Our Super Bowl Party

I have posted many things leading up to our little Super Bowl party. Here's how it turned out, though.

We have this alcove area that we turned into the drink corner. We had sodas on the shelf, ice and frozen drinks in the freezer, and beer and Mike's Hard Blood Orange in the fridge.

Against the far wall, we had a table for food. We had sandwiches, Buffalo Chicken Dip and Fritos, a cheeseball and crackers, cookies, and cupcakes. Everything was delicious!

How was your Super Bowl party? We had a blast.

Touchdown Cupcakes!

To be perfectly honest with you, I don't make a lot of things from scratch. There are my few tried and true recipes that I will go all out for, but cakes and cupcakes are definitely not one of those. I've tried a lot of fully homemade cakes and I've tried a lot of boxed cakes. You know what my favorite is? It's Betty Crocker's Super Moist Triple Chocolate Fudge. I think it's the best. That's my personal opinion anyway.

So clearly, the first step to making these Superbowl Cupcakes, is to make some cupcakes. Let them cool. Then, use food coloring to color your frosting. I just had store-bought frosting because unless I'm only making cupcakes, I have a lot going on and don't really have the time or energy to make mine from scratch, but feel free if that's your thing. Pipe the frosting on to look like grass.

To make the goalposts, melt some almond bark and color it yellow. Put it in a squirt bottle. I was going to try and make goalposts out of 4 pretzel sticks, but that didn't really work out as planned so I thought of something new. I took the yellow almond bark and piped some yellow goal posts on some wax paper. When they're hard, push the goal post into the cupcake. If you can find them (I got mine from Party City), then add a sugar football at the base of the goal post for a finished look.

If you can't find them, but really love the look of the football, I bet it wouldn't be too hard to make some using chocolate and almond bark. You just need to melt them, put them in squirt bottles and make them on some wax paper. Let them harden and then peel them off.

I actually had some extra batter after I made my 18 regular-sized cupcakes (because that's how many sugar footballs I had), so I made mini cupcakes. Then, I used the leftover frosting on them. And to finish them off, I put the extra goal posts on top.

They're easy. They taste great. And they're absolutely adorable.

Recipe: Cheeseball

This is my absolute favorite recipe of all time! I make it all the time and I freaking love it. I'm not going to say that mine is better than everyone else's, but I will say that I personally like mine the best. I'm a somewhat picky eater and I feel like everyone always puts weird things in their cheeseballs. I like to make mine all about the cheese! But don't get me wrong, there is so much flavor going on in this thing. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Ingredients:
8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
8 oz grated cheddar cheese
½ Tbsp Onion Onion or onion powder
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp lemon juice
Chopped pecans

I just want you all to know that I am only guessing on the amount of the onion, sauce, and lemon juice. I tend to just throw some in. It always turns out fine for me so don't be afraid to do that. Measurements do not have to be exact. Sometimes, I even like to add some Garlic Garlic in there.

Steps:
1. Work all ingredients together except the pecans.
2. Make into a ball.
3. Roll in chopped pecans.
4. Wrap in saran wrap and chill.
5. Serve with crackers.

I serve mine with crackers. You can literally serve this with ANY crackers. I know some people serve theirs with pretzels too. You can always make your cheeseball in different shapes and sizes. After all, I made mine into a football for Superbowl Sunday. I even saw somewhere that someone made theirs into a turkey for Thanksgiving. I love that idea. Be creative!

Recipe: Buffalo Chicken Dip

I'm not sure if you've ever had this before, but it's awesome! My friend made it for me one time when we were having a movie night. Well, for Christmas this year, my family got together the weekend after Christmas and since we'd all just had a huge meal on Christmas day, we decided to just make appetizers instead of dinner. I decided to bring this, but I wanted a crockpot recipe. There is no reason this shouldn't be good in a slow cooker, right? I tried it out. And it totally worked! Yay! I'm making this for Superbowl Sunday. I can't wait.

Ingredients:
3-4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, shredded
1 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
1 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 jar of ranch dressing, I used Marzetti's (my favorite), but I've also made it with generic and it was just as good

Steps:
1. Put water in a large pot, enough to cover the chicken. Bring the water and chicken to a boil. Boil for about 15-20 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked. Shred the chicken with a fork.
2. Add hot sauce, cream cheese, and dressing to mixing bowl. Mix on low speed until well blended, 30-60 seconds.
3. Mix in cheese.
4. Add chicken to cream cheese mixture.
5. Mix until blended to desired consistency. If you would like your chicken chunky do not mix long at all. If you would prefer a creamier, dip-like texture, mix a little longer.
6. Transfer mixture to slow cooker. Cook on low for 4-5 hours, then keep warm. Serve with crackers, rolls, celery sticks, Tostitos scoops, Fritos scoops, pretzel chips, etc.

Bonus Tip: I made this the day before, refrigerated it, and then stuck it into the slow cooker on low 4 hours ahead of time and then turned it to warm. It turned out great.

Bonus Tip: I also tried cutting up the chicken instead of shredding it and then adding it to the rest of the ingredients after it was blended and then folded the chicken in. Then, we put it on buns and they made great Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches! Awesome, right?

Recipe: Cheesy Pigs in a Blanket

For the past two days, I have shared recipes using crescent rolls. I thought I would continue with that and do one more. If you thought the other two recipes were easy, this one is even easier! I love using the cheddar smokies instead of regular lil smokies. I feel like it gives your average pigs in a blanket the extra umph (if you know what I mean).

Ingredients:
1 can crescent rolls
1 pkg cheddar smokies

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degreed. Roll out your dough and separate into 8 triangles. Cut each triangle into 3 triangles.
2. Place a cheddar smokie at the largest part of your triangle and roll it like you would a normal crescent roll.
3. Place on your baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges start to brown.

I suppose if you want to make these even cheesier, you could add some cheese before you roll them up. Do you have a different version of pigs in a blanket?

Recipe: Bacon Cheddar Pinwheels

Yesterday, I shared my recipe for churros on a stick using crescent rolls. Today, I'm using crescent rolls in a different way. My obsession runs deep. This is a seriously easy recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 can seamless crescent dough
2 tablespoons ranch dressing
4 slices bacon, crisply cooked, crumbled
½ cup finely shredded cheddar cheese

Steps:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Unroll the dough. Cut lengthwise into 2 long rectangles and press into a 12x4-inch rectangle.
2. Spread dressing over each rectangle to edges. Sprinkle each with bacon and cheddar cheese. Roll up the rectangle. Cut into 8 slices. Place cut side down on cookie sheet.
3. Bake 12-17 minutes or until edges are deep golden brown.

The biggest issue I had with this recipe was when I cut the pinwheels from the large roll. Some of them separated a little. This is an easy fix. Just roll them back up so that they look nice and place them on your baking sheet. Don't be afraid to get your hands a little dirty. How did yours turn out?

Recipe: Sloppy Joe Bowls

I was looking around on Pinterest and found this recipe for Sloppy Joe Bowls. This recipe could not be easier!

You just need two tubes of biscuits, some sloppy joe mix, and cheddar cheese.

Spray the inside of your muffin tins. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Flatten out the biscuits. Place the biscuits in the muffin tin. Put the 'bowls' into the oven for 1 minute. Push the dough down with a spoon since they'll have fluffed up a bit. Then bake for an additional 6 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Now put your sloppy joe mix in the bowls. I'm not going to lie, I get mine from a can. Top it with some shredded cheddar cheese and throw it back in the oven for 2 minutes to melt the cheese.

These would work great for appetizers or game day food.