I bought hot sauce for the first time.
I've think I've always subscribed to the philosophy of thoroughly enjoying oneself on "big food" days. What's a big food day? Think 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Superbowl, March Madness Finals ... I'm sure there are some others I'm missing.
As a result, I'm not reaching for the celery and peanut butter when I'm thinking up something to make. Its just not my style. What is my style? Cheese. and. lots. of. it.
Result: Successful meal with a cheese in each "course" - that is if you can have courses on the Superbowl and if nachos can count as a first course.
On Saturday night, I did some googling of food blogs to see if anyone had a good suggestion for a Superbowl meal and stumbled across a gem of a recipe for Spicy Buffalo Chicken Balls recipe from Martha Stewart. You can check out the album below for some pictures of the process but the recipe turned out really well - and super easy.
I'd like to figure out how to make this into a suitable "toothpick" appetizer because I think it would be really great to bring to parties. But the way they come out right now its more of a finger food... that leaves you with buffalo chicken business on your fingers... and frankly that really isn't the way to meet new friends at a party - or is it? For a blue cheese dip, I used one that had plain yogurt in it ... and didn't tell my fellow diners because I guarantee they would have balked at having yogurt in their blue cheese. Result? They ate it right up. It for sure tastes a little different but nobody noticed enough to care. (see below for recipe)
So we wouldn't fill up on chicken balls - which still sounds weird to say - I also made a salad with homemade croutons. My mom labeled the dressing the best she ever had but I think she was just being generous. I did use some of my prized Round Pond Blood Orange Olive Oil which always raises the bar just a bit. So tasty.
As you can see in the pictures below, I got a little tired from rolling all those damn balls that I had to take a snack break in the middle. You'll have to look at the album to see what I snacked on.
Recipes
Spicy Buffalo Chicken Balls recipe
Better Blue Cheese Dip (from this recipe)
1 ounce crumbled blue cheese
2/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice.
Season with coarse salt and ground pepper.
Mix well with a fork, mashing cheese to combine. I added in more blue cheese to make it a little more traditional in texture .... but not more lemon juice.
Simple Spinach Salad
baby spinach
dried cranberries
crumbled gorgonzola
green grapes (cut in half)
Salad Dressing
Olive Oil
honey
lemon juice
balsamic vinegar
bit o' kosher salt
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