Week Four: The Superbowl

    The Superbowl is about so much more than just football. Sure the game is pretty entertaining, especially if your team is in the spotlight. The commercials are also good for a laugh or two. But in my opinion, the Superbowl is all about the food. After all, what’s a football game without a few amazing snacks? Football is complemented so well by great cooking.

    This week I spent Sunday afternoon in the kitchen with a few of my friends whipping up our own versions of a few Superbowl classics. Our menu consisted of fully loaded queso dip, fresh guacamole, pizza pockets, pigs in a blanket, and cookie brownie bars (the same featured dessert from last week continues to work its magic!). Not only is this menu full of mouthwatering snacks and treats, every item was home made and fed a group of 20 for under $40.

    Our first cooking endeavor was the loaded queso. We started with a package of ground turkey (in place of ground beef- lean turkey is much better for you than basic ground beef), a can of whole corn kernels, a can of black beans, two blocks of Velveeta and a can of Rotel mild tomatoes. Sautee the ground turkey until cooked thoroughly and add the cans of corn and beans until heated through. While this is cooking, melt the blocks of Velveeta with the Rotel in the microwave. Once the cheese is melted and the turkey mixture is heated, combine the two and mix well. The loaded queso may taste like it took hours of hard work, but you can toss it together with little effort in just a few minutes.

    The pizza pockets and pigs in a blanket are very similar in that they seem much more complicated to create than they actually are. The trick to both of these recipes is simply a package of Pillsbury crescent roll dough. For the pigs in a blanket, all you need is a pack of mini sausages to roll up inside of the crescents (my favorite brand is Hillshire Farms) and you are good to go. For the pizza pockets, spread a scoop of red sauce across each unrolled crescent. Add a pinch of mozzarella cheese and a couple of pepperonis and fold the dough into a little pocket. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes and you have a set of amazing hot snacks. These two snacked sized favorites disappeared even faster than the loaded queso. They were definitely a favorite!

    The guacamole is probably the most complicated and expensive part of this cooking experience. There are many shortcuts you can take, like pre-cut avocados for example, but we decided to go whole hog and buy 6 fresh avocados to smash up ourselves. Halving the avocadoes and removing the pit is an art that is not easily mastered, but with a little practice anyone can do it. For tips on that, try visiting this website. Once the avocadoes are peeled and mashed add a powdered pre made guacamole mix, and add your favorite flavor of Tabasco for a little extra flare. This delicious guacamole is definitely worth the extra effort.

    All in all every dish got devoured, but I still got the most rave reviews for the infamous cookie brownie bars (see the week 3 blog for details). Below are a few before and after pictures of these tasty game time snacks.

    The Superbowl only comes around once a year, but next time you are entertaining for one of TCU’s away games or staying in to watch a Cowboy’s game with your friends, remember to try these easy crowd pleasers.

    Happy Eating!