What a wild weekend of football behind us. Bama came out angry after the loss from Texas A&M and handled business with State. If you switched over to the Vols and Ole Miss game after ours wrapped up, well you may have been confused if it was golf or football you were watching – yes I know it was a small sample of fans, yet they spoke loudly. That brings me back to the task at hand here, the Third Saturday in October. I spun through the past seasons tailgates to see what we were up to on this Saturday in years past. A few post reminded me of the history of the TN/Bama clashes and the fan behavior I saw Sat night reminded me of how intense this rivalry was in recent years past – a good overview can be seen here (they low down…..).
I keep getting sidetracked, so back to the tailgate. We do hope to see and welcome some Tennessee fans to the tailgate on Saturday. For most games we have and welcome fans from the other team and they’ve always been great to have around. In addition to a traditional rivalry game, this week is also Homecoming. We have fall weather in the air and it looks to be a nice and cool day for the game. I’ve traditionally done some take on Oktoberfest for this game and this year will be no different. Since it was canceled in Germany, you may as well come enjoy ours.
With folks coming in for the parade (starting at 1pm) I am going to do some form of brunch and since we’re welcoming in Tennessee we may as well do some early dishes using Tennessee Pride Sausage. From there we will move into some more traditional Oktoberfest dishes. As always we will have some Cahaba Brewing ice cold beer on hand and what better to pair with the food than Cahaba’s Oktoberfest – a seasonal treat. In addition to products that are the tailgate, I’ll be using some more great items from Fiddlesticks – look for some reviews post tailgate of the items we use this week. Of course, it wouldn’t feel like fall football without some Jack Daniels in the air – so I’ll be making a cocktail aptly named Knoxville Smash for brunch.
I will plan on having brunch items off around 11AM for the early folks and then getting a late lunch off around 3:30PM to give folks time to spend on campus before the game.
Here’s my thoughts on the menu:
Brunch
- Knoxville Smash Cocktails (Jack Daniels)
- Crimson Sunrise Mimosas
- Tennessee Pride Sausage Balls
- Tennessee Pride Breakfast nachos
Lunch
- Pretzel Bites with spicy mustard
- Wings with Jack Daniels BBQ sauce
- German Cabbage and Potato Salad
- German Sausage Pot with Cahaba Oktoberfest
As always, let me know if you are making the early brunch so that I can have enough food. I have a feeling this will be our largest tailgate so far.
See you Sat! Roll Tide!
Shane