Chocolate Covered TOUCHDOWN Pretzel Sticks

Superbowl is tomorrow!!!! Tick tock tick tock... Last night in preparation Rob's family and I mixed up 60 pounds of Italian Sausage Meat to stuff in casings later today! Sausage will be another post, for another time.

For now it's...

Chocolate Covered TOUCHDOWN Pretzel Sticks

One Bag Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Honey Pretzel Sticks (YUM)
One container of Candiquik melted as directed on package
Crushed candied pecans
Mini M & M's
Toasted Coconut
Crushed Heath Bars
mini chocolate chips

Line counter top with wax paper or parchment. Holding one end of the pretzel and using a spoon or butter knife, dip into chocolate and use the utensil to help cover the pretzel with coating. Sprinkle topping on to the chocolate covering and place on the wax paper or parchment. Do this until Candiquik is used up. Set aside until cool and then store in an airtight container in a cool place.

Serve your TOUCHDOWN Pretzel Sticks on Superbowl on a cute platter to your guest. Their expression will let you know you scored.

Low Fat Flavorful Cake

McCormick.com is a perfect site for recipes. They have recipes to compliment all of their spices and seasonings. You should check it out. A few years back I found a Low Fat Vanilla Cake on the site. I tried to find it and was unsuccessful. The thing that I remember about the cake was it used egg whites and had no oil. The cake is really good. Serve it up with fresh fruit and light whip cream and you have a yummy lower fat dessert.

Low Fat Cinnamon Vanilla Cake
inspired by recipe found on McCormick.com

1 yellow boxed cake mix
1 1/3 cup water
1/3 cup Captain Morgan Rum
3 egg whites
a few shakes cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
seeds from half a vanilla bean

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Dump cake mix into mixing bowl. Add water and rum and mix. Add egg whites one by one and mix. Add vanilla and cinnamon and mix. Spray your cake pan and pour the batter in. Bake for 35 or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow cake to cool.

When ready to serve top with fresh sliced strawberries and light whipped cream. Enjoy! You won't even miss the fat.

Buffalo Chicken Taquitos!!!

Yum, Yum and YUM! People will go nuts with this twist on Buffalo Wings. I tried this about a year ago and our the garage guests went wild. Less mess and less finger licking.

Buffalo Chicken Taquitos

36 corn tortillas softened in heated oil set aside on paper towels
3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
1 6 oz. Red Rooster Louisiana Hot Sauce
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl combine, chicken, cheese and sauce. Stir. Spoon 1-2 tablespoons of the chicken mix onto the corn tortilla. Roll the tortilla and fix it with a toothpick. Keep rolling and tooth picking until all of your ingredients are used up.

Bake on cookie sheets for 15-20 or until flautas are browned and crispy. Allow to cool a bit and serve with celerey sticks and ranch dressing. Be sure to remove toothpicks from the flautas before serving.

We double and triple this recipe. (Uncooked flautas can be frozen. I did this and sprayed some with oil spray and cooked them. They were perfect)

Refrigerate leftover flautas. They are fabulous nuked in the micro for 15 seconds.

Cut these flautas in half to make appetizers.

Jello Shooters Baby, For Superbowl or Other Fun Party Situations...

Jello Shooters have been around for a couple decades. I was introduced to them in the mid ninties at a party. I am not a fan of Jello, but these Jello Shooters sure make some party goers smile. Do not serve them to individuals under 21 years of age and be sure to let parents of those under 21 that the jello is for adults.

Top Five Reasons to Make Jello Shooters
1. They are not messy like regular shots
2. They give you a warm and cozy feeling going down
3. Jello is fat-free
4. You can buy sugar free jello
5. Party goers will think you ROCK!

The recipe is pretty simple. You can mix and match your Jello and alcohol combinations. I have concocted some pretty tasty shooters over the years.

Jello Shooters

1 small box Jello any flavor
1 cup hot water
1 cup clear alcohol.
little plastic souffle cups

In a large glass measuring cup with a spout, boil one cup of hot water in the microwave for 2 minutes. Remove from microwave. Pour Jello granuales into the hot water and stir, until granuales dissolve. Let cool. When mixture is cool add one cup of clear alcohol. Stir. Set aside.

Line a cookie sheet with some souffle cups. Fill them 3/4 full with Jello mix. Place in the refrigerator until they are set. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Here are some of my yummy Jello and alcohol concoctions.

Margarita Shooter
Lime Jello
1/2 cup Triple Sec
1/2 cup Tequilla

Cape Cod Shooter
Cranberry Jello
Vodka

Lemon Drop Shooter
Lemon Jello
Vodka or Limoncello

Cherry Bomb Shooter
Cherry Jello
Campari

Captain Shooter
Orange Jello
Captain Morgan

Raspberry Shooter
Raspberry Jello
Chambord

Malibu Shooter
Pineapple Jello
Malibu Rum

Enjoy your Jello Shooters, responsibly.

Superbowl Eats XLIII

27 days until Superbowl. Which teams will we see play in Tampa Bay, Florida? Whichever two teams make it, we must serve the best Superbowl Eats to honor them. We will eat to honor, their dedication, sweat, tears, and the fact that they bring families and friends together the first weekend of February for decades.

Pigs in Blankies
A Hot Appetizer everyone will love.

Pilsbury Crescent Rolls
Little Smokies
Your favorite Barbecue Sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove Little Smokies from the plastic package. Dump them onto a microwave safe plate and nuke 'em for about two minutes. Remove Lil' Smokies from Microwave. Open and unroll crescent rolls. Cut each triangle into 4 triangles. You should get 32 Pigs in Blankies from one roll. Pop in the oven for 12-15 minutes. They should be golden brown. Serve on a platter with barbecue sauce.

Antipasti Tapas
These are simple and look great on a platter

Chunks of Salami
Chunks of Cheese (spicy jack, cheddar)
Red onion in one inch slice, cut in sixths
jalapeno stuffed olives or black olives
fancy toothpicks

Take a chunk of salami and pierce it with the fancy toothpick. Take a piece of onion and pierce that. Then cheese and top with the olive. Easy, a bit time consuming, but everyone will love these. They look great and taste terrific.

Hard Boiled Egg Footballs
For those on a protein diet.

Hard Boiled Eggs
Brown Food Dye
White crayon

Using the white crayon, draw to lines that meet around the ends of the hard boiled egg to resemble the lines on a football. In between those lines make the little lace marks. Place eggs in food dye, until the desired brown is dyed.

'Tater Skins

Small red potatoes
Canola oil spray
celery salt
shredded cheeses
green chilis
bacon bits
green onion or chives

Sour cream or ranch dressing

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Clean and pierce your potatoes. Place them on a microwave safe plate. Nuke 'em for about 2-3 minutes per side. If they feel done, cut them in half. If not nuke 'em another minute or two. After you cut them in half, use a spoon and carve out a little bowl for your toppings. Discard extra potato or use it if you want to make twice baked skins. (See directions below for those) On a cookie sheet, place potato halves skin side up and spray with canola oil and then sprinkle them with celery salt. Place the cookies sheet in the oven and bake them for 8-10 minutes. Pull them from the oven, flip them over and top them with cheeses, chilis and bacon bits. Place them in the oven for 8-10 more minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve hot with sour cream or ranch dressing.

Twice Baked Tater Skins
Everyone loves them and you can make them with bacon or vegetarian style.

Follow the recipe above. Using the potato you scooped from skins, place in a bowl. Add a little butter and mash. Then add a little milk and mash. Once potato mix is mash potato consistency add a little cheese and chives. Fill baked seasoned skins with a spoonful of the potato mix and top as you would the skins as listed above.