Hosting a Brunch Football Tailgate

A.K.A. Our Tailgate Using Only a Microwave and Stovetop

It’s October and we’re here for another round of tailgates! It feels like ages since we’ve traded in our porcelain for team colors, but it’s good to be back.

Our first tailgate of the season was for a noon game, which we all know means one thing: brunch. While we’re not big brunchers back home (we are big breakfast fans though), we do love a good one to kick off a day at the stadium.

This week’s tailgate was a bit tricky due to our travel schedule. We found ourselves with only a microwave and a stove top to use to prepare our tailgate. Improvising was the name of the game.

Grab-and-go foods are the best when it comes to tailgating, and all of the things we served allowed our guests to snack and move – no plates required, just cocktail napkins. I ordered custom cocktail napkins from Sip Hip Hooray last year and they did an excellent job on them. If you don’t have an acrylic cocktail napkin holder, you can always fan them out. Make sure that you have something heavy to serve as a weight so your cocktail napkins don’t fly away. Our salt shaker stood in for a napkin weight this time.

For the menu, my husband suggested breakfast sandwiches, which were perfect for our “kitchen” situation. We picked up whole wheat English muffins, sliced cheddar cheese, high quality sliced ham, and eggs. We scrambled the eggs and cooked them omelet-style. It worked perfectly.

We wrapped each of them in pre-cut aluminum foil sheets so that they were individually-sized for easy serving. Then, we set them aside on the stove top using a “warming” feature before packing them up to go.

A vegetable tray and fruit platter are always on our tailgates, and this one was no exception. Thankfully, these require absolutely no cooking, so we sliced up our veggies and stuck them in zip-top bags. That way, they were ready to be plated once we arrived at the tailgate spot.

I made our favorite healthy blueberry muffins from Cookie & Kate the night before, which we served at the tailgate in gold wrappers. You can also cut brown parchment paper into muffin-sized pieces for that “just back from the bakery” vibe. I haven’t tried this yet, but it’s on my list.

Of course, you have to have a few things semi-homemade, right? My friend, Rachael, turned us on to Tate’s Cookies and now we just can’t get enough.

We also found these Pillsbury sugar cookies in the shape of footballs while shopping at Harris Teeter in Alexandria. I snagged two boxes for our tailgate. They took seven minutes and were the star of the tailgate. Sometimes simple is best.

We served up mimosas, Aperol spritzes, and Bloody Mary’s for our guests, in addition to sparkling water and juices. Our Bloody Mary bar was so easy to pull together. We set out celery wedges, lime and lemon slices, olives, and pickles for everyone to add to their drinks. It makes for a fun and interactive addition to any brunch tailgate. Go team!