A Feast Of A Day

As an American and the daughter of a football enthusiast, The Super Bowl has always had a prominent place in my life. Some of my earliest memories were watching the Super Bowl while eating a piece of Grandma's perfectly fried chicken. And as much as I love football, let's just say that I love food even more, and today I thought it would be fun to share some of our perennial Super Bowl dishes with you.

Before that, I have a bit of a confession to make. I haven't watched a single NFL game this entire season. For a girl who's nickname was Joe Montana, has a brother named after Jack Lambert, who's dad loved playing football so much he practiced with a Canadian semipro team while working daily as a timber faller, and a girl who spent thousands of hours playing school yard football games because Icebox on Little Giants was my personal hero, I suppose that's a bit odd. Honestly though, as much as I love the game, the noise of the sport is a bit tedious and I have so many other things to work on.

The food and fellowship of Super Bowl however, that I enjoy beyond words. Well, that and being mystified when refs don't call facemasks....Anyway, there are a few dishes that always are served no matter where I land for the game: Seven Layer Dip, My Husband's Guacamole, Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers, The Won Tons, and The Brownie Surprise.

Seven Layer Dip is always present because I love the intersection between creamy Tex-Mex flavored layers and the crunch of fried corn chips. This year because I feel like a big ol pile of bull fecal matter, I kept it simple and used canned refried beans instead of making them from scratch like I usually do. After straining some salsa, I used the liquid from it and a bit of milk and stirred the refried beans into a nice, spreadable base for the dip. I then added a mixture of cream cheese, sour cream, and homemade taco seasoning. Insert yum sigh here....

I'd have to be really sick to buy taco seasoning, I have made it so many times that I don't even need a recipe to throw it together anymore. Yay practice and application!

After that layer I throw on guacamole, salsa, cheese, green onions, and olives. Some years I make the dip more fancy, but this year I kept it simple, and you know what, it still tasted awesome!

Speaking of guacamole, every year my hub's guac is requested. For like fifteen years in a row we went to our friend's home for Super Bowl, it was like a family ritual, and admittance wasn't granted unless the guac (and won tons) were in tow. Okay, that's a joke. Maybe...

Anyway, the hubs puts a brick of cream cheese in his guac, and it turns it into the most delightful dip for chips, an even more creamy ambrosial delight for the taste buds. Now, I love avocados and they really don't need anything to taste good, but my husband's guac dip is pretty magical.

And so are his Won Tons. My daughter was worried about the Won Tons this year. My hubs has been making them for us for over twenty years, but apparently they are trending on Tik Tok and my girl was worried we wouldn't be able to find won ton wrappers....spoiler alert: we did find some.

The mixture of crab, cream cheese, Chinese five spice, salt and pepper, a dash of shoyu, and some green onions, prettily wrapped in a won ton wrapper and fried to golden brown perfection makes the moment in life where you ingest them beyond glorious!

Then there are the poppers. My weakness. Who would have thought that dividing jalapenos in half, filling them with a mixture of cream cheese and sharp cheddar, and wrapping them in bacon before baking them until slightly crisp could be so enduring. One of my family members and I can eat an entire tray of the dang things, well he's 6'4" and in the military and I'm getting old so he probably kicks my butt in the popper ingestion category now, but when he was younger I could totally beat him!

And last but not least we have Brownie Surprise. Many years ago I made a post about the dessert I created for my uncle, and I have a funny story about the dish that ties it in with Super Bowl and made it a dish that always has a place in the Super Bowl snack spread.

Years ago, when we went to our friend's place for our very first Super Bowl with them, I brought Brownie Surprise. Being young, pregnant, and in college and not having all the autopilot years of baking that I do now, I forgot to grease the pan before I baked the brownies. Well, as I was trying to dish up the first slice of Brownie Surprise for one of my friend's kids, I put a little too much oomph into my dessert scooping muscles and the spatula snapped. The piece of Brownie Surprise that I was trying to scoop went airborne and landed in a giant house plant. My mortified face was frozen in to a horrified O and the shocked silence was quickly broken by a cacophony of laughter from everyone in attendance.

Since that day I have never forgotten to grease the brownie pan.

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And the dessert is always present every Super Bowl. Because layers of whipped topping and chocolate mousse on top of rich chocolate chunk brownies and garnished with chopped milk chocolate never goes out of style and is always requested in advance!

The Super Bowl is definitely a cultural tradition that a bunch of us partake in. This year's game at my house was punctuated by a fracas from the teenagers in attendance. My son brought his TV out into the living room and a bunch of the heathens played Brawlhalla while we all watched the game. I felt like I was in the crowd as I sat back in my little cushy recliner by my woodstove and nibbled on comestibles while everyone in attendance brayed like a bunch of elated donkeys.

And on that note, I am going to pass out. I would love to hear what dishes are your favorites when you watch the Super Bowl, or attend any big important event. It's always a blast to learn about new dishes!

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And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's not dropped in any dip or ever spiked like a pigskin iPhone.