We're in Farmville this weekend for the Hampden-Sydney vs. Randolph-Macon game on Saturday. Going to two different schools in the same town was such a perfect situation for the early years of my relationship with Rob--we both had our own space and our own groups of friends, but it was so easy to see each other, and it's so fun now to go back and visit Longwood whenever we're in town for a Hampden-Sydney event. I like sharing a college town with my husband.

Last year we missed lots of fun weekends like this one, but all throughout our college years and right after graduation, we were always tailgating with friends for HSC football games. My twenty-first birthday party was actually a tailgate at Hampden-Sydney!

To prepare for The Game (and because I can't resist any excuse for wine and food), I put together an early tailgate for La Crema--because whether you're at the game or just in your backyard, you can throw a quick, easy, and beautiful party. Even the neighbor's dog, Bentley, couldn't resist showing up and begging for a chicken wing or two.

This post is sponsored by La Crema. For tips on throwing a great tailgate of your own, check out my post on their blog today!

Photos by Sarah Gatrell of Photo + Love.

I buy a huge bag of clementines every week when I go to the grocery store and proceed to eat about six a day until they're gone. The other day I picked up a couple bars of dark chocolate that ended up being way too bitter, so I melted some into a kind of a Paleo ganache and made chocolate-covered clementine pieces. And they were delicious.

Ingredients:

• About half of a 3.5 ounce bar of dark chocolate
• One tablespoon of grass-fed butter
• Two to three ripe clementines
• A pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl, melt the chocolate (I microwaved it for thirty seconds at a time, stirring in between). Add the butter and combine well.
2. Peel your clementines and separate. Dip each piece halfway in the chocolate and rest on a piece of parchment paper.
3. Pop them in the fridge for about twenty minutes, or until the chocolate has hardened. Sprinkle a bit of salt and serve.

I share a lot of Paleo recipes on Freckled Italian, and while a lot of my snacks and side dishes are naturally vegetarian, I realize that I might sometimes alienate some of my vegan and vegetarian readers. So when Kate and Adam from The Florkens offered to contribute a vegetarian dinner recipe, I jumped at the chance to showcase something delicious from a different dietary lifestyle.

Spaghetti Squash with Falafel & Lentil Patties

Ingredients:

• One spaghetti squash
• Several tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 cup of cooked lentils
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• One 15-oz can of drained chickpeas
• 1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
• 2 tablespoons applesauce
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon each of onion powder, cumin, and chili powder
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Carefully cut the spaghetti squash in half, scoop out the insides, and season well with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake for about an hour at 400.
2. In a food processor, combine the lentils, oatmeal, chickpeas, tahini, applesauce, garlic, onion powder, cumin, chili powder, and about a teaspoon each of salt and pepper. If you have picky vegetable eaters in your family, this is a great stage to add any "secret ingredients," like broccoli. Blend until ingredients form a paste. (If it's too runny, you can add some more oats; if it's too dry, add a splash of water.)
3. Form the paste into patties and cook for three minutes on each side over medium heat in a bit of olive oil. Set patties aside.
4. Once your spaghetti squash has cooked and cooled enough to handle, use a fork to scrape the squash out into noodles. Heat another tablespoon or so of olive oil, add some garlic, and combine with the spaghetti squash over medium heat. Add the nutritional yeast and mix well.
5. Remove spaghetti squash from heat and plate with a couple of the patties. Enjoy!

Adam and Kate plan to share more vegetarian recipes on their blog in the future, but in the meantime, you can get to know them a bit more right here. Thanks so much for the recipe, you guys!