Crush It At Kickoff – Super Bowl 52

At Hectic Manor we celebrate with food.

From the eight hour snack fest that is New Year’s Eve to traditional Corned Beef & Cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day. Our summer picnics are legendary.  Halloween’s spooky treats lead into the veritable feasts of Thanksgiving and Christmas. But there is no celebration that is more of a bacchanalia than Super Bowl Sunday.

My struggle with these celebrations is, by the time the actual festivities begin, I’m exhausted. I’ve been cooking for days…yet at the last minute I’m rushing about with a very tight timeline, trying to do far too many things at once. I get the food to the table…and I crash.

I love making food and adore everyone enjoying it. Making my family happy makes me feel great. But the massive effort has come to outweigh the pleasure. The past two years I’ve virtually collapsed as I sat down to the meal. That’s put a damper on enjoying family time – I’m just too tired.

This year I’m trying something different: More time planning so the work will be less exhausting. I’m also doing more advance food-prep. Hopefully that will let me enjoy the festivities after the food hits the table.

Honestly, the Super Bowl game isn’t that big of a deal to me. OK, to be perfectly honest, when the Chicago Bears won the 1986 Super Bowl that was a big deal! Of course, part of that might’ve been all the hoopla surrounding the Super Bowl Shuffle and the aura of that particular Bears team. Other than that, I’ve been a passive spectator to the actual game. On the other hand, the lavish spreads of food have been my focus. This year is no different. We’ll have a multi-hour meal throughout the entire game. The biggest challenge will be having everything ready before kickoff and keeping it hot and fresh throughout the game. There’s going to be lots of foraging, so I need to accommodate that.

Since I was making the meal plan anyway, I figured I’d share it with you. Heck, I’m doing the work, you ought to benefit!

While I was crafting my plans, I saw an ad from our local butcher: There’s a sale on ribs! It was as if he knew exactly what I needed to make my menu a no-brainer. Ribs immediately became the centerpiece.

While ribs are a family favorite, I’ve still got some who’d rather eat chicken at every meal. Weirdos! But I’ll compliment the ribs with Chicken Fajitas. This lets me put my triple slow-cooker on display too! Fajitas keep well in the slow-cooker, making them the perfect match for extended feasting. We’re also going to have lots kids here, so I’m making mini corn dogs. I’ve been dying to try different variations for the batter…and I don’t often have a large enough captive audience. Plus the crew is pretty vocal…so I’ll get tons of feedback. Pretty much a win-win!

Also on the menu are cole slaw, cowboy beans, wedding potatoes, and cheesy creamed corn. All of these have several features that really appeal to me. First off, they can be assembled in advance, and several of them are better if I let the flavors mingle for days. In addition, they adapt to non-oven cooking. I have an abundance of kitchen appliances and this Super Bowl I’m breaking them all out!

Since my Mom will be here, I’ve got to provide a broad array of desserts. My dearest mother always looks at the dessert menu first. She ambles to the end of the buffet line to peruse the delicacies. Only then does she plan what she’ll eat. I’ve known her to have a tiny plate from the main buffet but two large plates of desserts. The funniest thing is she’s not apologetic. She’s going to enjoy herself and eat the desserts…sometimes first!

So we’ll have a cornucopia of desserts, all of which also lend themselves to advance preparation.

There you have it…our Super Bowl spread.

Is it a large spread? You betcha! But like everything else we do at Hectic Manor, this will be for a huge crowd. Keep that in mind if you decide to mirror what we’re cooking.

While there is always a danger that I’ll cook too much, I’m prepared with meal-sized freezer containers. One of the best aspects of these recipes is everything can be packaged and frozen, providing ready-to-cook meals if we have any leftovers. Again, a win-win.

So get set at the line of scrimmage and make it a great Super Bowl Sunday in the kitchen!

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