The Super Bowl, happening a week from tomorrow, is one of America’s favorite reasons to party. This will be I think my 31st year of hosting friends for eating and drinking and TV watching. We’ve seen Joe Montana, John Elway, Tom Brady (a lot), and Janet Jackson (nobody noticed in real time). If you’re not a football fan, I hope you have some occasion to entertain and use these ideas.
I wrote about party food before, here and here, and ninkasi23 wrote about party food here.
I’ll be using some of the recipes from those diaries, and also these new ones.
Buffalo Chicken Dip
from Frank’s RedHot — about 4 cups, serves a lot
a friend-of-a-friend brought this to their tailgater last fall. My friend Joan tried it and said “let’s get out of here before I eat it all”. There are a lot of variations on this recipe, some with cheddar cheese not blue, but they’re all rich spicy cheesy deliciousness.
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 (8 oz. pkg.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup FRANK'S RedHot® Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce or FRANK'S RedHot® Buffalo Wings Sauce
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
- PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon into shallow 1-quart baking dish.
- BAKE 20 minutes or until mixture is heated through; stir. Sprinkle with green onions, if desired, and serve with chips, crackers and/or veggies.
Bacon Jam Appetizers
serves a lot
This is inspired by an appetizer from LB Steak in San Jose CA, pictured at top. I’m going to use water crackers for smaller single servings.
crisp flatbread or crackers
Bacon Onion Jam (recipe below)
thinly sliced pears
brie cut in medium chunks
arugula leaves
Spread jam on the cracker, add a slice of pear and a piece of cheese, garnish with arugula.
Bacon-Onion Jam
from Chef John
The delicious version at LB Steak was flavored with bourbon; I will probably put this in at the end instead of the balsamic vinegar.
1 1/2 pounds bacon, chopped
2 teaspoons butter
4 large yellow onions, diced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, divided
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Place bacon in a large, heavy-bottomed pot and cook over medium heat until bacon is crispy and the rendered fat is foaming, about 10 minutes. Pour bacon and rendered fat into a strainer placed over a bowl to drain fat. When fat is drained and bacon is cool enough to handle, remove bacon to a cutting board and finely chop.
- Return pot to medium heat; drizzle 2 teaspoons reserved bacon fat and butter in pan. Saute onions and 1 teaspoon salt until soft and translucent, 7 to 10 minutes.
- Stir brown sugar, sherry vinegar, 1 teaspoon thyme leaves, black pepper, and cayenne into onion mixture; add bacon. Stir water into bacon mixture and cook until jam is a brick-brown bacon color and has a jam consistency, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon thyme into jam; stir until shiny and heated through.
In addition to finger food I have a main dish too, which comes out after halftime. Clearly this should be something that was prepared well ahead of time and reheated in a crockpot so I can continue enjoying my party. I’ve done chili, and pulled pork sandwiches, and clam chowder for a previous Patriots game, but my favorite is gumbo. I think I’ll put my gumbo recipe in my next WFD; if you like the idea so much you need a recipe now, here’s a WFD from thenekkidtruth (that’s some really authentic Cajun food— squirrel gumbo LOL).
Dinner here will probably be salad and lentil soup. What’s for dinner at your place? Take a picture and tell us about it for a future WFD. Message ninkasi23 about this.