This is a guest post by Sarah Sprague.

With the city of Los Angeles putting the final touches on their push to bring the NFL back to LA… What? You don’t live in Los Angeles and have no idea what is going on with football here other than UCLA Head Coach Jim Mora is getting into fights with the local media and that USC’s pre-season darling Matt Barkley has a head start on being yet another disappointing Trojan quarterback, hopefully saving us pro football fans the agony of seeing another Leinart/Sanchez/Palmer/Booty stink up the NFL? (Although you could make the argument that Palmer’s career struggles are in part the fault of Kimo von Oelhoffen, but you’ll never convince me Palmer’s injury wasn’t accidental.)

Let’s bring everyone outside of the Southland up to speed. Last Friday, the LA City Council unanimously approved the plan brought forth by the Anschutz Entertainment Group to build a new 76,000-seat stadium in downtown Los Angeles, nestled between between Staples Center, the 10/110 interchange and the LA Convention Center, which will need to have one wing torn down and replaced with another larger wing at a cost of $315 million to fit Farmer’s Field — naming rights that cost Farmer’s Insurance $700 million in early 2011. The council’s approval includes fast-tracking state environmental impact studies, which has been met with some community opposition over the legality of California SB 292 which sends all opposition filings over Farmers Field and Convention Center development directly to the court of appeals in addition to concerns over affordable housing for workers (like that exists for anyone else in Los Angeles) due in part to housing lost with the building of LA Live next door (echoes of Chavez Ravine, but with fewer bulldozers), mass transportation issues, and the general quality of life questions that come up every time a major city looks to build something of this magnitude.

But let’s back up for a second. Just two weeks ago, Philip Anschutz announced he was looking to sell his AEG subsidary, which among other things owns Staples Center, LA Kings, LA Galaxy. Is there someone who wants to buy a large entertainment company that is committing to build a $1.5 billion stadium? Meet Patrick Soon-Shiong, Los Angeles’s richest person and medical billionaire who failed to buy the Dodgers just a few years ago, who is likely to bid on AEG in a partnership with new Dodger owners, the Guggenheim Group.

Right. You need an NFL team to have a stadium. Over the summer Roger Goodell sent a memo the entire league stating that applications to move a team for the 2013 season had to be submitted between January 1 and February 15, 2013. Maybe they can play at the Rose Bowl and to help defray the cost of their over-budget renovations until Farmer’s Field is ready in 2018, except there is a pretty vocal group of Pasadena residents against any NFL team playing in their neighborhood, especially the former Los Angeles Raiders, with one local requesting that impact studies, “include a mitigation measure that the [Oakland] Raiders not be included as a possible NFL team.”

What about the rival plan in the City of Industry headed by Majestic that is supposedly shovel ready to be the first LEED-certified stadium in the country? Well, they do have a pretty active Twitter feed about tailgating, which they will have more room for than Farmer’s Field would under the current design.

All of which is a long walk to get to what I really wanted to talk about, football snacks.

If Dodger Stadium is already famous for the Dodger Dog, the most glorified ten-inches of meat in Hollywood outside of Milton Berle, the next Los Angeles home of an NFL franchise should embrace the best of LA hot dogs for its tailgates and concourses. Not Pinks, not Carney’s and not Scooby’s, although I do love the latter’s bacon cheddar dog and garlic aioli with chips.

Pro football needs the LA street dog.

The LA street dog — or “danger dogs” as locals like to call them — are found at the ubiquitous hot dog carts that pop-up outside of bars at closing time, after Staples Center, Rose Bowl, Coliseum and Hollywood Bowl events, and even just on random street corners with heavy pedestrian foot traffic. The name “danger” comes from in part, well, the danger. These bacon-wrapped hot dogs are cooked on giant steel cookie sheets along side onions, green peppers and jalapenos over hot coals or sterno in shopping carts. If you’re lucky, the person making the dogs have coolers for their hot dogs, bacon and mayonnaise, but don’t be surprised to see everything that is going onto the pan in a large bag just behind the cart.

Sure, there are a few licensed hot dog vendors that sell LA’s version of a Sonoran dog, most notably around Santee Alley in the Fashion District downtown, and hip burger joints like 25 Degrees put fancy street dogs with queso fresco on their menu, but the best ones are the hot dogs that have been turned dozens, if not hundreds, of times on the street. You smell them first, the fatty bacon, the sweetness of the onions and peppers mixing with the smoke of the charcoal that could easily ignite the sidewalk around it. Then you hear the sellers call of, “hot dog, hot dog, hot dog” before you can even see them through the crowd, spinning the dogs with tongs in one hand while adding buns to the vegetable pile to steam with the other hand. Even the most ardent Whole Foods-shopping Angeleno cannot deny the intoxicating smell of the late-night danger dog. Why? Because they’re delicious and they hit all the right spots after a couple of beers; fatty, salty, crunchy and meaty. Which is to say, they’re perfect for watching football.

Except that they’re really hard to make at home.

Go to enough tailgates and barbecues in Los Angeles and you’ll see people over and over again trying to replicate the street dog at home without success. The bacon becomes unspooled from the hot dog even when held in place with toothpicks, the hot dog is raw while the bacon is burnt, the onions are caramelized and not just softened, roasting fifteen jalapenos for every one hot dog. Every attempt almost always fails. Like others before me trying to get down the technique of perfect pork-hugged hot dog, I’ve stood and watched the hot dog sellers work their carts long enough to be asked if I was “policia” about to throw their cart in the trash. What I finally figured out after all of my hot dog stalking was that the secret to a good LA street dog was the extreme length of time it took to make each dog over the medium-low heat while constant turning the meat. I also decided after enough failed attempts that I could get the same dog taste at home for football with a lot less time and effort by making the bacon first and then cook everything in bacon fat.

Readers who have followed my Football Foodie posts for the past five seasons know I usually give pretty detailed measurements and recipes, but since this is a scalable item based on demand, here is the ratio of ingredients to use:

Dice the bacon and cook in a large skillet or flat grill top over medium heat until just about crispy. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels, reserving at least two or three tablespoons of bacon fat in the pan to cook the onions and peppers in depending on how many hot dogs you are making.

Still over medium heat, cook the diced onions, green peppers and jalapenos until the the onions are almost translucent.

Nestle in your hot dogs in the onion and pepper mixture and cook through, turning every two or three minutes depending on how hot your stove top runs.

Just about when your hot dogs are done, reduce the heat to low add the diced bacon back to the pan and place the hot dog buns on top of the hot dogs, onions, peppers and bacon to steam for a few minutes. If your skillet lid is high enough to cover the height of your bacon dog masterpiece, you can speed up the steaming by covering the the pan but it’s not necessary.

Once the buns are soft, give each one a touch of mayo (or leave it off if you’re a mayonnaise hater like Ufford and use salsa in its place), slide on a dog and then top with the bacon, onion, peppers and jalapeno mix.

Enjoy and imagine what it’s going to be like to cheer for (or against) the San Diego Chargers of Los Angeles via Anaheim.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here.

The post Deconstructed LA Street ‘Danger’ Dogs: Football Foodie Future appeared first on Kissing Suzy Kolber.

Ape already touched on this earlier in the week, but I wanted to come back to the ridiculous father-son fight outside of a Buffalo Wild Wings over a bet and the Cleveland Browns that ended in a stabbing. Already displaying a poor sense of judgement by going to a Buffalo Wild Wings when there are perfectly good Quaker Steak & Lubes in Ohio, these fans two broke two of cardinal rules of gambling; don’t gamble with your family and don’t bet on your own team.

I bring this up because this is just more fodder for the moralizers like Bernard Goldberg, who in the latest episode of Real Sports pined for a more civilized time when people wore suits to ballgames and started every conversation with “my dear fellow” before preventing any blacks on the field or in the stadium. Goldberg believes these sort of fan fights are a reflection of a coarser society, that the cruel outside world is ruining the perfect bubble of sportsmanship in the stands. This is of course nonsense, and the fact we make big deal of the small pockets of misbehavior when they do happen shows just how unusual fan violence is. Outside of Braves fans (sorry, baseball) throwing trash on the field last week over an infield fly rule or an entire stadium of Ravens fans yelling the dirty version of what my dad called “bullpucky”, mass organized violence isn’t just around the bend at every game. When 30,000 people die after a bad Seahawks game, then we can say a debased society is ruining sports.

Hot Bean and Chimichurri Dip and South American Choripan Sandwiches

A long day of football often calls for a hearty dip, especially if you don’t feel like mucking over a grill or with a fryer on a particular game day. This is an easy, filling baked bean dip that doesn’t require a lot of hands on time in the kitchen, leaving you plenty of time to wish you hadn’t benched that no-good crumb-bum Kenny Britt on your fantasy team. Adding chimichurri sauce to the beans not only brings a lot of extra flavor to the little legumes, it also works to thin out the mixture to make for easier chip scooping.

Before we start, a few words about chimichurri. There are a lot of bastardizations of chimichurri sauce on the internet. Some call for a cilantro or arugula, others throw in unnecessary ingredients like capers or chipotle, and too many call for the use of a food processor. No. Those recipes are not a classic chimichurri. This is not a South American pesto. Chimichurri is a course, rich sauce meant to let the parsley and garlic shine with just a hint of heat from the red pepper flakes, the weight of the olive oil cut by the sharpness of the red wine vinegar, together creating a perfect balance that enhances the flavor of whatever you use it on; steak, eggs, on plain bread or in this case, on some beans as a dip.

Allow for at least one or two hours to let the chimichurri sauce’s flavor to develop, so either make the sauce in the morning before you are ready to make your dip or the night before.

You will need:

1 cup chopped flat leaf (Italian) parsley (approximately one medium-large bunch of leaves)
1 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1-2 teaspoons of kosher salt (to taste)
dash of ground pepper (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (optional)

16 ounces (2 cups) refried beans, preferably low fat vegetarian beans (Don’t worry, you’re adding a bunch of fat back with the chimichurri sauce.)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
15-16 ounces (approximately 2 cups) black beans, drained

1/4-1/2 cup total of shredded sharp cheddar, monterrey jack or pepper jack cheese

Pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream (optional)

In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix together the chopped parsley, olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and ground pepper. Cover and set aside to allow the flavor to develop for at least an hour or two. If making the night before, refrigerate but allow the chimichurri to come back to room temperature before serving.

When ready to make the bean dip, preheat oven to 350º.

Combine the refried beans with the garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, and cayenne. Do not give into the temptation to add random spices like paprika or put 1/4 cup of cayenne in the beans, you want just a hint of seasoning in your beans as not to overpower the chimichurri sauce.

Spread the refried beans evenly on a medium ovenproof platter, then top with the black beans. Spoon about about 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup of the chimichurri sauce over the bean mixture. Add a layer of cheese to the desired level of cheesiness.

Place the platter on a cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese has melted and the edge of the beans are bubbling.

Remove from the oven and top with guacamole, pico de gallo and sour cream and serve with tortilla chips.

Some of the oil will separate to the bottom of the dish, keeping your beans moist and rich. Don’t worry about it. One of my friends calls that the “ring of awesome” around the dip.

Serves 2-3 very hungry people, 4-5 as a side or not so hungry people.

But what about that leftover chimichurri sauce? Well, it’s an excuse to make one of the greatest of South American sandwiches, a choripan.

You will need per sandwich:

1 fresh chorizo sausage
1 crusty roll
Chimichurri sauce
Mayonnaise (optional, traditional in some South American countries)

Either grill or pan fry the chorizo. Once cooked, butterfly the sausage and return to the heat to brown the meat on the inside.

Serve the chorizo on a roll with a hefty spoonful of chimichurri. Perfection, unlike Shaun Suisham’s 2012 season. (Thinks of the ball falling short by a yard, dies all over again typing this post. Realizes it’s another ten days before the Steelers can hope to reach .500 on the season. Dies a little bit inside.)

If you still have some leftover chimichurri sauce, don’t worry. Because it contains so much oil, chimichurri sauce will last about a week in the refrigerator, allowing you to spread it on whatever you like for the rest of your week.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here.

The post Hot Bean and Chimichurri Dip, South American Choripans: Football Foodie Sauced appeared first on Kissing Suzy Kolber.

We’ve reached that awful point of the NFL season where there is an incredible imbalance on the Sunday schedule, a bunch of early games and then only two or three games with a 4 ET/1 PT kickoffs. This inequity drags on until after Thanksgiving, giving us plenty of weeks like this week where we only get Jets-Pats and Jaguars-Raiders with the late start, which means you need to be ready for brunch drinking to handle the massive onslaught of early games. (And by onslaught, I mean the Texans-Ravens matchup gets my vote for Sunday morning, but I wouldn’t object to watching Washington-Giants or Browns-Colts.)

Earlier this season I had a chance to talk with Holly Anderson over at SI’s Campus Union about tailgating and she asked what were my favorite football snack and drink to have during a game. My answer was that they’re the same thing, a Bloody Mary. I’ve written many times about how I love watching football on the West Coast because you wake up and it’s game time and brunch time, which makes the Bloody Mary a perfect match for the early games. It’s restorative and energizing, the perfect mix of booze and savory juice to perk you up. Add a large enough garnish and you’ve pretty much got a meal in a glass. What could make your liquid meal even better? Have it be inspired by one of the greatest football snacks of all time, pizza.

Pizza Bloody Mary

Long time readers of the Football Foodie series know that the recipes posted are testing over a period of time. Some come easy, some take several attempts to get just right, some just never work. This one, this one took some love. Many pitchers of Pizza Bloody Mary mix were made. And frustratingly enough, the easy way of making it actually turned out to be just as good as doing it the hard way. Which way you want to make it depends on how prominent you want the taste of tomatoes in your drink.

The easy method of making a pizza inspired Bloody Mary gives you just that, pizza in a glass without all the cheese and crust nonsense. The slightly harder version of boiling down tomatoes like you were making a pizza sauce from scratch gives you a brighter, more tomato-y drink. I won’t think less of you if you only try the easy way, nor will I think you’re crazy for making it the more difficult way. Your kitchen, your taste, your rules.

Except for one rule; you’re going to need to make your Pizza Bloody Mary mix ahead of time so it has time to properly chill and let the flavors even out, preferably the night before and no longer than three days before serving. And use fresh basil over dried in both recipes, dried basil is pretty worthless. Okay, so two rules.

Easy method:

48 ounces of tomato juice, preferably low-sodium
2-3 tablespoons minced basil, about six good-sized basil leaves
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed, plus more for garnish
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar

NO SALT. You’ll notice this method does use any salt. Processed tomato juice already contains a fair amount of salt, even the reduced sodium juices have more than enough salt for your Bloody Mary base.

In a large covered sauce pan, bring all the ingredients to a gentle boil over medium heat and then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 20 minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool. Once cooled, transfer to a large pitcher or other container and chill overnight in the refrigerator.

Follow Bloody Mary drink mixing directions below.

Slightly more difficult method:

(2) 28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes or 3-3 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, stems removed
1 large onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tablespoons minced basil, about six good-sized basil leaves
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed, plus more for garnish
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for garnish
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Combine everything in a large covered stock pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20-30 minutes if using crushed tomatoes and 30-40 minutes if using ripe tomatoes, enough time for the tomatoes to boil down and the onions to soften. After cooking down the tomatoes, remove from heat and allow to cool.

After your tomato base has cooled, transfer to a blender and liquify in batches or puree the whole thing in the pot with an immersion blender.

Using either a food mill, a fine mesh sieve or a cheesecloth, force through the mix to remove the solids. Transfer to a large pitcher or other container and chill overnight in the refrigerator. Don’t worry if this yields a rather thick Bloody Mary mix, you’ll be thinning it out with ice and vodka soon enough.

Embellishments: Rim the glass with a mix of kosher salt and crushed dried oregano, garnish with thinly sliced pepperoni, fresh mozzarella balls, green pepper and black olives. (If you get about 1/4 pound of pepperoni from the deli, you can make more than enough garnishes for your Bloody Marys and have snacks for the next game.)

When ready to make your pizza Bloody Mary, fill a pint glass halfway to 3/4 full with ice. Measure in 1 1/2 ounces of vodka and top with bloody mary mix. Transfer to a cocktail shaker and give a vigorous mixing, like it’s Jim Harbaugh’s neck and you either lost in fantasy because it wasn’t Frank Gore getting the ball at the goal line or because the declined safety cost you your parlay.

Pour back into a oregano and kosher salt rimmed pint glass and garnish.

This drink get a decent amount of heat from the red pepper flakes in the Pizza Bloody Mary mix, but if you prefer a spicier drink, use a pepper or jalapeno infused vodka in your cocktail. Either at a morning tailgate or when you roll out of bed at ten (or noon) just in time for kickoff, a the little extra kick of heat in your Pizza Bloody Mary gets you going just a little faster.

Yields approximately 6 drinks.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here, or for more football brunch recipes go here. You should also really follow that link to Campus Union, there is a recipe for a whole roasted pig there.

The post Pizza Bloody Mary: Football Foodie Brunch Cocktails appeared first on Kissing Suzy Kolber.

Since I talked at length about the future of the NFL in Los Angeles just a few Football Foodie posts ago, I figured I should pass along the latest rumors that came out of the recent team owners meeting. Jason La Canfora reported earlier this week that sources within the meeting, “essentially ruled out a move for next season and expressed some concerns about the feasibility of a downtown stadium.” These same sources expressed interest in having an LA NFL venue as a part of the Dodgers Stadium renovation, which if the majority of NFL owners lived here on a full-time basis would realize Chavez Ravine is actually harder to get to via car or public transportation than downtown Los Angeles. There’s also the locally sticky issue of the land around Dodger Stadium still being under the control of former-Dodgers owner and bankrupter Frank McCourt, the least popular person in LA — a pretty rough scale considering this is also the home of Harvey Levin, the Kardashians and Mel Gibson.

The sudden cold feet seems to be in response AEG being in the market for a new owner and the league worrying about how much money new investors will want to put into a stadium deal anywhere in the city. So relax Jaguars, Chargers, Rams and Raider fans; your teams are probably safely ensconced in your towns for at least a few extra years.

Slow Cooked Turkey Sandwiches with Spicy Remoulade Sauce

When I was in New York over the summer, I had a chance to try the legendary roasted turkey sandwich at Parm. It was a good, well-roasted sandwich and it got me thinking about how I usually prepare my own turkey sandwiches. Typically I’m a “Thanksgiving on a bun” type of a turkey fan, but maybe making such a rich sandwich more than a couple of times a year is overdoing it both in taste and effort. Let a moist turkey take the forefront instead of playing in the background behind heavy gravy and stuffing. Parm’s roasted turkey is served with a spicy dressing, but not wanting to recreate their exact offering, I decided to go with a thicker remoulade for this sandwich for a bit more body and contrasting texture from the cornichons and capers.

One way to make a great turkey breast for sandwiches is by salting the meat like you would cure pork for bacon. The so-called “dry-brining” technique of prepping poultry is one of the easiest and most effective ways of making sure your turkey or chicken comes out succulent and moist. A method first popularized by Judy Rodgers at her Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, her salt rub style was featured in Cook’s Illustrated in the mid-aughts and it revolutionized the way home cooks prepared their holiday turkeys. No longer did people have to wrestle with giant pots of salted water taking up their entire refrigerators, the salt alone could redistribute the bird’s own natural juices while slightly changing the structural make-up of the meat so it would retain even more valuable water during cooking. (For the record, I was never a wet-brine fan. I would always make turkey with pounds of butter to keep it moist. With this method I don’t bother adding much fat, even when roasting a whole bird in the oven.)

And rather than worrying about constantly checking on a turkey in the oven on game day, why not just put everything in a slow cooker which is not only easier, it also ensures an extra juicy turkey. By going the extra yard of using a slow cooker which keeps all of the liquids in the pot instead cooking in a drying oven — good for crispy skin, bad for poultry — you get a firm, tender turkey without the typical dryness or mealiness.

The aromatic herbs, crisp white wine and mirepoix of onions, carrots and celery will steam their favor deep into the bird, its richness creating a perfect foil for the kick of remoulade.

Slow Cooked Turkey

5 pound turkey breast
2 tablespoons kosher salt, plus a pinch more for seasoning
1/2 medium onion, roughly diced
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
2-3 stalks of celery, sliced, leaves reserved
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chicken stock, preferably low sodium stock
1/2 cup crisp white wine, like a pinot grigio or a sauvignon blanc
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted
generous pinch cracked pepper
Small bunch of herbs; few sprigs each of thyme, sage, flat-leaf parsley and the reserved celery leaves

If you do not want to cook with wine, use 1 full cup of chicken stock.

Spicy Remoulade Sauce

8 ounces (1 cup) mayonnaise
1 tablespoon finely chopped cornichons, about three cornichons
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon capers, chopped
1 tablespoon stone ground mustard
1 glove garlic, minced
1 tablespoons chopped scallions, white section (about 1-2 scallions worth)
1 teaspoon ground cayenne
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper
pinch of kosher salt

6-8 buns
Shredded lettuce
Sliced heirloom or Roma tomatoes

Preferably you’ll start the dry-brine of your turkey breast 2-3 days before slow cooking, but I’ve done this rub 12-24 hours ahead of time with decent results. You may not get all the water back into the bird, but it works well enough in the shortened time frame.

Rinse the turkey breast under cold running water and then pat dry with clean kitchen towels or paper towels. You can either leave the skin on the bird or remove it now since it’s not going to brown and crisp like a normally would in the oven. I personally like to leave the skin on since it helps marinate the turkey while cooking, but some cooks prefer to remove it now to save effort later.

Evenly coat the whole turkey breast inside and out with 2 tablespoons kosher salt and pat it into the meat. Place the turkey breast into a clean plastic roasting bag or extra large resealable bag. (When I go to the butcher, I just ask for a second clean bag for brining. If you have a stubborn butcher, you can buy roasting bags in the tin foil section of your local grocery store.)

Seal the bag and return to the refrigerator to brine. If brining for a couple days, turn the turkey breast every 8-12 hours. If shorter, turn every 4-6 hours. Don’t panic if you see all the water leave the turkey breast, it will be drawn back into the meat as time passes.

When you ready to cook your turkey, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to rest on the counter in the bag while prepping your vegetables. This allows the meat to re-absorb any last bit of water (give a turn or two while chopping your vegetables) and to gradually warm up a bit and not be shocked by the sudden heat of the pot. Obviously don’t take so long prepping that the bird comes completely room temperature.

In at least a 5-quart sized slow cooker, cover the bottom of the pot with the chopped celery, onions, carrots and garlic. Add in a half a cup each of white wine and chicken stock and start to heat the slow cooker to high.

Melt 1/2 cup butter and mix in a dash of kosher salt and cracked pepper.

Remove the turkey breast from the bag and rub the butter all over the turkey breast and massaging it under the skin with your fingers.

Take your herbs and place them into the neck cavity of the turkey. If you want to tie them into a small sachet with kitchen twine you may, but I usually just tie them together with one long parsley stem.

Place the turkey in the slow cooker and cover. Cook on high for 1 hour and then low for 3 hours. As always when using a slow cooker, DO NOT LIFT OFF THE LID. Each time you lift off the lid you are letting valuable heat escape and increasing your cooking time by at least an additional 30 minutes. When done, the internal temperature should reach 165º at the thickest part of the breast. Since it’s in a slow cooker with the moisture being held in, you can leave the turkey in the slow cooker with the heat set to low or warm until closer to serving time.

While the turkey is cooking, mix together all of the ingredients for the remoulade and refrigerate for at least two hours. If desired, you can make the remoulade a day in advance.

Once the turkey has finished cooking and you’re ready to get to sandwiches, remove the turkey from the slow cooker and allow to rest for twenty minutes. (Tip: reserve the vegetables and chicken stock to make soup with later in the week. Skim off the fat, add egg noodles or rice, a little more stock and wine, any leftover turkey and you’ve got a great soup.) After the turkey has rested, remove the skin and carve the meat.

Depending your preference, either lightly toast the rolls for a crunchier sandwich or gently warm the sandwich rolls in a vegetable steamer for a softer bite. Dress each turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato and remoulade, serving an extra bit of sauce on the side if desired.

The spicy, tangy remoulade sauce, the perfectly cooked turkey, juicy tomatoes and the crunch of lettuce make for an impressive fall sandwich spread that serves a crowd with little hands-on time for the game. Tailgating? This turkey refrigerates superbly once sliced if you want to make sandwiches at the game.

Serves 6-8.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here.

The post Slow Cooked Turkey Sandwiches with Spicy Remoulade Sauce: Football Foodie Sandwiches appeared first on Kissing Suzy Kolber.

Earlier this week, news came out of Dallas that the Cowboys made a direct appeal to their fans to make more noise at Cowboys Stadium in order to maintain what should be a sure home field advantage for the Big D. In contrast to the quiet Dallas crowd, NFC East rivals Philadelphia Eagles have too much noise, and according to Eagles defenseman Jason Babin, it’s “some of the most vile things I’ve ever heard.”

Babin went on to say, “Not just at a football game, but in life, in general. Talking about attacking Coach (Andy Reid), talking about people’s wives and kids and chanting them. And I just thought there was no place for that in the NFL, none whatsoever.”

But really, how bad can it be? Well, let’s take a look at some of the comments on the very CSN Philly article linked to above.

ThePhillyPhreak1985 sounds like a nice gentleman.

Damn…and here I thought that “bad section” of fans who were chanting “vile” things was something, “Babin, why don’t you earn your (BEEPING) money you piece of (BEEP)? Or better yet…”Hey Jason, I (BEEPED) your wife last night, she was good”.Because you know, the last one would be so ironic considering the pig is more worried about having an off-season “Babinette” contest to meet a female Eagles fan who will wear his fan merch all the while he has a really good looking wife.

Oh, and there’s that issue of him not doing anything on the field and actually making excuses, along with Cole and Tapp. Shame man. Shame. You’re a pro, if you don’t like it get the F out…

Well, maybe that’s not representative of the whole fan base. Let’s try Zmandar92.

Wow Babin, you just proved my theory about Roger Goodell pussifying the league with all of these “safety precaution” rules wrong. It turns out that the NFL players are just getting more and more soft. Big bad Pro Bowl pass rusher can’t deal with some criticism? Please…… So what if it got personal? Some people take the fact that you’re getting paid with their ticket money and not amounting to more than mediocre personal, too, and they’re airing out their frustrations (RIGHTFULLY SO!).It’s time to nut up or shut up, bro, or you might be riding Reid’s coattails out the door next year.

That wasn’t so nice either, it turns out.

Hmm, let’s skip all these next few commenters who purposely misspell Babin as ‘baboon’, shall we. No, no, can’t reprint the comment from Elisabeth_1980 which is not only racist, but wishes season-ending bodily harm on her own player. Have no idea what sort of insult “chinchilla face” face is supposed to be, but it probably isn’t good judging by the context. Not sure what good it does to call owner Jeffrey Lurie a “fairyboy” here since he wasn’t mentioned in the article, but sometimes an insult must extend all the way to the top. Oh look, a “MOMMA LUKE” reference. Someone’s seen RAGING BULL.

Honestly though, reading these comments, I have no idea what Babin is talking about. These sound like the nicest fans a player could possibly have in the whole league.

Kolokythokeftedes with Lemon Dill Greek Yogurt Dip

As snack-loving football fans, it’s easy to grow tired mozzarella sticks all the time. Usually everyone can agree to split a basket of them at a bar — even the worst dives can make a decent block of fried cheese — as a perfunctory pre-snack before ordering a sandwich or some wings. Making them at home usually ends with middling results for the amount of effort that goes into them and ready-to-bake frozen mozzarella sticks are never as satisfying as when ordered out.

And yet, there is few treats we look forward to more on game days as a melty, cheesy bite of sorts. Over the last couple of seasons I’ve been making Seared Queso Blanco at home in place of mozzarella sticks, but this year has been all about the Greek kolokythokeftedes. Bright zucchini, salty feta, fresh bits of dill, parsley and mint come together and offer the right balance of crunch and soft chewy texture we crave in our football snacks. You can pair kolokythokeftedes with a tzatziki sauce if you like, but I prefer this pared down version of a lemon dill dip, the extra kick from the lemon zest pulling all the flavors together in sharp relief.

We’re at the very tail end of zucchini season, so you shouldn’t have a hard time finding zucchini at your local market.

Kolokythokeftedes

3-4 zucchini, approximately 6 ounces each, shredded (roughly 3 cups shredded)
Kosher salt, generous pinch or two
1 small white onion, approx 4 ounces, shredded (1/2 cup shredded)
6-8 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/3-1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs; a combination of dill, flat-leaf parsley and mint are recommended
1 egg, beaten
Cracked pepper to taste
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
Flour, as needed (no more than 1/4 cup)

Vegetable or canola oil for frying

For the herbs, use a combination of dill, flat-leaf parsley and mint, using more or less of each herb depending on which flavor you want to be a forefront or background of your zucchini patties.

Lemon Dill Greek Yogurt Dip

6 ounces plain Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1-2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Small pinch of salt and pepper

Make the yogurt dip first by combining all of the ingredients in a small bowl and then refrigerating. This gives the flavors of the lemon zest, dill and cumin time to open up and develop while making the kolokythokeftedes.

There are two schools of thought when dealing with zucchini. Depending on what you are using your zucchini for, you may want to get rid of as much water as you can before combining it with the other ingredients. Some people just squeeze the heck out of it, some salt the zucchini then let it rest to draw out even more water before squeezing the heck out of it. Since we are frying our kolokythokeftedes and nothing hurts more than the splatter of hot oil reacting poorly to the introduction of water, I recommend salting and resting the zucchini for this recipe. Aside of minimizing the possibility of hot oil pain, I’ve found it also makes for a better fritter that doesn’t need a lot of flour to hold it together, helping ensure the taste of the zucchini and herbs shine through.

Once you’ve washed, cut the stems off and shredded your zucchini, place it in a large colander inside an even larger bowl. Toss the zucchini with a couple of a pinches of salt and let rest for 30-60 minutes. If you start to see too much water in the bottom of the bowl and your colander is sitting in a pool of liquid, pour out the water and continue resting. After enough time has gone by and you’re sure no more water is going to drawn out without manual force, squeeze out any remaining moisture and transfer the zucchini to another large bowl.

Mix together the zucchini, onion, chopped herbs, cracked pepper and whisked egg. Once thoroughly combined, stir in 1/2 cup bread crumbs. If you have nice, thick sticky mess there is no need to add any flour. If your kolokythokeftedes mixture is still a bit wet and does not easily come together when formed into small balls, mix in a tablespoon of flour at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a large frying pan to 375º. (The oil should be shimmering and a small pinch of flour should sizzle immediately when tossed into the pan.) Working in small batches, form the zucchini mixture into small balls — about two tablespoons worth — and slightly flatten into patties.

Without crowding the pan, fry in small batches for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Drain on clean kitchen towels or paper towels. If desired, kolokythokeftedes can be kept warm in a 200º oven until the entire batch is done.

Serve immediately with Lemon Dill Greek Yogurt Dip.

Serves 6-8 as a side. If you have any leftover kolokythokeftedes, they reheat nicely in a warm 325º oven or in the microwave for a couple of minutes.

Still have a lot of zucchini leftover from your garden or maybe are looking for a lighter zucchini snack that doesn’t involve frying? Try making these Stuffed Zucchini “Pizzas” instead. At about 60 calories a pop, you can fill up on them without damage to your diet.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here.

The post Kolokythokeftedes with Lemon Dill Greek Yogurt Dip: Football Foodie Fritters Away appeared first on Kissing Suzy Kolber.

During yesterday’s open locker room session with the press, team owner Robert Kraft and punter Zoltan Mesko talked to astronaut and Patriot super fan Sunita Williams aboard the International Space Station. Williams, who current holds the record for longest space flight by a woman, also spoke with Rob Gronkowski who jumped on the call when he saw Mesko doing something that could possibly take attention away from him. Reportedly Gronk’s first question was, “Are you floating right now?”

One would have to imagine Gronkowski also wanted to ask:

“Do you have salsa in space?”

“Can you see my house?”

“What does Tang taste like mixed with tequila?”

“Would you like to see my abs?”

No word on if Williams could confirm seeing Gronkowski’s ego from 230 miles above the Earth.

Chorizo Stuffed Sweet Potato Skins

It’s finally cold enough to appreciate the warm tastes of fall. Spices like cinnamon and cayenne, the hearty tastes of chorizo and sweet potato. Just as the first chill of the coming winter reminds you of football, the change in season brings with it a craving for snacks that heat you both inside and out.

Like most people, I’m a sucker for a good twice-baked potato or potato skins with bacon, chives and cheese, but sometimes they’re lacking the depth needed for a satisfying snack. Enter the sweet potato, the better-for-you version of a starchy vegetable. While chorizo is not any healthier for you than bacon, it does offer a smoky spiciness missing from most cured pork belly. By mixing the sweet potato with the chorizo before baking, you eliminate the need for cheese as a binding agent, saving just a few more calories so you don’t have to feel bad about taking a third or even fifth piece. (And if you want to be even healthier, soy chorizo is a good option for this snack.)

This recipe does take some time as you’ll be baking the sweet potatoes three times in the process of making these snacks, one more time than a normal potato skin. Don’t worry though, the extra fifteen minutes in the oven are worth your time.

You will need:

3-3 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, even in size and length
3/4 pound Mexican style chorizo, about 3-4 chorizo links
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne
1/8 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/4 cup sour cream or Mexican crema for garnish (optional, but highly recommended)
Small bunch chives and cilantro for garnish (optional, but highly recommended)

Preheat oven to 400º.

Gently wash off the sweet potatoes (their skin tends to be rather fragile and keeping their outer shell intact is important for later) and then prick each tuber all over with a knife so steam can release while baking.

Place the sweet potatoes on a lined baking sheet and cook for 45-50 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes for safer handling.

While the sweet potatoes are cooling, reduce oven temperature to 350º and make your seasoning mixture. In a small bowl, combine the kosher salt, cinnamon, chili powder, cumin, ground cayenne and cracked pepper.

Once the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, carefully slice each one in half. Using a small spoon, scoop out the soft sweet potato innards so they look like little orange boats, reserving the sweet potato meat. Sprinkle each sweet potato boat with the spice mixture — don’t worry if you don’t use it all — and return them to the oven for 10 minutes. This helps them firm back up so they can safely contain the chorizo filling.

As the sweet potato skins bake, remove the chorizo from the casings and cook in a large skillet over medium heat until browned. When the spicy sausage is just about done, add in 1 cup of the reserved sweet potato you scooped out earlier and mix until well combined. Remove from heat.

When both the sweet potato skins and the chorizo-sweet potato mixture are done, carefully spoon the meat-enhanced sweet potato innards back into the sweet potato hulls. Bake for another 15-20 minutes until melded back together.

Remove from the oven and allow to set for a minute or two. Slice each thrice-baked sweet potato into halves or thirds depending on how big you want your pieces and then top with a small amount of sour cream, chives and cilantro.

Serves 5-6 as a side, 3-4 very hungry people as a main snack.

These spicy bites were a big hit when I made them for the Sunday night match up between the Chargers and Saints last month and pretty much disappeared before the first quarter was over.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here.

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One of the more infuriating parts of watching the Dolphins-Bills game last night — aside of the fact Miami couldn’t get anything going after a few impressive defensive stands — was the NFL Network continually reminding people that their brand of Thursday Night Football would return in two weeks. Naming and brand are important, but there was nary a mention of the slate of Thanksgiving games next Thursday, one of which happens to be at night. It’s still your league to promote, you might want to get people excited for Patriots-Jets.

Two sorts of Thanksgiving diners, ones who believe in eating early and having leftovers again later in the day and those who don’t have their celebration until late afternoon or evening. The former means getting up at 5 am to start roasting a turkey, the latter means torturing yourself with cups of nuts as not to spoil the feast. It also means considering going through the early game of Houston-Detroit — and perhaps even Washington-Dallas, depending on your time zone — without having a snack.

Nonsense. You’re going to need game time snacks that can feed a crowd and also not spoil your appetite, and perhaps one that is relatively healthy. Ones that compliment the autumn table. Earthy tastes of mushrooms, herbs and wine, warm butternut squash and sage spiced with cayenne and chili.

Small mushroom pithiviers make for great appetizers and can be made a few days ahead of time and frozen for enough snacks to feed a full house during the battle of Suh versus Schaub, a butternut squash sage dip is a healthy choice on a day that is already filled with calories. Interceptions are especially fatty, so you might want give this recipe test run when Tony Romo (13 INT) faces Brandon Weeden (12 INT) this Sunday.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Sage Dip

You will need:

1 2-pound butternut squash
1-1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
5-6 fresh sage leaves, stems removed
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne

Preheat oven to 425º.

Wash and dry the butternut squash, chop of the top stem and then slice in half. Remove the seeds and brush the inside of the squash with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. Roast the squash for 40-45 minutes, until the thickest part of the gourd is tender and easily yields to a knife being inserted into its flesh.

Once the squash has roasted, allow to cool for a few minutes for easier handling. Peel off the skin and put into a food processor or blender. Add the garlic, kosher salt, sage and spices and puree. Drizzle in the remaining olive oil 1/2 tablespoon at a time while blending until desired constancy is reached. Can be made ahead of time and refrigerated before serving, but gently reheating is recommended.

Serve while still warm or at room temperature with multigrain crackers or tortilla chips.

Yields 2-2 1/2 cup dip, enough for about 4-6 people.

Savory Mushroom Pithiviers

You will need:

1 3/4 pounds fresh mushrooms (I usually go for about 8 ounces of white button mushrooms, 8 ounces crimini mushrooms, 3.5 ounces beech, 3.5 ounces shiitake, 3.5 ounces enoki and then a few other fancy mushrooms like chanterelles just to round out the weight and add to the woody taste without breaking the bank.)
3 tablespoons butter, divided
3 tablespoons minced shallot,
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary (When chopped together, you should get 1-2 teaspoons fresh herbs)
1/4 cup red wine
2 pounds frozen puff pastry (4 sheets)
Flour
1 egg

Clean and trim the mushrooms, removing the stems and gills from the button and crimini mushrooms, cutting off the bottom of the stems of any other mushrooms you may have selected.

Depending on your school of cooking, you either wipe off each mushroom by hand with a clean paper towel or kitchen towel, or you can rinse and rapidly dry. The argument against getting mushrooms wet is that they’ll absorb too much water, but unless you’re making something very delicate, you shouldn’t worry too much about water retention. Since we’re cooking them down anyway, don’t feel bad about rinsing them in water. (What I usually do is run them under water, wiping them with my fingers and then giving them a whirl in the salad spinner.)

Once cleaned, set the mushrooms aside. This is a good time to take your frozen puff pastry out of the freezer to thaw.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, melt two tablespoons butter and then add the shallots. Cook the shallots for a minute and then add your mushrooms. If they don’t all fit in your pan at once, allow some to cook down and then add more mushrooms as you go until they’re all in the pan.

The mushrooms will start to release all their moisture, keep stirring until most of the water has left the fungi. When the mushrooms are almost completely cooked down, chop the herbs and add them to the pan. After another minute or two and there is hardly any water left in the pan, add 1/4 cup red wine and reduce the heat slightly. Keep cooking and stirring until the wine has completely reduced and you have a thick mushroom mixture. Remove from the heat and swirl in the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Allow the mushrooms to cool while preparing the pastry dough.

Preheat oven to 450º.

On a floured board or clean floured counter, roll out one sheet of pastry dough to be about 1/8 inch thick. Using a 2 inch round biscuit cutter or a glass with a thin edge, cut two circles of pastry dough. In the center of one pastry round, spoon in a generous teaspoon of the mushroom mixture. Lay the second round on top of the bottom round and using a fork, crimp the two circles together until sealed all the way around. Place on a lined baking sheet and repeat the process until you’ve filled one tray of pithiviers. Prick a small hole in the top of each pithivier to allow steam to release while baking.

In a small bowl, thoroughly whisk together 1 egg and 2 tablespoons of water to make an egg wash. Brush each pithivier with the egg wash and then bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Repeat until you’ve gone through all of the mushrooms, gently rolling the scraps of dough together from the cut sheets to get the most out of the dough if needed.

If making ahead of time or saving part the batch for later, make the pithiviers and brush with the egg wash. Flash freeze in a single layer on a tray for one hour and then place in a freezer safe container or bag for when ready to bake, adding a few minutes baking time.

Yields 3 1/2 – 4 dozen 2 inch pithiviers.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here, and all recipes that have appeared on KSK here.

The post Roasted Butternut Squash Sage Dip and Savory Mushroom Pithiviers: Football Foodie Thanksgiving appeared first on Kissing Suzy Kolber.

If it’s Friday and this post is going up, it’s safe to assume neither me nor my husband killed anyone during the Thanksgiving feast — thank you Patriots blowout for being there during a stone cold thirty minute silence between us and a family member we’re not talking to! — and we’re ready to be lazy the rest of the holiday weekend, just as soon as we clean out grandma’s garage, battle traffic past the outlets in Camarillo on our way home to Los Angeles, and do all the chores we swore we’d do this weekend since we supposedly have all this extra time on our hands.

It’s enough to make one look forward to Rams-Cardinals.

Football food this weekend means going through the last of the leftovers, so here are a few helpful links for snacking during CFB Hate Week all the way through Packers-Giants Sunday night.

Arrogant Bastard Beer Battered Mashed Potato Balls is a great recipe for using up the last of your mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Based on the Spud Buds served at the Stone Brewery in San Diego, these mashed potato balls are dipped in a seasoned beer batter for a chewy, crispy treat.

Over at On Sandwiches, Pete gives an extensive breakdown on what makes a great Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich. There is always some leftover herbs from roasting the turkey, so why not put the sage to good use with this White Bean Spread. It’s sort of like an Italian hummus, made with cannelloni beans instead of chickpeas.

If you’re tired of leftovers and need an easy snack, culinary firebrand Gurgling Cod designates each November as Pimento Cheese Awareness Month. Yes, I know many of you may turn up your nose at the idea of pimento cheese, but try this Smoky Bacon Chipotle Pimento Cheese and you’ll be a changed person.

Out of leftovers and need something a bit more hearty? These Shrimp Boil Kebabs (via GameDay Belles) are easy and filling. Sausage, shrimp, potatoes and corn on a stick; just as easy to make on the grill as it is under the broiler.

Tired of big meals and just want to sit down Sunday with a bag of chips, go for it. I’m a big fan of turning a bag of chips into something a little fancier, like these Cheddar Herb Potato Chips that take nothing more than a small handful of herbs and shredded cheese.

This season, I’ve taken to making my own style of Tapatio Kettle Chips. With their spicy kick, these chips have become very popular on game day around our place.

Lays puts out Tapatio Ruffles, but if you look at the list of ingredients, you’ll see a couple of things you can avoid — like artificial coloring and preservatives — by making your own with kettle chips. You can make your own kettle chips by following the method described in this recipe for Maple Sage Sweet Potato Chips, or you can just use kettle chips bought at the store as they tend to just potatoes, oil and salt.

You will need:

8 ounces of kettle style potato chips
2 tablespoons lemon juice (Juice of about 1/2 or so of a fresh lemon)
1 tablespoon Tapatio or preferred hot sauce

Preheat oven to 350º.

In a small bowl, mix together the lemon juice and Tapatio. On a lined cookie sheet, toss the lemon-hot sauce mix with the chips until evenly coated. Bake for 15 minutes, tossing once or twice so they don’t all stick together.

Remove from oven and serve.

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and got an extra serving of Texans Pecan Pie.

Picture from Amanda Abiassi, via Stephanie Stradley.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here, and all recipes that have appeared on KSK here.

The post Tapatio Lemon Chips, Thanksgiving Leftovers and Pimento Cheese: Football Foodie Shortcuts appeared first on Kissing Suzy Kolber.

Team bye weeks ended last weekend, but because of the extended Thanksgiving schedule of Thursday games, this will be the first weekend in two months we’ll have the complete slate to watch on Sunday. Glorious. Full schedule, almost every game has playoffs implications (sorry Chiefs fans), fantasy football is in the playoffs, college football starts cannibalizing itself fighting over coaches and bowl games, David Beckham and possibly Landon Donovan play their last games with the Galaxy in the MLS Cup*; just listing how great football is in December causes me to hear “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” in my head.

You’re going to need a hearty snack to get you through the weekend.

Scacciata; Stromboli’s and Calzone’s Sicilian Cousin

Even the most adamant Team Pizza fans needs a break from heavy sauce, meat and cheese during the season, but there is nothing quite like tearing into warm dough with a cold beer while watching football. Enter the scacciata, a Sicilian variation of a calzone. Heavy on the vegetables and lighter on the cheese and meat, the layers of favor in a scacciata offer a more complex bite than just your ordinary pizza. Potatoes add heft, shaved onions and fennel play off each other in a sweet and savory delight, spinach and broccoli add brightness, spicy sausage adds heat and depth, while the provolone and a touch of olive oil meld everything together.You can add whatever vegetables you like to a scacciata; peppers, eggplant, but if they are rather watery be sure to cook them down a bit before baking. Want olives? Add olives. Want your scacciata to be even spicier? Sprinkle on red pepper flakes along with the salt and pepper. Second sausage? Sure, but don’t add more than two or it gets too oily during baking. A little sauce? Yes, fine. Just a few dabs here or there. Add too much and you may as well make a calzone.

You will need:

2 pounds pizza dough, divided
1 large russet potato, peeled and sliced very thin
6 ounces sliced provolone cheese
1 cup thinly shaved onion, approximately 1/2 onion
1 cup thinly shaved fennel, approximately 1/2 fennel bulb
4 cups packed spinach, about 12 ounces
3/4 cup – 1 cup broccoli florets, broken into small pieces
1 spicy Italian sausage, about 3-4 ounces, removed from casing
1 teaspoon + 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus a touch more for oiling the pan
pinch of kosher salt and cracked pepper
flour for handling the dough

If you want to make your own pizza dough, I recommend either the dough recipe I used here for a sfincione (Sicilian Christmas pizza) or the King Arthur Flour recipe. Each recipe yields about a pound of dough, so double the amount for making a scacciata. If making your own dough sounds like too much hassle (and it can be!) use dough bought from your local pizzeria or the grocery store, just be sure to let it rest on the counter for about twenty minutes to come to room temperature before handling.

Preheat oven to 375º.

While the oven is heating up, wilt the spinach in a large skillet over medium heat and then roughly chop for easier spinach dispersal.

Using half of your dough, roll or press out a large rectangle shape to fit a large lasagne pan or cookie sheet on a floured surface. Don’t be afraid to use your hands to push the dough into shape once moved to the pan with your fingers. Pizza dough can handle the abuse and Goodell cannot fine you for what you do in your own kitchen, unless your kitchen involves secretly putting Adderall into your unsuspecting teammate’s water bottle.

Once you have a base for your scacciata, layer on the sliced potato, then provolone (you want the flat stuff on the bottom) followed by the shaved onions and fennel, wilted spinach, small broccoli florets, and then top with bits of sausage, leaving about an inch around the edge of the dough. Drizzle with a teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkle with a generous pinch of kosher salt and cracked pepper.

Make a second dough rectangle and gently lay it on top of your scacciata. Roll the edges of the top and bottom layers of dough together and pinch to create a seal all the way around the scacciata. Brush the top with the remaining olive oil and poke a few holes in the top of the scacciata to allow steam to escape while baking.

Bake for about 45 minutes at 375º, until the crust is nice and golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to sit for about five minutes before slicing.

Yields 8 generous sized slices.

If you have any leftovers, scacciata reheats best in a 350º oven for about ten minutes.

This is a pizza dish so easy to make, you can get it together during the pregame, bake during the first half and have ready for slicing at halftime and not worry about being in the kitchen while the game is going. You can even assemble the scacciata a head of time if you like, just cover tightly, refrigerate and then allow to set out a few minutes while the oven preheats before placing the scacciata in to bake, adding maybe 5-10 minutes of baking time.

*It’s football too.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here, and all recipes that have appeared on KSK here.

The post Scacciata – Stromboli’s and Calzone’s Sicilian Cousin: A Football Foodie Full Game Day appeared first on Kissing Suzy Kolber.

Awhile back a reader asked if I could post a recipe that would pair with Peter King’s beloved Allagash White, the craft Belgiam-style white ale. Witbiers often get knocked around by beer snobs thanks to the mass production of beers like Blue Moon, but Allagash puts out a decent white ale. Personally, I prefer their Curieux strong ale which is barrel aged in old bourbon casks, but this recipe isn’t about my tastes, it’s about PK’s beer.

If you cannot get your hands on Allagash White, look in the import section for Blanche De Bruxelles. This Belgiam white ale’s iconic label features the image of little boy pissing, styled after a famous fountain in — you guessed it –  Brussels, which has many fine Starwoods for you to stay in if you want to join the throng of tourists who pose with the statue. I actually had a chance visit Brussels last year to see some friends living abroad and it was quite lovely. And while we stayed in a Sofitel and not a Starwood, our stay was still very pleasant. Went to the museum of music instruments, had one of the best meals of my life in a small French restaurant next a farm in a village just outside of Waterloo, got drunk, saw a mini pony. Just lovely. Both of my friends living there talked about the extreme lengths they went to see American football, traveling halfway across the country to find a bar open for the Super Bowl. My good friend Andrea even had a secondary satellite hookup that allowed her to get the Middle Eastern sports package, which was the only way she could watch Steeler games on a regular basis.

But I digress, just as one does when making a recipe styled around Peter King.

When cooking for a lighter bodied beer, you want something spicy but not overpowering. Lemon to match the citrus, heat to pair with the herbal undertones of the white ale. I settled on this particular way of making shrimp for Mr. King because there a fair amount of work that goes into the dish. Think of the time standing and deveining shrimp as the very long MMQ column, because at some point you will think to yourself, “Why am I doing this? This is a lot of work.” And then the brief cooking time after all of that work? That’s his short amount of on-air time during Sunday Night Football.

Peter King Shrimp For Allagash White

You will need:

2 pounds fresh shrimp
1-1 1/2 pounds lemons, plus one more lemon for juice, washed
12 tablespoons butter (1 1/2 quarter pound sticks)
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 tablespoons minced shallot, about 1/2 a large shallot
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 1/2 teaspoon Sriracha sauce
1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper
small bunch of cilantro, about a 1/4 cup chopped

Preheat oven to 350º.

Line one large or two small baking or cookie sheets with foil.

Peel and devein the shrimp, leaving the tails on. If you have never prepped shrimp before, you might want to check out this video from the nice people at Serious Eats. This is a long, arduous process and probably my least favorite kitchen task. It’s so time consuming — even if you do it quickly — I recommend resting a medium-sized clean bowl in a large bowl of ice water to place the cleaned shrimp in so they stay cool during prep.

If you are the sort that likes to make seafood soup, chowder or risotto, freeze the shells to make a shrimp stock with later.

Once your shrimp have been cleaned, thinly slice your lemons and evenly line the cooking sheets with them. Reserve 1/2 to one whole lemon for juice, depending on the size of the lemon. Juice the remaining lemon for 2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Melt the butter and mix together with the lemon juice, garlic, shallots, red chili flakes, Sriracha and cracked pepper.

Evenly spread the cleaned shrimp on top of the sliced lemons the pour the lemon, butter and pepper sauce over the shrimp.

Cook at 350º for 15 minutes, turning the shrimp halfway through baking.

Once done, transfer the lemons and and shrimp onto a large platter. Drizzle some of the remaining lemon-butter sauce from the the bottom of the pan over the shrimp and top with a handful of chopped cilantro. Yields about 50-60 shrimp, enough for 5-6 people.

Serve with Allagash White. If you would like your experience to be authentic, start taking notes during the game, write down a bunch of stats and start working on your Monday opus.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here, and all recipes that have appeared on KSK here.

The post Peter King Shrimp for Allagash White: Football Foodie Matchups appeared first on Kissing Suzy Kolber.

About this time of year, among all the holiday baking, I start to think about what sort of food I want to have during the playoffs and for the bigger bowl games. (Sorry Music City Bowl, you’re not on the list of snack-worthy events.) Hearty snacks that are easy to make and can be made ahead of time if needed. People love Kung Pao chicken and they love egg rolls, and few things are better on game days than a finger food made for some serious munching. (As I have said many times before, I am a nervous eater so crunchy things like egg rolls are perfect for the playoffs.) The heat from the peppers goes with great with beer while the meatiness of the peanuts help round out the egg rolls.

Don’t get hung up on if this is a traditional Kung Pao recipe, it’s not. There is no need to rush out for Shaoxing wine or black vinegar, you can use cooking sherry and rice wine or white wine vinegar just fine. If you have access to Asian facing heaven peppers, go ahead and use them for your red chiles. If you don’t, use the small thin dried red chiles you can find in most grocery stores, often labeled “Asian chiles” or “Chile Japones.” And if you’re really in a pinch, you can use a couple of teaspoons of dried red chili flakes in place of the dried chiles, but they don’t have the same richness and “pop” as freshly sliced chiles. I use eight chiles in my egg rolls and they have a fair amount of heat, but if you like your food even hotter, you can add in one or two more without ruining the Kung Pao.

I do bake these to cut down on fat from oil frying, but how you crisp your egg rolls is up to you. Honestly though, these are just as good out of the oven as they are the fryer and it’s a lot less hassle and clean up, which is what you want when you’re trying to get food from the kitchen to the living room during halftime.

Kung Pao Chicken Egg Rolls

You will need:

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Marinade:
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon dry sherry
2 teaspoons soy sauce

Sauce:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon rice wine vinegar (White wine vinegar can be used in place of rice wine vinegar.)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 red chilies, seeds removed and sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup low salt or salt-free roasted peanuts
1 cup chopped scallions, white and green sections. (About four to five scallions.)

Egg roll wrappers (Egg roll wrappers generally come in one pound packages. 1 package is enough.)
Vegetable oil for baking

Mix together the cornstarch, sherry and soy sauce for the marinade in a large bowl. Add in the chicken and toss the meat until it is well-coated with the sauce and let chicken marinate in the refrigerator for about an hour, up to overnight.

When ready to make the egg roll filling, whisk together everything for the sauce.

Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok with medium-high heat. Toss in the chilies to allow them to open up a bit in the oil and saute for a minute or so.

Once the chilies start to sizzle, add in the chicken and brown the meat. Once the chicken is almost done, pour in the sauce and reduce the heat to medium and cook down the sauce until almost completely reduced. Stir in the garlic and the peanuts and cook for a few more minutes to soften the nuts. Remove from heat and add in the scallions.

Preheat oven to 400º while you assemble your egg rolls.

Turn the egg roll wrapper so one point is facing away from you. In the lower third, evenly spoon out 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture. Brush the edges of the egg roll wrapper with a small amount of water. Fold up the bottom point and start to roll upwards, then fold in the side points into the middle as you come to them, then roll until completely closed. Repeat until you have used up all of your Kung Pao filling.

Place the egg rolls on a cookie sheet and brush all over with a small amount of vegetable oil, or if you want, spray with cooking spray. Bake at 400º for about 15 minutes, turning over halfway during cooking. (And if you want to fry them, you can. Just heat about a 1/2 cup or so of oil in a skillet and fry on both sides until crispy.)

Yields about 2 dozen egg rolls. If you want a sauce to serve with them, you can make a spicy peanut sauce, but these egg rolls stay moist enough you don’t really need it.

These Kung Pao egg rolls can also be frozen ahead of time for later preparation. After you have assembled the egg rolls, place them on a flat board or cookie sheet and put in the freezer for thirty minutes. Once you have flash frozen them so they won’t stick together, transfer to an air-tight container or freezer bag. Bake as directed above, adding maybe a minute or two to the baking time.

These easy egg rolls always are a hit. Once I got the recipe right where I wanted it, I probably made them two Sundays and a MNF in a row they were so popular. Spicy, meaty and crunchy, they hit the football holy trinity of snacks.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here, and all recipes that have appeared on KSK here.

The post Kung Pao Chicken Egg Rolls: Football Foodie Hearty Snacks appeared first on Kissing Suzy Kolber.

I can’t put my finger on the exact date, but sometime during the Great Craft Cocktails and Brown Liquor Resurgence of the past five or six — maybe even seven, we’ve all been drinking so much it’s difficult to remember — years hard-boiled eggs and deviled eggs made a comeback, especially at bars that served craft cocktails and brown liquor. Not deviled eggs like your grandmother serves at Easter under a layer of paprika, but rather wasabi deviled goose eggs, Sriracha-blue cheese deviled eggs, truffle and chive deviled eggs, and petite smoked salmon deviled quail eggs.

Their sudden ubiquity is not without merit. Deviled eggs are a perfect compliment to drinking, protein with a touch of salt, and are just as good with a heavy beer or bracing cocktail as they are with a glass of sparkling wine. (Not that I ever drink prosecco with football. But just in case it’s around. For brunch. Okay maybe sometimes. Often.)

Deviled eggs are also ridiculously easy to make and incredibly difficult to mess up, which is important this time of year when you don’t have the time nor the energy to make a complicated snack for football. There is still shopping to do, you’ve got relatives over that don’t like football and you’re trying to entertain them while watching Eli versus Ed Reed and why YES it is very interesting that second-cousin Shirley got that job in Nebraska and YES it may make next Thanksgiving more difficult to plan and NO I don’t think the neighbors put up more Christmas lights than usual and NO I haven’t heard there is a Whole Foods going in there and WHY is it again I can’t feed this toddler bourbon so they’ll stop crying about the Grinch video AND DID ANYONE AT LEAST SEE A SCORE FOR THE VIKINGS-TEXANS GAME?

Exactly. Not a lot of time for snack making for football.

I use dried cranberries in this recipe because they’re sweet enough to provide a foil for the horseradish and mustard and are also tart enough to hold up to the rich yokes, plus they add a nice bit of texture to the often smooth yoke filling. And if any one asks, cranberries are very seasonal and these are not actually football snacks, these are the snacks you happen to be eating while looking over your Uncle Walt’s shoulder searching for the Texans score while he explains to you why the Fed is going to steal the fillings out of your teeth.

This recipe is easily doubled, so go ahead and make more if you have a large crowd in your house or at your tailgate this Sunday.

Tart Cranberry Deviled Eggs

You will need:

6 hard-boiled or hard-baked eggs, cooled and peeled
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped plus a dozen more for garnish
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 ground pepper (dash)

Everyone has a different secret for boiling eggs. Room temperature eggs slowly heated in simmering water and then leave to cool in the pan. Boil and then refrigerate immediately. Add white vinegar to the water for easy peeling, don’t add vinegar. Me? I prefer to bake my eggs in the oven in a muffin tin or directly on the rack, allow them to cool and then peel them in cold water.

Slice the eggs in half and carefully scoop out the cooked yokes. In a medium-sized bowl, mash together the yokes, chopped dried cranberries, horseradish, dried mustard, salt and pepper and mix until smooth. Spoon the mixture back into the solid egg white cups with a teaspoon or pipe in with a pastry bag and garnish with the remaining dried cranberries.

Serves 4-6, depending on how many eggs you need to pop in your mouth to make sure you don’t say anything to your Uncle Walt that you might regret, especially if it turns out he’s right about the Fed and you’ll no longer have your teeth to pay your bookie with after an ill-advised Raiders-Panthers wager.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here, and all recipes that have appeared on KSK here.

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It’s tough getting to the end of the regular season. If you’re a fan of an AFC team and your team hasn’t made the playoffs, you’re watching this weekend to see if your team ends on a high-note or with a high draft pick. For fans of NFC teams, this weekend revolves around Washington-Dallas, which is pretty much everyone’s nightmare. Or perhaps you’re a fan of raging garbage fires and are interested in seeing if the flames coming out of Ralph Wilson Stadium will reach the upper atmosphere.

In some ways though, a lazy Week 17 is a relief. Fantasy football is pretty much done aside of pick’em leagues and poorly run leagues which have their championship this weekend, so there isn’t the stress of starting Matt Ryan over RG III up until kickoff. There’s also something to be said for just watching Oakland-San Diego and seeing what shakes loose instead of Bengals-Ravens or Texans-Colts, four teams playing to avoid injury while not giving away their playoff playbooks.

Personally, I’m looking forward to an easy weekend of football. We’ve been traveling for nearly two weeks now; cross-country flights, 12 hours on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in a snow storm, going to the symphony, tailgating with my fantasy league and a hockey blogger in a Santa beard, cooking for my family, cooking for my in-laws, multiple bar outings with friends which — even as I type this post — have left my stomach and my head spinning. (It’s tough keeping up with Ape’s drinking, but I guess that shouldn’t be surprising. Apes are known for having quality livers.) I had planned on making one last spread of the season, but instead I think I’m to make something easy this Sunday to snack on. Crostini it is.

Warm Lentil Crostini

This is a recipe I passed on to Unsilent a few weeks ago for a party he was throwing over the holidays, after I had a version of it at an annual drunken sleepover with my girlfriends. Tricia had it at party before ours, but we all agreed the recipe needed to lighten up on the tomato and the feta and would be better served warm. (A quick internet search showed the original version of this mix popped up as dip on a few mommy blogs, sites I tend to avoid because, well, I’m not a mommy and the “model family” writing beat skeeves me out just a bit. Plus I once had a run-in with a mommy blogger who told me I didn’t understand the stress of cooking for a family. Don’t understand the stress of cooking for a family? Cooking for dozen hungry drinking football fans, omnivores, vegetarians, vegans with the clock ticking down so I actually don’t miss any of the game? Making a fantasy trade during the free thirty seconds before taking a bubbling dip out of the oven? Lady, that’s stress.)

Why bother with the tweaking? What I liked about this mix is that it lets the meatiness of the lentils shine through, filling without weighing the stomach down. The saltiness of the feta with the touch of tang from the garlic and tomatoes rounded out nicely once heated, great with both a porter and a hoppy IPA.

Look for steamed lentils in the refrigerator case, usually by the packaged sprouts and vacuum-packed items and mushrooms. Look for fresh bruschetta in the same area or in the dip section of your local grocery store, but if they don’t have it, you can use jarred in its place or make your own omitting the mozzarella cheese from this recipe I posted a few years ago. If you don’t want to go through the bother of toasting bread for crostini, I’ve found in the few times I tested out this recipe it works just as well on a plain sliced baguette or tortilla chips.

You will need:

1 package prepared steamed lentils,
1/2-1 cup prepared bruschetta topping
1/2 cup crumbled feta, about 2 ounces of feta

1 baguette, sliced and toasted with a touch of olive oil

In a small skillet, heat the lentils and bruschetta topping over medium low heat until the lentils have absorbed most of the oil and the water has steamed off, stirring occasionally so it doesn’t stick to the pan. Once warm, gently fold in the crumbled feta until it just starts to melt and then stop. Either place in a large bowl with a serving spoon for people to top their own crostini or plate each piece individually.

Serves 4-6 as a snack or a side.

I’ll admit, this is a nothing but a shortcut recipe, but again, we’re all tired from the holidays. Playoffs are here. Need to save the big stuff for my annual 28 Days of Super Bowl Recipes extravaganza.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here, and all recipes that have appeared on KSK here.

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Every season, I give the same speech to kickoff Super Bowl month, much like I give the same speech to kickoff the Football Foodie season in August. Why the same speech? Why do teams still listen to “Eye of the Tiger” thirty years later? Why do people still talk about Vince Lombardi’s Super Bowl II speech? Or quote Bear Bryant? Tradition. Because it fits. Because none one remembers that after Tom Landry said, “A winner never stops trying” he said, “to get the the front of the deli line.”

So with a few edits, this is this year’s Football Foodie Super Bowl snack speech.

Did you honestly think you could prepare for the Super Bowl in just a couple of days? Did you say to yourself, “Well, I guess since New Orleans is hosting the Super Bowl I could just use this old Hurricane mix I had laying around the house.” Or even, “But I need to get my Pro Bowl party out of the way first! And the Senior Bowl! I cannot even begin to think about my Super Bowl party until next week.”

WELL SUCK IT UP BECAUSE THIS IS THE LAST TIME YOU CAN EAT LIKE A PIG UNTIL NEXT SEPTEMBER. You either start planning and cooking now or you will be stuck fighting some I-don’t-care-football-but-maybe-I-will-get-laid-if-I-get-out-of-the-house douchecake in an American Apparel hoodie over the last bag of Cool Ranch Doritos at the Silver Lake Vons next Saturday.

“But Sarah, I was going to make a giant muffaletta or a pot of gumbo for my Super Bowl party. That should feed everyone.” Great. What do you feed everyone for the remaining five hours of your party?  If your main course is the game, then what is your halftime show? What are your funny commercials that require you to share 3D glasses with six of your friends and sixty of their filthy 3D thumbprints? Are you ready for people to start rooting through your drawers looking for more snacks? You need to have many, many, supporting dishes for the Super Bowl. For every Matty Ice, there are several lineman there to block for him, and for every Peyton Manning dive to the ground, there are several lineman to throw under the bus for not blocking for him! This is a team sport and your Super Bowl spread needs to reflect that just one or two dishes do not make a buffet.

Are you willing to go to a Super Bowl party and run the risk of them not having enough snacks? And no, showing up with a six-pack of beer is not enough.  That’s about a bottle a beer an hour JUST FOR YOURSELF, so no, you did not bring anything to share.  So you will sack up and make at least one item to bring to the party. You are a grown-up who can bring at least a covered dish to your friend’s house.

In years past I’ve spread out the recipes over a month for the 28 Days of Super Bowl Recipes (or as my pal Smokey calls it, the “football snack advent calendar”), but since the Football Foodie has moved to a new home and I don’t want to wear out our welcome, this year it’s the Month of Super Bowl Recipes, with posts on Wednesday and Friday for your game planning needs.

This year’s snack line-up is a good mix of mains, small bites and sides. Dishes that can be made in advance, cooked the day-of or even tossed together minutes before of the game. Snacks that you’ll love almost as much as the playoffs.

Almost.

To the recipes! Skirt Steak Sandwiches With Caramelized Onions And Gorgonzola Sauce, Salt & Pepper Biscuit Bites and a Giant Cherry Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie.

The post Super Bowl Recipe Month Kickoff! Steak Sandwiches With Gorgonzola Sauce, Salt & Pepper Biscuit Bites and a Giant Cherry Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie appeared first on Kissing Suzy Kolber.

It’s hard to admit, but I’m a little jealous of Ufford’s Twenty Reasons To Hate The Redskins post and everyone else that gets to have the fiery-hot irrational hate against rival playoff teams this weekend. Sure, there are nerves and weak stomachs to temper the hate, but the laser-focused hate that comes out during the playoffs is to experience a maniacal giddiness that has no place outside of the sports world. Fans who don’t have teams in the playoffs will politely say watching the games without stress is freeing, that they can just relax and enjoy the games. It’s a lie. No matter who wins, you have a reason from sometime back in your club’s history to hate each and every other team. Even the Texans have been around long enough to be annoying in their own way (David Carr, actual Texans in Houston). Without a team in the playoffs, I’m stuck with this ball of nebulous dislike and disdain.

Rationalization sets in and you spend your during the games thinking of not who you want to win, but who you can live with winning. Seahawks? If they win now, will their fans finally shut up about Super Bowl XL? Bengals? Nick Lachey Super Fan for weeks. Atlanta? A win for popped collars everywhere. Broncos or Ravens? Green Bay ? No way. Pats? Well, they just lost the Super Bowl so maybe it’s okay if they win this one. Maybe. Colts? Vikings? Perhaps. I will have to reserve final judgement until after this weekend, because in Los Angeles, a city without a team, it’s easy to separate the wheat from the chaff for which fan base you’re going to be able to live with for the next year.

White Chicken Chili and Deli Chopped Salad On Croutons

Everyone has a chili recipe they’re good at making. That’s what you do for football. You make chili. All meat. All beans and lentils for vegetarians and vegans. Meat and beans. Albert Burneko over at Deadspin posted a pretty good take on why you should be putting beans in chili in his Foodspin column. It’s worth a read, even if I disagree with his use of sriracha.

Me? I make a really good white chicken chili. It’s creamy without being overly rich, hot enough to make you grab for your drink but not breakout in a sweat, and slightly smoky even though it’s not made over a fire. The best part is that it comes together in just over an hour, which means you don’t have to spend five to six hours smacking people across their knuckles with your wooden spoon each time they try to lift off the lid of your stockpot.

But as I said, everyone has their own best chili recipe. Feel free to add your chili recipes in the comments so we can argue navy beans versus kidney beans and ground beef versus short ribs instead of talking about Rex Ryan’s tattoo (which quite frankly, I find adorable).

Today’s Super Bowl Recipe Month special post includes a salad recipe I especially like for large gatherings, because it’s salad without having to mess with bowls and forks. Full of meat and cheese? Or course, but it’s still salad and on a day of eating chili, grilled brats, dips and chips, a salad is a welcome sight in any form.

To the recipes!

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Around the playoffs and leading up to the Super Bowl, we start seeing and hearing more of the old NFL Films highlight reels from the ’60s and ’70s. The urgent, uptempo orchestral music, the grainy film, the Cowboys, Dolphins, Raiders and the Steelers.

I was watching one of those highlight reels over the summer and decided like how teams bring back old jerseys, maybe I should bring back some old snack and side recipes this season. They were a hit. Not fussy, just reminders to the parties our parents used to through when we were very little, of the snacks our aunts brought to picnics and tailgates, the salad our grandmothers always made.

In some cases, some of us are still making this type of classic entertainment fare. My friend Becky emailed for advice on how to jazz up a dip her mother has been making for decades the other week and I had to laugh, it was the most ’70s of dips I’d ever seen. Ritz crackers, cheese, clams; I would not been have surprised to seen V05 and Halston listed with the rest of the ingredients in her dip. (Speaking of Becky and the most ’70s things, she contributed a great mango and chipotle guacamole recipe last year to my Super Bowl Guacamole Extravaganza that I refer to as The Velvet Glove of Guacs. Go check it out, it’s really good.)

For today’s Throwback Football Foodie, we have a classic macaroni salad, deli roll ups and a stuffed baguette, some of the most appropriate foods to spill all over your Larry Csonka Dolphin jersey.

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Maybe this Super Bowl season you want to class things up a bit. Or maybe you just need a break from giant subs, heavy pizza, fried ravioli and a bowl of potato chips. Or maybe you’re like my friend ‘Fesser who emailed me the other day looking for recipes that would work for the Texans-Pats game and for the Golden Globes later in the evening.

Fortunately for my friend I already had a few items up my sleeve for this month that fit his request perfectly. Ficelles, thin French sandwiches typically made with only a few ingredients, these small bites are easily made in batches for an impressive sandwich platter. Roasted gnocchi with rosemary make for unusual addition to party buffet instead of a bowl of nuts. Tortellini for a much more satisfying pasta salad, especially when tossed with wilted spinach and pearl-sized balls of soft mozzarella.

My favorite new treat this season? Pizza gougeres, an Italian take on a classic French cheese puff. Easier to make than you think and incredibly addicting just out of the oven.

To the recipes!

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You watch enough football, you go to enough bars, at this point you’ve probably had your fill of quesadillas. Too much meat and too much cheese or not enough meat and not enough cheese. Greasy and fried in butter or dry as a bone. We like to think the quesadilla is a pretty safe menu options when we head out with friends to watch the game, more often than not they fall short. You can make quesadillas at home, but they take a fair amount of work and need some serious attention while grilling — is cheese melting, have I burned the tortilla — which isn’t the best combination when dealing with tight windows of time during the playoffs and the Super Bowl.

What if I told you there was a quesadilla-like snack that’s easier to make? Full of beef and lamb, onions and tomatoes, warm spices like cinnamon, sweet paprika and allspice, with hints of cumin, nutmeg and coriander? That you could grill, bake or fry? That you could even prep ahead of time and cook when ready?

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite new football snacks of the 2012-2013 season, arayes.

You’ve probably seen arayes on the menu of your local shawarma and falafel joint, but probably never bothered to order them, too distracted by the giant spits of lamb and beef marinating and the dozens of whole roasted chickens take up entire ovens. You’re missing out, they’re possibly one of the greatest snack foods around.

Arayes are made combining ground beef, lamb or combination of both with shredded onions, tomatoes and parsley, and blended with what is called Baharat spice blend, which is a combination of pretty much an entire Middle Eastern spice cabinet. You can buy Baharat blend in specialty stores, but you can just as easily make your own at home. Middle Eastern cooks tend to blend their own, going heavier on the flavors and notes they prefer.

I’ve listed what I use as my Baharat spice mixture, but feel free to adjust to your own preferences. If you leave out cardamom because you don’t keep it on hand, that’s fine. (Hint: If you have cardamom and are not sure what to do with it, I sometimes put a dash or two of it in my coffee grounds or grind a whole cardamom pod or two in with my coffee beans, when making coffee a habit I picked up after using so much cardamom covering the 64 recipes of the 2010 World Cup.)

The key to getting a perfectly crispy on the outside and tender inside is not to put too much filing in your arayes as the meat needs to cook completely before the pita burns. You can use all beef or all lamb in arayes if desired, I just happen to prefer a mix of both for taste and balance.

You can serve arayes with hummus, tzatziki, or my preference, a lemon dill dressing that is just a little bit thicker than tzatziki.

Don’t let the small size of these thin arayes fool you. They’re meaty and rich, getting every last bit of flavor out of the spices against the lamb and the beef. They’re perfect with a porter or black lager on a cold Sunday of football.

Arayes

You will need:

1 small to medium sized tomato
1/2 medium onion
Small bunch flat-leaf parsley, about a tablespoon or so when minced
1/2 pound ground beef, preferably 15%-20% fat blend
1/2 pound ground lamb
1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon Baharat spice blend

or

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1 pound pita bread
2-3 tablespoons olive oil if baking or grilling, 1/2-1 cup oil if frying

Slice the tomato in half and remove the pulp and seeds. Either shred or mince as fine as possible both the tomato and the onion, gently squeezing out any extra water before putting into a medium mixing bowl. Remove the parsley leaves from their stems and finely mince, then toss into the bowl. Add the ground beef, lamb and spices and gentle mix together until combined without overworking the meat. (I used my pastry blender to chop everything together, it makes for an even distribution of ingredients and the heat from my hands aren’t bothering the meat.)

Once the filling is ready, cut the pita bread into wedges. Put a small amount of the filling into each pita wedge, a couple of teaspoons or so depending on the size of each wedge, and press down firmly. You want a thin even layer in each slice. Repeat until all the meat filling has been used.

If baking, preheat the oven to 375º and brush the arayes with olive oil on both sides. Bake on lined cookie sheets for 20-30 minutes, turning the arayes halfway through for even crispiness. The arayes should be cooked all the way through and the pita has turned golden brown when done.

If grilling, either heat your grill or grill pan to medium heat and brush the arayes with olive oil. Grill until cooked through, about 10 minutes on each side.

And lastly, if frying, heat a small amount of cooking oil in a shallow pan to about 375º and cook until golden, about 7-8 minutes a side. Drain on kitchen towels before serving.

Serve with roasted garlic hummus or the lemon dill dressing listed if desired.

Serves 3-4 as a snack.

If preparing ahead of time, prepare the arayes but do not brush with oil. Tightly wrap with plastic or wax paper and refrigerate until ready to cook, brushing with oil then before baking or grilling.

Lemon Dill Dressing

7-8 ounces plain Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1-2 teaspoons minced dill
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 – 1 teaspoon kosher salt, to taste
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here, and all recipes that have appeared on KSK here.

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It happens every season. You’re cruising along at the end of the regular season, through divisional weekend and then suddenly it hits you, holy hell there are only three football games left. Where did it all go? Really? This is it? It hardly seems fair, we were just getting started after that great divisional weekend. How about we play into the Super Bowl round-robin style so we can get more games? No? Well, it never hurts to ask. (Okay, four games with the Pro Bowl. I like the Pro Bowl and even I don’t count it as a remaining game of the 2012-2013 season.)

If you’re like I am when it comes to the end of the season, you want to hold on as long as you can. Normally I can only take sports talk radio in small doses. Super Bowl month? All day, all night, yelling at the speakers when someone calls into “Moving the Chains”  or whatever show happens to be running at the time, leaving the NFL Network on in the background, actually buying a physical copy of Sports Illustrated to sit and read in quiet without the distraction of the internet.

I wish I could embed it here, but the NFL keeps the good stuff on lockdown, so I’m just going to link to the video, NFL Films Presents: Best Shots From 2012. Enjoy the extra seven minutes of football while you can.

Beer Cheese Soup and Kielbasa Potato Bake

This is a good one-two punch if you’re looking for recipes for the Conference Championship games. You can make a rich, cheesy soup filled with vegetables, herbs and spices for the 49ers-Falcons game and at the same prep an easy one-dish meal or side of hearty kielbasa, potatoes and peppers for Ravens-Pats that all you have to do is throw in the oven. Can’t think of an easier way to entertain this Sunday.

To the recipes!

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Even though I’m not a huge lobster fan, but I do enjoy a nice lobster roll with a beer and a game and lobster rolls have been on the master list of Football Foodie posting ideas for at least two or three years now. The problem with lobster rolls is even if you love your snacks and you love your friends, unless you live in Maine or Alaska it’s pretty expensive to procure quality lobster for a few pals, much less a dozen hungry football fans. (Maybe if the Patriots were still in the Super Bowl and you and your friends are from New England and really wanted to splurge on lobster rolls so it felt authentic you could justify the cost BUT THEY’RE NOT SO HA HA HA HA YOU CAN HAVE PLEBEIAN SNACKS WITH THE REST OF US.)

Shrimp rolls on the other hand are a great snack that don’t take a lot of effort to make, nor will they break your tailgating budget. Lemon and herbs bring out the best in shrimp (as they do lobster), a bit of crunch from the celery, touch of heat from the cayenne, peppery arugula and buttery bread.

Shrimp Rolls

You will need:1 pound cooked medium or small shrimp, deveined, tails and shells removed, chilled. (If using frozen precooked shrimp, thawed.)
1/2 cup diced celery
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons minced fresh tarragon
2 teaspoons minced fresh dill
1-2 teaspoons minced chives
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
pinch of kosher salt and cracked black pepper
24 dinner rolls
3-4 tablespoons melted butter
1-2 cups arugula

Coarsely dice the cold shrimp and put into a large bowl with the diced celery. Mix in the mayonnaise, herbs, lemon juice and spices and stir until the shrimp and celery are well-coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours, up to overnight.

When just about ready to make the shrimp rolls, preheat the oven to 325º. Cut a small v-shape into the top of each the dinner rolls, discarding the extra bread. (Or better yet, save them to make bread crumbs later. Or give them to the dog. Or save them to throw at unruly Super Bowl party guests.) Brush with melted butter and toast in the oven for 7-8 minutes.

Fill each toasted roll with a small bit of arugula and a few tablespoons of the shrimp salad. Serve immediately.

Serves 8-12 as a snack.

See? Super easy.

Need more football watching-centric recipe ideas? Find the complete archive of Football Foodie recipes here, and all recipes that have appeared on KSK here.

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