What We're Cooking: Super Bowl Sunday!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We don't watch much football around our house, but I can usually jolly my hubby into watching the Super Bowl. I'm all in this year because a) It looks really cool on our TV, b) It is a cultural EVENT!, and c) An excuse to make something different for dinner.

But, I mean, really, how could we miss this year with the Chiefs playing the…oh, wait, who are the other team again? (Sorry, sorry, San Francisco fans!) Not to mention the whole other romance drama of the day… (Do I want to see if Taylor makes the game? Of course I do!)

And, Usher! And the Clydesdales. And the ads, although they were disappointing last year, I thought.

But back to the food and the something-different-for-dinner. I have some avocados that might be approaching ripe, so maybe some guacamole? And maybe nachos, that's always a thing, right? Meat or no meat? Hmmm. 

I'm not crazy about chicken wings, but I like the sauce, so I was thinking of trying Cauliflower Wings. But then I thought they'd probably be better done in an air fryer, which I don't have, so maybe not. Has anyone tried them in the oven?

Or maybe we will just have our usual Sunday night pizza and salad, and I'll use the whole Super Bowl thing as an excuse to buy a tub of Costco's Spinach Artichoke Dip, which will then live in the refrigerator for about a year, because it's HUGE. (Wonder if you can use it for pasta sauce?)

Look at this adorable charcuterie board my daughter ordered from a local business, The British Boarder, for their Super Bowl party! Is that the cutest thing ever?

Now that's the way to do it!

Ideas, fellow REDs? Plans? A good but easy nacho recipe? Help!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: This is such a fabulous discussion. Sometimes I make chili – – I don’t put beans in it, though, and Jonathan is always baffled. I adore chili, with shredded cheddar cheese, and  black olives and sour cream on top.

Or, nachos. (Nachos are just chili without the bowl, right?) Love them. 

But this year I will be on book tour  in a hotel in someplace like …Miami? I think, and Jonathan will be home. So I will be having hotel food, and Jonathan will be having one of the frozen things I left for him.

Have we decided who we are rooting for? 

DEBS: Chiefs for me, as one of my best pals lives in KC and is a big fan, so I like them, too. NOTHING to do with, you know, the Traylor thing... Okay, well, maybe a little... Hmm... Wonder who will be in the Kelce/Swift box??

JENN McKINLAY: I would love to help, Debs, but Hub is in charge of the food for the Super Bowl gathering at our house and for most of our meals. He does make a mean batch of chicken nachos. I will ask if he has a recipe. Now if we’re talking about what to bake for dessert, well, that I could help with. Apple pie? Brownies with ice cream and fudge sauce? Coconut cake? Maybe if I make the brownies look like footballs…hmm. 

LUCY BURDETTE: I am going to a friend's SB party, taking Melissa Clarke's buttery corn muffins with me to go with her chili. I assume there will also be some kind of salad and salty, creamy onion dip. I usually only make it through the halftime show and then go home to read:). This year our 7 year old granddaughter is desperate to watch because Taylor Swift might make an appearance. "She has to come!" we heard her say:). 

Here's the link to those muffins.

DEBS: Yum, thanks, Lucy!

RHYS BOWEN:  it’s just us this year. Usually we’re in Arizona and watch with Clare and Tim and have lots of good food. So whatever I fix has to be simple and quick. But guacamole is a good idea and I have a tarte d’Alsace in the freezer and we love edamame to nibble and I know we have Prosecco so all is well.

 

Oh, and super easy nachos. Buy a jar of chili con queso. Heat up. Pour over chips and cut up tomato and peppers and sliced olives.

HALLIE EPHRON: I bought about 4 pounds of chicken wings for my daughter to make buffalo wings. I will be sous chef-ing since I’ve never made a recipe for wings that I’d want to repeat, and *I* am the person who grabs off the wings on a roast chicken or turkey.

Nachos? That’s cheese and taco chips? Can I admit that I have never had them?

I will be tuning into the game for the final four minutes which usually take forty minutes, and is when the exciting stuff happens. By then the wings will be gone.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Honestly, I hadn’t planned on tuning in, ‘cause without the Pats, who cares? But I really really want to see how often T-Swift gets caught on camera! And see her hug her Kelce boyfriend - He’s so enormous! She looks so tiny! And I do love the ads.

Debs, Ross used to make the family bowl of nachos - chips, ground beef sauteed in taco seasoning, black beans and cheese. He would layer those ingredients in my large glass trifle bowl and put it in the oven on low heat just long enough to melt the cheese. Sour cream and guacamole on the side, because not all our kids loved them both. It’s a great dish because it’s hearty and the good stuff is all the way through, not just on top.

I also heard some suggestions while listening to Here and Now on NPR, and one of them - polenta pizza - sounds so good I’m going to give it a whirl! 

How about it, dear readers? Are you doing the Bowl? And if so, whacha cookin'??

WINNER ALERT: Karen in Ohio, you've won Laurie King's THE LANTERN'S DANCE! Congrats!! (I'm reading it now--it's so good!)