TAILGATING FAVORS!

Every season I tried to come up with something edible that was fun for people to take away. It had to be sweet, and it had to represent the team colors. Here are 9 ideas I came up with:

1. MUDDY BUDDIES (or Puppy Chow)

These are great wrapped in cellophane or saran wrap and tied with ribbons in your team’s colors. Everybody loves this snack, so make a double batch!

9 cups Chex cereal
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Photo Credit: Cate Bogue

Pour cereal into large bowl; set aside. In 1-quart, microwave-safe bowl combine chocolate chips, peanut butter and margarine. Microwave at 100-percent power for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until smooth, stirring after 1 minute. Stir in vanilla. Pour chocolate sauce slowly over cereal, stirring to coat evenly. Pour cereal into large plastic bag. Add powdered sugar and secure; shake to coat well. Spread on waxed paper to cool.

2. Personalized M&Ms

I ordered large bags (blue and white) of these and personalized them with “GO CATS” and “GO UK!” for our Kentucky football team. I put them in small bags and tied them with blue and white ribbon. Go to: http://www.mymms.com/

3. Nam’s Cookies

These delectable little chocolate chip bites were a huge hit! I ordered them in small bags and they personalized the bags with whatever I wanted to say. Order from: http://www.namsbits.com/

4. A SPIN ON CHEX MIX

These are fun treats that you can serve in the fall, OR you can make it with your favorite team’s colors.

In a large bowl combine the following:

cheese crackers,
salted peanuts,
and pretzel squares.
Then the sweet stuff was added:
Reese’s candy bits,
caramel corn,
honey nut cheerios,
cocoa puffs,
candy corn,
and mellowcreme pumpkins

But feel free to improvise with whatever sweet and/or salty floats your boat!!!

5. PERSONALIZED COOKIES

These are another fun way to celebrate the season and leave your party or tailgating guest with a little treat. There are numerous websites that offer these, but you can choose whatever theme you want and personalize them with your team’s colors and/or message. Here’s one:

Just wrap in cellophane and tie with ribbons in your team’s colors and voila! These came from www.weddingish.com.

Here are more – these are from whimsycookieco.blogspot.com:

How adorable are those???

Another fun idea is to make flavored popcorn, and put that in little cello bags (or tied up in saran wrap) with ribbon. Here’s one of my favorite:

6. Almond Toffee Popcorn

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white corn syrup
1/4 cup Water
1 cup toasted almonds, chopped
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup popcorn, popped

In heavy saucepan, combine sugar, butter, corn syrup, water and almonds. Cook over moderate heat to 280 degrees on a candy thermometer. Add the vanilla extract. Stir well and pour over the popped corn.

Go to: http://www.recipe-greeting-cards.com/popcorn-recipes.htm for more popcorn recipes and ideas.

7. Fill jars with your favorite hard candy or bubblegum. I love the look of these! Just choose the team colors and you’re good to go! Everyone will love you!

8. To take a break from sugar, wrap individual bags of nuts (peanuts, pistachios or whatever you like), and tie in a team colored ribbon. Adorable.

TOOTSIE ROLL POPS

(or Blow Pops) Take tootsie roll pops and tag them with “ROll OVER (whatever opponent your team is playing),” or “BLOW AWAY (again fill in with your opponent’s name).”