Football season is in full swing, so you know what that means! Food, friends, and tailgating! To me there is no better way to spend your Saturday or Sunday than setting up a festive spread in the back of your truck with the best football comfort foods, drinks, and friends!
And with the right set-up and decor, your tailgate can be just as glamorous as it would be at home! To prove it, my friend Amanda with Glitter and Spice and I threw a spirited TCU vs SMU tailgating party for some of our favorite fans! Catch all the details below, including my favorite tailgating products. And don’t forget to check out our tailgating 101 tips and tricks!
Last year we shared all of our favorite tips and tricks for hosting the perfect game watching party from the comfort of your home – but what if you want to take your party on the road with you and enjoy a game day tailgate?!
Tailgates are always my favorite way to get in the spirit and enjoy a fun-filled day of football! But if you’re the host, they also come with a long list of to do’s and quite a bit more preparation. To help ease the stress a bit, we’ve put together the x’s and o’s of how to throw the perfect tailgate!
Arrival Time: Your arrival time will depend on how die hard your group is, but I have found that most fans start arriving around 3 hours before the game starts. Therefore, you should plan on getting to your tailgate spot around 4-5 hours before kick-off. That way, you will have plenty of time to set-up and cook before your friends start showing up.
Supplies: Always keep a toolbox in the back of your car with tailgating essentials such as jumper cables, spatulas, bottle openers, tongs, extra silverware, flashlights, can openers, trash bags, paper towels, hand sanitizer, duct tape, etc. If you’re really serious, consider bringing a generator for your car and a grill! And don’t forget plenty of coolers to chill your food and beer.
Food Prep: Prepare all ingredients the night before. This will make your day of prep and cooking much easier! For example, if you’re serving burgers, shape and pack the burger patties between sheets of wax paper and slice up the condiments and toppings in advance!
Now for the fun part! Decor and food!
Setup: For the perfect display, convert the back of your car or truck bed into a DIY serving station for your guests! This will make your tailgate more interactive and will minimize the work for you. I love the idea of a hot dog or burger bar, so fellow fans can dress their dish however they prefer.
Decor: Class up your tailgate with a few special touches! Consider adding a touchdown paper table runner as an easy way to spoof up your tables. Then add banners, flags, decorative napkins and straws, serving trays, and koozies in your team’s colors to create a game winning display! Check out our favorite festive details from our recent tailgate here!
Food: When it comes to tailgating food, easy is the name of the game! I keep my menu to anything that can be made on a grill out of our trunk (burgers, hotdogs, and BBQ sliders) or anything that does not need to be heated or refrigerated for a long time (think chips, sliced veggies, dips, fruit kabobs, nachos, jalapeno poppers, puppy chow, seasoned popcorn, cupcakes,chocolate covered pretzels, etc.).
Drinks: Beer is an absolute staple at tailgates, but consider serving a signature cocktail in your school’s color as well! For a cute and easy decorative tip, I love adding washi tape to mason jars in the shape of football strings for each guest’s beverage.
Seating: Don’t forget to pull out some foldable chairs so your guests have somewhere to relax and enjoy the company and game!
9. Most importantly! Introduce yourself to your neighbors, share a few drinks, and enjoy!
It is finally football season y’all! One of the best times of the year (besides Christmas, of course)! That means weekends filled with tailgates and game watching parties, cheering on your favorite teams and enjoying yummy football snacks!
During a TCU home game weekend, you will find us camping out on Saturday’s near Amon G. Carter Stadium jumping between tailgates and reminiscing with friends. However, away game weekends are a little bit harder to centrally gather all of our friends. Of course, there are always TCU game watching parties at the local bars, but sometimes it is nice to enjoy the game from the comfort of your home with some good friends!
I recently hosted a TCU game watching party at my apartment with about 20 of our friends. Kick off was at 3:45pm, so I had all morning to prepare my favorite game watching appetizers for our guests. Football snacks are the epitome of comfort food, so it is usually pretty easy to find some delicious warm dips, sliders, and nachos that the crowd will love. After a little bit of thought into each of my guest’s taste preferences, I came up with this delicious menu that was an absolute hit!
When hosting a game watching party, I recommend providing 4 to 5 appetizers (I usually divide the size of the party by 3 to determine how many appetizers…so 15 people attending divided by 3 equals 5 appetizers) and asking everyone to bring their favorite snack and beer as well. That way, you know for sure that you have the food handled in case someone forgets, and everyone else’s snacks are bonus! This menu was pretty simple and can be done the day of the party. However, since everything the day of a party takes about 25% longer than expected, I like to prepare as much as I can the night before. This menu is the perfect balance of night before and day of preparation.
I started off the night before making the Chocolate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cupcakes. These can easily be refrigerated in an airtight container overnight, so you don’t have to worry for one minute about them the day of your party! The Spinach Artichoke Dip is also an easy appetizer to make the night before and refrigerate. Then all you have to do is pop it in the oven for about an hour before the party and serve!
As far as the day of goes, I woke up a little early to make the BBQ Pulled Chicken Sliders. These are an absolute breeze because they only take about 5 minutes of preparation and then the crock-pot will take over for the next 6-8 hours. Then all you have to do is assemble and enjoy! The majority of the day of preparation is for the Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers, the Buffalo Chicken Wonton Cups , the Buffalo Chicken Nachos, and the Cinnamon Brown Sugar Popcorn. Each of these appetizers take about 45 minutes of preparation and cooking, so I would recommend starting each of these snacks about 2 hours prior to kick-off.
This menu is absolutely delicious and there is sure to be something that will please everyone!
