Superbowl Sandwich

It's Superbowl Sunday and that can only mean one thing - steak sandwich!  Ronnie says his sandwich is better than mine, but I give you this succulent savory sandwich to savor.  There's no way his is better.

Fresh baked rye bread toasted with roasted garlic and olive oil.  Porterhouse steak grilled to perfection and sliced - it practically melts in your mouth.  Caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, filled with flavor.  Melted fresh mozzarella cheese filling in all the nooks and crannies.

It was good.

And my Dear Honey's team won!  Go Giants!

Hummus

Who knew?  So much happiness from one little can.  Easy and delicious.  Did I mention easy?  I speak of homemade hummus.

You can make it fancy.  You can add stuff - roasted garlic, olives, chocolate chips, lemon zest, whatever you'd like.  Or you can make it bare bones plain.

I made it bare bones plain this weekend.  Just the basics.  Just pure goodness.

Just the thing to munch on when you're watching your Dear Honey's football team play in the finals.  Even though it should have been your team.  Because your team had such a great season.  And your quarterback had all those first downs all by himself last week.  And your team put so much heart into the game.  And it's not fair.  Because it really should have been your team - and not your Dear Honey's team.  And if they were playing today, the other team would be going down - big time!  Because my team could most certainly kick their...  But I digress.

So here's what you need:

1 can of chick peas
1 Tablespoon of minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/8 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Open the can of chick peas.

Pour it into a pot on the stove and bring it to a boil.

The skins on the chick peas will start to pop off.  It's done.  There will still be some liquid left in the pan. Don't toss it out - you may need it.

Use a slotted spoon to get the chick peas out of the pot and put them in a bowl.  Add the minced garlic.

Add the lemon juice.  And add the salt.  Normally I would also add some tahini - 2 Tablespoons, but I forgot to get some tahini when I was in the city, so I'm skipping it.  It'll still work.

Start mashing it up.  Keep mashing it up until it is the consistency you want.  I like mine with a few chunks of chick peas in it, so I use the potato masher.  If you like yours perfectly silky smooth, you may want to do this in a food processor instead of a bowl.  Or you could still use the potato masher and just get rid of some of those feelings about having to watch your Dear Honey's team in the playoffs.  I guarantee it will come out as smooth as silk quicker than you can say "Touchdown!"

Drizzle in about 1/2 of the olive oil and mash it some more until it is all mashed together.  If it is too thick, add a teaspoon or so of the liquid left over in the pan (not more olive oil - you'll need that in a minute).  I wanted mine a little thick, so I didn't add any liquid.

Put the hummus in a serving bowl.

Pour the rest of the olive oil over it.  It not only adds a little more flavor to the hummus, it acts as sort of a sealant from the air so the hummus doesn't dry out.

I went a little crazy and dusted it with paprika.  I'm just a wild child when it comes to hummus.

Warm hummus - nutty, lemony.

That's the good stuff.

Football Finger Food

Chicken fingers with a creamy spicy dipping sauce make a great decadent treat for game day.  Although we don't eat a lot of fried foods for our everyday meals, when it comes time for the playoffs, the crispy succulent tidbits have a way of making it onto the menu.

The great thing about chicken fingers is that they can go from a plain salt/pepper to a hot and spicy buffalo wing coating just by changing the finishing sauce.  And they're super quick to make.

This recipe will make a very lightly coated chicken finger.  Just enough coating to hold the seasoning onto the chicken - not a heavily coated super crunchy chicken finger.

You'll need:

Oil for frying
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Cayenne pepper
Milk
Chicken strips
Mayonaisse
Spicy Mustard
Horseradish

Pour some oil into a frying pan and let that heat up.  I'm reusing the pan that I made the sausage in and leaving those little bits in the oil for some extra flavor.  You don't need to use a lot of oil here - this isn't deep frying, it's pan frying.  So only pour enough oil in to come about 1/4 of the way up on a piece of chicken.  Less is more here.

Put the flour - about 3/4 cup, garlic powder - a teaspoon or so, cayenne pepper - 1/2 teaspoon (or more!), salt - 1/2 teaspoon, and pepper - 1/4 teaspoon into a bowl and mix it up.

Pour a cup of milk into another bowl.  Wash off the chicken and pat it dry.

Dip the chicken finger into the milk and pull it out - let it drip for a second or two.

Now dip the chicken finger into the seasoned flour mixture.  The flour will stick to the chicken in a really thin coating.  Shake off the extra flour.

Place the chicken finger into the hot oil.  You see how the oil is sizzling a bit as the chicken goes in?  That's what we want.  Also - notice how I put it in so the part nearest goes down first and the part away plops in last?  This way if it accidentally falls off of the fork and splashes hot boiling oil all over the place - one of those places won't be on me.  Because then there would be burning and pain and hospitals and bandages - and I would miss the game.  I don't want to miss the game.

Flip them when they get lightly toasty on the first side - not too toasty looking because they will cook more as you cook the 2nd side.  In the picture you can see the 1st side comes out darker than the 2nd side, but I assure you the chicken is cooked to perfection.  When the 2nd side gets lightly toasty, pull them out and place them on paper towels to drain off any excess oil.  For larger batches I would put them on a rack to drain so I don't have to use tons of paper towels, but for this little batch, a single paper towel handles the job nicely.

Now for the sauce.  Simple. Simple. Simple.

Spoon out about a 1/2 cup of mayonnaise into a bowl.  Add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

Add to that 1 1/2 tablespoons of spicy brown mustard and a tablespoon of drained horseradish.  Mix it all up.  You're done.

Chicken fingers and spicy dipping sauce.  Tasty, crunchy, spicy deliciousness.

We really enjoyed this finger food menu for the big game.  The chicken fingers were delish and flew off the plate.  The sausage stuffed potato skins also went fast.  For an added kick, we drizzled the spicy dipping sauce on top.  Finally the cheesy olive biscuits finished up the trio of finger foods as a salty, cheesy bite (also great with the dipping sauce!).

So that was "dinner" - chicken, biscuits and potatoes served up as finger foods.  Not very balanced, but oh so very good!  And yes, we did eat our vegetables later on in a nice salad - with the remains of that dipping sauce for dressing!

Biscuits and Butterflies

Last night I made olive cheesy biscuits as part of the football fare.  I based them on my girlfriend's sausage and cheese biscuit  - sort of.

She always makes these delicious sausage and cheese biscuit hors d'oeuvres when we pop over.  They are so delicious!  She says to just toss in some cooked and crumbled sausage along with some cheese into a quick biscuit mix and pop them in the oven.  So quick, so easy.  Right.

Well, I've tried making her sausage and cheese biscuits and let me just put it this way.  My dog won't eat them.

It reminds me of my butterfly bushes.  I say "bushes" because there have been a few of them over the years.  My Dear Honey likes them, so I tried to oblige by planting one for him.  It died.  For three years I tried to get one to grow.  They died.  Finally I asked one of my gardening friends how they got their butterfly bush to grow.  His response, "I just stuck it in the ground and it grew."  I think this is a case of the butterfly bush all over again.

Anyway, back to the biscuits.

You'll need cheddar cheese, chopped olives, black pepper, some biscuit mix and some milk.

I used a cup of biscuit mix.

Toss that into a mixing bowl.

Take about 2 ounces of cheddar cheese.

Grate that up into the bowl with the mix.

Get about 14 green brined olives - the ones that come in the jar are fine.  That's what I used here.

Coarsely chop those up and add them to the mix.  Also add in a bit of pepper.  Leave out the salt though - the olives are salted enough already.

Add in the milk.  I used about a 1/3 cup of milk, but I didn't add it all at once.  Pour in about half of the milk and give it 3-5 quick stirs to mix it up.  It's a biscuit and you always try to stir biscuit dough as little as possible or they turn into hockey pucks.  And hockey pucks are not very tasty at all.  If there's still dry mix in the bowl then go ahead and add more milk.  You don't want it too gooey here, so go easy.

Here it is all mixed together.  There's a little bit of dry clinging to the side of the bowl - that's okay. 

Drop heaping teaspoons of the mix onto a lightly greased baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes at 450-degrees.  The bottom should be golden brown.

And there you have it - olive cheesy biscuits.  They're as easy as growing a butterfly bush - or so I'm told.

Football!

GreenBay vs Giants

It's football time at the manor and there is no bigger game at our house than Green Bay vs Giants.  I have been a Green Bay fan since forever.  My Dear Honey has been a Giants fan since forever.  When our two teams match up on the field it is football time - everything else stops.

For such an excellent game, we needed some excellent snacks so I raided the pantry and came up with some classic football fare - chicken fingers, stuffed potato skins and sausage & olive cheesy biscuits.  

Tonight I wanted to share the stuffed potato skins with you.

You'll need 3 baked potatoes cut lengthwise in quarters, 1 tablespoon butter, 2 links of sausage, 12 slices of a good sharp cheddar cheese, some salt and pepper.

Slice open the casing on the sausages.

Remove the casing and brown the sausage in a frying pan.

As it browns, break it into smaller pieces to crumble it up.

Scoop out most of the potato from the quartered baked potato and toss it in a bowl.

Add a tablespoon of butter.

Mash it up with a fork.

Add in the cooked and crumbled sausages.

Lay out your potato skins on a baking tray.

Spoon the potato and sausage mixture on top of the skins and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.

Cut 12 slices of cheddar cheese about 1/8-inch thick.

Top them with the cheddar cheese slices.

Broil until the the cheese is nicely melted.

My Dear Honey seemed to really enjoy the potato skins, but then he really enjoyed the evening.  His team won.  yay.

We'll get them next time.  In the meantime - Go Pack!!!