tailgate food

bloody mary bar - my favorite tailgate cocktail

one of my favorite parts of fall is football season. while i love the iowa hawkeyes, i love all the good food that comes with tailgating just as much.

last saturday we had some of friends over to watch the iowa/iowa state game and had a smorgasbord of good eats.

here is all food we chowed down on during the game:

bloody mary bar
mimosas
great harvest bread cinnamon rolls
fruit and strawberry dip
burgers and brats
lil' smokies
spinach dip
cheesy potatoes
potato & poblano gratin
pumpkin bars
s'mores bars

no, we didn't have a block party, there were just six of us.  but i am pretty sure i ate enough for my entire block, including eating my body weight in spin dip.

even though the game didn't turn out how i would have wanted, we sure had a fun day full of great friends, fabulous food and lots of laughs.

great harvest bread cinnamon roll - best in DSM

make it rain

and i'm not talking about throwing bills in the club.

we went to the iowa game on saturday and it rained and poured and then rained and poured and then the wind came through, now push repeat. on friday i watched jeriann on the morning news like i always do and she said rain before the game not during not after, so i left my poncho at home.  when we were getting ready at j-rod's parent's house that morning, his dad recommended we pack a couple garbage bags just in case.  thankfully we took him up on his offer. i had the opportunity to get a poncho one more time when we pulled into iowa city.  at the time it wasn't raining and the poncho was $1.19 and i was thinking $1.19, nah i am not going to need that.  if i only knew what was to come. the rest of the day i found myself thinking, really i couldn't spend a $1.19, ugh.

about fifteen minutes prior to kickoff, the rain came and didn't go away.  so the garbage bag came on and didn't come off.  at one point it was raining so hard i thought i was going to lose my contact.  i was trying to block the rain so i could adjust it and next thing you know a stranger put his hat on my head.  in most circumstances i would cringe but i decided i needed to just go with it.  who knew a baseball cap could provide so much relief?  very thankful for that stranger and his hat.
 
 thankfully the hawks won which made standing in the rain a little easier.

looks like a lady gaga outfit of sorts

working those garbage bags

j-rod ringing out his socks

rach and i smiling in the rain even with a stranger's hat on my head