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.

4 Counties, 1 Day

This past weekend I was supposed to go camping and hiking with some friends at Devil's Lake. Unfortunately some of those going ran into issues of being able to go for the whole weekend and so we ended up cancelling the trip all together. Although I would have been a trooper and survived, the weekend started out on a rather rainy and chilly note, so I think it's best we didn't go.

So when I had no plans in place for Saturday, I joined my parents on a road trip venture through 4 counties covering about 140 miles round trip.

We started in Waukesha to hit up the Farmer's Market. I wanted some more kale for the Zuppa Toscana soup I wanted to make now that the chill is in the air and my mom needed to find Buck, the cutting board man, so he could make her a custom board to the dimensions of the sink in her kitchen. We located Buck and she picked out her wood pattern and handed over the dimensions and Buck said he would have it for her hopefully by next Saturday. Speedy delivery folks! I got my kale and we left the market.

We stopped at Sprizzo's for some breakfast to fuel us up before the venture my parents had planned out. My dad and I both had the Breakfast Stratta, but unfortunately mine was a corner piece and the bread was really tough to cut through, making it impossible to bite through parts of it. I ate enough and wasn't about to complain over a few bites I really didn't need anyways. My dad's piece was great and he was a proud member of the clean plate club.

My mom asked for the quiche special that was zucchini, tomato and Monterrey jack. After a few bites, she realized she got the other special with crab and mozzarella but said it was really good so no complaints by her either.

My dad and I both also tried the Sweet Peach Ginger tea that was on the menu and I fell in love. I took the little box the tea came in to remind myself when out shopping to pick some up. But if I can't find it in the area, I already scoped it out on Amazon.

The lunch specials looked amazing and I wanted to stay but we had to get on the road. I will definitely have to keep Sprizzo's in mind for a Saturday lunch. Beer Cheese Soup and a Blueberry Crunch salad - sign me up! 

Then we were off to Johnson Creek. My parents are heading to Paris for a vacation with my aunt and uncle in a few weeks and needed some quality walking shoes. And if you know anything about the Outlet Mall at Johnson Creek, you will know they have a ton of shoe stores. We only had to go into one because my dad found 3 pair (2 for Paris, 1 for work), my mom found a pair and I found new brown boots for the Fall/Winter. The boots are even made with Gortex, yet are fashionable.

Then we ended up buying something at practically every store we walked into - including an amazing deal of 100 chocolate truffles for $30 at the Lindt store. Then when you spend $30 at the store, you also get another pound of dark chocolate truffles for just $5. If you have ever bought these at Walgreens or the like near the checkout, they are usually around $.79 each....well with all we bought, we got them down to $.27 each!

We decided we had better leave the Outlet before we go broke. So it was off to Darien next for Sorg's Quality Meats and Sausages. I had never heard of this place and had no idea what to expect. If you have ever been to Ray's Butcher Shoppe on Loomis or Robert's Specialty Meats in Waukesha, this place is very similar.

They feature excellent looking cuts of fresh meat, as well as sausages and other products to make a great dinner from. I picked up the Italian sausage for the Zuppa Toscana soup, as well as some Chicken Alfredo brats and Bourbon Summer Sausage. I can't wait to try those.

My parents picked up some Bison sausage sticks, beef summer sausage, Braunschweiger, Portabella brats and a round steak. We walked out with all of that for around $50! It was definitely worth the drive.

Then it was back north to Fort Atkinson for the Simple Life County Store (sorry no pics - left phone in the car). My parents came across this place a few years ago in a magazine and decided to drive out and see what it's all about. They have visited about twice a year ever since. It's an Amish bulk food store that buys in mass quantity and repackages for customers into smaller portions at a great price. You can pick up all sorts of baking flours, soup mixes, spices, cookies, candies, treats and more. My cousin has one up in Appleton by her and her son is Gluten Free so she can find special treats just for him at this store and know the products are safe for him to have.

We picked up some popcorn, caramel corn, pesto dip mix, pancake mix, seasoned rye chips and mint chocolate chips. (I plan to use those for some chocolate cookies for the Cookies for Kids Cancer Bake sale and Cookie Swap I participate in annually)

And then after all of that is was time to head back to Waukesha and get me home. Total tally was 140 miles give or take because of some poor directions from Google Maps that put us in a route around a farm field randomly. Total counties we drove through: 4 - Waukesha, Jefferson, Rock and Walworth.

Don't worry we didn't drink all of these!

My friend ended up having a cookout/wine night and fire instead of us camping, so I headed over to his house and enjoyed a good time chatting with friends new and old, eating, sipping on wine and just relaxing around a fire.

Wine and a Fire - perfect Fall night!

Pin-It Tuesday: Cinco de Mayo

I'm recapping my Cinco de Mayo cookout that I had this past weekend with a few friends. Finally I had great weather for a party at my house. In October for my birthday, it was 35 degrees and we couldn't sit close enough to the firepit. And for 4th of July, it was 105 and we were all melting.

Sunday was a beautiful, light-breezy 70 degree Wisconsin Spring day. My friend Tiffany brought over her bean bag games and we were ready to have some fun.

I, of course, followed a Mexican theme with the food and marinated chicken for Tequila lime kabobs. I apologize for the lack of photos of the food, but I was rushing around and didn't want to contaminate my phone. But here is the recipe.

I bought 5 lbs of frozen chicken breasts and chopped them into 1 - 2 inch cubes (for skewers). I then started guestimating my ingredients to marinade it. I never follow quantities for a marinade and just do what I think is right.

Tequila
Lime juice
Purple Onion pieces
Sprite
Cumin
Adobo Spice (from Penzey's)
Onion powder
Rice Wine Vinegar

After it marinated for close to 12 hours, I skewered up the chicken putting 4-5 pieces per kabob stick (skewers soaked in water for hours to prevent burning). Then I heated up some of the extra marinade to then brush over the kabobs on the grill.

I had about 20 kabobs to navigate on the grill and unfortunately a few were a little dry, but with only 2 kabobs left, there weren't many complaints.

We also made veggie kabobs that I sprinkled with a little Mural of Flavor (from Penzey's). Those were a huge hit.

But what was even a bigger hit was the cucumber salsa that I found on Facebook first and then Pinterest, which led me to this blog and the recipe. I made about 1.5 times the recipe and here are my alterations. I used dried parsley as I forgot to buy fresh, Greek yogurt in place of sour cream and diced chilis instead of a jalepeno. It was fun to make and it was gone fast at the party.

And then the fun part - cervezaritas (beer margaritas). I have had this recipe pinned on Pinterest for a long time and decided to have a little fun with it and make some different flavored cervezaritas.  Unfortunately the original website is now spam that my pin goes too, but the recipe is written right on the picture :)

I made Pear and Mango cervezaritas. The water and 7Up are replaced with a 12 oz can of Pear Nectar or Mango Nectar. I found these at the local Mexican grocery store in Waukesha called Panos. They had a lot of flavors but I just tried those two. I will definitely be making these more often. They are very refreshing and will be great for summer and so easy to make. I didn't even use the limeade for the second batch. 

Other treats at the party included, taco dip, cheesy black bean dip, spicy Mexican rice, guacamole and tortilla chips, Ruffle chips and french onion dip, fresh fruit, cheese and sausage, oreo gooey balls and brownies with ice cream!

Of course, because it is Wisconsin, we all overdosed on the sun and got a little burnt. But then we had a fire to help keep us warm into the night. I hear we are in for a wicked summer of mosquitoes and such so we have to enjoy it while we can!