Finding My Zen as a Greenie Dat

Ok, I’ve had 48 hours to digest. Hurricane Mrs. Hullabaloo, has calmed down now.  Coach Hullabaloo thinks that the pictures on my banner are too old, and are therefor to blame for our demise on Saturday.  So my project this week will be to tend to some housecleaning of the banners and hopefully continue to get my mind off of Saturday's game.

So yes, I'm simmering down some.  Just in time to faintly start thinking about sigh, our upcoming game against the Aslut Hurricanes. Which in other Ex-Cusa news: Houston fired their O.C. after one game. Harsh. Of course, he was the O.C. from the school that beat them.

I found the news hilariously funny and then, once I thought about it, mildly troubling. Considering that we have both UTEP and Memphis on our schedule this season, with their former O.C. now our O.C. ...oh pressure, the pressure!

......Lawd, I really just can’t think about that now.....(no, I am not advocating such precipitous steps at our program, I'm just apprehensive about our spread offense opponents down the stretch)

Anyways, in an effort to find inner peace and zen out a little, I gots recipes and cute pictures to share from our Jersey inspired tailgate par-tay. Of course, I am still kicking myself today that I did not steal a snapshot of Angel Johnson, Coach CJ’s wife, at the game. But GIRL!  Let me tell you that I have the biggest crush on her.

Isn’t this picture just the cutest?! Totally Mrs. Hullabaloo approved!

Angel Johnson has the. most. fabulicious. Olive and Blue wardrobe and the most fierce sense of style, period. I sooo wanted to take her picture when I ran into her at the game on Saturday, but I didn’t want to appear to be a complete creepy weirdo SuperFan. So instead I’ll just write about it on my blog here.

She was wearing these boots, with an adorable green pants suit and the most adorable bedazzled v-neck babydoll teeshirt that one of the other coaches’ wives made. I roll my eye at this, because WHY DOES THE TEAM SHOP INSIST ON HAVING MEN SELECT MERCHANDISE FOR THE LADIES?! We want cute things, there’s a market for it, “Shrink it and Pink it” sucks. The result is that we are ALL guilty of licensing restrictions, even the staff. We have to resort to making our own cute things. So get with the program, puh-leeze. Thank you. That is all....

Anyways, Angel had the fiercest make-up job on top of her awesomely styled outfit.  Green eyeshadow! Oh, how I loved it loved it!

So at tailgating, I didn’t let Hurricane Isaac put too much of a damper on things than it had already. Lawd, we had tailgating krewe members resort to cooking their dish entirely over open flame for lack of power to their houses!  I was able to manage plucking a few items out of the complete darkness and unbearable heat that was my powerless storage area, in order to somewhat manage to put together a semblance of a proper tailgating spread.

Poor sweet Priscilla, who still has no power at home, made the roastbeef for our cheesesteak sandwiches using only her grill in her yard.  She is such a fabulous cook that it turned out spectacular.

PRISCILLA’S PERFECTION ROAST BEEF
A rump roast
Dry rub: tony chachere's, rock salt (must use rock salt, it makes for a good crust) and cracked black pepper. I'd say about a palmful each
A whole onion roughly chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
About a ladleful or so of chicken broth

Pat yer roast down with paper towels and then rub it down real good with the dry rub. Take a dutch oven and brown it real good all the way around on all sides. When all sides of the rump's properly browned, put a little bit of chicken stock in the pan. Enough to deglaze the crunchy cooked bits (I’m guessing about three quarters of a cup. We don't want stew here), toss in the onion and the garlic, cover it and then either put it on bbq pit or in an oven at 350° for 3-4 hrs until well done.

We served the roast beef with jus on a french roll with provolone and sauteed onions and green peppers and oh sweet baby Jesus was it good. (Priscilla is suggesting we do a for real cook book, what do you think?)

For desserts, FF’s wife, Red, made a beautiful Amaretto Cheesecake (thanks Red!) and Ta’Molly’s husband brought us Canollis. Nell brought this delicious and adorable individualized cobblers for dessert. It was so good, and so cute!

Not sure if you can tell from the picture, she had sprinkled it adorably with green and blue colored sugar!

NELL'S CUTEST APPLE COBBLER
One box yellow cake mix (Nell used Betty Crocker)
2 cans of Comstock brand Apple Pie Filling*
2 sticks of butter sliced in tabs
Toasted pecans, chopped
Brown sugar
Spirit colored sugar

Preheat your oven to 350°. Combine cake mix, filling and slices of butter and pour into a greased baking pan. Bake for a total of 25 minutes, but 20 minutes in you’ll need to add the pecans.  So while you’re waiting the 20 minutes, toast your pecans either in a skillet on the stove, or on a pan in the oven.  Keep an eye on them, as soon as you can start smelling the pecans, shut off the heat pronto so you don’t burn the nuts. Add a smidge of butter to the hot pecans and coat them by sprinkling with a handful of brown sugar. Let the pecans cool a little to chop, and then toss over the cobbler in the oven. Finish cooking the cobbler for another 5 minutes until thoroughly cooked through.  Let cool, and then spoon a batch into clear acrylics rocks size glasses.  Sprinkle the top with colored sugar, and then top with color coordinated spoon. 

*One of the neatest things about this super easy recipe is that you can swap out the filling!  You can use blueberry filling, cherry filling - whatever!  and perusing the Comstock website, I came across this: Blueberry Barbecue Sauce!  How perfect for the Tulane game against ECU to go with our cochon du lait!?! Oh yeah, y'all!
 
The piece de resistance was Preacherman, who provided these meatballs that were truly delicious. I googled this same recipe shared by several bloggers. So if you claim ownership of this recipe, besides giving you a tiara, I will give you proper credit for birthing such awesomeness.

PREACHERMAN’S TAILGATE MEATBALLS
Pound of mild pork sausage
Pound of ground beef
halfa cup seasoned breadcrumbs
2 eggs, beaten
cuppa milk
cuppa finely diced sweet onion
halfa cuppa finely diced sweet onion (chop up super small,ya heard)
saltnpeppa
pretzel sticks to use as toothpicks
P.S. you might want to make extra, because you WILL snag some to nibble on.

Preheat oven to 375°. Mush meats with the rest of the ingredients and shape into balls about the width of a businesscard. Line em up with some breathing space between them on a lightly greased pan cookie sheet or baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes while you check your facebook. Or you can be more productive and make the sauce below.  Turn the meatballs to cook on the other side, for another 15 minutes.

GRAVY SAUCE OF MAGNIFICENCE
halfa cuppa apple jelly
halfa cuppa creole mustard
halfa cuppa whiskey
healthy dash of Worcestershire sauce and another healthy dash of Tabasco (ooooh yeah!)

Dump all these ingredients into a large flat skillet pan and stir to combine over medium heat. Heat ingredients through on a simmer for one minute, don't like boil and carmelize. Add your cooked meatballs and let everything cook for 5 more minutes, stirring to make sure they all get coated appropriately. Just give into the urge to eat a couple of meatballs.  That's what the extra is for! Refrigerate yer heavenly meatballs overnight. At tailgating, reheat with a chaffing dish or put in a foil pan on the grill for about 5 or 10 minutes.
 
After much heartache, thoughtful prayer and meditation, Coach and Mrs. Hullabaloo have decided to stay put and party with our Greenie Dats in New Orleans. Gather at some watering hole where I won't upset neighbors with my commentary during the game.  I’ll use the bye weekend to finish up some loose ends I have for our brunch tailgating for the Tulane v. Ole Miss game. So it won’t be entirely tragic that I miss out on paying a visit in Aslut. Although I will totally miss shopping up at one ofmy favorite haunts.

Au revoir mon petit choux! Bonne Chance!

I Ain't Got Nothing to Say.

I right-clicked these pictures from the Times Pic. I claim no ownership, but ever thankful they sent Rusty Constanza as witness in case they need to prove that they cover -local- college teams from time to time.

What can I say my dear Chamudis! I ain't got nothing to say. Season starts next week.

I ain't got nothing to say to them Ducks neither. They can just Talk to the Hand!

So now my self-imposed media exile begins. What a downer. Cause All We'll Hear About this week is Purple, Purple, Purple. Gag me with a spoon.

I did take a chance and watched the 10pm news hoping that since their game wasn't final they wouldn't have highlights from Dallas. Thank You sweet baby Jesus for the reprieve for at least an evening. Cause I just know Scott Cody has got his ponytails all waded up from jumping up and down waiting breathlessly to get back to New Orleans tell his side of the story.

Anyways, our Game: I was trying to figure out the flashcards SLU had going on there. MO looked like Up the Middle. KX looked like screen pass to the right.


Is that the deal with a "Hurry Up Offense": Weird Signs? Cause I don't remember that from the 98 season when we had some kind of Hurry Up and Put this Game Away situation happening.

And how about Robert Kelley though?! Ke-lley! Ke-lley! Ke-lley! Westbankers Unite!


By the way, is this legal? Trying to disrobe our players when you can't stop them?

And did Wilson Van Hoosier have wheaties for breakfast or what?


Where did that catch and run come from? Of course then he turned right around and had a case of butter fingers on a bullet that Griffin nailed right to into his hands. Oy vey. But, if there's one thing that I can thank the Football Gods for the NFL lockout, it's that Drew Brees cast a spell over Ryan Griffin. Who is this cool, confident and accurate QB at the helm? I hope he sticks around and the OL holds up against Tulsa next week.

WGNO's highlights have great footage of Mr. Kelley and Mr. Van Hoosier (btw, is that Kristina Pink y'all?)

 

I must add that I am kind of numb and in disbelief that we blocked a punt. For a safety. Yes in-deed. The last time we did something, anything, on special teams was 7 years ago. Which is like 52 in cat years. or something.

That Safety should have been a TD imho but the Refs were just tripping over themselves to blow the spread instead of cooperating with us for once. Like what was the story with giving us a late hit penalty when we tripped and landed on our own player?

I'm also not going to say anything about the third down penalties for being off sides. Mr. Mozes and Mr. Mackey. I'll put that to the back of my mind.

But I will say that our Tailgating Brunch menu was a success. As well as our paired down tailgating inside of the dome parking garage.


Applause, Applause to our fabulous Hullabaloo Krewe of tailgaters. And welcome to Mr. Merida and his lovely wife. I simply must know how you prepare such beautiful grits. and I promise to get Tomarie's brownie recipe and post soon. My one regret from our menu is that I should have made more Praline Bacon (click for recipe) though cause apparently that was like crack around addicts.

As easy peesy as they are to make, I secretely hope that gameday Praline Bacon making is not like the superstition thing we need for good mojo. Like me having to hang out on the concourse during SLU's posessions or Peggy being exiled to a bathroom stall at Turchin. Cause I can figure out extaordinary ways to mess up a meal from time to time. This morning I burnt the first set of pecans I was trying to toast on the stove in a totally blonde kind of way. I was running around the kitchen as I tend to do on gameday mornings and kept thinking to myself What is that Burning Smell? After about 5 minutes I finally eye the charred black remains of pecans and then it dawns on me that there's smoke billowing and engulfing my kitchen. I don't think I could handle having to recreate burnt pecans every week as my contribution to the team. Coach Hullabaloo will kill me before I attempt to offer up our home in a raging inferno as our sacrifice in a quest for a winning record.

My last observation (for today anyways): One of the coolest things about being inside the garage for tailgating was that before heading in for the game everyone did a round of Hullabaloo in unison! It was a neat memory.

Next up is Aslut and lawd they got spanked by Oklahoma. Sigh...we shall see what the football gods have in store for us....

P.S. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Waveprofessora for offering up a parking space! And Thank you Big Mike for keeping Dome Security from driving us crazy another football season with their silly "no fun" rules.

Records

OMG, the heat Saturday afternoon was absolutely unbearable.

Except that our tailgating was really cute so we soldiered on.





And "waves" to our neighbor tailgating krewe hostessed by Hullabaloo Huddle fan, Brittany. They had the cutest drink cups!

Some pictures of our cute sign, and the cute nametags that Cody Spark's family and friends wore to the game.



The only real downer (because the game was great) was that we had some, shall we say, colorful Ole Miss fans sitting in section 143. It was people watching central. We laughed until we cried (for real). OMG on the crazy and inappropriate outfits.

As far as what went on out on the field - without their felon QB having a few key moments, that game would have gone sideways for Ole Miss. What caught me completely by surprise was that Houston Nutt ran circles around the fans in the class department. I was not expecting that turn of events. My Ole Miss friend, Miss Glitter, is wonderful and always gracious. and has impeccable taste and manners. So I was expecting the roles to be reversed - classy fans and questionable team.

The fans that traveled pretty much just "sat" stone cold in their seats until a final QB in the 2nd half distanced out the score (yet still UNDER the point spread). I think they were gun shy after the loss to J-ville state. But came alive with that last TD. So after that TD, an Ole Miss fan who had sleeves (you know - the full on tatoo on the arms) got up, turned around and dug into Founding Father Jim.

Of all people. This guy seriously had no clue who he was trying to start something with. First of all - Jim is twice his size, so he's lucky that Jim didn't stand up. Because that would have been an "Ohhh, Noooooo" moment. and secondly, Jim has an encyclopedic knowledge of sports in general, in addition to having a college degree not from Mississippi. Here's a recap of the exchange:

Tattoo Man: blah blah blah take that. tulane sucks, ole miss is superb blah blah blah

FF Jim: Ole Miss lost to Jacksonville State. Do you know who Jacksonville State lost to today? Appalachian State.

Tattoo Man: *head exploding* Well, yeah? blah blah our record blah blah bowl game

FF Jim: After TODAY - our records will be THE SAME. and if you want to discuss records, Massoli has 2 felonies on HIS record. You wanna talk about records?

Tattoo Man: blah blah blah. turns around and sits down.

FF Jim: Y'all may win this game, but you have to go back to Mississippi. (and as the saying goes in Louisiana - Thank God for Mississippi so we aren't "last" always).

Anyways, enough with them. They came and spent money in New Orleans and our athletic department got paid. Yay!

So how PERFECT is this? My Town Daughter, Chickadee, is working at the Ticket Office in the Wilson Center. Chickadee also worked at the game on Saturday, was out on the field and got to hand out the fuzzy hair pieces that the student section was wearing. She's such a cutie pie.

And speaking of cutie pies, how about this little story sent to me by a friend (Yes, I have very dear friends who are LSU fans - don't tell anybody it will ruin my street cred, ok)?

"Dear Mrs. Hullabaloo, My Brother works the Tulane homegames and is on the field, so he asked if he could bring his 6 year old son. Well, as you know, I come from a family of Tiger fans, BUT, my nephew had a ball at the Tulane game. He made friends with the student section and was cheering and throwing footballs with the students. LOL. Nephew told my brother it was one of the best days of his life. We were cracking up. He had to go with my brother to another section of the field and said, "Dad, I better go back over there, my friends are looking for me to cheer with them!"

L-eaux-L...

Now, finally, to the recipe sharing.

Priscilla brought some pork for sandwiches. I'm not sure how she prepares it. When I cook it, it's so simple girl - you'll want to slap yo momma.

Momma Hullabaloo's Pork
(this is my mother's - who can't cook - recipe and it is delish)
So take your cut of pork, we use the "Picnic" Cut
(as I google, the Picnic cut is the lower shoulder.)
a can or two of coca cola
optional: s+p, garlic powder
cajun injector

The seasonings are completely optional, it is delicious just with the coca cola alone. I promise.

Preheat your oven between 325-350. Lovingly place your picnic shoulder in an oven roasting pan with the skin facing up. Shower with a can of coca cola - you can add a second can during the roasting if you see there isn't enough Jus emitting from the pork. Take a cajun injector and fill the meat up with as much coke as it can handle.

Cover loosely with foil and put into the oven for 3-4 hours until the pork is done (internal temp should be 180 and the juices should run clear). While the pork is roasting, every half hour or so - keep injecting the meat with the Jus.

Once cooked, let cool and then slice up for sandwiches. And to accompany this deliciousness, onion relish and hot mustard caper spread is the way to go.

Pickled Onion Relish
One whole onion (white, yellow, red. don't matter)
quarter to half a tomater
boiling water
s+p
lemon juice
splash vinegar
splash water
splash canola or olive oil (whatever you have)

Boil some water. Slice up your onion into super thin rounds and put in a bowl. Cover onions with hot water and let steam for a few minutes. Drain.

Slice tomaters and place on a paper towel to pat dry. Chop up tomaters into small quarter inch cubes. Add to onions

Season tomaters and onion slices with juice from about half a lemon, capful or more of white vinegar, drizzle with canola or olive oil. Tons o salt and dash or so of pepper. If too lemony or vinegary, add just a teaspoon of water. Cool before serving. I leave it out of the fridge to cool so that the flavors mingle and marinate.

Carmelized Red Onion relish (yum-o)
One whole red onion
Balsamic vinegar
nonstick cooking spray or some olive oil
dash saltnpeppa

Slice up your red onion into thin rounds. Sautee up in a pan over low heat and drizzle with balsamic - just dashes at a time. Don't over balsamic the poor things. You can sample a bit while it's cooking down to judge if you should sprinkle more balsamic in there. Sprinkle a little saltnpeppa. Keep sauteeing until they are soft and carmelized. Cool before serving.

Hot Mustard and Capers Spread
Chinese Hot Mustard (a few tablespoons)
Regular yellow mustard (a few tablespoons)
Dollop or so of mayo
dash of honey
teaspoon or two of capers (brined green peppercorns)

Whip together the wet ingredients. Chop up the capers into bits and then fold into the mix. Spread onto your roll with a slice of pork and some onion relish.


Easy Peesy Red and Sweet Potato Salad
One sweet potater or yam
3 or 4 small red potatoes
small yukon gold potato (optional)
packet of ranch dressing
whomp of mayonaise
generous tablespoon of pickle relish
handful super sweet yellow corn (can or frozen)
saltnpeppa

Scrub wash and chop up your potatoes, skin on into half inch sized cubes. Cover with water in a large stock pot. Salt the water generously. Bring to boil and boil for about 8-10 minutes. Taste a tater piece to see if cooked through. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool.

Whip a generous whomp of mayo with about quarter to half packet of ranch dressing mix. Add taters, corn, relish and stir together to combine. add saltnpeppa to taste. Voila.

Raspberry Vinaigrette for Spinach Salad
1/2 cup raspberry vinegar (I cheated and used orange champagne vinegar)
1/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

In a blender or food processor, combine raspberry vinegar, raspberries, honey, and basil; whirl 1 minutes or until well blended. With the motor on, add olive oil in a slow steady stream, whirling until dressing is smooth.

Candied Pecans (garnish for spinach salad)
Roughly chop about a cup or so of shelled pecans
2 tablespoons of butter
1.5 tablespoon brown sugar
sheet of wax paper

Melt butter in a pan over medium low heat, add brown sugar and stir to combine. Toss in pecans and turn to coat with brown sugar butter. Scrape out onto a sheet of wax paper, spread pecans out to cool and then store in a ziplock and refrigerate.

Tablescaping for Football Season

I would love to post more pictures from our tea to show you all the fabulous tablescaping we did, but I am waiting for the Tulane photographer to finally release all of the images. So in the meatime I'll post some pictures of cute things I have been inspired by this pre-season. This cookie bouquet featured here, was lovingly commissioned and purchased by Preacherman's wife for our tea.  All the TU sports are represented, it was the cutest thing.

Great News! Coach Hullabaloo and I FINALLY got our season tickets.
 

Better late than never ya know.  It's not like Tulane Football season could like actually begin without us.

Of course, nothing can ever happen in my life without an appropriate dose of drama.  And yes, it took a childsized temper tantrum from me to get what I wanted, ha!  I wonder if I should go park myself in a certain office at Gibson Hall and have another throwdown tantrum and see what happens? 

My friend, whom I'll refer to as Ace's Mom, is involved with another very lovely organization at Tulane that has to have their guest lists reviewed by Gibson Hall.  Of course, their events are held at the exquisite Zemurray Mansion in the gated Audubon Place donated to Tulane for the use by the president of our fine institution. So you don't want unsavory elements being given open access to the most prestigious addresses in all of New Orleans.  But I wonder if Gibson Hall actually knows who I am and that I spout off on this blog the way I do.  Cause when I found out that their guest lists were reviewed, I was amazed I was ever let in over there!  Me, who called out Schott Cowen for attempting to feed us fuzzy math at the Newcomb Alumnae Board meeting in January 2006. (yes indeed, and he even asked me if I was insinuating that he was a liar. well, yeah, I was. but whatever, we're finally getting an OCS so I'm over it.)

Anyways, back to my story: what happened was that we, Coach and Mrs. Hullabaloo, received this in the mail initially.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can imagine my reaction.  Here I had been watching all my twitter and facebook friends post lovely pictures of their season tickets full of envy that they got theirs first.  I'd run home every afternoon to check our mail only to be disappointed and wonder where the hell mine were and what was taking so dern long.  Then I get a text from Coach Hullabaloo with the picture of the plain tickets.  Son of a Biscut(!) did I fly off the handle.

So Coach and I both whined like whiny babies to Justin at the ticket office and after at first offering a consolation pair of the pretty season ticketholder sheets, but blank, he changed his mind and offered to reprint ours from scratch. I would think so, ya know.  Don't want me bitching about the egregiousness of this situation on my blog or something.

So y'all - 12 days and counting!  Tulane Tailgating season begins!! Hoo-ray Hoo-ray Varsa Varsa tee-ay!

And y'all, Nell found these perfect TU inspired plates at Sam's!

Listen, men have their fantasy football leagues and whatnot and we women fans worry about the tailgating nest looking fabulous. Because men think that parties just spontaneously happen because thinking about and planning details makes their brains hurt.  But honestly, I just can not understand those random women who find football season annoying or who don't understand what is going on in the game.  What is wrong with your DNA woman?!! 4 chances to complete 10 yards! Air game or Ground Game! First Down means you Move the Chains! So with that I bring you some of my offseason inspiration. and some delicious recipes that I can't wait to have.

Cuteness from an Ole Miss function attended by my adorable friend Miss Glitter, which served as inspiration for our football tea.

Which speaking of Ole Miss, I have quite the quandry: traditional banana pudding which is always delicious or Nutter Butter banana pudding? Lawd have mercy, how genius was this idea?!

NUTTER BUTTER BANANA PUDDING
straight from Southern Living

3 cups milk
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 medium-size ripe bananas
1 (1-lb.) package of nutter butters or peanut butter sandwich cookies
2 cups sweetened whipped cream
Garnishes: crumbled nutter butters, dried banana chips, fresh mint sprigs, caramel

Whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar and flour in a large saucepan on the stove to make pudding. Med-low heat.  We don't want burnt pudding now. Whisk that sucker for 15 to 20 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla until butter is melted and combined.  Put the saucepan on ice to cool.  Pay attention to it every once in a while and stir it until the pudding is chilled throughout.

Take your serving dish and make alternate layers of pudding, bananas, nutter butters with the final layer being pudding. And then top this mound of magnificence with whipped cream. Possibly drizzle with caramel if you want to really sprout some horns.  Before serving sprinkle the top with crumbled nutter butters, dried banana chips and fresh mint sprigs.

At homecoming last year, Preacherman brought the most awesome banana pudding in the history of the world.  It was sooo good y'all I wanted to scream.  Here's the recipe:

PREACHERMAN'S NANER PUDDING

30 Vanilla Wafers
3 Ripe Bananas
Vanilla Pudding (below)
Whipped Cream (below)

Alternate layers of pudding like making a pudding lasagne.

Vanilla Puddding ingredients
1/3 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, corn starch and salt. Add milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Add vanilla and continue to cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

Whipped Cream ingredients
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract  (knowing Booty Judy, she might suggest spiking this with banana liqueur! hmmmm....not a bad idea.... )

Chill a small mixing bowl and your mixing beaters by putting them in the fridge till cold. and y'all this was no average banana pudding, so you must follow every step of this copiously. With your chilled beaters and bowl, beat the whipping cream until it just begins to thicken slightly.  Don't mix too much because it will turn to butter as has happened to me on many ocassions. Fold in confectioners' sugar and vanilla; Mix until soft peaks form.

Another cute tablescape from the Fresh Chicks Design blog....

So how cute is this superbowl placesetting and tablescape from Denise over at So Many Tables?

She's got some other major cuteness there too, so I added her to my blog roll.  I will totally need to give her honorary Southern-ness for her clever and adorable themed tablescaping.

Also, just LOVED, loved this place setting from A Big Story blog.  Seriously, why can't I find some of these cute things at the dollar store when I go?

BROCCOLI AND GRAPE PASTA SALAD for the ECU game
adjusted from Southern Living

1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
half of a 16oz  package bowtie pasta
1 pound fresh broccoli
1 cup mayonnaise
third cuppa sugar
third cuppa diced red onion
third cuppa red wine vinegar
salt n peppa
2 cups seedless red grapes, halved
8 cooked turkey bacon slices, crumbled
maybe some chopped green onions and some shredded carrot if you want
perhaps some crumbled blue cheese might be fun here too

Toast your pecans using the method of your preference (oven or stove).  Keep an eye on them, or you can run the risk of burning them like I have been known to do.

This nex step is also real hard: prepare pasta according to package directions.  While your pasta's a'boilin, chop up your broccoli, separating the florets from the stems.  chop up the stems as finely as you can, and chop the florets into small pieces too. Or if you are lazy and impatient like I am - toss the broccoli into a food processor and be done with it.

Next up, whisk together the mayo, sugar, vinegar, salt n peppa.  If you are super pressed for time or just want to do a semi-home made thing, I think you could probably use poppy seed dressing or marzetti's coleslaw dressing just the same.  Add broccoli, hot cooked pasta, and grapes, and stir with dressing to coat. Cover and chill, about 3 hours. Add crumbled bacon and pecans just before serving.

Don't you just LOVE, LOVE?

Yes I knew you would! These are some of the items from my Shopping Alerts which I took and had embroidered and Greenie'd Up.


Duffle Bag from Target, Pajama pants also from Target and Three quarter length polo from Sears.


Adorable-ness! Now, once my chandelier is up and running I will feel complete.

So tomorrow we have not let adversity slow us down. Nope. We have amended our Tailgate menu to a N'Awlin's Brunch Menu. Serving up tomorrow: Praline Bacon, My tried, but true, Savory Breakfast Bread Pudding (click for recipe), Shrimp+Grits, Mini Muffalata Sandwiches, Fried Chicken with Pepper Jelly, Chickory coffee and Mimosas+Bloody Marys.

I also got Hi Do Bakery to make me a green+sky blue cream cheese king cake.

Yum-ooo y'all!

Praline Bacon Recipe inspired by Elizabeth's on Chartres

1 lb. Thick cut Bacon (or Turkey Bacon)
4 Tbsp Steen’s Cane Syrup
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
3/4 Cup Pecans, toasted and chopped
tiniest smidgen of cayenne

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place a wire rack on a sheet tray. Combine the Pecans and brown sugar. Lay the bacon side by side on the rack, place in for about 15-20 minutes, or until the bacon is sizzling and starting to brown around the edges. We are aiming to for the bacon to be about three quarters cooked all the way before drizzling with the praline topping.

Gather bacon closer together in the pan and sprinkl with the cane syrup, this will give the praline ingredients something to hang on with. Cover generously with the Pecan/brown sugar. Place back in the oven for about 10 minutes more or until the topping is bubbly and the bacon is good and brown. Let cool and serve!

No Horse Meat Today

Ha! This photo really looks like it should have it's own episode of Glee...

At one of the Tulane v. SMU games in Dallas I was complaining about how they make that poor pony run across the field with that pole harness thing. It was breaking my heart. Especially since to add insult to injury Matt Forte racked up 350 yards running that game and got named to the Doak Walker list. Doak is an SMU player for which the award is named. Ironic and insulting to pony fans. But running that poor horse around seemed so inhumane! Well DaddyS sort of made me feel better by telling me that the poor horse could otherwise be alone somewhere, in the rain, nothing to eat....But now it's being housed in Highland Park and getting spa treatments at Neiman's. Okay then. I like Neiman's Tea Room.

Sort of on topic, Kaare Johnson yesterday praised how LSU has a $3million facility for Mike. I am most certainly not down with that. That is so atrocious when the school is firing professors. But I digress....

So it's GAMEDAY (!) and we have gorgeous weather. Glorious! The Greenwave play at Home at Da Dome, and I am attempting Tyler's Ultimate Potato Salad here in a few. And y'all know how much I adore Chef Ty, hopefully all will be well in the world today.

And thankfully, NO crazy drives to Tulsa this weekend. Remind me to tell you sometime how Coach Hullabaloo somehow managed to get on a loop in Paris, Texas, we added an HOUR onto our already endless drive and we were perilously close to a divorce.

Coach Hullabaloo put together burger patties with his signature No Mistake Recipe and I have a portobella for the future Mrs. Voice of the Greenwave. Bootie Judy shared that some of her tailgating partners talked about finding horse meat for their tailgating menu for today. We don't have much room to argue here in Louisiana when we eat alligator, frog and crawfish. But as much I appreciate the thought behind being an Ultimate SuperFan TM at all times, that's gross. But thankfully the wives stepped in and halted such proceedings.

Also on tap for today is my famous guacamole but I need to figure out a cole slaw on the fly here.

I'm leaning towards Tyler's Spicy Pecan Coleslaw...

TY'S SPICY PECAN COLESLAW
1 head napa or savoy cabbage, shredded
4 carrots, shredded
2 Granny Smith apples, thinly sliced
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
Leaves from 1 bunch fresh mint, for garnish
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground chipotle
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 lemon, juiced
smidge saltnpeppa to taste

Toss veggies and pecans together in a plastic tub.

In a separate bowl stir together the mustard, sugar, mayonnaise, ground chipotle, and lemon juice until deliciously whipped into a blend. Shake, shake, shake some saltnpeppa to taste. Dip your clean finger into the bowl and taste the dressing to see if it's fabulous and you love it.

Lovingly pour dressing over the veggies, cover your tub, and then shake your bootie while you shake the tub so that the dressing coats and distributes well. Sneak another taste and make sure you love it love it, then garnish with chopped mint leaves.

TY'S ULTIMATE POTATO SALAD
1 pound small Yukon gold potatoes - chopped
1 large egg
Kosher salt
1/4 bunch sliced scallions, white and green parts
1 tablespoon drained capers
1 cups mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 generous tablespoons finely chopped dill pickles with a generous splash of juice
1/4 small red onion, thinly chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 bunch dill, chopped
1/4 lemon, juiced
black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Put the potatoes and eggs into a big saucepan of cold salted water. Bring to a simmer. After 12 minutes remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and let cool. Cook taters for 3 minutes longer and then drain and cool.

Set aside some scallion greens and capers for garnish. Meanwhile, stir together the mayonnaise, mustard, pickles and their juice, onion, remaining scallions and capers, parsley, and lemon juice.

Peel and chop the cooled egg. Add egg to cooled taters, mix everything with dressing. Saltnpeppa to taste and then drizzle with EVOO and garnish.

Roll Wave Y'all!

The Eyes of Texas Were Upon Us

The Wave Gigged Texas, yes indeedy!

I can't wait til we are formally invited to the Big 12 (ha, sooo still dreaming). What fun! And other than Mr Annoying Man in the section over from us, I very much enjoyed mingling with my people from Texas.

Mrs. Hullabaloo is Texan, you know.

 All the Longhorn Fans were mostly pleasant. AND generous - we got us free tickets to both games as we walked up from very nice strangers, plus we got a golf cart ride to the stadium, and because God is Good: their ice cream stand in the stadium had Reese's Pieces, and they were selling hot chocolate like all normal college stadiums tend to do. Winning!

Their stadium UFCU Disch Falk Field was beautiful. And by the way ... UFCU stands for University Federal Credit Union. I know - I wondered about that a little. Especially with Furman having had "FU" emblazoned on their ball caps last week. Lawd did Big Mike make me laugh with his inappropriate commentary about that! ha!

Isn't that a beautiful ballpark?  UFCU >> Litter Box .  Anyways, so Friday's game washed out after 2 innings unfortunately. But not before we got to show up in our cute outfits. I got this dress online at Loft. Get yours.

Saturday's weather was beautiful, but we only stayed for the remainder of the rescheduled first game and then half of the second game. It got cold and I got hangry again so we had to leave to go stuff my face. My sorority sister whom I'll call Dulcecita brought her precious boys on Saturday. They got to get a baseball signed by Jake Rogers and Lex Kaplan. So cute.

Evan is holding Mr. Pickle in the bottom right which was our lucky charm. #winning

I cant stress enough how much I enjoyed UFCU Field! Before the game Texas shows a video of a former player singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame - I love love love this tradition. Can we please do this at Turchin? Like with Coach Brockhoff and his precious grandsons while he's still alive and we can?

Please excuse Coach Hullabaloo rudely interrupting this video.  I gave him a major eyeroll as these Longhorn fans were all so nice and Coach Hullabaloo was being silly.

So now Mr Annoying Man.  I was having a splendid time until this happened: in the first game on Saturday he got up half way through one of the middle innings, very rudely interrupted my pleasant conversation with a Longhorn fan about Mack Brown and the 2005 CWS, and he screamed at us "HEEEYYYY!!!!! TULANE FANS! Thats how you catch a ball!!" Of course, the other Longhorns in our section sat there embarrassed and silent. I wanted to get up and do something to him. What, I don't know, but it woulda been lights out. Maybe go stomp on his toe with my cute boots.

To be fair, their outfield was boss. They totally shut us down mostly. I am completely shocked we won because we are playing all out position, and Texas really IS that awesome and their players were amazing. Anyways after Mr. Big Mouth opened his pecan pie hole, Richard Carthon outran a throw to first and then Hope got a homerun. I felt like screaming back at him "HEY! Did you see THAT?! That's how you run on base and get a homerun!"

Another funny was that during one of our many Hullabaloos, the Longhorn Fans commented, well Gee all we do is clap.  And my friend whom I'll call Pete said, well our athletic department budget doesn't allow for cannons. ha!  Those cannons, omg.  Probably my least favorite portion of our visit to UFCU Field.

Earlier before the game, Coach and I hit up Stitch Switch BBQ and I fell in love with their Green Bean salad. That is my new favorite BBQ side, so below is a recipe.

GREEN BEAN SALAD

Lemon vinaigrette

Steamed green beans

Chopped red bell peppers 

Toasted pecans

Use pre-made lemon vinaigrette like this or whisk together lemon juice, dijon mustard, dill (or other tasty herb like tarragon), walnut+canola oil, garlic powder, salt/pepper to taste. DE-RIB your green beans (or just use frozen chopped) and steam them with salt pepper and onion/garlic powder. Toast chopped up pecans with butter (either on a baking sheet in the oven or in a pan over the stove). Chop up your red bellpepper. Ok, this is when we get to the hard part: toss everything together and refrigerate.

So thank Yahweh for this series win in Austin because it helps make our losses to Nicholls, SLU, and UNO a fainter memory. Shaa! Meaningless Midweek Games. I am seaux seaux seaux glad I skipped SLU and UNO. Because suffering through that loss at Didier Field at Harvard on the Bayou is about as much as I can deal with at this point in time.  I haven't quite licked my bruised ego from the last time we lost there. Them Cajuns went totally out the box with their victory lap after the game. They had fireworks and Hooters girls and everything. I am serious. Peggy and I laughed and laughed about that on our way home from Thibovegas.

So yes, so totally glad for this win! Hullabaloo Ray Ray!!

Any excuse to tablescape

Nothing like living in the middle of the biggest free party in the world.

Much to the relief of some in the Greenwave community, I'm on hiatus from athletics-related activities this weekend to enjoy the gras with Coach Hullabaloo and my family. I am glad I did because apparently we didn't bunt in the 9th inning of the first game against Sacred Heart and dropped the third game in the series, so a meltdown has ensued.

This is the first Mardi Gras in a very long while that Tulane has had multiple float representation (other than TUMB) in any of the parades since Riptide had his own royalty float in Endymion back after the undefeated season. Tulane was in Cleopatra and in Morpheus. Plus my friend Tyrone Power says that his float for the St. Patrick's Parade is going to be Tulane themed as well.

My girl whom I'll call Barbarella rides in Cleopatra and she gave me this TU decorated margarita glass. Glasses were their signature throws. I loved that.

So in the spirit of Mardi Gras, I had to share with the wider world some of my cute parade tablescaping. Mardi Gras tailgating is the most difficult place in the world to do so unless you are fortunate enough to have a private home on the parade route.

Coach Hullabaloo and I took up some free sidewalk real estate, packed a grill and I just had room for my one little table, but I did the best I could.

What do you think?

I found the fleur de lis flag at Wal-Mart and the runner I tossed on top was fabric I picked up and have been hoarding for an appropriate mardi gras opportunity.

I actually liked the idea of re-using old Mardi Gras cups and koozies. You know how obsessed I am with koozies and drinkware, so I am a mardi gras bandit when it comes to koozies thrown from floats. They are my favorite throws. So I like the idea of having various koozies from the various parade krewes.

I also polished off some drink cups I had made for some of Coach Hullabaloo's mardi gras themed birthday parties (He's a february birthday, so he's been lucky enough to have a double whammy some years). And then the queen of olive and blue tailgating here has ample green tableware. You'll notice I had to keep the purple to an absolute minimum.

I love adding these waffle towels from Monogram Express, it's such an easy way to perk up a table. And I find arranging stuff inside a catch all bucket is essential on windy days. And then finish up the little vignette with a couple of sparkly mardi gras tiaras and ta da, you can take a bow.

My original idea was to serve my favorite gluten-free kingcake from Peacebaker, along with my favorite real kingcake that is from Hi Do Bakery (the best in New Orleans. Hands down). However, this crazy thing called gravity happens when you leave a box on top of a car while packing the trunk - eventually somewhere along your route said box will fly off the roof of the car. It's crazy how that happens.

So that's how we ended up with just the gluten free Peacebaker king cake. Which I think was the universe's way of saying I didn't need to cheat and that lent is imminent.

One thing that I love about being a tailgating maven is that I am getting really good at tossing together quick and simple outdoor menus. Last night after the last parade we raced through a Rouse's before they closed, I took a cue from Sandra Lee's semi-home made and picked up stuff for some cheater cheater chicken salad and some cheater cheater cole slaw. Some turkey sausages to toss on the grill with some bell peppers and onions, a pack of rolls, a few bags of healthy-ish chips (yeah, but the Zapps), with a tub of hummus, and I was done at the grocery.

The idea behind the cheater cheater chicken salad is that when you are being lazy and can't cook some fresh chicken from scratch (which really you should because the taste is so much better), you can just glam up store bought chicken salad from the deli section at the store with a few key ingredients.

Cheater Cheater Chicken Salad
a container of store bought chicken salad (I prefer Robért's, but Rouse's was ok)
handful red seedless grapes (or dried cranberries, yum either way), chopped
couple stalks of green onions, chopped
handful chopped walnuts or pecans

Wash and chop the grapes and green onions, chop the pecans and mix thoroughly in the storebought chicken salad. Voila, a riff off of Sonoma Chicken Salad. Using this thought you could throw caution to the wind and instead do a curry chicken salad version by tossing in some curry powder, a small dollop of chutney, green onions, raisins or apples, and cashews.

Cheater Cheater Coleslaw
a package of precut coleslaw (I used the asian version that had kale and broccoli along with cabbage)
couple stalks of green onions, chopped
handful curly parsley (leaves), chopped
mayo, what you like to add
sour cream, smidge
vinegar, smidge
honey mustard, smidge
SUGAR, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

I love, love, the cole slaw from Houston's so this is their copycat verison. I do the sauce first and get the portions to the taste that I like and then I add it little by little to the veg. In lieu of ruining the veg with a mishap.

So to all my Greenies out there in the world: HAPPY MARDI GRAS! You're a fan of the best college in the world, because like everywhere else it's just a random weekend in March. How sad for everywhere else, right?

Just Like Butter

nah, I'm not talking about our Offensive Line....I'm talking about our theme for tailgating for the Ole Miss game, sillies!!

Although I have to say, I am fixing to commander the Up The Middle play calling. You know, like when it's sensible and appropriate to insert into the game. 4th and 2 at the goal line, Yes. You may call up the middle. 3rd and 8 and still on our half of the field: no.

Anyways, we had such an awesome tailgate today.

I was so excited to host Ta'Molly and her family who came in all the way from Nebraska. Nell and the Texas Contingent partied down with us too. I always love seeing them!

I am also so pleased to note that our tailgate krewe is growing! A new tailgate friend, J-Co, came in from Baton Rouge, and one of the newer additions to our tailgate krewe, whom we'll call CandyStriper, and his little Striper, also came.

We also have a younger contingent of recent grads joining us, lead by my favorite grad student whom I'll call Bond Girl. See, look how fabulous.

They brought adorable cocktail umbrellas for their drinks! Very Hullabaloo Huddle Worthy.

We also had a special visitor to our tailgate matinee, the granddaughter of Hoss Memtsas! She is the daughter of one of my dearest friends.

For those of you who don't know ~ Coach Memtsas was a legendary figure in Westbank and New Orleans high school athletics. The stadium in Harvey is named after him. Coach Memtsas was a member of the Tulane Greenwave Football Team in the 30's and played in the inaugural Sugar Bowl game. 

Here is a picture of a bracelet she wore that had some of the swag Coach Memtsas received as a TU football player.

It was so cute, and I was thrilled to share some of that history.

I was pretty proud of our tailgate party today and I was even more pleased that students noticed! I was busily packing things up right before the game when I got a tap on my shoulder and there stood two students. These co-ed's had been tailgating in the parking cave underneath us, she said that they had been admiring our tent and tablescaping. They loved it so much that they felt compelled to come over and tell us how much they admired it all.

I'm so humbled! I take a virtual courtsey bow and receive your gracious praise.

So anyways, back to this butter business.....Our tailgate theme could very well have just been called "butter" with the vats of it used in menu we served this weekend.

Once again, everybody asked for recipes. Most have been posted before, some of them I am tweaking tho after careful thought.

Bond Girl brought some praline bacon, which is always super easy. Recipe for Praline Bacon is here What you need: oven, wire rack, thick cut bacon, brown sugar, pecans. kicking it up, drizzle with steens and a sprinkle of cayenne.

PEGGY'S SINFUL GRITS peggy doubled this for the size of our tailgating krewe

4 cups of water
4 cups whipping cream
tablespoon of salt
2 cups yellow grits
half a pound of butter (yes!)
2 cups frozen niblet roasted corn
chopped green onion


Berl the water and cream, add the salt. Turn down the heat, add grits and fold in the butter. Simmer to thicken. add corn to finish and then garnish with chopped green onion.

Originally I refered to the recipe from the White Lace Inn for Blueberry French Toast Casserole. One of my hullabaloo-ettes, whom I'll call Ace's Mom, had suggested it when I had a complete meltdown about our new television gameday schedule. But after actually making it, I found some ways to make it super easy to toss together before a brunch tailgating, I also found that the cream cheese filling needed to be a smidge sweeter.

MRS. HULLABALOO'S VERSION OF FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLE

3 french bread pistolettes
1 pack of fresh blueberries, rinsed
a third a cuppa sugar
quarter cup sour cream
dash vanilla
4 ounces of creole cream cheese
1 3/4 to 2 cups of eggnog (eyeball it)
dash of cinnamon
handful of powder sugar


Take 2 pistolettes and slice up, taking the crust off. Chop up into bits and cubes. Grease up a 9 x 9 baking dish. Spread the bottom of the pan evenly with your cubed up, crustless french bread. Sprinkle the fresh blueberries over the top. Whisk together the creole cream cheese with the sour cream. If your cream cheese is not already smooth and room temp, pop it into the microwave for a whirl before mixing with the sour cream. We want to avoid lumpiness. Fold in the sugar to your mixture. Pour over the Blueberries like we are making a lasagne. Next Up, slice the remaining pistolette into 1" thick rounds (with crusts) and place over the cream cheese layer to cover. Once the french bread slices are all in place, pour the eggnog evenly over everything. Dust the cinnamon over the top a smidge. Cover the pan with foil and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat your oven to 350, put your covered dish into the oven and bake for 45 minutes covered. Then uncover and cook an additional 15 minutes until the top is browned. Take out the oven, cool a bit and then dust with powder sugar using a wire mesh strainer (it helps get rid of the lumpies!).

I also made my world acclaimed BBQ Shrimp, which for yesterday's game I totally cheated and just used a couple bags of grocery bought Louisiana peeled, raw 21/25 count shrimp. So that way we weren't having to work to peel apart the shells. Head on fresh shrimp is totally the way to geaux because the BBQ sauce gets all up in the nooks and crannies of the shrimps and cooking with the heads on gives the whole sauce extra flavor. Anyways, I made my sauce the night before (I doubled the amount of butter for the crowd and adjusted seasonings here and there until I was happy with the flavor), which you can see from the recipe is based on butter. In the morning while the french toast casserole was in the oven, I dumped the frozen shrimp and sauce in a big stock pot, simmered until the shrimps cooked (they are pink and curl into a "c" and not a closed "o") and then spooned it into chaffing dishes to keep warm at tailgate.

Ok, so last night I admittedly had another Brain Hurricane about our upcoming tailgating for the ULM game! I decided on a Louisiana Sportsmen Theme for tablescaping! YES! How adorable, right?!