Hey friends!

Sorry I missed sharing a spread last week. It’s not only football season, it’s work travel season and that means I’m juggling lots of balls and the football got dropped last week. (The Dawgs did a bit of that too, so I’m upping my game and hoping they are with me!)

Georgia vs Auburn is ALWAYS my favorite game of the year. I grew up an Auburn fan and lived most of my life less than an hour from the Plains. My daddy went to Auburn and was a tad disappointed when I began wearing red and black. We always talked on the phone on game day, and this will be the first one without him. If the Tigers pull this one out, you all can be sure it will be connected to Daddy’s heavenly cheering section.

So – this week’s spread reflects his favorite game day food – a chili dog. When Daddy was growing up in Montgomery, his family had a Friday night hot dog tradition. In their early marriage, my parents were early married and still lived in Montgomery, Chris’ Hot Dogs was a favorite spot. I think they sold their slider-sized dogs by the dozen in a bakery box. When I was raising my boys in Macon, Nu Way Weiners quickly became a favorite of my boys, and when my parents visited, the recognized a similar flavor profile between Nu Way’s chili and Chris’ special chili sauce. It turns out the two family-owned restaurants opened within a year of each other in the central cities of neighboring states – both by Greek immigrants, and that is the root of the spices in their special chili. Both families guard their recipes fiercely as they should, but it’s similar to Cincinnati-style chili also made famous by Greek immigrants to the US, and fortunately we can find some recipes online for that. I’ll be making Food Network’s Katie Lee Beigel’s version this weekend, and I’ll be topping these dogs with onions, cheese, and maybe some Cheeze-it crackers instead of oyster crackers. I’m so excited. The warm spices are going to be perfect for our first really crisp Fall day in Tennessee.

To go with it, I am going to make a batch of sweet potato fries and a couple of dipping sauces. This recipe has great tips for crispy fries and several sauces to try.

And for a little orange in the menu, I’m deciding between two other bites. You can go easy and salty and grab a barrel of Cheese Balls if you want to conjure up high school memories like I do, or you could make – our buy – some fancier cheese straws using this classic recipe. For dessert, I’m thinking peanut butter chocolate brownies – mostly because all of those Reese’s pumpkins are filling up the stores and they are the best! (or maybe just put out a bowl of those and skip the baking!)

It feels like Fall, so I’m adding a crisp hard cider to balance it out.

However you top your dogs, it’s going to be DAWGS ON TOP!