Occasionally Made

Found this great website yesterday! They have super cute gear for tailgating!! They are based in Richmond and have a store finder on their website. They have gear for Hoos, Hokies, Tarheels and many more.

www.occasionallymade.com

I was the Most Martha

Every Monday morning on Martha Stewart radio on Sirius, they have a contest for how Martha you were over the weekend. I shared some of our tailgating recipes and photos and I got this email back from the program.

Hi Angela,

Love it! Thanks for sending this in! You were indeed very Martha. I think that deserves a prize! Please send us your address and we’ll send you a Martha Stewart Living Radio spatula. Keep listening to Morning Living!

-Morning Living


It's just a spatula but at least it's a prize.

Chili Cookoff

Everyone decided to fix chili for the Miami game. And amzingly enough UVA actually won the game!! Trick on Miami and a trat for us.

Here is our award winning Chili Recipe. I've never fixed chili with pork and with chunks of meats. It was Yummy!!

Chili Con Carne




Ingredients
• 2 1/2 pounds beef stew meat or beef chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 1/2 pounds pork stew meat or shoulder, cut into 1- inch cubes
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup corn oil
• 2 large Spanish onions, chopped
• 10 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup chili powder, plus 2 tablespoons
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• Serving suggestions: White rice, chopped cilantro, shredded Cheddar, chopped tomatoes, minced fresh or pickled jalapeno peppers
Directions
Pat the meat dry with a paper towel and season with the salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large stew pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the meat, in small batches, until well browned, adding more oil to the pan as needed. Transfer meat to a bowl and reserve.
Discard all but 2 tablespoons of oil from the pan. Saute the onions over medium heat for 10 minutes, scraping up the browned bits with a wooden spoon from the bottom of the pan. Add the garlic and saute for 2 minutes more. Stir in the 1/3 cup chili powder, cumin, and oregano and cook for 2 minutes. Add the canned diced tomatoes and whisk in 4 cups of the stock. Add the meat and any accumulated juices back to the pot. Bring to a gentle simmer. Season the chili with the salt and pepper, cover, and cook for 30 minutes.
In a food processor or blender puree half of the beans with the remaining 1 cup of stock. Add the bean mixture to the chili along with the whole beans. Let simmer, uncovered, 1 hour more or until the meat is tender. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons chili powder and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve with rice and suggested condiments.

I also added a can of corn drained to this recipe!

Blue Crab Bay Co. Shrimp Dip

Blue Crab Bay Co. is based on the eastern shore of Virginia. They have great spice mixes, snacks and bloody mary mixes. I'm not a fan of bloody marys but I've always been told they are fantastic. You can find their website here.

Here is their recipe using their Blue Crab Bay Shrimp Dix Mix. You can also get this as a kit which is alos very tasty.



Shrimp Dip
8oz. cream cheese
1 Tbsp. Blue Crab Bay Co. Shrimp Dip Blend
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Dash Worchestershire sauce
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 6 oz. tin Blue Crab Bay Co. Tiny Wild Cocktail Shrimp

Soften cream cheese and add mayo, lemon juice, Worchestershire Sauce, and Shrimp Dip Blend. Stri until creamy. Add shrimp and mix until well blended. Serve chilled with crackers, bread, whatever suits you.

Happy eating!

The Menu from the Richmond Game

Can I first say Thank goodness we won. How embarassing it would have been to get beat by the coach's old team. Any way we're off to a good start.

The Menu:
Shrimp Dip
Crab Stuffed Mushrooms
Peanuts (I always have to have peanuts)
Chicken BBQ
Pasta Salad with Feta
Key Lime Whoopie Pies

I'll share the different recipes this week as I get them typed up.

Happy tailgating!

Some New Additions to the Tailgating Gear

Here are a few tailgating additions to the tailgating gear.

Corn Hole. I don't understand the popularity, but the guys love it and it keeps them busy. We made these boards using the plans from Corn Hole Game Players. I created the stencils to customize the boards using my Silhouette cutter. I think they turned out pretty cute.

The ice bucket I bought at Martha's Market last year. Martha's Market is a fundraiser held every October in C'ville to benefit the Breast Cancer program at Martha Jefferson Hospital. It's great shopping and goes for a really important cause.

Then there are the chairs which I embroidered. They came from Lowes on clearance. So super economical.

Hope you can add some of these ideas to your tailgate!

Key Lime Cupcakes

I made this recipe for my daughter's first day of school. They are very yummy and just the right amount of Key Lime tartness. I got this recipe from The Cupcake Project.

The Key Lime Pie Cupcake Recipe

Makes 24 cupcakes.

1/2 C butter (room temperature)
1 C sugar
3 eggs
1 C milk
1 C flour
1 1/2 C graham cracker crumbs (I used my homemade graham crackers.)
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/8 t salt
5 egg yolks
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 C lime or key lime juice
Beat the butter for about 30 seconds until creamed.
Add the sugar and mix for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, being sure to beat for 30 seconds for each egg.
Use food processor or a potato masher or whatever you have on hand to grind the graham crackers into tiny crumbs and powder.
Sift the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda and powder, and salt. (I didn't actually sift the graham cracker crumbs. While mine were small, I don't think they would have fit through the sifter.)
Add about 1/4 of the mixture to the butter mixture.
Add some of the milk.
Continue to add the ingredients in a dry - wet - dry method, ending with the dry.
Mix until just combined.
In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice. (FYI - If you want to make an amazing key lime pie, just mix the ingredients in this step, dump it into a pie shell and bake at 375 for 15 minutes. It's the easiest recipe ever! The pie won't be green and it shouldn't be. Lime juice isn't green.)
Dump the key lime mixture into the graham batter and lightly stir. Do NOT fully integrate the key lime and graham batter. You should have clumps of batter in a key lime soup.
Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Make sure each liner has a nice distribution of key lime liquid and graham clumps.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until top bounces back when touched.

The Lime Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

1 8oz package of cream cheese (room temperature)
1/4 C butter (room temperature)
4 C powdered sugar (I recommend that you sift it.)
1 t lime extract

Mix the cream cheese and butter.
Add the powdered sugar and lime extract.

Almost time for the first game

It's just a few days until the kickoff if the 2010 UVA football season. I'm putting together my recipes for Saturday. I'lla lso share any new gadgets and gizmos we've found to make tailgating more of an enjoyable experience.

In the meantime, we went kayaking a few weeks ago and I made Key LIme Meltaways to take along. Folks are still talking about them.

Here's the link ot the recipe:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/key-lime-meltaways/