Tailgate time

This has always been my favorite time of the year. The days grow shorter, the air cools, the mornings are crisp and foggy. The sweaters smell like cedar from their long summer in storage.  It reminds me of college. Of walking the quad, with the changing leaves crackling beneath your feet. The most pressing things on your mind are a chem exam and that cute girl at the party last night who talked about art and music and philosphy with you until 2 am. And, of course, FOOTBALL!

My love of football started at the age of 4, when the Kansas City Chiefs moved to my home town from their orgins in Dallas. I still have vivid memories of the first Super Bowl, played when I was 6 years old. The fourth one when former USC Heisman wnner (and current USC AD) Mike Garrett scored a TD on the immortal "65 toss-power-trap". When Lenny Dawson threw a little hitch on the sideline to Otis Taylor (it's a crime he's not in Canton), which he broke and took to the house. The heartbreak of Christmas Day, at age 12, when I sat in front of my Grandma's blond-wood, Danish-modern Grundig stereo, to listen to Bill Grigsby and Dick Carlson call the longest game in the history of the NFL.

Football may not have invented tailgating, but it is a marriage made in heaven. In Kansas City, it is a religion. Even when the Chiefs are down, as they are now, Arrowhead is still the best smelling stadium in the NFL. But that is not to say they don't do an amazing job, elsewhere, too. Really, any blue-collar town, like Pittsburgh, Green Bay or Indianapolis is going to have good tailgate grub. And the South is famous for college tailgating -- the big dog daddy being in Jacksonville, Florida, with outstanding parties at places like South Carolina and LSU. We can't leave out the Big 10, either. Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State are all known for their parties in the parking lot. In fact PSU tailgating was so notorious, the school had to draft new rules to calm them down.

I have hundreds of tailgate recipes, but this one is the one most often requested for me to bring. My bloody mary that has been nicknamed "DAD's BM". There's a story. I was invited to one of those hauty corporate, multi-RV and tent tailgate parties at Arrowhead. My price of admission was a jug of my famous bloody marys. I labeled the bottom of my Coleman jug, so I wouldn't loose it. I put my initials "D.A.D." and for bloody mary, "B.M." The jug was nearly empty when someone wanted to know who made it, they turned over the jug to find "DAD BM". And the unfortunate name stuck.


Here's how you replicate "DAD's BM":

1 - 46oz jar of tomato juice
1 - 750 ml bottle of good vodka (pepper or citrus vodka are an interesting change up)
1/2 cup - Worchestershire sauce
2 Tbsp - grated horseradish (not sauce - just plain horseradish)
1 Tbsp - celery seeds
1 Tbsp - Tabasco sauce (I sometimes use a mix of regular and chipotle Tabasco)
1 tsp - fine salt
1 tsp - fine black pepper
The juice of one whole lemon

Mix all ingredients well, pour over ice and garnish with celery or green onion and a jalapeno-stuffed olive.

I'd love to see your favorite tailgate recipes! Post them to "comments".  GO TEAM!