The Smoking Musket Tailgate Menu: Texas Tech in Tortillaland

If you aren’t familiar with the tradition, Texas Tech students inexplicably bring flour tortillas into their stadium for games and throw them at kickoff. Now, this tradition is banned, but the sentiment still remains. Kind of like our hatred for Pitt, but much more edible.

Because of this, I try to use flour tortillas in tailgate menus for the Texas Tech game and be more inventive than just a taco (although I’m never not for taco tailgates). Because of the noon start, I tried to find inventive breakfast recipes with tortillas, so here we are, the week five Smoking Musket Tailgate Menu:

Loaded Breakfast Tortilla Pizza

Now, this was met with some protest when I pitched this to my Texas Tech friends. But upon further review, it was decided this is actually a decent idea for a breakfast tailgate. Pros to this dish: you can cook multiple “pizzas” at once, you can cut them into individual slices, sunny-side up eggs, cheese. Cons: it’s not really a pizza or a taco.

Now, I fully support using two shells as the “crust,” but put some cheese in between the two so you give your guests some extra love. So start with that, then build your pizza with the toppings you want. I would suggest getting a more saucy salsa than a chunky pico de gallo. Also, to make this a better for a party, crack two eggs on the tortilla.

Cook these on a baking sheet or directly on the grill for about 10 minutes. While the pizzas are cooking, assemble a skewer of cherry tomatoes and red onion slices. After 10 minutes, open the grill and throw the skewers on for about two minutes. Remove everything and assemble the rest of the pizza!

I suggest cutting these like a pizza so your guests have a hand-held breakfast.

Grapefruit Avocado Salsa

That’s right, salsa without tomatoes. Grapefruit is the state fruit of Texas and is a much-eaten breakfast food for dieters. Grapefruits are a more sour citrus fruit, but are much bigger than oranges, meaning they provide more edible pulp. Playing on the Tex-Mex theme, this salsa makes a sharable dip that fits a breakfast menu.

This is definitely a make-the-night-before meal, so all the juices have time to marry. Peel and section the grapefruit and then dice the avocado, red onion and jalapeño. Put the grapefruit sections in a bowl, then top with the other diced vegetables. Mix together to break up the grapefruit pulp. Next, add the lime juice, chopped cilantro, salt, pepper and cumin. Mix again.

Serve this with blue tortilla chips because they look better.

Cheesecake Taquitos

Even breakfast deserves a dessert. Here, we return to Tortillaland for a sweet treat that can be eaten on the walk into the stadium or during the game, if you’re watching from home.

Taquitos are tightly rolled filled tortillas fried or baked. These are filled with luscious cream cheese and dusted with cinnamon-sugar topping. Now, you can make these at the tailgate, or make them the night before and heat them up on the grill. I propose the latter since these kinds of need some room for prep.

You can serve these with chocolate or strawberry syrup, sliced fresh strawberries or any sweet topping you want.

Now, Texas Tech fans will tell you they know how to party, and they’re probably right. It’s our duty to remind this conference each Saturday who really knows how to throw down. Remember, Mountaineers don’t lose tailgates!