Tailgating 101

College football season is around the corner

and we need to prepare and practice new recipes.

We also need to try out our new portable grill.

The Foodie Daughter had bragged about 

how she had learned to cook great rib eyes 

from yours truly to our tailgate buddies.

Naturally they were intrigued.

And naturally, I had to come up with a recipe 

that would work with a tailgate.

I decide to go with grilled rib eye bites.

I cut the rib eye into about 1-inch pieces

and skewered them.

I then drizzled each piece with extra virgin olive oil*

and liberally sprinkled with kosher salt and 

freshly cracked black pepper.

*I only use extra virgin olive oil,

never the lesser quality olive oils.

I also never use the light olive oils that have

been cut with canola oil.

You really need to try different brands until

you find one you like.

Some have a stronger flavor than others.

I use Bertoli Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Our new tailgate grill in action.

The grilled rib eye bites are finished.

I also decided to try my hand at marinating

fresh mozzarella.

I added about 1 tablespoon chopped sun dried tomatoes,

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley,

1 tablespoon fresh chopped chives

and 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

to 1 pound fresh mozzarella, cut into 3/4 inch cubes.

Marinate for about 30 minutes or so.

The final dish for our trial run was sliders.

The ingredients were

ground beef

onion

garlic

kosher salt

black pepper

I grated about 1/4 cup onion and one garlic clove

over the pound of beef.

I then added about 1-1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.

Mix well.

I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper and 

placed the meat mixture on top.

Form the meat into a rough rectangle.

Cover with parchment and roll into an even thickness,

making sure to keep in a roughly rectangular shape.

Like so.

Carefully cook on the grill in one piece.

If you have a large spatula, or two, use it.

I have a pizza spatula, so I used that.

After the meat was thoroughly cooked,

we used a pizza cutter to cut the meat into 8 pieces.

The finished plate.

We served the sliders with minced onion,

relish and barbecue sauce.

We decided that all of these recipes were keepers.

Now I will have to create some sauces for the 

grilled rib eye bites.

This experiment was a success.