Today is the final day in our Super Bowl Week series. So far, we've featured dips and appetizers, main dishes, healthy snacks and sweet treats. Today, we're going with a twist on the idea and focusing on foods you eat out of a bowl in honor of Sunday's big game. In order to find an appropriate picture to feature today, I went searching around our Flickr group (you should wander on over and join the group) looking for things that talked about bowls. And I think I found something of a winner with this image.
Taken by Loua, this gorgeous bowl of potato salad begs to be spooned out into smaller bowls and devoured. I tend to think of potato salad as a summer dish, but the necessary ingredients are available all year round and would make a really tasty addition to your Super Bowl buffet (especially if you add some torn basil leaves like Loua did).
In the last few days, we've talked about chicken wings and chili, queso and pizzas. However, our food choices have mostly been directed by our own personal likes and dislikes. Over at Ask.com, they've taken a more scientific approach towards Super Bowl food, tallying their search results in order to create a list of the Ten Most Popular Super Bowl Snacks. According to their study, here are most popular foods.
Chili
Pizza
Meatballs
Salsa
Ribs
Spinach dip
Wings
Guacamole
Quesadillas
Artichoke dip
Of these foods, what are you planning on serving at your Super Bowl party? (Personally, I'll take any excuse to eat guacamole, which is why I picked Slashfood Flickr pool member You Can Count on Me's picture of it to illustrate this post).
Gasp! You mean not everyone has an intense need to watch the Super Bowl? I am shocked! Well, maybe not so much. I may be slightly curious to see who wins, but I have very little desire to actually watch the big game.
That's why I was so excited today when I turned the TV on, which is a fairly rare occurrence in itself, and saw what Food Network is offering. They're broadcasting a "Wedding Bowl Marathon," featuring several Food Network Challenges about wedding cakes. As cake decorating is near and dear to my heart, this is a much more appealing line up than hour upon hour of football. I thought to myself that I'd have to try to remember this, but quickly came to realize that it wouldn't be all that hard as Food Network was running the promo during every commercial break.
The Wedding Bowl Marathon is on Sunday, February 3 and it starts at 3 pm eastern. I realize that not everyone is as interested in cakes as I am, so it might not appeal to all. However, in my humble opinion, the Wedding Bowl Marathon is way more exciting than any other bowl going on. Decorate, hike!
Today is the day that we're feature main dish foods appropriate for the Super Bowl and so it seems like a good time to look at some of the star foods that come out of New York and explain why they are so vastly superior to those items on offer in the New England area.
Our star representative is New York pizza. It is so very much better than anything available in New England (or really in the rest of the country, but that's another post). One might even say that New York pizza is the Platonic Ideal of pizza. Growing up in Portland, OR we had a pizza place called "Escape from New York Pizza." There was no pizza trying to escape from Boston. Additionally, the premiere pizza site in the blogosphere, the beloved Slice, comes out of New York. Need we say more?
I'm going to turn it over to you, our thoughtful and opinionated Slashfood readers. What are your favorite New York foods?
For some reason, Super Bowl foods tend to be pretty meat-centric. When I think game day foods, I think chili (with ground turkey or beef), burgers, steaks or Italian hoagies (also known as subs/grinders/heros/po'boy in other parts of the country) stacked high with salami. But there are lots of other things that make good, warming, stick to your ribs game food (important if you plan on playing a half-time game of touch football).
Recently I made a pot of Broccoli and Cheddar Soup, which would make a great Super Bowl offering. It uses a full half pound of cheddar (the sharper the better) so your carnivores will feel satisfied, but also incorporates several large heads of broccoli, making it feel slightly healthy. It can also be made the day before and reheated, which is always a nice feature when you're cooking for a crowd.
You're in final stages of planning out your Super Bowl buffet. You know you want the big slow cooker of chili (perhaps in a football shaped slow cooker?) as well as some Crostini (for the fancier folks). However, there are still a few holes in your plan. What about featuring a recipe from one of your favorite players? Over at Epicurious they've rounded up 22 recipes from current and past NFL-ers. It's being done in conjunction with a fundraiser, Taste of the NFL, that will take place in Phoenix the day before the big game and will benefit America's Second Harvest.
Looking for a quick and easy dip to serve your guests for the big game? Here's one of my favorites. It has been part of my family's food tradition since my mom first tasted it at a potluck in the early seventies. It's an easy dip to throw together, consisting of 1 cup of sour cream, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 2 cloves crushed garlic and 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of curry powder. Add salt and pepper to taste and refrigerate for an hour or two before serving. The great part about this dip is that it tastes good with cut veggies, pita chips or sliced apples.
Since it's the dips and appetizers day of our Super Bowl Week, I thought it would be fitting to feature a cookbook chock full of recipes for appetizers. I headed to my cookbook stash, knowing that I had at least one appetizer cookbook in my stacks. What I came up with is the little book yousee pictured here, A Book of Appetizers. Printed in 1958, this perfectly square volume was written by Helen Evans Brown (she wrote several cookbooks with James Beard).
It contains 145 recipes for appetizers and each is paired with a drink suggestion. Some of the recipes are kitschy and dated, while others are appealingly current. After the jump I've included recipe #144, Spicy Stuffed Onion Rings, which would make a great Super Bowl nibble (although they might unnecessarily tether you to the stove). She pairs these rings with a Columbian Cooler, which is a blend of Jamaican rum and Creme de Menthe. Personally, I think a good lager might be a better pairing.
If there's one thing I would bet my last paycheck on as making an appearance at every Super Bowl party this weekend, it's chips and salsa. Not only is it possibly the easiest thing to "serve" because you only have to rip open a bag of tortilla chips and pop open a jar of salsa, but since the Super Bowl is being hosted in Arizona, lots of party themes will be "Southwest." It's just too easy to open a jar of salsa that you buy from the store, but the truth is, salsa is so easy to make at home. Here are eight recipes for different kinds of salsa (which literally translates to just "sauce") to go with your Super Bowl menu:
Salsa Verde - This salsa green from the little green tomatillos, which aren't just small, underripe tomatoes, though they are in the same family. This recipe for Tomatillo Salsa Verde is by Bruce Aidells and Nancy Oakes and is part of an entire meal of fish tacos.
Pico de Gallo - Pico de Gallo is a chunky "salsa" that has three basic diced ingredients: diced tomatoes, onions, and jalapeno, plus chopped cilantro. If you happen to be a fan of that baastion of Southwest cuisine, Applebee's, CDKitchen has the restaurant's recipe.
Roasted Tomato Salsa - eHow explains step-by-step how to make a basic Roasted Tomato Salsa.
Avocado Salsa - An avocado salsa isn't the same thing as guacamole. Suite 101 has a recipe for a spicy, creamy avocado salsa.
Mango, Avocado, and Shrimp Salsa - This could be a ceviche, but technically, the shrimp is steamed in water before adding to the salsa (in ceviche, the raw fish are usually "cooked" with lime or other citrus juice).
Black Bean Salsa -The Hot Sauce Blog has a recipe for Black Bean Salsa, but we love what it comes with, too -- cheese stuffed poblano peppers!
Gasp! You mean not everyone has an intense need to watch the Super Bowl? I am shocked! Well, maybe not so much. I may be slightly curious to see who wins, but I have very little desire to actually watch the big game.
Since it's the dips and appetizers day of our Super Bowl Week, I thought it would be fitting to feature a cookbook chock full of recipes for appetizers. I headed to my cookbook stash, knowing that I had at least one appetizer cookbook in my stacks. What I came up with is the little book yousee pictured here, 
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