Tailgate Recipe Contest...times running out!

This is just a peek at some of the stuff the winner could win!

Hey Guys, Friday is coming fast and we only have a few entries. Thank you to those courageous few tailgate lovers who already sent in recipes. I just wanted to encourage anyone and everyone else out there to send a recipe my way (jonathan@uglygourmet.com). Recipes are due by Friday and the odds are good. Anthony, asks me every night when he gets to pick the winner. He can't wait. Anyway, good luck and have fun.

First Ever Eat Ugly Tailgate Recipe Contest

The Judging Team!

Here’s the deal.

• The contest officially began yesterday (1-22-07) and will run until Friday, February 2^nd 2007.

• We will accept entries as late as possible that evening and post the winning recipe at or before midnight on February 3^rd 2007.

• Recipes can be emailed to me at jonathan@uglygourmet.com or left as a comment on this or any post referring to the contest.
  

• All entries must include contact information. You know, tell me where to send your prize! We also would love to know a little about you and your recipe, so feel free to tell us about yourself or include a story. This is not required, but it is always fun to know where a recipe came from.

• The sole contest judge will be Anthony. He will pick the winner based on a secret criterion only known to him and Bruce.

• All of the recipes submitted will be entered into a tailgate recipe index for all to enjoy. I will post every entry as quickly as I can.

Ok, here’s the important part. THE PRIZE! There will be one grand prize winner (selected by Anthony our sole judge). That person will receive an Ugly Pug t-shirt and a collection of specially selected BBQ sauces, hot sauces, salsas and anything else I can fit in the box from UglyGourmet.com. Have fun and get cooking!

Football Food Tailgate Recipe Contest!

Ok, yesterday I was going to gloat about New England Patriot’s football. I was going to send out dozens of “I Told You So” emails. I was going to dream about winning the season ticket holder’s lottery for Super Bowl tickets. I was going to dig out my “Bury the Bears” t-shirt. I was going to put off my diet for another two weeks. I was going to do a lot of things and none of them involved eating crow.

Anyway, I really can say noting to defend my beloved Patriots. Some die hard New England fans are crying conspiracy. Convinced that the NFL did not want the Pats in another championship and instructed the officials to make sure they lost. I am not quite ready to go that far. For one thing if is true...I really don’t know what to say if it is true. That’s just silly. I’ll stick to complaining about bad calls and poor receivers. Regardless of any blame they lost. And all I can do now is hope the pretty boy pony chokes on bear meat.

Even though my Patriots finished their season early, Super Bowl Sunday is still one of the greatest days of the year. I am, however, still waiting for congress to declare Super Bowl Monday a national day of rest and give tired fans a day off from work. No matter what teams are lucky enough to travel to Miami this year, Super Bowl Sunday is a fantastic excuse cook up some tasty BBQ and tailgate treats. I have a pretty good menu planned for game day, but I need some new recipes to try. I figure we still have a couple of weeks left before the game and maybe someone out there (my two of devoted readers-- thanks mom & dad) might have some new tailgate recipes for me to try.

So here is my call for football food recipes. If anyone wants to enter a family favorite into my little contest just email (jonathan@uglygourmet.com) to me or contact me here by Friday February 2^nd and I will post your recipes by Saturday night. If it’s a short easy one feel free to leave it as a comment. Images are welcome; just make sure they are a reasonable size. The idea is to make a fun collection of tailgate recipes for all to enjoy. I’ll even make it interesting and offer a prize from UglyGourmet.com to the person with the best or most creative tailgate recipe. I’ll let you know what the prize will be in the next few days. As for picking the winner, well I think I will leave that up to Anthony. He will act the sole judge for this contest.

Prizes are shipped via UPS ground and only to addresses in the continental United States. UPS will not deliver to a post office box, so physical addresses only please.

P.S. Comments about any of the NFL playoff games are encouraged and welcome.

Thank God For Pizza

My favorite part of football season is the food. Don’t get me wrong I love the game, especially the playoffs. If fact, if it wasn’t for my season tickets to the Patriots I would have never found real BBQ or hot sauce. I prepare for the tailgate with the same intensity that fuels Belichick’s coaching. Anyway, my parking lot tailgate opportunities ended last week when the Patriots trounced the Jets. Sorry to my New York contingent, but now at least we can all root for the better team.

In my zeal to continue in true tailgate tradition I thought I would try a new chili recipe. I shot to the market at around 8 AM to purchase today’s ingredients and a few pancake making essential for Anthony’s breakfast. On my return I immediately whipped up a quick batch of Sunday morning Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes. While Anthony and “Moringzilla” ate I began to chop, seed and sauté. There are few things better than the smell of frying pancetta on a rainy football Sunday morning. All was well; I even had every ingredient for the chile, a rare occasion in my kitchen and usually a bad omen.

Everything was going swimmingly (I have been dying to use that word) the meat was browned and all I had to do was add the wet ingredients and the first round of spices. Well, after seeding chilies in adobo sauce for what seemed liked an eternity all was prepped. I poured a beer over the perfectly browned beef, added a healthy shot of Jack Daniels and reduced the liquid by more than half. The aroma of whiskey steeped beef was absolutely intoxicating. I poured in a can of kitchen ready tomatoes, dumped in the chilies and adobo and began to add my spices. This is where it all went awry and became one of those times when I needed to take my own advice.

I always tell people when they cook to relax and remember that it’s only food. I have written many times reminding people that a pizza is only a phone call away. I live by the ideal “it’s only food”. Well today I was bested by a chili recipe. Overcome by a one pot meal and almost brought to tears by a commercial size container of Cumin. As I was adding the cumin, directly from the spoon side of the shaker top, the cap feel off. The entire brand spanking new bottle, 14 ounces, emptied into my magic chili pot.

This is one of those errors that chili doesn’t recover from and brings the pizza guy to the front door. I couldn’t think of anyway to fix it; the pot is not nearly big enough to add any amount of ingredients to balance off the flavor. There will be no homemade chili for game time today. Thank God for pizza and Chinese food. Enjoy the playoffs.

Blair's 2006 Holiday Reserve

I thought this day would never come. I saw them start to creep out on eBay a last week, but hadn't heard about my order yet. And then last night I received the much anticipated shipping conformation email from Extremefoods.com. My bottles were on their way. Those of you in know understand just how cool this really is. Those of you who have no idea what I am talking about probably think I am crazy, but I had to tell someone. Anyway, here is the long and the short of it.

The pre-sale was announced one month ago and they sold out in only a few hours. Blair’s 2006 Holiday Reserve is 7oz of pure heat in a red bottle and is the last reserve until 2009-10 holiday season. The red bottle is topped with a 24k gold skull and red, green and white wax. Only 299 bottles were made available world wide and originally sold for $100. Each bottle is hand made, signed and numbered by Blair himself. Really cool, really valuable and really hard to get...

I have to admit this is my first venture into to the world of hot sauce collectables and I think I am hooked. I haven’t entirely decided, but I just might put one up on eBay. We’ll see.