickets are not as easy to come by because all games are sold out (Packers are sold out for my entire lifetime!) so you have to buy online at inflated prices and the stadiums are hours away.

For the first Packers game of the season, my friends hosted a get-together at their house and did a taco night and asked everyone to bring something to go with the tacos.  I decided to make my friend's salsa that I had had the weekend prior. I toned down the spice quite a bit in my version but everyone really liked it because it's so fresh! (Find the recipe at the bottom of this posting.)

Other sides included this cucumber tomato salad and puppy chow!

Recipe at the bottom of this post

Leinenkugel's came out with a new fall variety pack of shandy beers and I decided to give it a try. The Old Fashioned Shandy doesn't taste like a beer at all, more of a Southern Comfort Old Fashioned. It took me two tries to decide that this was ok.

The other flavors are a Cranberry Ginger Shandy that reminds me a little of a Moscow Mule and a Harvest Patch Shandy that resembled a pumpkin beer but more sweet.

We ate and and drank and watched the Green & Gold do their best against the World Champion Seattle Seahawks. They put in a valiant effort but didn't come out the winner.

Every year, our favorite wine sales rep from Fox Run Sentry Liquor (RIP!) invites us to a tailgate at Miller Park. He supplies the meat and tickets and just asks us to come with a side and enjoy the game with him. This gigantic taco salad hit the spot for us and kept us busy while the brats were cooking away.

I made a new recipe of Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treat cups. They were such a hit, most ate these before they ate the rest of the tailgate goodies.

The seats were on the 2nd level of Miller Park and gave us a great view of all the action, including the famous Racing Sausage Race (congrats Chorizo!). The Brewers put in a valiant effort but couldn't hold on to bring us a win in the end. The team really crumbled in September this year and didn't even make the playoffs when they were the best team in baseball for the majority of the season. That's ok - I'll still cheer on my Brew Crew boys!

Ok - now onto the party that I threw for the Thursday night Packers game against our forever rivals - the Minnesota Vikings. These are always well debated games so I thought I would get everyone together at my place and cheer our boys on.

I'm on a tighter budget so I thought long and hard about a way to throw a party with great food, for a low price.

Drum roll please.......Baked Potato Bar.

I shopped for almost everything at Woodman's and put out the whole smorgasbord for under $20 and had leftovers.

10 lb. Bag of Potatoes - 1.69
Chives - cut from my garden
Stadium Cheese - $2.50
Fresh Broccoli - $1.00
Green Onion - $.69
Ranch - $2.00
Sour Cream - $1.29
Bacon Bits - $2.39
Shredded Cheese - $2.09
Butter - $1.50
Cheese & Sausage - $3.00

The chili was provided by a friend that came to the party - Wendy's chili - a perfect addition for the tater bar.

I had never done a mass quantity of potatoes in the oven before and most recipes said 45 mins - 1 hour for the potatoes. NOTE:When you are cooking 10 decent sized potatoes at the same time, they will take almost double that time. I just kept setting the timer for another 15 minutes and then would give them a poke until I felt they were done. They turned out perfectly!

I put a little olive oil on each piece of foil, then sprinkled a little salt on it, wrapped the foil around each one tightly and put them on a pan.

The tater bar was a huge success and I have a few potatoes and toppings leftover to enjoy this week. This definitely helped me save money and provide my friends a great dinner they could customize to their own taste. My friend also brought some cookies that I didn't take a picture of (FAIL) but they were pumpkin spice and delicious (WIN). They tasted like FALL - YUMMY! 

My friend brought McKenzie's Black Cherry Hard Cider for me to try and it was delicious! My cousin told me they have a pumpkin too that she loves so I will have to get some of that as well to enjoy this Fall. But definitely in moderation. Each bottle is 200 calories! Yikes!

The Green and Gold boys dominated the Vikings and brought in a huge win which makes a lot of us feel a lot better about the season, now that we have more wins than losses on our side.

 Recipes

Salsa -
3 Tomatoes, diced no seeds
1 Green Pepper, diced
1/2 White Onion, diced
4 Green Onions, diced
1 can Black Beans, rinsed
2 Tbsp. lime juice or to taste
1/4 cup fresh cilantro - chopped
Sprinkling of salt
1 Tbsp Crushed Garlic
Poblano Pepper, diced, no seeds (You can use any pepper if you want it hotter)


Creamy Cucumber Salad -
2 - 3 cucumbers - peeled and chopped
3 medium sized tomatoes - chopped
1 green pepper  - chopped
1/2 cup light Miracle Whip (could do 1/4 Miracle Whip & 1/4 Mayo too)
Stir all ingredients together and refrigerate for a few hours. Best served the day it's made.

Fall Tailgate Burger

Last month, I joined the BlogPal program and was paired with Amanda from Michiana (Michigan/Indiana border). We have been learning about each other and reading the other's blog to learn more about the person. Then this week we are writing on a common topic and share this with our followers.

We selected "Fall" as our topic and as a food lover myself, I have a few recipes to share with you and Amanda will be sharing some great Fall makeup tips that I will share with you when her post is live.

Being from Wisconsin and an avid Packers fan, I look for any chance to light the grill and cookout. Amanda grew up in Canada and she is a hockey fan. I bet she knows just as much on Hockey as I do on Football, so we will have to trade playbooks to help each other understand the games.

This Sunday, the weather was looking great and I invited my friends over for a football viewing party on the patio. I set up a tent to block the TV from the sun (that never showed) and a few sprinkles. 

My boyfriend made us burgers the weekend before that were so juicy and delicious, I asked for his recipe to make them for my tailgate.

I estimated 12 people coming and bought about 4 pounds of meat. I added all the ingredients of spices, onion, egg, etc. and got my hands dirty to hand mix it.

The main ingredients - but I added a few more to really make them my own

I pulled out my mom's scale and measured approximately 4 oz of meat for each burger.

My grandma used to have this fancy polish burger press, but the hinge snapped last year and so I have used two medium plates and wax paper to press the perfect burger.

I then let the pressed burgers sit in the oven for a few hours to marinate a bit more and then they were ready for the grill.

With all the action going on with the game, I forgot to take a final photo. We are avid Packer fans - even the 4-legged ones and so keeping my eyes on the game while watching the burgers meant no time for a picture.

He was giving the innocent puppy look all day to my mom!

My friends all brought a dish or two to pass and we had quite the feast. This would be one of my more successful Packer parties and the addition of watching the game outside really added to the affect. Let's hope for some more beautiful Sundays so this tradition can continue.


Tailgate Burgers
4# ground beef
1/2 purple onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. Worchestershire Sauce
1 Tbsp. A-1 Steak Sauce
1 Tbsp. McCormick Steak house onion burger blend
1/2 Tbsp. garlic powder
1/2 Tbsp. garlic salt
1/2 Tbsp. onion powder
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. Penzey's Turkish blend
1/4 cup (or less) bread crumbs
2 eggs

Add all into a large bowl, and with clean hands, gently mix together until evenly blended. Do not over mix or mix too aggressively.

Divide into 4 oz. meatballs and then press between two plates to form burger patties.  Let rest for 1 - 2 hours in the fridge. Bring out 1/2 hour before grilling to bring up to room temperature.

Heat grill and place patties over the heat and grill for 5 minutes per side or until cooked to your level of done (I like medium well). Add cheese in the last minute for a great cheese burger.

Premium Cocktails Without All the Work

As a woman in my early 30s, I enjoy my fair share of cocktails but sometimes I hate pulling out all the ingredients (or even having to go buy all of them) to make a margarita or cosmopolitan -- and sometimes the pre-made ones by Mike's or Smirnoff are just too sweet and don't taste right. 

Well, I think I might have found the solution. Kiss Mix Premium Liquor Cocktails sent me some of their product and asked for my honest opinion on them. I was pretty stoked when I saw the awesome insulated cooler filled with goodies show up at my door.  How cute are these cans with the lip prints on them?!

  

I just so happen to be going to a Milwaukee Brewers game with a few ladies and in Wisconsin, we tailgate before we go into the games. This was the perfect time and place to try out the cocktails. I added a blue ice pack to the cooler before leaving the house and the drinks were perfectly chilled for tailgating. 

 

Tory and Kelly were just as excited as me to try the cocktails and so we each chose one to start with. I love Cosmopolitans (and the color pink) so I started with that one. It was a pomegranite and cranberry, so it wasn't as tart as other cosmos that I have had. You can definitely taste the alcohol in them but it doesn't over power the flavor. I really liked this one - shaken over ice and it would be excellent out of the can too.

 

Tory chose the screwdriver and said that it had a really good 'real orange juice' taste to it and not a fake carbonated taste. I took a sip and agreed that it tasted really good. We also didn't notice any aluminum taste to the drinks which is good and sometimes a thing that people dislike about canned beverages.

Kelly chose the Lemon Drop and although she has never had a lemon drop shot before (the girl needs to get out - jkjk Kelly), she liked the flavor. She thought it tasted like a nice hard lemonade and on a warmer summer night, really hits the spot.

We then popped open the Margarita and Gin & Tonic to try. The Margarita was pretty good with a nice, refreshing lime taste. I'm not a Gin & Tonic fan and neither was Tory or Kelly so we weren't really sure about the taste. If they had a Vodka & Tonic version, I would be all over that. I definitely tasted tonic but I don't really know gin to know how accurate the taste was. I see on the website you can submit flavor suggestions!

We then went into the game and enjoyed a Brewers win - that didn't happen very often this season, but I still enjoy watching my guys take the field and rack up some hits. And....there is always next year!

I recommend trying these Kiss Mix Premium Liquor Cocktails the next time you are looking to have a premium drink without all the effort. They do really resemble the taste of the real thing. The alcohol content is 8% per each 8oz can and they are made with natural flavors.

And, because they are in cans, you can take these to places that fancy glasses can't go - such as beaches, pools, boats, etc. 

I was shopping at Woodman's this past weekend and saw that they carry the Kiss Mix Cocktails and the packages also had rebates on them - so take advantage and go out and get one. I also see from the Kiss Mix website, they are found at a few stores in the area.


Kiss Mix Premium Liquor Cocktails provided me a goody bag of their beverages. Although I was provided the product, the review is my own honest opinion of the product.