Titular Joys: Combining Potluck Sports with Potlucks and Sports

Posted by Iroquois Plisken

In a rare moment of ironic self-awareness, I hosted a pot luck tailgate at my house during Saturday's Florida/LSU showdown and it never occurred to me that this sort of thing is, in part, the twin aims of the blog, though not necessarily in conjunction. A potluck tailgate is a bit of an odd creature: potlucks in general require, well, luck, but tailgates have a specific set of foods that are normally acceptable. Combining the staunch rigidity of commonly-accepted tailgate items along with the dynamic and unpredictable nature of a potluck surely would go off as well as an old guy and a midget (or, if you prefer, the present state of American partisan politics).

Having said that, the result was nothing short of enjoyable, exogenous of the outcome of the game (in full disclosure: Florida won, which has no bearing on how fun the gathering actually was). Here, as best as I can recall, was the result of the potluck.

Chips and Salsa - standard tailgate appetizer selection. I believe there were three dips (one mild salsa, one medium roasted pepper/bean salsa, and one queso), all of which were summarily dispatched before the game began.

Chicken Wings - in a little bit of schadenfreude, mere coincidence, or just plain tastiness, Crystal Louisiana Hot Sauce was the only marinade or seasoning used for these delicious morsels. There were quite a few made and quite a few left over. The rest of the tailgate's menu should indicate why. Note that it wasn't lack of flavor or bad taste that left so many wings preserved; it was the sheer volume of food brought above and beyond what was expected. And alcohol. That takes up room, too.

Show me Potato Salad! - Your standard red potato salad with all your standard ingredients plus bacon. Who doesn't like bacon? Even devout Jews eat bacon. Bacon makes everything better. Dogs like bacon (so they think!). You can't go wrong with bacon.

State Fair Corn Dogs - Here was the true schadenfreude. As previously mentioned, though LSU fans do NOT, in fact, eat corn dogs at their tailgates, they do still smell as such. So, we served these delicate little morsels. Their inherent deliciousness was only exceeded by the thought that every time I ate one, I ate away part of their SEC West hopes.

Coconut Chicken with Pina Colada sauce - This was the (somewhat) surprising entrant. None of us really counted on a meal of such intricacy to be present, but who are we to complain at the generosity of our business invitees? In the interest of being honest, I loathe coconut. I did find, however, this meal to be enjoyable in spite of my predetermined feelings towards coconut. The PC sauce, though, was gone before I could sample it.

Brownies - Brownies are great. To preempt, no, they were not special, nor made of Girl Scouts. Sickos.

For the libations, there was cheap American macrobrews. There was also a wonderful rendition of homemade tea ("sweet tea", for you Northern heathens) and bourbon.

All in all, a very enjoyable experience. I myself would have liked a shade more notice so I could attempt to prepare something requiring a bit more skill (like the beef brisket that went over VERY well at the UF/UT game, or perhaps my dry-rub rib recipe), but the food, company, and result of the game were most enjoyable.