2011 superbowl munchies!

Who is having a superbowl party? Tell me your address so I can show up and eat. I will bring whatever you want. I want to watch football this year. No I don't do I? I'm just there for the food man. It's all about the food. I just want to eat, and Superbowl day is a darn good excuse to pig out silly. Get your stretchy pants on and eat baby.
Well, if you still need some ideas on what to make AND want some easy recipes, I think I can help you. I've put together a few of the good munchies that are easy to create. If I had to choose: artichoke bread with hummus, pimento cheeseburgers, cheesy tater tots (those were gone in minutes so make a ton), and those fudge puddles. Seriously.

clockwise: meatloaf bread, artichoke bread, cheesy tater tots, and sweet potato quesadillas with fig reduction & corn relish.

left to right: espresso cream cheese brownies with salty shortbread crumbs, peanut butter fudge puddles, coconut cream cheese cookies.

clockwise: cheesy reuben calzone, reuben dip, frito salad, buffalo chicken chili with blue cheese drizzle.

left to right: devils food cupcakes with salty mascarpone frosting, pumpkin spice cookie bark, peanut butter and chocolate chunk cookies

left to right: pimento cheeseburger with tomato-balsamic reduction, ham and cheese sliders

browned butter soda bread

I like soda bread, I do, but not as much as the average person might? I find it a little bland, I know it's supposed to be bland by nature; a perfect vehicle rather for warm salty butter, jam or even ham. I just kicked up this soda bread up by adding in a bit of sugar and some browned butter to the top of it halfway thru baking. One could easily argue that I took the classic white soda bread paired it with the Irish version minus the caraway seeds and raisins, AND also a mixing of the browned butter soda bread minus the rosemary. Finding a happy middle in there somewhere. If you'd like a little history on the various types of soda breads and how they came about click here at epicurious. It's quite a good read and it tells you why you need to score a cross on the top of the bread before baking. What's your favorite soda bread(s)?





browned butter soda bread
print recipe

3 cups white all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 TB of baking soda
1 ts baking powder
1 ts cream of tartar
¼ cup of superfine sugar*
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 and ½ cups buttermilk, room temp

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease up a regular loaf pan with olive oil.
Sift all of the dry ingredients, (not the oatmeal), into a large mixing bowl. Next add in the oatmeal and mix. Add in (slowly) the buttermilk. Mix with your hands until you have a very loose dough. I gave it about 4-6 turns. You do not want to overmix as you will start the gluten process and this will give you a dense loaf. No kneading! Recipe from dawn finicane of vanillasugarblog.com Put dough into greased loaf pan. Push batter down gently into the corners. Then score a cross on the top. You’re going to cook this loaf for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester in middle comes out clean. But halfway thru baking you pour on the browned butter.

browned butter:
6 TB unsalted butter cut into TB chunks. Place in med-heat saucepan. Watch until butter is browned, has brown specks on bottom all the while whisking while it’s browning away. Just when it turns golden brown and has a nutty aroma – it’s done. Take off heat. Let cool a bit then pour on load halfway thru cooking. Ok to poke a few small tiny tiny holes in bread to let butter slide in there nice and happy.
*Note: if you don’t have superfine sugar, just run regular white sugar thru a food processer until fine.

chocolate-peanut butter bars w/ bbq pretzels

Girl have you lost your mind?
No I haven't lost my mind...yet.
Yes, I have cabin fever; a bad case of it actually. And yes, these taste friggin amazing.
Does it sound gross? Of course it does! If it didn't then why on earth would I make it?
I used those Snyder-that-can-crack-your-teeth-pretzels. Hubby asked me to buy them for him, I did, they sat there for a couple days. Afraid I would eat them in one sitting during one of our many thousand snowstorms we've had already, I went ahead and used them so I wouldn't eat them, but then ate them anyways because they are in another form now. Makes sense right?

This recipe sounds gross and all, but in all honesty its not. You don't taste the bbq.
What you taste is the twang of the pretzels that pairs very well with the pb and chocolate. I think you could use any pretzel you like, but I doubt ranch flavored would work well.
I did NOT write this recipe down, but I think I remembered everything as I happily went along.
With that said, PLEASE taste-test as you go along just in case I did forget something.

chocolate-pb bars w/ bbq pretzels
print recipe

¼ cup light brown sugar {packed}
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 and ¾ cups creamy peanut butter
A pinch of salt
A handful of salted cocktail peanuts to add into batter, optional
10 ounces high quality milk chocolate chips PLUS ¼ cup, divided
8 ounces high quality bittersweet chocolate chips
About 2 – 3 TB of butter for melting chocolates

For pretzels:
About 2 - 3 cups crushed Snyders BBQ pretzels, loosely crushed we want semi-big chunks (I cannot remember if it was 2 or 3 cups, sorry)
About ½ stick or ¼ cup of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease up an 8 by 8 inch brownie pan (I used non stick spray). Melt the other half stick of butter for the pretzels in a pan. In a bowl mix the melted butter and pretzels. Press them evenly into the prepared brownie pan. Bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until set. Do NOT let this brown!
Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle on the ¼ cup of milk chocolates; let them melt on their own then take a spatula and spread as evenly as you can without moving the pretzels. Let cool and harden.
Combine the brown sugar, confectioners' sugar, 1/2 room temp butter, peanut butter, and pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Blend until smooth. If you want to add in cocktail peanuts, this would be the time.
Dump the mixture out into the cooled pan & press it down, making it an even as possible.
Melt the chocolates & 2 TB of butter in a double boiler, or in a heat-proof bowl set over simmering water. Stir occasionally to combine and get nice and glossy.
Spread the melted chocolate over the peanut butter base & smooth out the surface. I like to let my pan sit at room temp for about an hour, then put in fridge to finish hardening. Once chocolate is set. Simply run a slim/skinny knife around edges to loosen. Invert the pan onto large plate/platter. You can either serve this pretzel side up or down.
You will need a very sharp knife to cut through the hard chocolate. Be careful.

sweet potato hash w/ adobo and fried tomatoes

It's really hard to do a post after those fabulous chocolate ganache donuts with salty pistachios. I mean how can you compete with that? Well, let me see if I can try.
Sweet potato hash I know I've made before for you, but had to share another version that I enjoyed so much so that I know you'll love it too. I actually make sweet potato hash a lot, in various ways: stuffed in a burrito with cheese and rice, under eggs, over french toast, in soup, oh the list is endless because it is so versatile and tasty.
If you're a heat-junkie like me then you will love this hash. I adore adobo's--it was the perfect pairing to put them in a "sweet" potato hash.
How have you made hash before? Any favorites?

sweet potato hash with adobo
print recipe
2-3 sweet potatoes, chopped into 1-inch cubes
EV olive oil
A few TB’s of butter
salt & pepper
¼ - ½ cup caramelized onions
Worcestershire sauce
1 – 3 chopped adobo chile peppers in sauce, minced (these are hot so use caution)

Caramelize some onions (about 1 giant sweet yellow onion) after it's done caramelizing add a few drops of the Worcestershire sauce, set aside.
Heat up same skillet (don’t clean it) with some EVOO and fry up the sweet potatoes until nice & crispy, season with salt and pepper. Towards the end of cooking add a few tablespoons of butter to the skillet to melt into the hash. Then add in a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, mix until combined. Then add in the chopped/minced adobo. Stir, then serve with eggs and fried tomatoes.

fried tomatoes

2 – 3 med size tomatoes, sliced thick, set on paper towels to dry up moisture
1/4 - 1/2 cup Flour
2-3 TB cornstarch
few dashes Old bay seasoning
2 - 3 TB cornmeal
Salt & pepper
EVOO and butter for frying up tomatoes

In a flat bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Heat up same skillet you used for the sweet potatoes (no need to clean it as it has great seasoning still left in it). Melt up some butter and EVOO. Dredge the tomatoes in the dry mixture and fry them up until brown & crispy on both sides.

chocolate donuts w/ ganache and pistachios

There's really no point in writing a lengthy post...no one's going to read it--the photos are way too distracting. The photo gods were with me on the day I made these incredibly delicious donuts. Enjoy. We did. I HIGHLY recommended making them (duh). I lend inspiration for these from the infamous doughnut plant in nyc; a place where I should be working and creating (check out the pb & jelly donuts: good sweet charlotte!).

chocolate donuts w/ ganache & salty pistachios
print recipe

1 ½ cups cake flour
½ cup dutch process cocoa
¾ cup sugar
2 ts baking powder
1 ts sea salt
¾ cup buttermilk, room temp
2 eggs
2 TB butter, melted
1 ts vanilla
(I added about ½ cup of chopped semi-sweet chocolate)

Preheat oven to 425. Spray donut pan lightly w/ non stick spray.
In a small bowl beat the eggs and vanilla.
In a large bowl mix the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Then add in the buttermilk, stir a bit, then add in the melted butter, and finally add egg mixture. Mix till just combined; no need to overmix. Fill each donut mold about 2/3 full (I overfilled, who cares, it was fine). Bake about 7 – 10 minutes. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack. It’s best to place parchment paper underneath cooling racks to make it easier to drizzle the donuts with Ganache. Recipe from dawn finicane of vanillakitchen.blogspot.com

Milk chocolate ganache w/ salty pistachios.

1 cup of high quality milk chocolate chips
2 –3 TB heavy cream

½ to ¾ cup of roasted & salted pistachios, roughly chopped
(if you don’t like pistachios then use whatever chopped nut or sprinkles you desire)

When donuts are cooled time to make the ganache. Melt the chocolate chips with the heavy cream, keep stirring till you get a nice glossy and consistency. Pour chocolate over donuts and/or dip donuts in chocolate—whichever is easiest for you. Top with chopped pistachios. Let chocolate harden/set before devouring. Should make 12 - 15