Snack Stadium

It's what we call Wildcard Weekend in the NFL! Four teams will play for a spot in the playoffs and 4 teams have already locked down a spot. It's pretty much as exciting, or more so than Christmas and birthdays put together in my family. Superbowl Sunday is our biggest day of the year by far. And I know we're not alone! We spend every Sunday watching football from September until Superbowl in our team jerseys, drinking, (swearing sometimes) and gambling like drunken sailors! It is so much fun, and we often get a little depressed in February when its all over for another year.

We have what we call "snack" on Sundays. Chili, chicken enchiladas, nachos, chicken wings... Well, you get the idea - Football Food! And since we love to cook and even more so, eat, we really indulge during the 17 weeks of the regular season. So for Superbowl Sunday, I had to come up with something to really bring it up a level from a regular Sunday. So last year I made a "Snack Stadium". Here it is. But I'm in deep, deep trouble this year since the Feds have outlawed the Twinkie. Twinkies were the building blocks to my stadium! I may have to use doughnuts cut in half this year. I'm thinking on it because Superbowl is only 3 weeks away and I don't have an engineering degree, so ideas are most welcome!

You have to start with a good dip. And that will be your playing field. Depending on how many people you're having at your party will determine everything. I used a smaller size aluminum pan for this planning on 12-18 people. Size it up if you're feeding a crowd. Use your favourite layered dip or use this if you like.
Spread a layer of bean dip all over the bottom of the pan. Then a layer of room temperature cream cheese seasoned with a tablespoon of chili powder and a good squeeze of lime juice and some chopped cilantro. Then spread guacamole across the whole pan and this is what will be your playing field. For each end zone, use salsa on one end and cheese dip on the other. This is lots of fun to do! Now put some sour cream into a little sandwich bag and cut off the tip so you can squeeze it to draw your yard lines and write your team names in the end zones. For the goal posts, you need to insert a toothpick into a 1 inch square piece of cheddar cheese. (the cheese will be buried in the dip. It's an anchor to hold them up) and cut a Hot Rod to measure 3 inches and insert it onto the other end of the toothpick. Then toothpick the 2 vertical posts and a cross piece to this. You have to study the photo to get the idea. Use your imagination for the players. I used sausages in the tin and put helmets of black olives on one team and jalapeno slices for the helmets on the other team. Your "field" is finished!

Now here is where I'll miss my Twinkies because I used toothpicks to attach them and build the perimeter of the stadium. So use doughnuts cut in half or cupcakes or whatever you like. The lack of a Twinkie will never be my ruin! Put your playing field dip in the center and work around from there. Add different kinds of chips into the outer perimeter of the dip but inside your walls. Since I had Kelly in town when I built mine last year, and she has computer skills, we printed off little flags and put them on wooden skewers to really dress it up. My family likes to do things BIG and really over the top! And so we did.
The whole idea of this recipe is to just have fun and use your imagination. And I guarantee you that after you make your first snack stadium, you will be called on every year hereafter to be the architect of Superbowl Sunday! Cheers friends! Go Patriots!