Superbowl Food!!!

Superbowl means a lot of different things to different people, whether you love Superbowl parties because of the game, the commercials, the friends, or the food, there is something for everyone.

Personally, I like the commercials, rooting against my brother's team, and cooking for my friends and family. So I thought that I would recommend a few recipes that I love for the Superbowl. I'll focus on super low stress and delicious ones. I'll give you the recipes for a couple of my favorite dips, Game Day Mac and Cheese, and Caramelized Chicken Wings.

Cream Cheese Chip Dip
The first involves no cooking what-so-ever.  There are so many different types of dips that people make but this one is delicious and ridiculously easy. Take a block of Philadelphia cream cheese, put it on a plate, and pour salsa over it. That's it. Seriously. Serve it with tortilla chips and you will be surprised how many people will absolutely love it.

Seven Layer Bean Dip
Many people have a version of this or buy it from the store, however the version that my mother makes is the best that I have ever tasted. (Who doesn't say that about their mother? :) )
Romaine Lettuce
Reid Fried Beans
Guacamole
Sour Cream

Cheese
Salsa
Olives
Green Onions

The dip is assembled in that order.

Lettuce should be chopped so that it can be scooped up with the chips. 
Guacamole can be made however you like it however the best (and healthiest) I have ever tried is made with plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, lime juice, and garlic salt added to the smashed avocado.

Sour Cream should be seasoned with a quarter of a packet of taco seasoning (or however much you want)

Put everything in a solid layer until you get to the Salsa which should be dropped in dollops on the top of the dip. Then slice up the onions and olives and sprinkle on top.

Serve this with tortilla chips, it is so good, I make it whenever people come over. I know that this dip is a bit cliche because it is so common, but I just love it! So if you don't want it, don't come to a party at my house. 


Macaroni and Cheese.
A classic.
This recipe is made with canned milk, Cream of Cheddar Soup, and shredded cheese. You can think of it as the butter, cheese packet, and milk if you like to make the box mac and cheese.

1 box pasta
1 can Evaporated Milk
1 can Cream of Cheddar Soup
1 to 2 cups cheese
1/2 t Season All
1/2 t Garlic Salt


1) Boil a box of pasta shells (you can use any pasta, I am just a fan of shells) drain them and return to the same pot.
2) Add half of a can of canned milk
3) Add a full can of Cream of Cheddar Soup and stir well
4) Add 1 to 2 cups of shredded cheese (I like Sharp Cheddar because it adds a lot of flavor)
5) Stir everything together really well and if it is now too thick for your liking, add more of the canned milk. I like to keep the milk around to add to the pasta when I reheat it.
6) Add as much of the seasoning as you would like, it is completely up to you and how much seasoning  you like. I generally use a little more than is called for in this recipe but I toned it down, because most people don't like garlic as much as I do.

I served this to some friends of mine on Super Bowl Sunday and they absolutely loved it! Its so easy and it reheats really well, so you can have left overs for a while.

Caramelized Chicken Wings

I don't actually use wings, I use breast pieces that I have cut to the size of wings, but you can use wings if you want to .

3 lbs chicken
1 cup honey
1/2 cups soy sauce
2 T olive oil
2 T ketchup
1 clove garlic, minced

1)Place three lbs of chicken in a 9X13 baking dish.
2) In a separate dish mix together Soy Sauce, ketchup, honey, oil, and garlic
3) Pour sauce over  chicken and bake in a 375 degree oven for an hour or until sauce is caramelized.

I had a bunch of my friends try all of these and they were a huge hit! I'm glad I have friends who like to eat my cooking because so much food would go bad in my fridge if I didn't.

Lemon Chicken... My Way

I love to just make up random recipes. Sometimes I have no idea what type of dish I am going to end up with and sometimes I know exactly what I want but no clue how I am going to get there.

Two of my friends asked me if we could make dinner at my house and if I would teach them how to make Chinese. So we decided to make Lemon Chicken and WonTons

Somehow, this simple meal turned into a crazy complicated one. We ended up with lemon chicken over sticky rice with egg rolls, won tons, pot stickers and a vegetable stir fry.  We obviously had a ton of leftovers because that in a ridiculous amount of food.

I hate recipes for Chinese food because they never taste like you hope they will or they have crazy ingredients in them that I am pretty sure petrify your insides as soon as you swallow your food. So I improvised one for my lemon chicken. I made a Sprite batter for the chicken and fried it in a small wok.
I don't actually measure when I cook so these are approximates but I know that they are really close.

Lemon Chicken:
8 oz Sprite
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
garlic salt
Vegetable oil
Two boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Combine the Sprite, eggs, and 1/2 cup of the flour in a bowl and mix well.
Combine the rest of the flour, the garlic salt (as much as you like) and any other seasonings that make you feel whole in a separate bowl.
Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and then dump them in the Sprite mixture, then the flour mixture, then the Sprite mixture again and then set on a plate.

Heat oil in a Wok (I prefer to use about 3/4 cup oil in a very small wok because the chicken seems to come out more juicy and there always seems to be more oil left over in the pan- maybe that's just my imagination, but its how it works out for me)

Place the chicken in the wok and cook over medium low heat until cooked thoroughly.

For the sauce, we used an online recipe for a jumping off point and just altered it as we went.

Sauce:
1/3 cup sugar
2 T corn starch
1 cup Chicken Broth
2 T lemon juice
3/4 t salt
3 lemon slices

Combine all ingredients in a small pot and heat; stirring constantly.
The recipe said to heat 2 T  of oil and then add the sauce to it and heat... I thought that was unnecessary.

I introduced my friend Megan to won tons- she is now in love.

Three ingredients... wonton wrappers, cream cheese, oil. Put the cream cheese in the wrapper and fry in the oil. Best thing ever... don't make a lot though because you will eat them... as the three of us (especially Megan :) ) found out. Because of this, we did not make the stir fry... maybe next time.

Follow up a good meal with a FRIENDS marathon and the night can't get any better:)

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.”

—	Laurie Colwin