Successful Fall Practice

Mr. and Mrs. Hullabaloo spent the month of August in the throws of "Practice." We did a dry run of tailgating at Koozie and Peggy's. We braved the heat and sun to eat salty foods, wash down some beer, and shake our booties at the first annual Tailgating Festival and Expo. I tell you what, we are in shape and ready for action!

In between there, we watched Michael Parenton do some third string backup at the Jets. We are crossing our fingers and toes that Parenton continues to be a Jet, until his last dying day....

Matt Forte, of course, continues to just razzle, dazzle in Chicago. The media just cannot get enough of how SMART he is. Well, Mr. Forte has a real degree (gasp!) from a real live university. Imagine, a college athlete with a college degree. In something useful, like Finance.

We saw our first ever Tulane student sporting a Forte Bear's jersey just last week in the UC (we shant call it LBC).

My personal triumph was watching the Titans v. Cowboys preseason game with Troy Kropog at Left Tackle and Patrick Ramsey as back-up QB under center. Ramsey marched down the field on one set of plays early in the game. Hoo-ray! Of course, he tossed the ball for a safety in the 4th quarter, but we won't talk about that. That was the fault of the right tackle who was scratching his head over the new mid-field jumbotrons in the new Cowboys Stadium. You know, in lieu of holding up his end of the line. Like he should have been doing. Those midfield screens are an accident waiting to happen.

I'm sharing with you some shots of us at the Tailgating Festival and Expo. Of course, Mr. Hullabaloo, ever the media darling, was photographed the entire weekend by the Tailgating Expo press. Mr. Hullabaloo in line getting ribs, Mr. Hullabaloo tasting the results of the chef demonstrations, Mr. Hullabaloo peeking inside the RV displays.

Sunday afternoon of the Tailgating Expo, our favoritest band in New Orleans, Bag of Donuts played. They even invited the Tulane Cheerleaders on stage. It was a hoot!

And then we were off to the annual "Let's Talk Football" gathering sponsored by the Ray Hester chapter at Boomtown Casino. They had some great auction items, including the COMPLETE set of glasses from the 1966-1967 season. Alas I was out bid. I previously bought 1 glass on Ebay for $15, and the set went for $200 in the auction. Anyways, it was a fun night.

Last weekend we hit Peggy and Koozies for our "dry run" at tailgating. Mr. Hullabaloo dragged me to Academy Sports to pick out The Perfect Cajun Cooker and The Perfect Cast Iron Pan, and while I was there I found this little display of Tulane items.

So I was able to put together a lovely trophy set for the winners of our Tailgating-a-palooza. Joe got a trophy for his stuffed artichokes, Pam for her awesomest mint brownies and Stephanie for "best dressed fan" for her beautiful vintage Tulane earrings. Which might be stolen. Or so I've heard.

T Minus One Day!!!!!

The Merriment Commences

Mr. and Mrs. Hullabaloo have had a busy summer and we. are. SO. excited (squeal !). that football season is upon us. September 4th is sixteen days and counting!!!!

Hoo-ray!

Mr. Koozie and Peggy have graciously offered to hostess at their lovely home an "Official" tailgating kick-off bash-a-palooza on August 30th. Should we be worried?

I mean, we've had all this pent up tailgating urges since MAY. That's like a complete lifetime ago in football years. We may have to apologize in advance to the Koozie-Peggy neighbors, alert local law enforcement, etc.

Mrs. Hullabaloo has busily been re-stocking the Tulane Tailgating Coffers. Embroidery Beth stiched me an awesome insulated cooler. I picked up some great napkins, plates, tablecloths, what have you.

I also finished up the beaded meanie greenie and football helmet. Is this not THE MOST?

All this tailgating creativity has just been BURSTING out of me, and we finally get to showcase it!

So at the Tailgating-A-Palooza, us Hullabaloo Huddlers shall be giving away sashes and blue ribbons to all of our fellow Tulane Tailgater Nation. Categories include: "Best Dressed Fan," Most Congenial Fan, Worthiest Dessert, Worthiest Side, Worthiest Dish, etcetera.

"Worthiest" as in "Homecoming-Worthy" which is the quintessential adjective crowned upon any tailgating fare submitted to be tested by our fair Tailgating Krewe.

If it is not deemed "Homecoming-worthy" it just is not worth serving. We have standards to uphold here.

So GAME ON y'all!

Take THAT Bobby Flay!

Mrs. Hullabaloo has officially perfected BBQ shrimps for tailgating. Who knew that adding booze did the trick? In New Orleans, when in doubt, add booze.

Scroll down to the end of this post for my updated BBQ recipe

http://hullabaloohuddle.blogspot.com/2009/04/drama-of-traveling-aprons.html

Thirty One Days

Mrs. Hullabaloo is counting days. ah one....ah two...

In thirty one days is Tulane Fan Day for alumni and fans, followed by "Let's Talk Football" the following day. Mark your calendars!

Saturday, August 22nd is Fan Day. The Fall Scrimmage starts at 3:30 to 5:30 and then afterwards fun and refreshments. Hoo-ray!

Sunday, August 23rd is "Let's Talk Football" an event sponsored by the Ray Hester club which is always informative and fun. It's always held at the Boomtown Casino in Harvey...ON THE WESTBANK!

5:00 - 8:00p.m. inside Boomer's. We get the sparkly stage and all the trimmings! Cover is $15.00 each at the door for open bar and finger food. Live Auction with proceeds to benefit Tulane Scholar-Athletes Summer School Program.

All of the football coaches attend and speak for a few minutes, the Tulane Marching Band comes in and plays a few rounds of our fight songs. And then Alden Hagadorn mc's the auction.

I can't wait!

Encore Games on CST

Last week I got a heads up and caught the Tulane-Army game from '04 on CST. So I scrounged the CST lineup for the next two months and these are the scraps we are getting in the next few weeks:

Tuesday, June 30. Noon to 3:30 pm CST Classic: Tulane Football (R) 10/23/04 Alabama-Birmingham @ Tulane

Sunday, July 13. 07:00 pm - 10:30 pm CST Encore: Tulane Football (R) 09/20/08 Louisiana-Monroe @ Tulane

Game On ~

great tatoo

Our friend Joe from Section 110. Isn't that tattoo the best? If I allowed doodling on myself that is the tattoo that I would get.

Peggy’s Patio

So the UAB series was our final hurrah of the baseball season at home. The Tulane Greenwave did not disappoint. We rallied back from a serious deficit to win the game 9-8.

It was a scorcher. Perfect for boiled crawfish and sangria in the lovely shaded area we have come to christen as “Peggy’s Patio.”

Can you believe I came home to find Mr. Hullabaloo carving this crested T into the watermelon we brought to the tailgating? I am impressed with Mr. Hullabaloo.

Priscilla made the BEST boiled crawfish ever to pass the lips of Mrs. Hullabaloo. She even included my absolute favorite mushrooms and introduced me to adding cauliflower into the boil. You know, just about anything goes well in a crawfish boil.

“Homecomingworthy” were these absolutely amazing chocolate mint brownies that Pam prepared.

They were just slap-your-momma-sinful. They were so delish we had to park Terry in front of the ice chest holding them and bounce any unapproved personnel who dared to attempt to help themselves. (Feel Free! You'd think this were a free country or something). I haven’t been able to solicit the recipe out of Pam, but I will die trying.

We had a new face re-joining the party in Section 110 towards the end of the season there and he brought us bacon-wrapped shrimp to grill. Delish. Also deigned “homecomingworthy.” Because last year I had Mr. Hullabaloo cleaning and skewering those suckers and I stressed myself out locating and making The Perfect Marinade.

"The Perfect" Coconut Shrimp Marinade
from Williams-Sonoma
Take 3 limes; slice up 1 lime into pretty lime slices; grate up the second lime for it’s zest; reserve the juice from the zested lime and your third lime. Take the following ingredients and give a quick whiz in a food processor: 1/2 cup dried flaked coconut; 1/2 cup milk; 1/4 cup golden rum ; 1 Tbs. honey. Combine chopped up stuff with the lime juice and grated zest. Marinate your shrimpies for 45 minutes. Then skewer with slices of red onion and your pretty sliced lime pieces.

On the grill, drizzle skewered up shrimp with mixture of olive oil and chopped fresh tarragon.

I can attest that Mr. Newcomer’s shrimp - while sans coconut and lime - were still garlicky butter deliciousness in that Drago's charbroiled kind of way. So that will be one less menu item to worry about. Since I have all these decorations and tablescaping to focus on.

On second thought, I don’t know..... I might just have to make a set just to see how stressed out I can make Mr. Hullabaloo while he’s also racing around the house packing up the car to my exact specifications and not behind one single second lest we miss one moment of tailgating.

Our very own "Just Joe," husband of "Just Gwynne," tossed out the first pitch for the game. Just Joe's company was a sponsor of the game and had a lovely tent with drinks and such behind the first plate bleachers. Just Joe nailed the first pitch. We were so proud! Geaux Joe!

Also happening at the UAB game: Tulane was honoring the football team from 1948 on the balcony behind homeplate. Somehow Mr. Hullabaloo and Mr. Newcomer ended up in the mix up there. The irresistable aroma of Hot Dogs can led men to abandon their wives.

The Friday night game against UAB got away from us even though the greenies valiantly rallied back from 8-3 to 8-7 and UAB took the win that night. Tulane stranded 15 players on base, we had 2 loaded base situations with no scoring. Quelle drag.

So Saturday when we got in a hole again 8-3, stranding players it was just dejavu all over again. I commenced butterflying about the stadium to and fro trying to find the right mojo setting. Peggy being caught on the pot in the ladies room during the ECU series was classic. We phoned Peggy while she was in the stall and forced her to stay put the entire inning. It was hilarious.

Unfortunately, there was no mojo spot to be found.

FF had imbibed himself into a serious situation during our crawfish session. See. Evidence of FF's pre-game imbibing.


So after spending a few moments melting in the sun, FF parked himself in a folding chair back outside in Peggy’s Patio to sleep it off. It was just too hot to roast out in the stands all dizzy and dehydrated. So the shade from Peggy’s Patio beckoned in the 7th inning and I joined FF. Put my headset on to listen to graf, rallied my baseball cap and settled in.

Next thing I know, the greenwave rally ensues. Peggy's Patio is the official Mojo Zone. Josh Prince scored on a double; Shaeffer hits a 2 run homer. Oh. My God. Tulane can actually come from behind. It is now 8-7 .

Mr. Hullabaloo, with Mr. Newcomer, decided to come join us at the Patio during the 8th inning rally. Everyone parked themselves on top of FF’s car.

Except for Mr. Koozie. Mr. Koozie decided that a plastic garbage tub was sturdy enough to stand on and peer over the fence to finish watching the game. No go. Mr. Koozie plum fell off that garbage tub.

Warning: crawfish alone is not enough to fill your tummy while enjoying adult beverages. Bad decisions will inevitably ensue.

It’s 8-8. Our little party in Peggy’s Patio rallied a GREEN! WAVE! cheer with the first base bleachers. And everyone went bezerk when Scott Powell hit a single to bring Josh Prince home (“Bring the Wave Home, Baby!”)

So then in the 9th inning we started having major heart palpitations that the game would go into extra innings in a tie situation. Nick Pepitone struck them out. Thank you very much!

And you know, we have NO idea just who the mystery person was that jumped the fence behind the flags in the outfield, courteously retrieved a fallen foam finger for the folks who watch the games on The Shed, loosened and lowered the UAB flag to half-staff and jumped back over the fence and disappeared into the New Orleans afternoon. We have not a clue. (Allegedly!)

All of us in Peggy’s Patio and the folks on The Shed about pee’d ourselves laughing about the flag. Even Todd Grafignini noticed and broadcast “I’m not sure if this is by design, but the UAB flag appears to be at half staff...”

Now I will say: the UAB baseball folks, ever demonstrating they were from Alabama, had absolutely IMPECCABLE manners. Thanks for coming blazers! ‘til we meet again!

ROLL WAVE!