Piercing the Cone of Silence

full length of article here
Ok y'all...the Infamous Cone of Silence is currently underway if haven't noticed. Oh, Cone of Silence, how I have missed you!

Since our chance at the championship game died in Texas yesterday, I had actually wanted to do a season in review for my blog post today. But this cone of silence situation is quite intriguing.

What does it mean? Has UTSA managed to stall bowl slot negotiations? Has our brain trust managed to pull a negotiation coup and announce the Hawaii Bowl? Has R+L decided that what this guy says is true and so they don't want to put USL through the agony of puckering up to lowly Tulane?

Tomorrow there is to be a conference call. About what, who knows. Tulane just loves making easy things difficult, so we shall see soon enough. I have 100 latkes going in a bet (with applesauce) over what is to be announced tomorrow.

What I do know is that the longer that this drags on, the less chance you are going to have out of state alumni who are going to re-arrange their holiday plans to come be in New Orleans in 3 weeks.

My town daughters are already organizing carpools to the airport the week prior, ready to depart the very second when their exams finish. Tulane wouldn't ever like do something reasonable like announce in advance for extended dorm closings until December 22nd. So don't count on any students making plans to go to a bowl.

So the Rice game: We didn't go to Houston. This is a picture of us in town after the game. We did manage to put on cute gameday outfits nonetheless. I was holding out hope that I would be able to pack up at dawn on Saturday and roll into Rice Stadium before kick off. It just wasn't meant to be. I need to get on Coach Hullabaloo to get us a Cessna though so that we can jump off to a game on a moment's notice.

I can't say who, but I had a VIP celebrity wedding that needed to be tended to by Boss Lady Stationery (me) and I was reprinting placecards and extra menus until literally a half hour before the guests were seated for dinner. Could you imagine if I had been already tucked away in Houston and getting desperate phone calls from their wedding planner about this or that?

Coach Hullabaloo and our friend Bald Boy and his uncle
So instead, I was fielding the desperate phone calls from Bruno's where Coach Hullabaloo and I had gone to partake in that great American pastime of Watching Saturday Football at A Local Watering Hole.

'Tis a fine tradition that is enjoyed by the majority of American College Football Fans and Alumni, but which has sadly eluded Greenwave fans for decades for many self-inflicted reasons.

Absent were the Greenbackers who were either at home or across the street at Rocco's as they are currently still on their boycott of Bruno's.
I will say this about the controversial Bruno's. Other than praying I don't get cancer from all of the secondhand smoke, I was pleased that the bartendress was wearing a Tulane shirt on gameday. Like we are a for real college team and this is a for real local joint.

How refreshing for a change! But getting the game on the TV with sound was a bit touch and go at first. And we weren't sure if we were even gonna get sound after they finally got one of the sound-less TVs going. But we finally did get sound, and thank goodness - because this yet again:

And this wasn't even my phone. So no, I am not the sole crazy lunatic who doesn't get iheart to work for Tulane games or for the radio shows.

So anyways, I ended up having to skip out for a spell and was therefore actually only able to watch the first and fourth quarters, as I spent quarters 2 and 3 tending to said wedding paper emergencies.

From what I saw Tulane's defense was absolutely boss. More specifically Nico Marley was who was boss.

Nico Marley with an assist on the strip from the always awesome Darion Monroe.
Moment captured by Smiley Pool.
However, if there were a prize for completing passes out of bounds - we'd be a lock. Juan Kincaid said on WWL that Tulane left our offense Uptown and that pretty much describes what happened at Rice. Our first 1st down was in the 3rd Q. ha! So we go out the door, losing to RICE. Lawd have mercy.

Oh well. Quelle Dommage. We close out the season in bittersweet fashion.

The silver lining is that our loss didn't give anymore fuel to the notion that UTSA should have a claim to the exCUSA championship game. Because that would have been a gag me situation imho.

Alright, so now for the retrospective portion of my final blog post of the regular season:

Mrs. Hullabaloo's favorite wins:

I am so glad we got to sucker punch Tulsa. Lawd how I disliked their stupid, rude fans. Too bad we get to still see them on the other side.

I am also sooo glad that we embarrassed ECU, and it was more delicious in that they called us everything in the book: including referring to us as a bunch of "homeless people." Well you lost to a bunch of homeless peeps. Hoo-ray!

Mrs. Hullabaloo's favorite away game ideas:

The DJ in the student section at Syracuse.

FAU's beach inside of the stadium in lieu of corner endzone seating is truly awesome. And I am also jealous of their in game entertainment and PR/marketing. Their sideline hostess kept spectators' attention going throughout between downs and timeouts so that there was never a lull. It is such a stark contrast with our shoestring plan of having a TAF staff member mumble something inaudible on the field here and there, or undergraduate interns toss some kind of marketing something together. I hope TPTB was taking copious notes.

Ruston. Oy. We barely knew ye. But I did love your alumni pavilion for tailgating.

Mrs. Hullabaloo's favorite tailgate theme of the season:

Challah-baloo was my favorite-est tailgate theme. Savory kugel and roasted brisket - fantabulous. I can't wait to do more Jewish tailgating!

Mrs. Hullabaloo's favorite plays of the season:

Xavier Rush's reception on 3rd and 24 for a touchdown at Louisiana Tech.

The strip/fumble/touchdown by Jordan Batiste and Dominique Robertson at ULM.

Darion Monroe's blocked FG at homecoming.

Strozier's shoeless pick 6 from Poydras to Girod at the ECU game.

Cairo's clutch FGs for our overtime wins.

Another fond memory:

Shaking my boutte to the Greenwave brass band at the senior game.

Ok Greenies.....signing off for the season, I'll see you when I see you.

Pra Caramba!

So this is me, shakin my booty with the ever fabulous first lady of TU Football, Angel Johnson to the Greenwave Brass Band in the third or fourth quarter. Yeah. fun times!
So it was about damn time.

We have been due a flipped script with UTEP. I have watched so many stupid games against CUSA teams go sideways for us, so it was high time.

moment captured by Michael DeMocker
I'll never forget our hail mary situation in 2008, Kevin Moore under center, Graf screaming "IF WE GET THIS, WE WILL BE ON SPORTSCENTER FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES!" We had been ahead most of the game, Andre Anderson was busting his tail all over the field, and then we let the game slip away 21-25 in the second half. Sigh.

So it was pretty funny to get this text from Chardonnay after the game yesterday.

Com Certeza, ha!

I will say that I am deee-lighted Coach Johnson has architected something out of nothing. But am I satisfied? uh, Hell No. This horrid conference we were trapped in and the mediocrity that was orchestrated since being handed the keys to the kingdom in 1998 cannot just be forgiven or forgotten because we beat a bad team on our way out the door. No sir.

But it was a momentary distraction fo' sho'.

photo by aguiluzer
I hope that the team is enjoying their season. Proud of the change in attitude. Proud effort they are making. But if TPTB makes amends by hiring Jaime Garza or get us into a P5 conference then maybe I'll revise my hardened opinions about where we've been and where we are.

Could you, like, imagine this behavior being tolerated at Corndog land?

So in summation: don't like hold your breath that I'ma lead a ticker tape parade down Poydras about the New Orleans Bowl.

They actually want us to pay $25 to "secure seats". Chile please, I have walked up and bought tickets minutes before kick off at that bowl, sat where I pleased and didn't have to worry my pretty little mind.

The sister-in-law of the late great Greenwave booster, CJ Lenz, is one of my girls. She marched right up to me at tailgating and gave me somekind of lecture about me needing a serious attitude adjustment. "Now listen here young lady, a bowl is a bowl!" ha ha! This, from the same lady who ditched standing in her friend's wedding to be at the '73 win over the bataan rouge corndogs. But honestly, it doesn't matter what I think about it because the Universe is in charge at this point.

The math involved for us to upgrade our situation is pretty crazy right now.

It's the slightest glimmer of hope for a better bowl and I refuse, refuse, refuse to go down without bitching even more than I already have. I mean I picked my man pie Coach Hullabaloo after all. So as you can see, I am not a settle for anything that just wanders along kind of girl. So anyways: I can't even believe that we have to go through these scenarios for many reasons including the fact that UTSA wasn't even a zygote for Katrina, but the deal is that UNT had to lose yesterday, which they did - but now UTSA is an upstart and could win the division unless Louisiana Tech somehow has a miracle next week at the Alamodome (The Bulldog Miracle! pray for it y'all. seriously pray, pray, pray!).

But my feeling is hows that for some bs an inaugural member of the SEC has to resort to? And CUSA would be so stupid to let a provisional team rob the conference of a potential Liberty Bowl payout, the biggest bowl payout for conference. UTSA is not eligible to play a bowl game this year and the numbers aren't there for them to get a bowl bid even if they win enough games. If UTSA gets to the CUSA championship, Liberty Bowl would go free agent for the CUSA slot and that would be all she wrote. It would be a lose-lose situation for everyone. Just wretched!

So anyways, the game: what a hoot. It was more of a touchdown derby with a Lorenzo Doss interception mixed in to keep things interesting. Look, more photeauxs by Michael DeMocker.

Marc Edwards catches his first TD

Sam Scofield being awesome
I'm watching the replay today on an actual TV and not a laptop, because well, I can - they are actually showing games on TV this season for the first time since like Hurricane Georges.

When's the last season we had for real college luxuries like TV replays? Progress.

And speaking of luxuries: our tailgate food was Lindo Maravilhoso, Otimo!

In honor of our mighty Brazilian, our resident Lou Groza Award winning kicker, Cairo Santos, we chose a Brazilian theme for our senior game tailgating and word, it was some kinda good. And it was so great because everybody went out of their comfort zone and executed these exotic recipes flawlessly.

Priscilla brought the star of the show: grilled Tri Tip cut of sirloin, also known as "Picanha" and it was some kinda good. Our Band Mom whom I'll call Tupelo Honey brought chimichurri sauce to pair with the steak, which was exceptional.

Peggy brought traditional brazilian chicken salad, or Salpicao....word.

Whoever decided in Brazil that shoe string potatoes needed to be in chicken salad deserves a prize. Peggy's friend Marlene brought us some lovely brazilian rice, which went nicely with some "feijoada" I picked up from a Brazilian cafe out on Williams in Kennah Brah. Feijoada is basically red beans, but with pinto beans instead of red beans.

One of my sorority sisters joined our tailgating group, I'll call her Ginger. Ginger made a brazilian twist on spinach dip using hearts of palm ("palmitos") and kale and it was boss.

Coach Hullabaloo even contributed and made chorizo "Bolinhos" which are mashed yucca stuffed pillows of heavenly-ness.

We rounded out the treats of the day with an interesting version of brazilian carrot cake that is topped with chocolate ganache, which sounds like an odd pairing, but was actually very tasty. Also making a cameo were some Pao de Queijo rolls and then I made a coconut/ginger/tomato sauce to nestle some grilled chicken drumettes in.

Ok so most recipes are on my pinterest page, but here are a few of the standouts:

A NO FAIL CHIMICHURRI
cup of fresh parsley leaves
3-4 garlic cloves (the more the merrier)
2 tbs fresh oregano leaves (or 2 TSP dried)
1/2 cup olive erl
2 tbsp wine vinegar (red, white, no matter)
Tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Ok, so gathering the ingredients is the hard part. Toss in a blender or bullet and whiz everything together. Slather onto your steaks and like just die from happiness.

CASTELO AND PALMITOS DIP
6-8 garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive erl
one 14-16 oz can of hearts of palm
5 cups of kale, chopped small
halfa cup of milk
8 oz pack of cream cheese, room temp
half cup sour cream
salt and black pepper
cup of parmesan

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a baking dish. On the stove, saute garlic in olive erl, add hearts of palm and mix, add kale and give it all a whirl. Turn off heat, add milk and cream cheese and mix through. Then add sour cream and parm, salt and pepper to taste. Pour deliciousness into the baking dish and bake for 25 minutes.

BOLINHOS DE CHORIZO
1 large yucca/cassava root
1 egg
2 Tbsp coconut flour
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 lb chorizo
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Saute chorizo in a pan until cooked, add chopped onion and stir through until translucent. Turn off heat and add chopped cilantro, stir through until well distributed. Set aside to cool to room temp. Peel your casava/yucca and then cut into 2 inch chunks. Boil in salted water until fork tender. Drain and mash like mashed taters. Add coconout flour, garlic powder and s+p to taste as you mash. Mold mashed yucca into balls, dust with coconut flour to keep from getting sticky and then mush/press a hole with your thumb to flatten out a bit, fill with a tablespoon of chorizo filling and then roll back up into a ball with a dust of coconut flour. Fry em up in a pan until golden brown and then keep yourself from eating the whole batch.

SALPICAO
1 whole skinless chicken breast poached in seasoned water, shredded
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
1/2 cup corn
1/2 cup peas
2 small granny smith apples cubed
1/3 cup seedless raisins, or dried apricots or dried figs, chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 cup mayo
1 package shoestring potatoes
1/2 cup of olives
1/2 cup of heart of palms (cut in cubes)
Salt and pepper

Ok, the ingredients are the hard part. And maybe the elbow grease you need to mix everything together. So combine everything and then s+p to taste. And be astounded by the deliciousness.

Cute picture of former FB mom Maggie Edwards shaking her tailfeather with one of the drink vendors to the Greenwave Brass Band.

Me and my peeps

Mercury is in Retrograde!!!

I'm not sure where I would place this loss on the richter scale of losses. Last week I wanted to hold a wrist slitting tailgate theme. This week I considered fashioning a noose out of my tailgating tablecloths.

In retrospect I do not believe that I am nearly as devastated as I felt after this Toledo era loss though.

Well. Maybe.

While I was somewhat (ok, very) impressed with how Montana has improved, no moral victory explanation is going to satisfy me. I wasn't even consoled by the outhouse losing in Tuscaloosa. It coulda shoulda been the sweetest ending to our gameday, but alas, Mercury was in retrograde!

I just knew it had to be something, because there was some kind of juju on that endzone. A Roll Wave button is just not enough to offset the juju from Mercury being in retrograde.

You know the endzone I'm talking about. The endzone where UTSA coughed up the ball. The same darn one where we coughed up the ball. The same one UTSA scored a TD on and where Cairo missed a FG. Yes, that's the one.

I swear that endzone was simply plagued.

So maybe this loss is saving us from our Liberty Bowl Coaching Curse wherein we always lose the coach who gets us bowl eligible after going to the Liberty Bowl. (Pittman, Smith, Bowden)

This morning I actually even considered just giving up and not worrying about going to the New Orleans Bowl. I am such a bad Tulane fan, I am simply dreading the possibility of getting embarrassed in front of USL fans and giving Sporty Nunez fodder for her articles. The thought of a USL New Orleans Bowl just makes me want to book a vacation to Tulsa or a cruise to Somalia for the holidays.

Anyways, because Coach Hullabaloo was off reuniting with his Marine Corps peeps in Philadelphia for a man weekend, Chardonnay and I packed our little bags and made a good old fashioned girls road trip out of the UTSA game weekend. We spent the night with Nell and then went to San Antonio where I OD'd on BBQ and cobbler, road the boat for a tour of the Riverwalk, admired the Alamo, etc.

We went by the Tulane Alumni tailgating too. I ran into Alex Wacha and his family, but I was in a rush so I didn't get a picture. I kind of regret that. Coach Hullabaloo had such a man crush on Alex, especially after his game winning sack in overtime in the UTEP game and his game ending interception at Rutgers.

The alumni tailgating was really cute.

So glad they are stepping them up a notch now. The caterer served grits and grillades, corndouilles (Andouille corn dogs), bloody marys and beignets.

And how cute are these centerpieces?

Look out: Tulane colors and everything!

As Mercury in retrograde dictates, I did run into an old friend - a long lost college acquaintance whom I'll call Vinnie Barbarino.

Here's Vinnie wearing his wife's bedazzled sunglasses because he forgot his. Hilarious.

So I did very much enjoyed catching up with Vinnie and hearing about his French quarter wedding to his wife which sounded lovely. I enjoyed knowing Vinnie in college because he delivered food for one of my favorite restaurants. And his fraternity had great keg parties at the bar that is currently known as Ms Mae's, which a young Mrs. Hullabaloo did not miss.

Anyways, I don't have much to add about the game that hasn't already been beaten to death: Enough penalty flags to hold a proper Veterans Day flag ceremony, Umpteen dropped passes, lawd have mercy. We totally let UTSA off the hook and beat ourselves.

We are 1-5 against teams that are navy blue. 0-2 against red and navy blue teams, 0-2 against ernge and navy blue teams. Navy is just not a good color for us. But what's worse is that we are 0-3 against teams who were birthed AFTER Katrina. Hows that for some titanic flower beds for ya?

A younger Tulane fan posted on twitter earlier today that these last two losses hurt more because we got so used to winning.

I guess these losses learned us now, huh? Booooo.

Well that BLOWS

Ay yay yay!

Talk about going "cold turkey" after a high. We got blow-ed by the "Snow" birds (get it, ha ha). Yes, the drug jokes abounded yesterday. a 3rd and 1, was 3rd and a blunt. "Just Say No" etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

But lawd have mercy, I really did wake up this morning and last night really did happen. And I really did spend the night at my monster in law's to come see this. It was not a drug fueled nightmare.

Mrs. Hullabaloo's list of things that totally blow:

1. Being more specific when requesting a takeaway derby.

More takeaways by Lorenzo Doss, please.

....Oh, but for lack of clarification.

photo by Jon Way
2. Forgetting My Roll Wave Button. In my rush to get to the game, I left behind my Roll Wave button in our hotel room.

I coulda/shoulda dispatched Coach Hullabaloo back to get it. I even had the sinking feeling at tailgating that I didn't have it and bad things would happen and I tried to brush off the feeling. I should have known better! I'm going to get it permanently implanted onto my body. Or tattoo'd. Or both.

The one on the right I'ma tie to the back of my bumper and drag it all the way back to New Orleans, run over a few times in my driveway and then torch in a ceremonial ritual. My original plan was to wear it proudly to yesterday's game and to Rice in a few weeks. But evil is attached to it now so it must be destroyed.

3. EX-CUSA REFS!!!! Grrrr.....

photo by Steve Mitchell
You cannot not assess a penalty. Or review a review! Lawd have mercy do Ex-Cusa refs blow. Zach's daddy was yellin "HEY REFS, ARE YOU SMOKING SOMETHING!" .....har har

4. Tammy Nunez patronizing articles. Hula skirts and coconut dreams? Lorenzo Doss impersonator? I aint' sayin, but I am just sayin. She just loooooves all her witty little sayings she gets to come up with for when we lose. I still can't believe how awesomely funny she thought she was last year when she was caught off camera at the Coach's press conference bashing the Greenwave and giggling about how John Curtis could beat Tulane. She's just sooo funny y'all!

I'ma start calling her Sporty Nunez like that turd reporter from Cinderella Man. I can picture her writing "The only time the Wave was on it's feet was walking into the stadium...." this would so be something only Sporty Nunez could write.

4. Tropical Stadiums. Ok. weather patterns in tropical stadiums suck. I'd love to blame the weather on our interception rally, but I can still complain about it. It was absolutely sweltering and stagnant hot the first half, but nothing we aren't used to in September. And then just like that at the half it was like hurricane gale winds kicked in during the entire FAU momentum swing. Like weather was the FAU 12th man. Only to die down into a peaceful evening breeze as the final minutes ticked off the clock and our loss looming over us like a bad hangover. It was completely biblical. And reminiscent of that completely cray game we had in Hawaii.

Another thing like Hawaii was the FAU dance team. Lawd. Cover your husband's eyes.

The twerking they incorporated into their "Shake Your Groove Thang" halftime routine should have come with a "suitable for mature audiences only" warning. I am serious. Big Fredia woulda banned it for inappropriateness.

5. The demise of this game day maxi dress. The colors are so perfect. Now I can never wear it again.

This picture is at the mini "beach" that they have at FAU's stadium with a misting system. I was jealous. Oh, and those butt curved stadium bleachers that TPTB is carrying on about that's supposed to also be installed at Yulfogelmevlin: overrated. My ass still ends up sore even with ergonomic butt bleachers.
I wore this dress to the 2011 Hawaii game. And now I am definitively never wearing it again (well, ......maybe. but I would agree with Coach Jones on classifying it as "ineffective" and therefor banished from ever seeing the light of day ever again. Like the "Roll Wave Roll" cheer).

6. All Access and 106.1. Just sayin! I hope the Greenies don't give up on whining and complaining to TPTB. A proper football team deserves to meet at least minimal standards in the media/broadcast department. Enough with the mickey mouse operation with rabbit ears, chewing gum, and coffee cans tied with string to only then get cut out by a high school game, puh-lease. Or 50 minutes of commercials during a 60 minute radio show. THIS IS UNPROFESSIONAL.

For as small as a fan base as we are, we don't ask for much: a decent team, a decent broadcast. and a decent bowl game while we're aksin'. (ok. ok. I'm pushing it, I know.)

7. Homecoming "Miracles". I know that the team and the coaches are eager to accept blame and move on, but I need to work this out of my system a bit. BECAUSE I WAS THERE IN 2007 AT ARMY! Sitting in those crap seats in the endzone. Leading 17-7 and then losing!!!

This should be a glorious morning in South Florida, except that here we are. Reminiscing about how we managed to hand a downtrodden team a homecoming "miracle" at the end of the game. Coach L's wife and I were just so smug at tailgating laughing about that ruinous "Michie Miracle" officiating that handed Army that win (he was out of bounds!!!!). Clearly tempting fate and the impending doom that was to befall us in a few short hours. And against a team that didn't exist a few shorts years ago. We are getting good at that.

Now there's going to be all these "Miracle at FAU Homecoming" videos to look forward to for posterity. Yay!

.....Sigh.

Dear Greenwave

Ok, something fun for a change! I hearby challenge you to post your selfie with your love note to the Greenwave on social media with #BowlWave hashtag

One, two, three, geaux!

Happy Early Channukah Everyone!

Thank you Bill Haber of the AP for these totally rad pictures!
Our friend GreenMenace drove past our post-game tailgating yesterday and yelled out his window "I don't know where y'all are gonna be for Christmas, but it sure as heeeeeelllll isn't going to be here!"

Yeessss Sir indeedy. Mazol Tov!

I teauxtally called out my student chickadees for missing yet another great game! One chickadee was even texting me persistently during the game about a matter that is still several weeks out.

Peter, Joseph, and Mary...I was some kind of sassing back at my phone that was buzzing intermittently throughout the game: what is wrong with you?!! Don't you know that Tulsa has the ball and all their time outs and 3 minutes left on the clock?!!! OMG I totally need to withhold my cute survival kits and start enforcing some discipline around Chateau Hullabaloo.

Fer real. I cannot abide interrupting important matters at hand, like bowl eligibility.

So yes, ya'll: Hullabaloo Ray Ray! We are Going to a Bowl Game!

St. DallHawaiinapolisburg, here we come!

I feel that Ryan Grant is saying to this Golden Hurricane "YA HEARD?!"

ha ha

Coach Hullabaloo and I are just pleased as punch and sitting around with huge chesire grins, just snickering at Tulsa that we totally neutered them in this game in order to get bowl eligible. Although you'll notice that we left nothing to chance. Coach continues to wear the same outfit and I'm sporting my lucky "Roll Wave" button. I even did some of my baseball superstitions like rubbing my fingers and the side of our baseball caps during some of the Tulsa posessions!

Hey! It's not weird if it works! Coach says he's going to wear tights under the shorts if we end up in Memphis in December. We even talked with some of the greenbackers afterwards who say they keep bringing the same food to each tailgate to not mess up the juju. Ha!

Well, this win went a long way in washing away all of our simply awful trips to Tulsa of our days of yore during the Toledo Error. Because Coach and Mrs. Hullabaloo have sat through some serious doozies up there and endured all manner of stupid taunts from their hick fans.

Of course, them hurricanes couldn't just leave well enough alone. The Tulsa Galaxy World newspaper called us "lousy" in their pre-game coverage. And then their OG Jake Alexander acted ALL a fool during the game, kneeing Zach Davis in the head like that and then kicking Nico Marley. What was that story? Thankfully Messieur Alexander realized the error of his ways and apologized to Zach.

Because for real I thought Graff was gonna fling off his headset and take care of business hisself, if Lorenzo Doss didn't get to Alexander first. Doss was ready to rumble and had to be told to simmer down. ha ha! We are still waiting on Dillon Foxworth to own up on that blow to the head personal foul he committed tho. There was all kind of blatant bs that Tulsa did not get called out on as well. The refs were totally like plucked up from a rec league or something.

Steve Barrios even finally piped up with a funny on the infamous Review of the Review by the refs on Lorenzo Doss' takeaway. That was so absurd. A review on a review? Can you do that? Re-review your review? What is this multiple choice? Anyways, Barrios said "I haven't seen this many reviews since my daughter was in dance school!!" lulz!

Can you believe Times Picayune actually sent a photographer? Michael Democker strikes again.
One thing I didn't think we would be seeing again, but apparently continues to rear it's head is 10 Men on the Field. I swear this is our signature thing now. The Tulane Ten Man Special. We are so good now, we'll only play 10 men from here on out. But seriously, we got a delay of game penalty when Dante Butler wasn't in place in the first half and then we had 10 guys on special teams for the Tulsa's punt in the 3rdQ after stuffing them on their 34.

So, another something special is that we had was a visit by Homecoming Royalty to our tailgate ~ check it out!

This year's Homecoming King and Queen had heard that we had the best tailgate and that they had to come by, so come by they did. I very much enjoyed their visit, but disappointed they were tiara-less. Winning is bringing out all sorts of people, it's very exciting times at Hullabaloo Huddle.

Even the baseball team set up a tailgate! This is the beginning baseball krewe setting up their tailgating homestead and flagrantly violating the no grill rules.

Later on they were totally packed with the rest of the team and girlfriends, it was great to see. I love seeing the different teams support each other and attend each other's games. Hope they get tents for campus tailgating too.

So now, finally, for the food and fun portion of the week. Since it was Tulsa and based on my personal experience of Tulsa food - we had your basic tailgate food: hot dogs, priscilla's potato salad, cole slaw and pulled pork sandwiches. Although we did jazz up a few dishes.

As you know I refuse, refuse, refuse to serve 7 layer dip (gag me), so I always find recipes that jazz it up somehow or are an interpretation of layered dip like the greek version we did for Homecoming last year. So I found this version from Tasty Kitchen that turned it into a cheesecake and I pumped it up a notch by drizzling cilantro pesto and pepitas in addition to the recommended toppings from the recipe.

It was such a hit that it flipped over and did a 360 and landed face up on the ground. What a save. For real, Coach Hullabaloo fixed it and didn't tell me about the tablescaping tragedy until afterwards. ha ha!

I also found a spicy cheddar corn dip recipe, because you know, Tulsans eat corn. Recipe is below.

And Booty went to town on the drinks. Not only did she make the petri dish jello shots, she created this Swamp Water cocktail that had green tea vodka in it and apple liquor. And look, she braved the 22 Jump Street filming to snag dry ice for presentation.

I also picked up pumpkin beer and sparkling cider for a pumpkin cider cocktail that was also enjoyed.

And then for the kiddos, Lucy's Mom brought golden graham smores, which was messy gooey and the kids loved.

Lucy and Lucy's Mom. So cute.
and then I made the simplest of all dessert recipes ever. These cookies.

So easy, I'm embarrassed to even list the instructions. And I learned from our Asian tailgating to always buy a backup option in case things go awry in the kitchen, which they did. So I had a test batch using sugar cookie base and then the good batch that were the peanut butter cookie base.

PEANUT BUTTER PUMPKIN SPICE COOKIE MUFFINS

refrigerated pack of peanut butter cookie dough
pumpkin spice hershey kisses (seasonal, found it at Target)
colored sugar sprinkles
pinch of cinnamon sugar

Grease up a mini muffin baking pan with 24 slots. Preheat oven to 375. Take a melon scooper and scoop dough into each of the slots. Pop into the oven for 10 minutes. Meanwhile unwrap 25 hershey kisses. Take the pan out the oven and press those kisses into the little cookie muffins real quick so that they "stick" while the cookies are still warm. Sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar and some team colored sprinkles. Let the pan completely cool and THEN pop them out to take to tailgate. (waiting for them to cool was where I went awry with the sugar cookie batch).

CHILI CHEESECAKE WITH CILANTRO PESTO

For Pesto:
cup or so handful fresh cilantro
Canola oil
Few leaves of fresh spinach
clove of garlic
half a handful of pine nuts
couple pinches of pepitas
salt and pepper to taste

1 cup Crushed lime flavored Tortilla Chips
3 tbs Butter, Melted
16 oz, weight Cream Cheese, Softened
2 whole Eggs
quarter tsp Chili Powder
eighth tsp Cumin
1 4oz can diced Green Chilies, drained
1 whole Jalapeno, seeded + diced
4 oz Colby-jack Cheese, shredded (the marbled looking cheese)
4 oz sharp cheddar (I like Seaside)

For Garnish:
third cup of sour cream
A roma tomato or a handful cherry tomatoes, chopped
Green Onions, Chopped
Black Olives, Diced
Cilantro, Chopped

So it's this easy. Take the melted butter and mix with the crushed tortillas. Pre-heat the oven to 325. Press butter tortilla mixture into the bottom of a 9" spring pan and pop it into the oven for 10-12 mins. Take out and put in the fridge to cool. The original recipe says to mix everything in stages, but we mixed the eggs and then tossed with the cheeses, spices, chilis, jalapeno and gave it all a whirl until everything looked good and mixed. Take the spring pan out of the fridge and give the sides a little spritz of coating with some pam. Pour cheese mixture into the oven and then back at 325 for 30 minutes. Meanwhile whiz up the pesto ingredients in a food processor, drizzling the canola oil slowly into the machine. Chop up your toppings. Take cheesecake out of the oven, let cool on a rack for about 15 or so minutes. Run a knife around the outside of the cheesecake before opening up the springs on the pan to remove. Lather a thin layer of sour cream on top and then drizzle the cilantro and rest of the toppings. Refrigerate until it's time to take to tailgating.

CORN DIP

Can of mexi-corn, drained
couple tablespoons of diced canned green chilis
one medium jalapeño, de-ribbed and diced
squirt of sriracha for good measure
cup and half of shredded sharp cheddar cheese (not pre-shredded packs. Shred fresh)
some sprinkling of sugar
salt and pepper to taste
cup each of mayo and sour cream
2 stalk of chopped green onions (white parts mostly)

Ok, this one is hard: mix everything and refrigerate for at least overnight so that the flavors mingle. Serve with fritos. This might even be tastier with chopped pecans in it.

Alright y'all next up: Spoiling Homecoming at Del Boca Vista FAU! See you in Boca!!