Well, Not Completely, But Food's a Big Part...
Another Sunday, another Superbowl. In the heart of winter, here comes the Superbowl, just when we turned our thoughts to basketball, the baseball hot stove leagues, and this year, the Vancouver Winter Olympics, football takes center stage once more.
Superbowl parties and get-togethers are a big part of the day, and the tried and true foods include chips, dips, wings, beer, chili and the entire snack food category. You don't want to give up valuable time away from the game to prepare lavish meals, but the timing of the game, beginning at 3 p.m., means it's before dinner but definitely after lunch. Snack time, or can it be more?
If I'm feeling lazy, it's quite enough to soften a block of low-fat cream cheese and mash up some minced garlic for a chip dip that's ridiculously easy and irresistible. You can partner it with another cream-cheese based dip, this time with pimento-stuffed green olives, all chopped up, with a good bit of the olive liquid added to the mix. It's very salty, but if you love olives (and I do), it doesn't last long.
Chicken wings are a great addition to the food feast, too. My take on chicken wings is that our stores do them much better than I can: apricot sauce, buffalo sauce, plenty of meaty bites per wing...I'd rather buy them and heat them up than go to all the trouble of preparing them at home. Less expensive, too!
This year, I'm thinking of food inspired by the two teams. New Orleans is so food-rich I don't know where to start. How about a Sazerac, a rum-based kind of elegant drink, to accompany a batch of light and powdered sugar beignets, or donuts you can prepare in advance? A thick, lavishly loaded gumbo can be simmering during the game and accompanied by homemade corn bread. Gumbo is such a great filling meal in itself. You include chicken, spicy andouille sausage chunked up, celery, lots of okra (a vegetable that inspires lust and hate equally), file powder,(a special Creole spice mix,) maybe some crawfish or shrimp, pinto beans, and topped over white rice. You couldn't find a more filling dish than gumbo, or one more iconic to New Orleans.
But if you lean towards Indianapolis, you must celebrate the foods of the Midwest. We're talking beef here: slow-cook a pot roast or beef short ribs with big winter vegetables like parsnips and turnips and winter onions, in a liquid braising that includes some garlic olive oil, a vibrant red wine and a dash of worcestshire sauce or dried onion soup mix. Freshly baked bread and beer, of course, followed by an old-fashioned apple pie topped with cheddar cheese, take this choice home.
Either of these two options will fill your home with wonderful aromas, pique your guests' appetites, and require very little of the cook-in-charge, who has wisely done his or her shopping and prep work before the game begins. The cook can rest and enjoy the game, because the food is about as easy as it comes.
I love the spicy, French-inspired foods of New Orleans, but I'm a Midwesterner at heart, so I'll be choosing the beef option this Sunday. It's going to be short ribs, cooked until the meat just melts off the bones, accompanied by some paprika-seasoned fingerling potatoes and a nice little formation of fresh sauerkraut. There will be carrots and parsnips pureed on the side for color and flavor. Of course, we'll be so full of snack foods that we may find ourselves eating most of this the next day!