I realize this might fall slightly under the promoting your own blog category, but she’s my Mom, and I promised.

My Mother has recently launched a new website/blog, Kitchen Encounters, which is aimed at, well, cooking.  However, Mom is no hack.  She has worked with professional chefs Lidia Bastianich, John Folse, and Martin Yan, and she is an executive producer for WPSU’s cooking programs as well as an editor for several of their cookbooks.  She has developed literally hundreds of recipes over years of cooking.  She’s not a trained professional, but she is a pro, and she has the skills and credentials to back it up.

Regardless, this project started as something I wanted to work on.  I thought that I could make this a regular contribution to the blog, and that it would be something that people enjoyed on a week in, week out, basis during the season.  Unfortunately, I had neither the time nor the skill to put this together every week so I shelved the idea. However, when Mom came to me a few weeks ago and asked if there was anything I could do to help her out in driving a bit of traffic to her website to help get it off the ground,  I gave her my idea [which was something we’d discussed in the past] and said I’d pass the information along to the folks here at BSD. 

So on her website today is perfectly planned menu for the first tailgate of the season.  Complete with shopping and equipment lists and everything you need to get ready for what will be the most important part of this Saturday’s game at least.  The tailgate.

The chef recommends for Saturday;

JoeFromBoalsburg’s Chicken Wings 

As well as his fried chicken things, which are fantastic cold and great for a hangover.

Also on the menu are Mom’s Jalapeno Piroghi’s, which make perfect sense 10 seconds after you’ve had them. 

You’ll need a sweet and spicy sauce to dip your fried creations in. 

And finally, some Bloody Mary’s, which speak for themselves.

I hope some of you guys will stop by and check it out, maybe pick up a pointer or two, and leave some comments.  I went a little overboard with the introduction this week, but if there is interest in this, I'll move more of the actual content here, with a link to the balance.  I just wanted you guys to know what the deal was.

I hope you enjoy it.