This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Eckrich Smoked Sausage.

Make these Smoked Sausage Skewers at your next tailgating event!

In summer of 2017, we moved as a family to my college town of Gainesville, home to the Florida Gators. When you live in a town where the university is the heart of really the entire county, football season is a big deal. I remember wandering around campus on game day my freshman year of college {back in 1997}, not knowing what was going on. I did not grow up in a sports family. I didn’t know anything about the importance of college football, what tailgating was, or how beautifully crazy the university I went to would be for a home game.

So now that my kids are old enough to understand, we enjoy visiting the campus on game day to enjoy the energy and life around us. For a recent game, we headed on campus as a family and set up our own little tailgating party, complete with a new recipe I created using Eckrich Smoked Sausage, provided to me by the brand. Eckrich Smoked Sausage his actually the Official Smoked Sausage of the Florida Gators – how cool is that! Check out these Smoked Sausage Skewers with corn, potato, and zucchini – A perfect recipe for game day!

Smoked Sausage Skewers Ingredients:

• 1 package Eckrich Original Natural Casing Smoked Sausage Traditional Loop
• 2 ears of corn
• 2 zucchini
• 1 pound of red potatoes
• olive oil
• salt + pepper, to taste

Smoked Sausage Skewers Directions:

These smoked sausage skewers are a prep-ahead recipe that you can easily transport to your tailgating event. Begin by gathering your ingredients. Eckrich Smoked Sausage is naturally hardwood smoked and combines a blend of spices to give it a great taste your whole family will love! It’s great in a variety of dishes – one of my other favorite uses is in homemade jambalaya. The corn, zucchini, and potatoes are a great combination paired with the smoked sausages, but you can use whatever vegetables – or even fruits – your family enjoys. It would be fun to do a smoked sausage, pineapple, red onion skewer, or maybe a smoked sausage, cherry tomato, summer squash, and mushroom skewer. This is a great time to get creative!

To prepare the ingredients, start by cutting your red potatoes into large pieces. You want each bite of food to be about the same size, so the pieces of potato, zucchini, sausage, and corn should all be about the same. Add your red potato pieces to a pot of boiling water, and boil until you can easily push a knife through them. You do not want them soft like you would for mashed potatoes, but definitely tender enough so that you can easily get them on a skewer to grill. When the potatoes are drained and cooled, slide your ingredients onto the skewers.  I like using the metal skewers because there’s no waste – just clean them up and reuse them! {Pro-tip: a serrated bread knife definitely helps when cutting your corn.}

Now, this is when it’s time to pack up your ingredients. You can drizzle a light coating of olive oil over each skewer and season with salt and pepper. Then place all of your skewers in a plastic container, add them to a cooler, and pack up because it is tailgating time! We grabbed our portable charcoal grill and took it with us {along with a bag of charcoal and a lighter – don’t forget those essentials} to the University of Florida’s campus. It was a night game, which means that we enjoyed dinner together on campus.

While the smoked sausage skewers were on the grill, Richard enjoyed a quick game of football toss with the kids. The University of Florida has such a beautiful campus with so many events to attend, places to see, and trails to walk. I’m so proud to call it my Alma Mater and share my experiences with my family.

When your smoked sausage skewers are nicely charred, pull them off the grill. Remove the smoked sausage and veggies from the skewers and place them on a plate or a fun serving tray, like these paper football trays. Dip them in your favorite condiment, whether that’s ketchup, mustard, or barbecue sauce {my personal favorite}.

Eckrich and the Florida Gators will highlight their official partnership throughout the college football season to inspire Gator fans to tailgate or homegate with Eckrich Smoked Sausage. They will offer local consumers opportunities to win tickets to a select game throughout the season, so follow along for a chance to win!

For the first time, Eckrich will host the $1 Million Challenge at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as part of their Road to the National Championship sweepstakes. The feature game will take place on October 6th when the Gators will host LSU. As the official sponsor of the College Football Playoff, Eckrich is bringing back their popular Road to the National Championship sweepstakes. Eckrich is giving lucky fans around the country the chance to make a 15-yard throw for $1 Million dollars during some of the biggest college football games of the season, and at the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship in Santa Clara, California. Fans can visit www.EckrichFootball.com enter for a chance to win.

These Smoked Sausage Skewers are the perfect tailgating recipe. What do you serve at tailgating events?

Pin this Smoked Sausage Skewers recipe below!

[tasty-recipe id=”27352″]

[tasty-recipe id=”27353″]

For more info about Eckrich Smoked Sausage, as well as quick and easy recipes please visit www.eckrich.com. The product is found in the Deli section at your local grocery store.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Eckrich Smoked Sausage.