Tailgate Ideas - What say ye?


 
D

David P.

TVWBB Member
Heading out of town to visit some friends and we will be doing some tailgating at our first Pittsburgh Pirates game.

I'd like to grill some fun tailgate food for 4-8 adults. What are some ideas? I'd like to try something special aside from burgers, brats, dogs or plain chicken.

I'll have my 14.5" Smokey Joe Silver plus I'll plan on brining my tamale pot that will convert into a 14.5" WSM Mini which has three racks. We will have 2.5 hrs from setup to clean up.

Last time I made bacon wrapped meatball bombs, ABT's and a spatchcocked smoked chicken. What are some new ideas?

Was thinking:
- bacon wrapped jalapeño chicken skewers
or
- mahi mahi tacos

Any other ideas?
 
I've done fatties for tailgates a few times, they were a big hit. Here's a great thread with some different varieties. Your 2.5 hour time frame may be pushing it though, unless you run it on the hotter side.
 
Matt A said:
I've done fatties for tailgates a few times, they were a big hit. Here's a great thread with some different varieties. Your 2.5 hour time frame may be pushing it though, unless you run it on the hotter side.
Click to expand...

Oh yes - the pizza fattie - I've used that thread as a guide several times! Probably pushing it on time though like you mentioned.
 
I used to tailgate Eagles games with a group of guys that ended every tailgate with grilled lobster tails. Definitely a head-turner in the parking lot.

Personally, when tailgating I like to keep it simple so I have more time to enjoy the company of my friends - dogs, burgers, brats, etc...basically all the stuff you've ruled out.
 
I agree with Steve,
Simple is always best! I am interested in the the bacon wrapped meatballs too!
I have been doing bacon wrapped mushroom caps and the tatertot with jalapeño wrapped with bacon. Just did a batch of bacon wrapped onion rings, big hit! Of course, bacon wrapping anything will work no matter what.
I'm thinking the meatballs will work for one day this week!
Tony, I think you need to check into flights for Pittsburgh. I cold be wrong but, I think that's where the game is? I'm thinking of trying to catch up with this feast too, see you there?!
Aw, shoot, I have a big party to do butts for this weekend, have some treats for me anyone who can go!
 
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I vote for smoked shrimp tacos as well. We did some shrimp this past weekend and they only took 20 minutes or so. I used a grill basket so I did not have to use skewers. Fajitas are quick and easy if you prep your meat before hand as well.
 
Brian_D said:
Wait... What are bacon wrapped meatball bombs?!?
Click to expand...

So there are a few different recipes for this on the web. The one I went with was as follows, combining two layers of meat

3 lbs ground Chuck - add parmasean, little bit of breadcrumbs, basil, garlic and onion powder. Make some meatball style meat

2 lbs hot Italian sausage

1 lb block mozzarella cheese - cut into 1 inch cubes

2 packs bacon.

Flatten/roll out the Italian sausage very thin, small and round. Wrap it thinly around the cube of cheese.

Then roll out/flatten a thin round disk of your meatball concoction. Wrap it around your Italian sausage/cheese ball. Keep it pretty thin to just cover the previous layer.

Then wrap in two criss crossing bacon strips, clip off the excess bacon. Toothpick shut. Don't overlap so the bacon will crisp/cookup.

I think I rolled the ball in some BBQ rub before adding the bacon. You can finish with some BBQ sauce.

Tasty, but two racks of these produce a lot of pork grease. It was too much grease on my Mini WSM and I didn't have a drip pan to catch it all, so it produced too much burnt smoke.

I had a few leftover and I cooked them in the oven on a broiling pan. They turned out a little better that way.

I think there are some recipes with just one layer of meat where you can criss cross just using one strip of bacon. I could see that being easier.

They turned out about the size of a tennis ball. :)
 
So many great ideas on this thread!!!

Everything I see from shrimp, carne asada to mushroom caps and bacon wrapped tots....YUM!
 
The caps I've been doing are pretty simple
Stem the mushroom, drop two or three whole almonds in, sprinkle with a fairly sweet rub or straight brown sugar, wrap, indirect for about fifteen minutes. You can toothpick them if you want to, I overlap so there is no worry about spearing yourself as you shovel these pearls in!
 
I know that several years ago, Kevin Krueger suggested for a party and idea that I thought interesting:
-Make a mix of beef, pork / sausage, and maybe lamb mini-burgers
-Get an assortment of rolls
-Use and assortment of mix-n-match sauces and cheeses

Make a wide assortment of sliders (hey! that even goes with a Baseball theme...)
 
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