The Smoking Musket Tailgate Menu: Black Friday in Morgantown

Yesterday was a day for feasting and for many folks, that means a day of cooking. Instead of spending all day cooking over a grill, how about we enjoy the time with friends and families at the final home tailgate of 2018?

Let’s take advantage of all that wonderful food you cooked yesterday and use it today!

Thanksgiving Sliders

If you’re from Delaware, you’ve probably heard of the Bobbie sandwich. This takes roasted turkey, stuffing/dressing and cranberry sauce and puts them on a roll. For our tailgate on Black Friday, we’re basically going to do the same thing, but put all our leftovers onto slider buns.

Use a package of dinner rolls and place the bottoms in a baking sheet. Assemble the sliders with the turkey on the bottom, then the stuffing, a casserole of your choosing (optional) and the cranberry sauce. Spread mayonnaise or mustard on the underside of the tops and place on top of the sliders. Place them on a medium-low heat grill for about five minutes, or until warm. Be careful to not let these burn on the bottom.

Now, if you don’t want to waste that leftover turkey on a tailgate, you can make these with turkey burgers. The fixins will all be the same, but you’ll need to grill these about four minutes per side. Also, make sure your grill is super lubricated before cooking ground turkey on it. You’ll want to heat up the fixins so you can assemble the sliders with the ingredients hot.

Cheese Ball Dip

I assume y’all are like my family and make a cheese ball for every family gathering. The problem always follows that there’s a chunk of leftover ball. I propose taking this cheeseball and repurpose it for tailgating.

No matter the cheese ball recipe you originally used, here’s a quick way to repurpose it as a dip:

• Let the cheese ball sit for about an hour so it’s soft.
• Take 2 tablespoons of sour cream and 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise. Mix together with any extra ingredients you may have (we use dried beef and Worcestershire sauce), and a pinch of salt and garlic powder.
• Create a well in the mayo/sour cream mix and place the cheese ball in it. Then, with a spoon, break apart the cheese ball and fold into the cream mix.

Serve with whatever crackers you normally would use for a cheeseball!

This is the last home tailgate of the season and a night game to boot! I expect nothing but the best tailgate game from all By-Godders everywhere. Remember, Mountaineers don’t lose tailgates!