Fully Loaded Nachos & 17 other Super Bowl Recipes

Dish me out a combo: Food & Sports (a Super Post)
(Recipes with Pics below)

Playoffs?!?!?!? Playoffs?!?!?! that's right its conference championship weekend as we inch a week closer to Tampa Bay and Super Bowl XLIII and oh yea, Mons Venus too. I for one am actually happy the Bears didn't make the playoffs. Yeah I said it and no I'm not some fair weather half assed fan. I thought this season was one big lie and if we had made the playoffs, the fact that the Bears are a playoff team would have been a huge fib as well. When I look at this Bears team I see alot of work that needs to be done on both the offense and defense.

I'm sick of people talking about this Bears defense being a unit to be scared of, that's a lie. I love Tommie Harris and think hes a great guy in the community but he has been a lie. Nathan Vasher and Peanut Tillman are also lies. Mike Brown was finally healthy for a significant portion of the season and the defense still stunk it up even though they insisted that when healthy they were a super bowl defense, another lie. I'm not sure anyone besides Lance Briggs shouldn't be carefully evaluated.

The offense played better than I thought they would but I still don't think much of Kyle Orton and the Bears still have by far the worst WR unit of all time. Jerry Angelo better figure out a way to evaluate talent on offense and bring in some players so we can be a formidable super bowl contender. I love what Matt Forte did this year and think he's a very legit RB but any of you Bears fan's that think he is on his way to being an elite RB mentioned in the same breath as Adrian Peterson, Michael Turner and others is mistaken. He will be very good but he isn't great which means we need another running back who can bruise to lighten the load. I vote for change in '09 and I want Bob Babech's head on a stick. I also want the people at Taco Bell to cease all advertisements in Chicagoland. Get lost with your disgusting dog food and your ad's that are lamer than the Met's logo for their upcoming season. Luckily I'm here to give you some Super Sunday food ideas for your super bowl party.

Only thing worse than Taco Bell's ad's are Subway's. What the hell is with Taco Hell's fully loaded nachos and those annoying ass commercials that come with them?

To the people at Taco Bell: The only menu item that is even slightly edible (if starving in the dessert and dying) are your chips. Thats it just plain tortilla chips that taste like cardboard but not as bad as the dogfood you put on top of them. So why the hell would anyone in the right food state of mind want each and every chip loaded with dogfood? the worst part is I drove by a TB one day and this garbage isn't even cheap. If taco bells nachos are dogfood than mine are 5 star Michelin rated...and they should be. I always like doing the usual wings and chili as well as Mexican eats when I'm having super bowl parties. It tastes good, everyone tends to like it unless your from Idaho and like Taco Bell and it cooks easy for large amounts of people. Many of the dishes work for buffet style foods and any parties of celebration.

KingT's 16 in the clip & 1 in the hole Nacho's

1 bag of authentic tortilla chips (we use el ranchero in Chi)
3 lbs of skirt steak grilled and chopped into bite size pieces
3 cups of Mexican rice (make it easy and buy it from a taqueria)
2 cups of refried beans (same)
3-4 cups of shredded chihuahua cheese
homemade guacamole
chopped tomatoes and onions
sliced jalapeños
sour cream
red or green salsa
chopped cilantro

Start by grilling the skirt steak until nice and charred and then proceed to chop up the steak into little pieces. Start your broiler and set it on high.



Take the bag of chips and layer them on a wide oven proof dish and spread the beans and rice on top of the chips. Then throw the pieces of steak on to the layer. Please don't start singing "nacho, nacho, man" during the making of this dish.



Meanwhile set up a little buffet area with bowls of your nacho toppings selection so that people can put what they want on each one. Layer the cheese across the chips and place in the broiler until the cheese has melted down nice and good.



Announce that the nachos are ready and allow people to fill a plate with them and top the nachos with whatever fits their bill.


bada bing!
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Shrimp Enchilada's
Recipe from: Tex-Mex Cookbook

The Grateful Dead once played a free show on Thanksgiving day in Austin, Texas at the famous Armadillo World Headquarters, a music hall that was the spot in the '70's that launched Austin into the live music spotlight. Just like any other band they needed to be fed and along with them came an entourage. They asked the chef to make Mexican food but some of them didn't eat meat. So AWHQ kitchen extraordinare Jen Beeman invented her famous shrimp enchiladas for the occasion. Here is the home adaption recipe from the book. You'll have to buy the book to see the recipe. This might be the best super bowl recipe book out there.


Jerry Garcia's super bowl food
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Two Point Tostada's

Cooked Mexican Ground beef beef mixture (use a packet or make your own spice blend)
chopped tomato's/onions/cilantro/lettuce/hot peppers
salsa/sour cream
tostada shells

start by layering the shell with cheese and then top it with hot ground beef and top it with whatever suits your need. Feel free be creative.


before


after
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Stacked Cheese enchilada's

1 package corn tortillas
1.5 cups of enchilada sauce or salsa roja
shredded Mexican cheese like Oaxacan or chihuahua
homemade guacamole

~pour sauce into a wide container and cover each tortilla so that it has sauce on each side and let the extra salsa drip off.

~place tortilla dipped in salsa into a frying pan with a little oil and cook on each side for 2 minutes and cheese and take off and repeat again however many times you want. you can bake this and make a pot luck casserole the same way by layering the tortillas and cheese.


cheese stacked enchiladas great for the don't eat meat freaks

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Mom's bacon cream cheese asparagus shells

1 package phyllo shells
1 package of cream cheese
1 package cooked bacon (little bits) or chorizo
1 stick of sauteed asparagus for each pastry filled
1 lb shrimp

set oven to 350

cook shrimp in boiling water or beer for 2.5 minutes until they turn slightly pink.

mix the cooked bacon and cream cheese along with some of the bottom part of the sauteed asparagus and fill it in the shell and top each hor dourve with 1/3 of a shrimp and top head of an asparagus stick.

bake until cheese is bubbly.


appetizers
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Bill Swerski Polish


char grilled Barese sausage from Bari


Westernized PelMeni (Madison Wisconsin Pelmeni)


Cajun blackened wings with red beans & rice


loose meat sandwiches


cheesesteak sliders


Roast Beef Po' Boy's


frita cubanas


chorizo, egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches


quesadillas de tito


West Texas Stacked Enchiladas


KingT's Tex-Mex Chili...check back next week for the art of chili.

...another round of super recipes next week.

Big Easy Eatin' in a Windy City Winter

-Cookin' Cajun in Chicago (Recipes)
--Bears vs. Saints Thursday Night Football

Thursday night football is invading Chicago as the Nawlins Saints come marching into Soldiers field to take on Da Bears. The NFL really got it right with these Thursday night games, I expect a playoff like atmosphere at Soldiers. As good as the Saints offense has been this year they aren't ready for the frigid weather on the lake. As bad as both the Bears players and coaching staff has been at times this year we are still in the playoff hunt in the mediocre NFC north.

The Saints are a great home team but that high powered offense isn't going to be able to click in the cold weather, they aren't built for it. They are a much better home team and being away in 20 below outdoors isnt a good thing for New Orleans. The Bears however are built for the cold weather and have a ridiculous record as a franchise when the temp is below 20 degrees at home. We will ride ROY favorite Matt Forte to a victory under the lights on Thursday night. I expect a close game similar to the two team's battle in the playoffs in '06-'07 won by the Bears.


Matt Forte is making Bears fans forget this face

Ive mentioned before how nearly impossible it is to find good Cajun eats in Chicago so I just make it myself. Here are two different options you can cook up for the game if your not going on Thursday. Don't forget to grab some Abita beer from Binny's or to mix up your own hurricanes before the game so you have a liquor blanket if your in the stands.

First up is a Cajun dinner from Whole Food's so this can be made by anyone who has a WF's and anyone who can cook cup o' noodles can make this.

KingT's Cajun Blackened Wangs with Red Beans & Rice
-a bandit production for Eez

-2 lbs of Wing drumettes from Whole Foods
-2 lbs of chicken andouille sausage from Whole Foods
-1 package of Tony Chachere's red beans & rice or any other quick 20 minute brand

~Season the chicken wings with a Cajun spice dust of any sort homemade or store bought and let sit in the fridge for a few hours if possible. Start up your grill or get your charcoal ready at least 40 minutes before your wings and sausage go on.

~Cook the red beans & rice according to the packages instructions

~While the red beans & rice is cooking, grill your wings until perfect which is 35 minutes give or take. Just make sure you keep your eye on them and turn them often. Put the chicken sausage on the grill and cook until crispy on outside and juicy inside, take off when done. You'll know when the wings are ready to go when the meat falls off the bone.

~As soon as you take the wings off melt your stick of butter in bowl with a liberal amount of the Cajun seasoning and toss wings in the melted butter and serve alongside red beans & rice with sliced pieces of chicken sausage on top.

~enjoy!


a Cajun dinner for people who don't do pork

Did I hear someone asking "Where's the beef" well its right here. I'm a big fan of the site NOLAcuisine.com and I have tried a few recipes from it recently. If you want yourself a real deal New Orleans Roast Beef Po' Boy and you don't live in NOLA then you better check this recipe out. This guy knows whats up and this po' boy is proof of it.

Roast Beef Po' Boy with debris gravy recipe


Roast Beef Po' Boy made by KingT following NOLACuisine's instructions.

I pretty much followed the recipe to the core except I added thinly sliced kosher pickles and a slice of cheddar on half of my sandwich. These were damn good, great for lunch or dinner and perfect for football gameday in the winter. It really tasted up to par with roast beef po boy's I have had from NOLA. It was however not quite as good b/c I wasn't in New Orleans at an old school joint listening to some music and enjoying the vibe with a bottle of abita to wash it all down. There wont be much of a vibe there Thursday night around midnight when the Bears take care of the Saints at a frigid or maybe snowy Soldier field.

Other Cajun recipes from chibbqking

Hot Sauce

2008 Bears Preview

...but we got that great defense.


Yes we do have a good defense but we also have that offense. Like all the experts say and the coaching staff tells us the bears are goin "to stick with their tough running style" and grind it out and not give up turnovers on offense. First of all it really pisses me off when they talk about Chicago Bear style of football, give me a break, Bear style football is the way its been because we have never had a stud QB or freak athlete at wideout and since all of our legends are RB's and defensive players, it is thought that style of grind it out tough nose football is our style.

Folk's if the Bear's had a player at QB with skills like Carson Palmer or athletes at WR like Reggie Wayne or Lee Evan's or any of the numerous jaw dropping players around the NFL then we wouldnt be running that style? get it? our style is the way it is due to the teams lack of being able to draft on offense. So we suck at drafting and scouting them and we dont want to trade for them. Anquan Boldin wants out of Arizona and I couldnt think of a WR that could help Jack and Coke grow at QB more than him. Boldin is an athlete who thrives out of the slot and catches whats thrown at him and has a great YaC. Devin Hester has great downfield speed that would open up the middle for Boldin so he can get open for Orton, who cant throw a great long ball to Hester anyway. Makes sense to me. It makes so much sense that if they brought Boldin in he would probably be our #2 QB on the depth chart. He played QB at Florida St. for a while and I cant imagine he's worse than my boy Rex.


Bears QB Kyle Orton aka "Jack and coke"

So as long as we have a horrid offense who's best weapon is a player who doesn't know left from right its going to be a long year. Sure I love Devin Hester and he is already the best return man ever and word on the block is that Joseph Forte is the real deal (exact opposite of Cedric Benson) but the only thing I know for sure is that in a division that features studs of now and the future like Devin Hester, Adrian Peterson and Calvin Johnson twice a year...theres going to be some exciting plays. Too bad it'll be another year in which im left dreaming of what we could of been if we had the same stud athletes on offense that we have on defense.



Soldier Boy will provide the entertainment in '08

T's 2008 Bear's prediction: 7-9

2008-09 NFL REGULAR SEASON WIN TOTALS OVER/UNDER: 8
Source: vegasinsider.com