Wofford Citadel Tailgate - Bean Dip

It really is a small world and people everywhere really do have a lot in common. Everybody loves food, family, friends and - at least in our corner of the world - football.

The Wofford Citadel game is always a good one because both schools have a long history in South Carolina. This year the game was at Wofford and it was also homecoming weekend. And Halloween weekend. And it was a significant birthday for Wofford mom, Vikki.

So there were more than enough reasons for a big tailgate. Big hardly describes it. I think huge would be better. Everyone lost count but there were over 100 people at the tailgate. And it was a blast.

It started with Gary, the birthday girl's husband. Gary and Vikki live in Pennsylvania and wanted to bring ribs and pork to Shelby for David to cook in the big cooker. So the Pennyslvania people packed up the pork and arrived Friday night at our house to spend the night while the big cooker worked it's magic.

Saturday morning everyone started congregating at Lot E, the Wofford football parent parking lot. Since it was Halloween weekend, there were little trick-or-treaters wandering about and they stopped by all the tailgate spots for treats. David and Dale especially enjoyed talking with the trick-or-treaters!

It was another picture perfect day weather wise and Wofford came away with a big win. The game was good but didn't have a heart attack ending like last week at Elon. That was probably a good thing for our hearts because we worked them out pretty good with tailgate food.

After the game, the tailgate crowd grew and grew and included all the regulars and families of regulars plus visitors from Arizona and Texas and Pennsylvania and I'm not sure where else.

Scout, who is a four-legged regular, appeared in Wofford attire and didn't go away hungry. Neither did anyone else.

It was fun to have Quinn and Wil with us and then to find out Wil and regular tailgater, Gowan, had worked together.

It really is a small world.

Bean Dip

With all of the pork, I thought it would be good to have something on the lean protein side, so I made my version of Susan's bean dip. There are a million ways to make this and a million names for it. Some call it Texas Caviar.

Susan taught me how to make this a few years ago. I'm sure I don't do it just like she does because Susan is an intuitive cook like I am. Most of the time when we share a recipe, we just tell each other the major ingredients and kind of go from there.

If I am rushed for time or if I don't have fresh tomato or jalapeno, I substitute - my favorite ingredient - 1 can of rotel.

Main Ingredients:

1 can kidney beans
1 can chick peas
1 can black beans
1 can mexican corn
(if I have leftover corn from the garden I use it instead of canned)
Chopped red and yellow pepper
(the mexicorn is colorful but fresh peppers add crunch and color)
Chopped jalapeno
(fresh jalapeno not pickled - jalapeno is still growing in the garden)
Chopped onion
Chopped tomato
cumin
cilantro
(fresh is best and thankfully I still have some in my herb garden)
olive oil
vinegar
salt, pepper

Drain the beans and peas. Mix in the rest and serve with Tortilla chips.