... to eat cheese and assorted goodies all day and not feel at all guilty about it. Okay, okay, so there happens to be a football game on. Whatever. I could pretend to actually care who wins but anyone who's been around me for five minutes will tell you that I don't really have a sports brain. I can watch sports, and enjoy sports (especially LIVE sports, who doesn't like going to live games? Especially hockey games, go Sharks!), and understand sporting events (mostly), but would I choose to watch sports over, say, Chopped, or Firefly reruns, or Criminal Minds, or my complete set of Deadwood DVDs? Ummm, NO.
Though, given that I do adore Goober Eli Manning and Tom Brady (now that he cut his damn hair), it could be that I didn't care because I couldn't pick a team to cheer for...
My mom and I kept if fairly simple this year. As in, we only spent half the game making and serving snacks, and we actually got to sit down and watch the game.
Recipes for all of this will follow in the next few days. I'd like brownie points please for taking the time to figure out measurements for everything, instead of just chucking in seasonings willy-nilly and telling you to add "some".
We started with Spicy Smoky Roll-Ups, because they involve cheese. This one has no measurements at all, so you can have directions in a minute, down below.
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| Hot cheesy beef & bread, with barely 10 minutes of prep. Does it get any better? |
Then we had mom's guacamole and my faux pico de gallo (it's faux because I use more veggies than the traditional "proper" version). I didn't have a chance to take a picture of the guacamole; the guys inhaled it too quickly.
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| Look at all the pretty colors! |
Finally, we stuffed Red Beard and my dad with super spicy braised chicken wings and blue cheese dipping sauce.
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| Spicy. Sweet. Cheesy. Creamy. |
Of course, all of this was supplemented with beer.
As you might expect, we weren't very hungry when it came time for dinner, once the game was over. And our mouths were burning a bit, thanks to the wings and all the pepperjack and the spicy mustard. We like spicy. We like spicy a LOT.
As time goes on, you may be alarmed by how much Sriracha I add to things. Really, don't be. I haven't killed anyone yet, and in a lot of cases, even when you don't use enough to actually make something hot, it just adds that little "something" that makes food that much better.
In the meantime, we had to run interference between the food and this spoiled pup:
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| In case you're wondering, he's got his bunny in his mouth. He loves Bunny. |
This is my parents' hunting dog. The one that the Wonder Kitten has bullied into submission. His therapy sessions are going great! There's really no relaxing fully when there's food out and a pup loose; not unless you like your roll-ups with the mustard licked off.
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For those of you who've never made them before, here's a quick tutorial on Spicy Smoky Roll-Ups:
Start with a pack of Lit'l Smokies. They come in turkey or chicken with apple flavors, but in our family, we like either the traditional "plain" ones (that say "made with quality pork, turkey, and beef" on the label) or the all-beef ones. Sure, I suppose you could use regular hot dogs or sausages and simply cut them to size, but that's no fun.
In addition, you'll need pepperjack cheese, a couple of different types of mustard, and a tube of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (or any brand of croissant dough in a can). In fact, I think there's a version of this recipe, in video format, on the Pillsbury website.
It's easy peasy! Flatten out the dough in the individual triangles and cut each triangle in half lengthwise. Lay a mini sausage and a couple of cheesy chunks at the fat end of the triangle. Then roll them up!
Lay everything out on a baking sheet. Either use pan spray or line the sheet with foil, because if the cheese ooozes out during cooking (and it will), scrubbing burned-on cheese off of a sheet pan sucks. Bake the roll-ups at 400º F until the cheese is gooey and the bread is a pretty color. We squished together two kinds of mustard, a dijon and a sweet/hot Asian mustard, and called it a dipping sauce (such a complex procedure, I know).
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