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.

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.

Football Foods

Football Season is here! Football Foods are a necessity. There are plenty of things you can toss in the crock pot, that will be ready in a few hours that are out of this world delish! Below you will find a few recipes for Good Eats! These will get you to Superbowl!

Buffalo Chicken Legs

One dozen Chicken Legs (or more depending on the size of your Crock Pot.)
Lawry's Garlic Salt
Pepper

Sprinkle the bottom of the Crock pot with the seasonings. Put the Chicken Legs, meaty end down in the Crock pot. Sprinkle with more seasonings. Depending on how much time you have cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours. The legs will cook and skin will turn golden in the crock pot. When legs are cooked, drain broth from pot. (Reserve broth to make soup with or toss it) Mix the 2 ingredients below.

Red Rooster Hot Louisiana Sauce
1/4 - 1/2 cup melted Butter

Pour sauce over legs in the crock pot. Make sure legs get covered in the spicy stuff. Leave them in the crock pot until ready to serve. Turn crock pot to warm or low.

Serve with Ranch dressing and a few celery or carrot sticks.

Sweet and Spicy Meatballs

3 bags Papa Luigi's Meatballs (12 per bag) or 36 homemade pre-cooked Meatballs
1 cup Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet Vidalia Onion barbecue sauce
1/4 cup Wilcox honey (our friends keep bees and their bees make the best honey)
3 Tablespoons Knott's Boysenberry Jam

Put Meatballs in the crock pot. In a bowl combine the BBQ sauce, honey and jam. Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Microwave another 30 seconds. Stir. Repeat until sauce is well combined and the pour over meatballs. Stir until all meatballs are sauced. Keep on low heat for about 4-5 hours or high for 2-3 hours. These are delish! Serve with fun toothpicks.

Anything Wrapped in SWINE is Devine

Yep, unless you do not dine on swine, anything wrapped in bacon is simply devine. The first memory I have of eating bacon wrapped things is back in the 80's at my cousin Patty's house. She made Bacon Wrapped Dates. As a little kid the dates scared me. But I did not mind pulling the crispy, salty bacon off the date and eating it. The date actually gave my bacon strip a yummy taste.

My sister Jessica, who is a foodie too, has stumbled across 2 delicious Bacon Wrapped recipes. One is Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies and the other is Bacon Wrapped Crackers. I made both last night (for Superbowl as the assembly is time consuming) and they are fantastic. You must check this site out. http://www.thepioneerwomancooks.com/ The pioneer woman cooks, photographs and explains things in such a lovely way. Thank you Pioneer Woman.

My Boyfriends family makes a special Bacon-Wrapped Delicacy for family get togethers.

O'Brien-Fiello Family Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts

Thin sliced bacon strips cut in half
whole canned water chestnuts
toothpicks
teriyaki sauce

Take a water chestnut, wrap it with the bacon and fix it with a toothpick. Do this until your ingredients are used up. Put them in a tupperware container and marinate in the teriyaki sauce overnight in the 'frige or for a few hours before you plan to cook and serve them.

Place Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts on a cookie sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes in a 375 degree oven. If the bacon is not browned and sizzling, sometimes I put the appetizers on a plate and microwave for a minute or so.

Other suggestions for items to be wrapped in bacon are...

artichoke hearts
asparagus (you can have these little numbers at the Bengel Barbecue at DISNEYLAND)
scallops
shrimp
small pieces of chicken (pre-cooked)

It is also fun to try using different types of bacon; applewood smoked, maple bacon, peppered bacon. The possibilities are endless. I have NOT tried turkey bacon. I looked at it when I was at the market yesterday but I was a bit afraid to try it. SO, if you happen to try it, let me know how it turns out. Enjoy!

*** I tried the turkey bacon. It is a bit difficult to wrap. Tastes vaguely like pork bacon, but looks extremely processed. But, people did eat them. They did not disappear like it's pork relative but they were edible.

SUPERBOWL Eats

It's Superbowl time again. I really enjoy Superbowl. I am not a huge fan of football, but I do enjoy spending time with family and partaking in the Superbowl Cuisine. I usually bring some appetizers to the party. I bring Pigs In a Blanket, made with Lil Smokies and Crescent Rolls and Potato Skins with lots of Green Chilis, cheese and bacon!

For a different yet very creative appetizer, I want to make hardboiled eggs. You ask hard boiled eggs? Yep, hard boiled eggs for those still continuing their New Year's Resolve to Diet on protein and hard boiled eggs because I am going to make them so Superbowl-riffic!

Take a dozen or two hard boiled eggs. Use a white crayon and draw the football design on your eggs. Two lines that connect. One around the top of the egg and one on the bottom, then make three small lines one one side of egg for the threads of the football. Set aside.

Prepare your brown food coloring as you would to dye eggs and dye them. Your hard boiled eggs will look like footballs. How Superbowl appropriate is that?

SUPERBOWL ALL BEEF CHILI

3 pounds chili grind ground beef
1 medium onion diced
1 Tbs minced garlic
Salt and pepper

Brown the above in a skillet. Drain fat and dump meat into the crockpot.

1 large jar Pace Picante Sauce
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 bag Carrol Shelby's Chili Kit

Pour Picante Sauce and diced tomatoes over meat and stir. Open the Chili kit bag and add the Chili seasoning packet to the tomato and meat mixture. Add the salt to taste and cayenne pepper if you like a spicy chili.

If you like a thicker chili mix the masa packet from the Chili kit with 1/4 cup water and then add to your chili.

Let the crockpot do the cooking. Low heat for 4-6 hours. The crockpot makes the meat tender and boils all the flavors together.

Layer the bottom of your bowl with Fritos Scoops corn chips. Pour a scoop or two of the all beef chili onto your chips. Then top with one or more of the following...

Grated Cheddar cheese and or Monterey Jack cheese
chopped onion or green onion
dollop of sour cream