FOOTBALL IN AUGUST!

2 cups chopped strawberries, hulled
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp  ground cinnamon
1 tsp  salt
1 tsp  baking powder
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup vegetable oil (yes, ONE CUP – but this recipe is for TWO loaves)
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.
In a small bowl, toss strawberries with sugar; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together eggs and oil.

Add pecans and strawberries.

Add strawberry mixture to dry ingredients.

Pour into prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 1 hour, or until tester inserted into center comes out clean.  Serve with strawberry butter.

Strawberry Butter

2 TBSP powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 strawberries, hulled and finely chopped

Mix the powdered sugar and butter together until smooth.

Fold in the strawberries.

Chill at least 30 minutes before serving.

(Adapted from Jennifercooks)

It gets no easier than this recipe for delicious cinnamon rolls!  It’s basically old-fashioned cinnamon toast that you can make in advance and transport to your tailgate. Genius! I’m doubling the recipe because something tells me that people won’t stop at just one!
2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls
1 stick butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 TBSP cinnamon
OPTIONAL – Glaze:
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 TBSP milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In small bowl, combine butter, sugar and cinnamon; beat until smooth.

Separate dough into triangles. Spread each triangle with around 1 TBSP cinnamon
butter mixture. Too much and it’ll all goop out (like my first batch did).

Roll up each, starting at the widest side, as you would normally do for crescent rolls.
Firmly press ends and seams to seal. Roll back and forth lightly on counter top to further seal.
Place each cinnamon filled crescent roll onto an ungreased baking sheet.  You need to space them 2″ apart – my first batch didn’t turn out that well because I had them too close together.  They will expand.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Not sure I’m using the glaze as the rolls are plenty sweet without it – you decide. If desired, top with the glaze: In small bowl, blend all glaze ingredients, adding enough milk for desired drizzling consistency. Drizzle over warm rolls. Yields: 16 rolls

TEX-MEX BREAKFAST TACOS

This recipe comes from one of my favorite bloggers.  And the fact that it has OJ in it makes it an acceptable beverage for drinking in the morning – right? 😉 I’ll probably double or triple the recipe for my crowd at this week’s tailgate…
1 cup water
2 tea bags
1 cup bourbon
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups orange juice
6 TBSP lemon juice
16 to 17 oz. (about 5 cups of small pieces of ice) ice cubes
Mint sprigs or lemon slices, for garnish, if desired

Boil 1 cup water for tea. Add the tea bags and let steep until cool.

Discard the tea bags and set aside. Pour tea into a pitcher. Add bourbon, sugar, orange juice and lemon juice and refrigerate until needed.

To serve: Stir punch base. To make two liters of punch, add base and full amount of ice cubes to your blender, blending until the ice is crushed and slushy. For each individual glass of punch, place 1/2 cup punch base and slightly heaped 1/2 cup small pieces of ice and blend until slushy. Add an extra whole ice cube or two to glasses if desired. Garnish glass with a sprig of mint and/or slice of lemon.