Superbowl Food Report

Sure, there was football. And right up until the last minute or so it was a fabulous game. It's not that I particularly wanted the Seahawks to win, it's that I truly cannot stomach the Patriots. But we're not here to talk about football, we're here to talk about food!

It wasn't until I sat down to write this blog that I realized I never took a picture of the spread. Or of a full plate of food. But by golly I certainly got pictures of each step of each of the things I made! In addition to the three recipes you'll find here, we also had a nacho bar (tortilla chips, meat and beans, black olives, diced jalapenos, salsa, sour cream, diced onions, avocado, and melted cheese with Ro-Tel... each person made their own based on their own taste).

First, let's check out some Cheesy Bacon Ranch Bread from The Country Cook. I decided the second I saw this recipe I was going to have to make it, and a Superbowl party seemed like the perfect opportunity. Sourdough bread, cheddar cheese, bacon, butter, and ranch dressing mix. Easy enough, and while it's not exactly cheap it also didn't break the bank.

First step is to cut a grid almost all the way through the bread, leaving the bottom crust intact to form a base so the toppings won't fall through. This also holds the bread together until it's time to pull off the piece(s) you want.

Shove, stuff, and otherwise force as much bacon and cheese as you possibly can between the squares of bread. Really push it in there, getting it all the way to the bottom and making sure it goes into every gap. I bought two packages of bacon, but ended up only needing one. I also couldn't fit the full two cups of cheese, but I did use probably 3/4 of the bag. But you want to really stuff as much bacon and cheese in there as you can manage. This ain't no health food!

Melt the butter, and mix about a tablespoon of the ranch dressing mix into it. You can use more if you want, but be aware that ranch dressing mix is really salty and you've already got a bunch of bacon in there.

Spoon the butter mixture over the top of the entire loaf of bread. Make sure to get it everywhere, letting it soak into not just the bread but the bacon and cheese as well. From there, wrap the entire thing with foil and pop it in the oven for 15 minutes. Then unwrap and bake another 10 or so minutes to completely melt the cheese.

We couldn't wait for all the cheese to melt. Didn't matter. It was amazing! Every mouthful had an almost perfect combination of sourdough, bacon, cheese, and buttery ranch.

See? Perfect! The only thing I wish is that I'd cut the bread a little deeper, since it was kind of hard to pull the bread apart. But whatever. Flavour makes up for effort, and it certainly was no tragedy to have to lick our fingers repeatedly.

Cheesy Bacon Ranch Bread

Serves 6

(I say 6 because that's how many people we had and I had to pick something to figure nutrition information. Your mileage will vary.)

Ingredients
1 round loaf of sourdough (or similar) bread
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup-3/4 cup chopped cooked bacon
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tbsp. dry ranch dressing mix
Remember, this one isn't my recipe. I found it at The Country Cook.

Serving Size: 149 g

Calories: 583

Calories from Fat: 316

Total Fat: 35.1 g

Saturated Fat: 20.0 g

Trans Fat: 0.0 g

Cholesterol: 96 mg

Sodium: 1176 mg

Total Carbohydrates: 43.5 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.8 g

Sugars: 2.2 g

Protein: 23.7 g

Up next is a fabulous recipe I found at Oh, Bite It!, called Doritos Cheese Ball Bites. I suspect I will be making these for several occasions, because not only are they easy, they're incredibly tasty!

Simple ingredients, too. I made a double batch (one with diced jalapenos, one without). Cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, salsa, and Doritos. The original recipe shows them served with a sliced jalapeno on top, but I just added some diced jalapenos to the cheeses. Worked like a charm!

It's not required that you use a food processor, but boy is it easier! First step is to crush some Doritos to fine crumbs. I didn't measure (or take a picture, apparently), I just put a bunch of them in there and ended up with pretty much the perfect amount. Dump them into a bowl and set them aside.

Combine a block of cream cheese with a cup of cheddar cheese and two tablespoons of salsa. (For the ones I did with jalapenos, I added about 2 tablespoons of those, drained, as well). Pulse until completely combined, scraping down the sides to ensure all ingredients are mixed in.

The bowl at the top is the crushed Doritos, the one on the left has jalapenos, and the one of the right just has salsa. It helps if you refrigerate the cheese mixture(s) for at least a few minutes before trying to roll it into balls. I also found wetting my hands to be helpful.

Roll the cheese mixture into balls about the size of a superball, then roll them in Doritos. I just put them straight onto a serving platter, but you can do whatever you want. The recipe says to put them on waxed paper and then refrigerate them. That would work, but I served mine right away so they were very squishy instead of overly firm.

By the way, they are NOT this orange! My camera kept taking the red in the background and applying it to the Doritos to make a kind of disturbing colour. They're really the colour of Doritos, which as you know is not ohmygod orange/red.

See? Regular Doritos colour. What was nice about them being squishy was that you could either just eat them as they were, or you could put them on crackers (I bought cracked black pepper and olive oil Triscuits) and sort of flatten them so they didn't roll off.

Doritos Cheese Ball Bites

Serves 15

1-8oz. block of cream cheese..room temp.
1 tbsp. Rotel OR salsa
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup crushed Doritos

Credit for this recipe goes to Oh, Bite It!.

Serving Size: 29 g

Calories: 111

Total Fat: 9.1 g

Saturated Fat: 5.1 g

Trans Fat: 0.2 g

Cholesterol: 25 mg

Sodium: 122 mg

Total Carbohydrates: 4.3 g

Protein: 3.5 g

*Nutrition information does not include crackers or jalapenos. It also is based on 15 cheese balls per recipe, but I got about twice that many.

And then there was pie. This one was actually a picture posted on Facebook by Love Inspired Books, and my goodness is it amazing! Stupid easy, too. Six Hershey bars, 16 ounces of Cool Whip, 1 graham cracker crust. That's it. I briefly considered buying a chocolate cookie crust instead, but I'm really glad I didn't. This thing is some kind of rich!

Break your Hershey bars into pieces and place them in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave them on high for about 1 minute 30 seconds, cooking only 30 seconds at a time and stirring between each.

What you should come out with is a bowl of melty, chocolately goodness. Use a larger bowl than I did! I was thinking in terms of how big a bowl I'd need to melt the chocolate, completely disregarding the fact that I also needed to fit 16 ounces of Cool Whip in there.

However, I did prevail. I had bought two 8-ounce containers because not only are they cheaper than buying a big one in the first place, they were on sale. Which served me well here, actually. I stirred one container into the chocolate until it was completely combined, which then made it considerably easier to stir in the second container.

You're not using the plastic cover that comes with the pie crust to cover this one. The filling sits up a good couple of inches over the top of the crust. I wasn't at all cross about that.

The sprinkles are optional. Since we were cheering for the Seahawks, I chose some bright green sugar and some blue sprinkles to decorate the top. The extra sugar is not necessary, but it was fun for us.

Seriously amazing pie! We had six people, so that's how many servings we cut it into. I think eight would have been fine, and quite possibly 10. Like I said, this is some kind of rich! But very easy...I think it took me maybe 5 minutes to make it, and it was in the refrigerator for probably about four hours before we ate it.

Hershey's Bar Pie

Serves 6

6 Hershey Bars (may substitute Hershey's Bars with Almonds)

16 ounces Cool Whip (refrigerated, not frozen)

1 9-inch graham cracker crust

Thank you to Love Inspired Books for posting this! It's a keeper.

Serving Size: 123 g

Calories: 494

Calories from Fat: 297

Total Fat: 33.0 g

Saturated Fat: 26.0 g

Trans Fat: 0.0 g

Cholesterol: 10 mg

Sodium: 64 mg

Total Carbohydrates: 45.9 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.6 g

Sugars: 41.2 g

Protein: 4.5 g

Here's a thing you may have noticed... Nowhere in this entire thing do you see any of my counters, my table, or any of my dishes. That's because the Superbowl party was at my niece's house. I brought all my ingredients over and made everything in her kitchen. But even though the surroundings aren't familiar, rest assured that these are my photos, and I did actually make each of these recipes. You will never find a photo here I did not take unless it's one a friend or relative took and gave me permission to use (in which case they will be given credit for it).

Now to start planning for next year's Superbowl, which will hopefully have at least one team we actually like in it!