The biggest ever college football game deserves some super special flavors to go along with it. Whether you like to tailgate or host the big game in your den, these easy and delicious dishes will be great all season long. I’ve featured dishes for fans of both the Vols and the Hokies, but these flavors will win your party crowd over, regardless of who they’re rooting for.
For the Vols…
The main course features the Ole Smokey Brat Dog. I used a smoked brat, slathered with Jack Daniel’s Honey Smokehouse barbecue sauce, and topped with caramelized onions. Tennessee Cole Slaw is the perfect side dish, using Marzetti’s Slaw Dressing, cabbage and carrots to carry on the white and orange theme. You can even top your dog with the slaw if you like. For dessert, it can’t get easier than rice crispy marshmallow treats, but put in the Vols’ checkerboard design. For the orange ones, add orange food color once the marshmallows have melted, but before adding the cereal.
For the Hokies…
A Cheddar Ham Biscuit with Honey Mustard sauce is a great kickoff to any football party. Just add shredded sharp cheddar cheese to your favorite biscuit recipe. ( I added one cup of cheese to a recipe that makes 12 biscuits.) I used a quality ham, cut nice and thick at the Food City deli counter. For the sauce, I found a recipe online that mimics a famous condiment from a well-known chicken chain, found here: http://houseofyumm.com/copycat-chick-fil-a-sauce/. So good! For the side dish, the Hokie colors shine through with sweet potato fries (found in the frozen section) and a spicy ketchup, where you simply add a few spoonfuls of your favorite BBQ sauce to your ketchup and stir. For dessert, we have the Hokie Bird cupcakes, easily decorated with chocolate frosting, candy corn, candy eyes, chocolate sprinkles, and a red frosting “snood”. I added a little special filling to these cupcakes, by making a mixture using 8 ounces of cream cheese, 1/3 cup of sugar, and about 1/2 cup of Butterfinger Pieces, but you can use chocolate and/or butterscotch chips instead. Using your favorite chocolate cupcake batter, put a little batter in each cupcake liner, put a small spoonful of the cream cheese mixture, then top with more batter. Bake as normal. Tasty!
