by Gilson Penny

Created on: November 02, 2007   Last Updated: March 26, 2011

Top Ten Tailgate Party Foods for the Ultimate Tailgate Party:

Tailgate party food should be fantastic, impress the other tailgaters, and impress the ladies. It should also be easy to prepare ahead, cook, and clean up. Using a grill (either small, large, or a camp stove) and a fondue pot, here's how to put together the best tailgate party on the lot. Most of these are easiest cooked on skewers, but can also be cooked on grill pans, stones, or planks. Bring along a can of spray oil, to keep things moist.

1) Shrimp Scampi Kabobs: Who doesn't love shrimp, broiled in garlic butter, tossed in pasta? This tailgate version is easily cooked on the grill. Remove the shells from jumbo shrimp. Cook a batch of tortelloni (tortelloni is larger than tortellini, and can be found in most supermarkets with the refrigerated, not frozen, pasta) so that it is al dente, not too soft. Using metal skewers or wood skewers that have been soaked in water, alternate the jumbo shrimp and tortelloni. Melt butter either in a pan on the grill or in a fondue pot, and mix in chopped garlic and Parmesan cheese. Brush the skewers generously with the butter during and after grilling.

2) Seafood Pinwheels: Buy large scallops, fillets of sole or tilapia, and fillets of salmon (not salmon steaks). Slice the fish fillets lengthwise, in strips about one inch wide. Wrap a salmon strip around a scallop, then wrap a white fish strip around the salmon. Skewer them, and you'll have multicolored, delicious, grill-ready pinwheels.

Squeeze fresh lemon or lime over them and serve them up hot on their own or over salad.

3) Jalapeno Meatballs: Mix ground beef, chopped onions, chopped garlic, grated Monterey Jack cheese, chopped Jalapenos, chopped cilantro, a little lime juice, salt and pepper. Beat an egg or two (depending on how much you're making), and mix it into the meat. Mix in breadcrumbs until the meat holds together. Roll into balls and put them on skewers, alternating them with chunks of onions and hot or sweet peppers, or just put them on the grill and cook up the onions and peppers alongside. Dip them in salsa before eating.

4) German Sausage Alpenstocks: Pick up a mixed collection of German sausages, including Bratwurst, Knockwurst, Bockwurst, Weisswurst - whatever mix you can find among the local markets and delis. Cut white onions into one-inch wedges. Boil or microwave baby potatoes, making sure not to cook them too soft. Make an individual mixed grill on each alpenstock (stick) by alternating

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