Ultimate Tailgating Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:
3 lb. elbow macaroni, cooked al dente
2 pound loaf Velveeta
Meat from 1 cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
4 c. chopped onion
8 oz. blue cheese
4 oz. (1 stick) butter
2 c. milk
1/2 c. cayenne pepper hot sauce, like Frank’s
1 lb. sharp cheddar, shredded
2 c. celery, sliced thin
1 c. plain yogurt

Directions:
1. Cook macaroni al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking. Skin chicken and strip meat, tearing it into bite-sized chunks.

2. In large pot, melt butter. When foaming stops, add onions. Cook over high heat, stirring frequently, until translucent and browning, 10 to 15 minutes. Do not allow to burn.

3. Add hot sauce, stirring until sauce evaporates into onions, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium.

4. Add milk, yogurt and Velveeta torn in chunks. Stir steadily as Velveeta melts into liquid. (Do not allow to boil, or it will burn on the bottom of the pot.)

5. Set oven to 500°.* Spread cooked macaroni in standard half-sheet sized foil catering pan. Scatter celery and chicken over the macaroni, and crush blue cheese to spread across the mixture. Add cheese sauce and stir to combine everything evenly. Smooth out the mixture.

6. Top with shredded cheddar and place pan in preheated oven. Bake until brown and bubbly, 20 to 30 minutes. Can be covered with heavy foil and kept warm in a cooler, stuffed with crumpled newspaper as insulation, for up to four hours.

* This sounds like a very hot oven! You may want to bake it at 450 or lower.

My first thought was that this was ridiculous. Then I came around and realized it was pretty cool. Then after looking at the picture a little longer I finally noticed that the front of the car is missing. So this really is the biggest, most elaborate, impossible to move, novelty grill ever created.

If by “extremely” you mean “not particularly”, then yes. Yes you are.

The Men Behind Your Favorite Liquor:

“One morning in 1911 [Jack] Daniel showed up for work early and couldn’t get his safe open. He flew off the handle and kicked the offending strongbox. The kick was so ferocious that Daniel injured his toe, which then became infected. The infection soon became the blood poisoning that killed the whiskey mogul.”

How 10 Famous People/Characters ordered their Martinis:

“Ernest Hemingway favored the Montgomery - 15 parts gin to 1 part vermouth. 15:1 is said to be the ratio Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery preferred when going into battle.”

View more pictures of the Stacheout tailgate

I was all prepared to park a few blocks from campus and roam from bar to bar, tailgate to tailgate, and carry some scotch along with me. However at the last second we came down with access to a private parking deck overlooking the stadium. It’s odd that basically no one else was up there but us. It took away from the excitement a bit, but the view was excellent.

Upon entering the stadium we figured out that you we could see our car from our seats. Which brought up the question: If we saw someone breaking in to our cars, would we leave the game to stop it? The consensus was no.

And one side note. From our seats there were magnolia trees block our view of the down and distance of the scoreboard. Which is an oversight on someone’s part.