Cooking Games and Tailgating

If you've never been tailgating, be warned that it is an extreme sport. Tailgating isn’t for everyone – it’s a lot like camping, but of a more temporary variety. It is an opportunity to share in the spirit of your team and enjoy the victory that is surely at hand. If you’re going to enjoy tailgating and the cooking games that go along with it, there are a few simple rules to follow:

Know the laws. There are rules about where you can part and you may have to arrange a parking permit weeks ahead of time if you’re planning to tailgate at a particular stadium. Make your arrangements and get situated so that you can enjoy the fun of the event.

Bring friends. Tailgating by yourself isn't the right spirit of the cooking games. If you’re going to be tailgating, you need to have some friends along for the adventure. Invite your friends to bring along side dishes if you’d like since you’re cooking up the main dish.

Get creative. The cooking games that come from tailgating are legendary and you can create fabulous things with a bit of creative flare. Enjoy the opportunity and never try the same recipe twice!

Cooking Games and Dinner

One of the things kids can do for their parents is cook them dinner. It might not be the first thing that you think of when you start brain storming about cooking games, but making dinner for your family is a simple, easy way to help out around the house and earn some serious brownie points. Fortunately, cooking dinner isn't much trouble once you've got the hang of planning for it.

The first cooking game you might try for preparing dinner can be done in the crock pot. Grab some hamburger meat and find a collection of beans, soups and other canned vegetables. Dump the soups into the crock pot while you brown the hamburger meat with onions. Then dump the meat into the crock pot  stir it all up and set it on low all day. When you get home your cooking games will have paid off with a delicious, home-cooked meal.

Cooking Games and Pasta

Of all the various dishes to cook, pasta is one of the easiest. There are so many different styles of pasta available, and they are all delicious. Often cooking pasta is as simple as throwing a handful of dry noodles into boiling water. The noodles cook for less than ten minutes and then we all have a delicious lunch. Of course, the success of your pasta cooking games depends rather heavily on the type of sauce you decide to use.

Many types of pasta are delicious with a bit of pure butter tossed into the pan. Or for a bit of extra flavor you can use some garlic butter and sprinkle on Parmesan. If you're feeling a bit more adventurous, using a canned or jarred sauce is simple, but the best sauces are those that you create at home. This doesn't have to be a challenge - it's usually as simple as cutting up some veggies, throwing them in a pan with spices and allowing it to all boil down a bit. The end product is a meal fit for a king! Or at least a hungry teenager.

Cooking Games: Gingerbread Houses

I love gingerbread houses. If you don’t cook them exactly right, you wind up with cookies a bit too hard to eat easily, but that just makes them that much better for decorating. The ideal, of course, is to make your gingerbread house firm enough to decorate easily, but soft enough devour when the holiday mood strikes.

Making Gingerbread Houses
The easiest way to make gingerbread houses is to buy the mix from store that requires just a handful of ingredients or even better, buy the ready made dough that you can just roll out and start cutting. Cutting out your gingerbread house will require a knife and steady hand rather than cookie cutters. You'll need to make the four wall and the two roof sections before baking.

Decorating Gingerbread Houses
Cut out the gingerbread sections and bake them according to instructions. When they are baked to a golden brown, allow the sections to cool before decorating. Use icing tubes to stick the sections together and then candy to decorate the little house. Your gingerbread house can be a great decoration or you can start nibbling on it just as soon as you get it all put together.

Cooking Games – Gingerbread Men

What could be yummier at Christmas time than a slew of gingerbread men? This cooking game is fun for younger brothers and sisters, too – especially if you cheat and use the ready to bake cookie dough.

To make gingerbread men, you’ll need:

Ready to bake gingerbread cookie dough (it comes in a tube)
Gingerbread men cookie cutters
Icing in tubes
Candies

Roll out the dough and cut out the gingerbread men. As you cut each, carefully place it on the cookie sheet. As each sheet fills, bake according to the dough’s instructions. Remove the men when still warm. You can’t put the icing on until the cookies are cool, but any candy that will be stuck on the gingerbread men should be done quickly after removing the sheet from the oven You can also use icing later to glue on gum drop buttons and the like.

Push in any candy pieces while the cookie is still hot and then allow the cookies to cool completely. When they are hardened and cool, use small tubes of icing to decorate each. Add faces, buttons, arm and leg decorations and anything else you can think of to make the gingerbread men fun for the holiday season.