*Started this on Sunday. Got busy and distracted. Sorry!*
It's game day, bitches! To start, here is my all-time favorite picture of the Steelers.
It's from the locker room before Super Bowl XL (which, yes, the Steelers did win!). And it features one of my all-time favorite football players, EVER, Jerome Bettis. A monster of a running back.
Anyway. Time for some more recipes. Up first, the Spinach Dip. It's super easy.
2 cup sour cream
1 cup mayonaise
1 packet Knoll's vegetable dip pack
1 can (8 oz) water chestnuts, sliced
3 green onions, diced
1 box (10 oz) frozen spinach, thawed and drained
Mix all the ingredients together. I like to serve it in a pumpernickle bread bowl - use the bread you cut out to create the bowl as the dipping pieces.
Stromboli. I freaking love this stuff. Like I said, it's a recipe I snagged from my mom. It's pretty easy and people tend to love it. First up, you make the dough:
5 cups flour
2 cups hot water
1/2 cup oil
1 packet dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Knead it together (or, get excited, and use the dough hook on your KitchenAid stand mixer). Place it into a greased oven-safe bowl and let it sit to rise for 2 hours. The trick here is to preheat your oven to the lowest setting, then turn it off and put the dough in there for 2 hours (covered). This ensures the temperature is right but doesn't "bake" it. The first year I made it, I didn't know I should turn the oven off and I ended up with a crust on the top. It made for a texturally weird boli.
After the dough has risen, you punch it down and split it in 2 halves. Spread it out on 2 (large) cookie sheets. Lay out the fillers. The fillers are a 1/2 pound of each of the following: hard salami, provolone, pepperoni, mozzarella, and boiled ham. I get it all from the deli counter, though it is possible to get it pre-packaged. I just like the fresh deli counter stuff better for this. Feels more authentic. Then top with mustard and oregano (there are actually amounts in the recipe, but I just eyeball it). Bring the sides up to wrap the filling, spread some milk on top, then bake it at 350 for 40 minutes.
Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the finished products. Of anything. People started showing up and I was way distracted. But trust me, everything was delicious. I got tons of compliments on the chili, and the cake balls were destroyed. I thought Christina Aguilera (honestly didn't even catch the lyric flub) did a pretty good job. The halftime show was terrible. The commercials were pretty awful, except for the one where they showed all the different tv characters in various NFL team gear. I enjoyed that one more for the blasts from the past than anything else. And even though the Steelers lost, it was a really good game that definitely kept me on the edge of my seat (or kitchen counter, where I was perched all night long).
And now, I'll leave you with the only other commercial that I actually enjoyed...
*all photos without source code are personal
I made the chili last night. It looks (and smells) soooo good. Unfortunately, I was a bad blogger and didn't take many pictures. Just a before and an after. There are so many ingredients in it, though, and you (or at least I) feel like they have to be put in quickly or the recipe is ruined. I'm weird like that. So I kind of felt like I was hurrying through getting the ingredients in and forgot to take pictures of the process. So...sorry 'bout that.
Anyway. The recipe is from a restaurant called Redstone Grille. Matt and I had it one day at the restaurant and thought it was so awesome. And you know, sometimes you can find restaurants' recipes online. So I took a shot, Google'd it, and lo and behold - found it! I made this for our department Christmas party and it was a huge hit, so I thought I'd make it again for the Super Bowl. It's pretty easy, just that it has a ton of ingredients and some of them were kind of hard to find.
To start, all the ingredients:
1 1/4 lbs ground beef (80/20)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon fresh garlic
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 cup onions, diced
1/2 cup green peppers, diced
1 Tablespoon chipotle pepper puree
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon beef base
1 1/4 teaspoon dry oregano leaves
1 1/2 Tablespoon cumin
1 1/2 Tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder
1 bay leaf
2 cups diced tomatoes (canned or fresh Roma)
1/2 cup tomato juice
4 cups tomato puree
1 cup chili sauce
2 cups kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Start off by browning the beef in a skillet, then drain it in a collander. In a 1 gallon pot (I used my 6-quart stock pot), over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil then saute the garlic, celery, onion, and green pepper until tender. Add the chipotle puree, water, beef base, oregano, cumin, chili powder, paprika, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer and let it cook for 5 minutes. Then add the ground beef, diced tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato puree, chili sauce, and kidney beans. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Stir ever 5 minutes (or so) to prevent the kidney beans from scorching to the bottom.
Finshed product?
I made 1.5x the recipe, since we're expecting about a dozen people (the stated serving is 6-8). You're supposed to make it a few days in advance so that flavors have a chance to marinate and marry. The day of, we'll have it on the stove with a toppings bar, including shredded cheddar jack cheese, sour cream, and green onions. I hope it's as big a hit as it was at the Christmas party!
*all personal photos
It's Super Bowl Week!! Every year, Matt and I throw a big Super Bowl Party at our house. We started the tradition 6 years ago in our apartment, and we always have so much fun. But my favorite part of the party? All the yummy cooking I get to do!!!
Tradition (at least, since we moved into our house and I had room to make it) has been that I make home-made stromboli. It's a recipe I got from my mom and it's super easy. And always a big hit. I make the dough, and then once that has a chance to rise, I layer the meats and cheeses on - hard salami, provolone, pepperoni, mozzarella, and boiled ham. Top it off with some mustard and oregano. Yum-o!
I also make a few different dips, including spinach dip with water chestnuts and buffalo chicken wing dip. The chicken wing dip is amazing and usually gone within about 15 minutes. It tastes just like wings and is seriously one of the best dips ever.
This year I'm also making chili. We usually order pizzas to go with the stromboli, but I came across this amazing recipe for chili so we decided to make that instead. Ohhh...it's so good.
I also decided to make cake balls this year. Black and Gold, for my Steelers. I already make those this weekend, because they'll keep for a while. The black turned out more grey, but I had already been playing with the colors for 5 minutes and was losing my patience. So, Steel Grey works, right? For the Steelers? I say it does.
Once I start making all the food, I'll post pictures and recipes. Remember, this is not a food blog, so they won't be super drool-worthy pictures. But I love any opportunity where I get to cook and bake a lot, so I always love the party.
Matt's birthday is tomorrow and I have no gift for him. Oops. Bad Wifey. I didn't plan his birthday so well this year. Gonna spend my day today brainstorming what to get him....
In the meantime... HERE WE GO, STEELERS!!!
