Weekend Recap!

Gameday weekend and Halloween! Friday after working at school MC, George, Matt, Kevin and I set up the tailgate then went to supper at The Grill in Starkville (Liza had to work). They have the best cheese sticks! Then Matt, George and I went to my house and carved pumpkins!

Matt and George discussing the different hues of oranges of our pumpkins.

Cleaning out the guts

Poor pumpkins

The Carving Queen haha. Btw excuse my outfit. I was cold and we were getting pumpkin guts all over us.

Liza made it just in time to see the finished products!

From left: Matt's "Beat Kentucky" pumpkin, my cowbell pumpkin, and my Bully pumpkin

Here they are again, but showing the other side of the cowbell pumpkin- MSU and paws

After Matt, Liza, and George left I baked for the tailgate and called it a night. Tailgate started bright and early at 8 am!

It was FREEZING at 8 am when we got out there. Pretty chilly fall day in Northeast MS!

Here are the pumpkins at the tailgate! Bully is dressed up like a ghost!

As y'all know, my fabulous Florida Gators had a big game Saturday vs. Georgia. Here I am cheering on the Gators from Starkville!

Girls at the tailgate

Matt and Liza

We were able to hang out, watch some football on the TV, and grill before we headed into the stadium! When I went into the stadium, the FL-GA game was 21-7. I had to rely on my phone to keep me up to date with the score! I about had a heart attack when it was 31-31 with 0:37 left on the clock! God must have known the Gators needed a win really bad! 34-31 GATORS!!! So proud for my orange and blue!!

Here's a video of our stadium at MS State before the game! You might be able to hear me talking! I hope my voice isn't as annoying as it sounds on the video!...but then again, no one sounds like themselves on video!

Pictures from inside the stadium!

3 Girls

Matt and Liza

George!

After an intense game with some horrible play calling, MS State got a 24-17 win over Kentucky. Go DAWGS!!! 7-2 so far this season!! I'm so proud that MS State is finally having a great season!

After the game we headed back out to the tailgate to make smores and watch some more football before heading home. It was so cold out! Hope y'all had a great Halloween weekend!

Also as a comment from my post about cowbells and respecting traditions: I am in no way comparing the noise from a cowbell to a vocal cheer like Roll Tide or Pig Sooie. I know how loud cowbells can get, especially when you're not used to them (I had to get used to them too-remember I was a Gator first). It was just a post about respecting traditions. I was not comparing the noise factors.

It's FINALLY Fall Y'all! Recipes, weather and football!

I was absolutely delighted to wear a sweatshirt on my drive to campus this morning. This was the weather we had in Mississippi this morning:

I could not be more thrilled!!! I am really glad it looks like it will be cooling off some this week. It doesn't feel right making pumpkin baked goods and drinking cider when its 85 degrees out!

Speaking of pumpkin...since we are having an 11:00 game this weekend, I am making muffins for the tailgate before the game. I wanted to share this recipe with y'all early this week in case you want to make some too! Starbucks makes some pretty amazing pumpkin cream cheese muffins, and now you can make them at home!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

1 cup of canned pumpkin

1 cup plus 2 tbsp of sugar

1/2 cup of packed brown sugar

4 egg whites (3 in one cup, 1 in the other)

1/2 cup milk

1 cup of canola oil (I've used vegetable-works fine too)

2 cups of flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp salt

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin pans (or use paper cups with Pam) and set aside.

Mix pumpkin, brown sugar, 3 egg whites, milk, and oil. Next stir in flour, pie spice, and salt. Set aside.

In second bowl, mix cream cheese, last egg white and 2 tbsp of sugar. Use a beater.

Spoon some pumpkin batter into each muffin tin, then add some cream cheese mixture, and spoon a little more pumpkin mixture on top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until toothpick in center comes out clean.

Enjoy as they are or add something extra to them! I like to put some chai frosting on top, which I make by adding some chai concentrate (I use Tazo brand, other brands would work also I'm sure) to cream cheese frosting and sprinkle some candied pecans or pumpkin seeds on top. So good!

I had a pretty dang good weekend! Friday night Mary Catherine, Kevin, and I went up to Tupelo for the Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean concert. We ate a great (but very quick!) supper at The Grill in Tupelo and walked over to the arena. We had so much fun! Both of them were really great live!

Here we are at the Bankcorp South Arena waiting for the show to start!

Saturday started bright and early for tailgating for the Mississippi State vs. Georgia game.

Kevin and Andrew playing corn hole. Hadn't seen Andrew in forever! Glad to see him!

Matt with a bulldog!

Casey, Jesse, and Kevin cooking ribs!

Jesse had spent hours making these ribs for the tailgate. They were so so good!

Caitlin and Dan finally made it to a game! Caitlin has been busy writing/defending her thesis and Dan just came back from deployment so we were really glad to have them join us for a game before the head to Oklahoma. Definitely going to miss them a ton!

Caitlin and I in the stadium!

The East side of the stadium wore white and the West side of the stadium wore maroon. Go State!

The group waiting on the game to start. Liza had to work so she wasn't there :( It wasn't the same without her!

The game was an incredible game to watch. The score was 7-6 State for most of the game. Finally the game picked up and the MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS BEAT GEORGIA 24-12!!!

Hey GEORGIA! We just beat the HELL OUTTA YOU! Maroon! White! Fight Fight Fight! Mississippi State!!! Damn right!!

We all celebrated out at the tailgate for hours after the game. Caitlin and I took a picture with the huge cowbell!!

And of course, my FLORIDA GATORS also won vs. Kentucky this weekend. Go Gators!!

Tailgating Recipes!

I thought I'd share some of my favorite tailgating recipes with y'all. I have lots in my recipe book, so if you like them/want more let me know!

Sausage Balls (from Mary Catherine!)

1 lb sausage (Jimmy Dean sage works best)

2 cups finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese

2 cups Bisquick

Mix by hand, roll into balls and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes

Brownie-Cookies

Really easy and really delicious! Make brownie mix like you normally would (I use chocolate brownie mix from a box). Spoon mix into paper-lined cupcake pan about halfway full. Then add a piece (either a whole square or half a square) of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough. Bake at whatever temperature and time the brown recipe calls for. SO GOOD!

Another good idea for tailgating I'm going to steal from MC:

Making Crystal Light lemonade or any other type of Crystal Light drink and adding vodka- serve using one of the drink dispensers.

This was a great idea for a tailgate and also low calorie! I think I'll have some of this next game!

I'd love to know some of y'alls tailgating recipes!

Go Dawgs and Gators!