Superbowl Eats

The big game is this weekend! Are you going to watch....the commercials? That's about all I really care about this year, and even half of those I have already seen online. Being the advertising industry, I do find it fascinating how much money is spent for 15 seconds and that the payoff is great enough to come back and spend more the next year!

Anyways, I will be heading to a friends to watch the game on Sunday night and we are going to bring over chili cheese dip. This is probably one of the easiest, but tastiest dips to make. One can hormel chili (beans or without doesn't make a difference) and half of log of Velveeta. Chop up the velveeta to help it melt easier and set the crockpot on low to let it get all melty and gooey. Serve with tortilla chips.

Sorry I don't have a picture of that to share of my own but I found this one online from Hormel


And here are some other tried and true favorites of mine - Bacon wrapped Parmesan Crackers. These do take a few hours in the oven to make sure to give yourself enough lead time.

Put foil in the bottom of a jelly roll pan and then put cooling racks in the pan. Cover the racks with Club or Townhouse style crackers. Next put a teaspoon of grated Parmesan on top of each cracker and wrap a half piece of bacon around the cracker so that barely any cracker is visible. Repeat until you are out of bacon or crackers.

These cook "low and slow" 250 degrees for two hours. The bacon will be crispy and the cracker will have absorbed a lot of the grease. These are a huge hit and I bet you can't eat just one. Here are the full directions from my favorite blogger and TV show - Ree Drummond, Pioneer Woman. 

This next one is really fun and something I came up with before seeing the popularity of this on Pinterest -- Chicken and Waffle Sliders. I bought mini frozen waffles, a huge tray of chicken tenders from Sam's Club. I created my own "nugget" breading and cooked them off in the oven. I'm sure chicken nuggets from the frozen section would work just as good.

 Toast up the waffles and assemble. Use a warming tray or serve immediately.

I offered Syrup, BBQ and Ranch for dipping and the overall favorite was Syrup!

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts are a huge hit as well - anything with bacon really is. Here is the recipe we follow to make these bad boys!

And if these aren't enough for you, here are a few past blog posts of mine with more recipes:

Packers Playoff Game Snacks
Game Day Snacks
Party Snacks
Touchdown Deviled Eggs

Party Eats & Treats!

Today the Packers played a nerve-wracking game against the "dirty-playing" Lions. Though Aaron Rodgers went out early with an injury, he came back for the second half and (despite getting stepped on) threw some great passes for a Packers NFC North Championship WIN!

I invited my friends over and together we made a great buffet of eats. 

I made a large crockpot of sloppy joes. I used 3 lbs of locally sourced meat. My parents bought half a cow from Salentine Farms in Big Bend. It was processed at Sorg's in Fort Atkinson.

I browned it off, drained off the grease and added sloppy joe mix, carrots, celery, onion, worchestershire sauce, garlic powder and a bit of sirracha for a kick.(I don't think I added enough, but I was worried about over spicing it and then no one would like it). I served it on King's Hawaiian rolls and it was well received. I had very little left at the end of the game.

I also made Hissy Fit Dip, a big hit at my Super Bowl party last year. This pic is of the mixing stage but it's gooey, creamy, deliciousness when warmed up. I served it with carrots, celery, pretzels and tortilla chips. This was almost completely gone at the end of the game and people even enjoyed it on the sandwiches. I even just grabbed some Sloppy Joes (not on a bun) and then drizzled some of this dip over it and ate it with tortilla chips. I did really like it with carrot slices.

Other dishes that were brought to share included Oreo ball truffles, salsa, spinach dip, party potatoes (similar recipe) roasted cauliflower and lots of drinks.

Did you know in some states Party Potatoes are called Funeral Potatoes?? How odd! Party Potatoes is a much nicer name!

I made a fire in my fireplace to increase the ambiance and it was a nice touch! I love my fireplace, even though I only burn Duraflame-type logs in it. 

And we were even visited by two puppies - my friend Chris brought them over and the youngest is a lover of all things lap related. They were both very well behaved and helped bring that Packer win.

The next time the Packers play is on January 11 at noon. I'm not sure I'll be hosting as I have a work obligation that morning. But you better believe I will be watching it somewhere and eating some great tasting food!

Eating Las Vegas: Part 1

My company is celebrating 30 years in business in 2013 and back in January at our company Christmas party, my boss surprised us with a trip to Vegas! We were even invited to bring a guest!

I brought my friend Carolyn on the trip and we had a blast eating our way thru Vegas while site-seeing, relaxing and exploring.

Day 1:
We left on a Saturday morning and arrived in Vegas around noon their time, 2 pm our time. We were definitely hungry already!!!!!

We took the long-way to the Red Rock Casino and did a touristy trip down the strip with a great comical shuttle driver that entertained us on the not-so-well known history of Vegas as well as the new things being built. Our room wasn't ready when we got to the hotel, so what else do we do on vacation, but drink some beers and eat some yummy food! First stop - The Yard House.

I had stopped here with my dad on my trip to Vegas three years ago and loved the place. They have well over 100 beers on tap that run from the cooler room through yards of tubing around the restaurant and are poured at the perfect temperature for you to enjoy.

I started myself with a Rogue Hazelnut beer and stuck to just the pint size, though they did have larger (and smaller) options. Vacation was just starting - not time to get wasted!I found the Rogue Hazelnut at Woodman's today and added it to my "must-buy" list.  We decided to split a few appetizers instead of get a real meal. The menu had snacks and appetizers on it, so we chose from those areas as well as suggestions from our server.

Gouda Chicken Flatbread - The gouda was nice and melty and the peppers and chicken were good. I wished there was more cheese, but what Wisconsinite wouldn't?

Crab, Lobster & Artichoke Dip - Can you really go wrong with a dip? I think not - this was perfect on my palette. I preferred it spread on the pita pieces over the chips, but I'm pretty sure we cleaned the plate completely on this.

Ahi Poke - I had just watched an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives that featured this place in Hawaii. The closest I'm going to get to Hawaii for a few years it probably through that show and the Travel Channel, so when I saw this on the menu, I had to try it. It is marinated raw ahi tuna with avocado, carrots, daikon radish, macadamia nuts & crispy wonton to put it on. I am glad I tried it - it was nicely marinated and now I want to try other varieties. Anyone know where there is local Poke in Wisconsin?

 Our favorite was the crab, lobster & artichoke dip by far and all of it was a great start to our trip.

After a few more beers (Tripel Karmeliet, Rose Garden, Abita Purple Haze...and...?) and a few samples, we were full, feeling great and on our way to our room. It was time to get our vacation started! (PS - All of the beers we had were for the first time and I'm glad that I an find them in Wisconsin at Woodman's)

Day 2:
We started the morning with Starbucks (I know - not too exciting) and packed some water and granola bars for our Pink Jeep Tour in the Red Rock Canyon in open-air jeeps. (more on this soon). We were starving when we got back to the hotel at lunchtime and craved large juicy burgers. We were told by my coworkers that we had to check out LBS (pounds) for a good burger and had to have the Buffalo Chicken Dip. 

Of course, drinks were first! I went for a Raspberry Blush wine drink and Carolyn got a jalapeno bloody mary.

The buffalo chicken dip was spectacular. The chips were made in-house and the dip had just enough kick, when I avoided the peppers in it. The blue cheese was barely melted into the dip and cooled down the spicy-ness for me perfectly.

By the time the burgers came, we were pretty full. (scraping the dish completely clean and contemplating licking the plate will do that) . I got the Perfect Burger with Gruyere cheese, smoked bacon, frisee, roasted tomato, onion marmalade, their special sauce and herb mayo. They ask if you want pink or no pink for your meat and I went for pink so it wouldn't border on too dry. The burger was plenty juicy, the herb mayo and special sauce are awesome!
 

Carolyn got the Kansas City BBQ which is a burger topped with BBQ Pork, fire cracker onions, coleslaw and pickles. It was stacked sooooo tall. 

I was getting so full and needed more liquid to wash down the delicious, "hits the spot" burger, so a XXX drink was ordered. Yep - didn't finish my first drink before the second came so I was two-fisting. I ended up eating half of my burger on the bun and the other half, I took the bun away. Carolyn loved her burger as well and we were so glad we found this spot. 

Because we gorged on burgers and had spent a ton of time in the fresh air that morning, we decided to relax by the pool (in the shade because I'm so pale). We got a beer and chillaxed. We also had the evening and large portion of the next day off so some downtime was in order before our venture to The Strip. 

The Strip and the remainder of the trip are "to be continued." Yes we ate and drank more!!!! And I'll tell you now, even though Red Rock is 11 miles off the strip, I highly recommend staying there. The casino had everything that I could have wanted and probably more because I didn't even explore it all in the four days we were there. 

Viva Las Vegas!