Yep, Maxine expresses my sentiments exactly. Please don't hate me! I've never been one to watch sports. I just don't enjoy football. In fact, we weren't even home to watch the game that Sunday night. But I must admit, I LOVED reading about the food everyone was fixing for their Super Bowl parties! I've never had a Super Bowl party, so I decided I was going to fix the party food for dinners throughout the month and forget about the football watching :) :)
My first dish I wanted to fix was the number one Super Bowl dip, Seven Layer Taco Dip. I see why it has 5 stars. It's hearty and saucy and spicy all at the same time. I cut the recipe in half but wished I had used all of the beans. I really liked that depth of flavor.
This particular night I served the dip with Tostitos and Loosemeat Sandwiches II. I have made this recipe ever since I first got married 37 years ago. It's sort of like sloppy joes only not tomato based. I must admit I tweaked this recipe considerably. I added some onion to the ground beef and cooked it together. Then after adding the chicken gumbo soup and simmering a few minutes, I added 1 1/2 T. each of mustard and ketchup. I served it open faced on toasted rolls. My husband actually prefers this to sloppy joes.
The next Super Bowl dinner I made included Super Bowl Bites and Baked Potato Skins. Both have very high star scores. So I had high hopes for them. I rounded the meal off for my husband with chips and salsa. The little slider style hamburgers worried me just a bit. You actually put the raw meat on the buns and bake them in the oven. I was afraid the onion would be overpowering, but it wasn't. I thought the bottoms of the buns might be soggy, but they weren't. I can't imagine what went wrong since quite a few of the reviewers had issues. I just wonder if they followed the recipe. I put half the meat mixture on 12 Hawaiian Rolls (as the recipe said to do), and they were perfect.
The potato skins were out-of-this-world-fabulous! Great flavors and crispiness, too.
This meal really showed me why people love Super Bowl food. I may have to have these little hamburgers and potato skins more often.
As I scoured the AR Super Bowl articles, I discovered I had already fixed some recommended dishes and liked most of them: Fruit Dip II (I made this for my daughter's wedding in 2001), Bacon Wrapped Smokies (always a good appetizer), Jalapeno Popper Spread (very popular), Baked Ziti I (really?!?), and Artichoke and Spinach Dip Restaurant Style (not my favorite).
The next dish I made was Baked Buffalo Wings. I followed the recipe exactly and loved these wings. I had prepped this dish and left it in the refrigerator before leaving the house for the afternoon. My husband arrived home before I did, so I gave him instructions for combining the butter and Frank's Red Hot pepper sauce and then dipping the chicken wings and cooking them. When I arrived home, he informed me that I could throw out his beloved Louisiana Hot Sauce and replace it with Frank's.
One of the things I loved most about these wings, though, was that I got to try out Chef John's "patented flat wing eating technique." I have to tell you - I am so excited it works! If you've always gnawed those wings, STOP IT! Watch Chef John's video. It will change the way you eat wings.
As I said above, I was out all afternoon and ran in late. I gobbled down dinner and then had to leave for the evening. In all my hurry, I forgot to take pictures of this night's dinner. So I guess I have to be content to show pictures that other people took.
The other Super Bowl recipe I tried along with the wings was Buffalo Chicken Dip, and I am so sorry to report that my husband and I did not care for this dip at all (and that's putting it nice and gently). As much as we both liked Frank's, we didn't care for its overpowering flavor in this dip. This is when I really recognize people have such varying tastes and likes because this is a really highly rated recipe...and star ratings are based on people's tastes.
My final Super Bowl meal I had to try was Debdoozie's Blue Ribbon Chili. I've read about this for ages and have seen it was an extremely popular chili recipe for that night of football watching. Again, another 5 star recipe, so I had great expectations! And I wasn't disappointed. The great thing about this recipe is that it is so easy to fix...and even easier to eat. You can easily spice it up by using hotter salsa, but I preferred it with mild. Of course, my husband added cayenne pepper, which I fully expected. I still gave this recipe 5 stars.
So now, I don't feel left out of the football fun anymore. I had my Super Bowl extravaganza; it just lasted longer and stretched out over the entire month!
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