Professional (NFL) football was a big deal, too, despite a winning season or not.  Some people boycott the Super Bowl if their favorite team is not in it.  But, the way I was brought up, you still watch it for at least three reasons: One – the commercials; two – the half time show; and, three – the food!

Being in the south now, football is a big deal once again…glory!  We’re ecstatic to attend a party on Sunday where I’ve decided to bring these soft pretzels, in miniature form. If you like soft pretzels, you will love these.  Perfectly fluffy in the inside, enveloped in a golden salty shell.

The original recipe calls for eight big pretzels, but I decided to scale them down into smaller portions to serve a crowd.  The recipe below gives instructions for both sizes.  I also made them ahead of time to store in the freezer and warm in the oven on game day.  Freeze them before or after baking, either way works just as well and saves you time.

And, for those of you intimidated by shaping a perfect pretzel, it’s easier than I should even admit. Just roll the piece of dough into a long rope, hold the ends and cross them over one another then twist. Place the ends at the center of the rope. For those visual people (like me) here is some photo help:

Image Source: NFL.com

Super Bowl Sunday is less than one week away.  Are you hosting?  Attending a party?  Ben and I were invited today to a party with our new Sunday School group.  What a great way to get to know some young couples in our church!  We snatched that invitation and ran with it. 

I wanted to start the week off by reminding you of some Super Bowl finger foods you can contribute to the big day!  Later this week I’ll have a couple more ideas to share.  What are YOU planning on making eating?

Ranch-style Snack Pretzels

Popcorn

Bacon Wrapped Cocktail Weenies

Queso Blanco (White Cheese Dip)

Beer Battered Onion Rings

Oven “Fried” Pickles

Must-Have Salsa

Guacamole

Cheesy Bacon Potato Skins

Buffalo Chicken Bites

Pizza Bites

Ham & Cheese Pretzel Bites

Chicken Taquitos

Posh Piggies

Fudgy Black Bean Brownies (for the GF guest)

Dangerous Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Seven-Layer Bars

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Governor Bars

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I promised a tutorial on how to make these.  They are actually pretty simple and can easily be customized.  Since monsters are pretty crazy and vary in shapes, anything goes when it comes to decorating them.

Here’s what you’ll need to make cupcakes exactly like the ones pictured above:

• Solid Color Standard Sized Greaseproof Baking Cups (greaseproof is important in order for the color to stay vibrant after baking)
• Standard sized cupcakes, baked in the greaseproof liners (any flavor)
• Miniature-sized cupcakes, no liners (any flavor)
• Vanilla buttercream frosting, colored in batches to match cupcake liners.  I have no tips on how to create the perfect colored icing and do trial and error every time.  If you need help with icing colors, I’d recommend reading this blog.
• Piping bags and decorative tips (I used Wilton tips #104, #21, #3)
• 2 small suckers for each monster
• M&M’s (or any other small solid color round candy)

Squeeze a small amount of frosting in the middle of each standard sized cupcake.  Center a miniature cupcake, upside down, over each standard cupcake, using the frosting to act as a glue.

Using desired icing tips to pipe the hair on the monsters.  You can get creative here.  Here I used Wilton tip #104.  Other tip sizes listed below.

Pair suckers and round candies up by color to use as the monsters eyes.  Use the same frosting to glue on the round candies to each sucker, then top them on each monster.

Wilton tip #104 (above).  Pipe starting from around the bottom working your way up.

Wilton tip #21 (above).  Pipe lines from top to bottom, all around the cupcake.

Wilton tip #3 (above).  Go crazy and just squeeze the icing out of the bag, letting it fall wherever on the cupcakes for this one.  Try to go in somewhat circular, or loopy, motions.

These monsters were one of the first things noticed by the kids.  Definitely a furry and tasty hit!

For more tips on how to make these cupcakes, check out Annie’s Eats, and What’s New Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.

The neighborhood we live in now is in stark contrast to the neighborhood we left in California.  Since we moved into townhomes owned by the seminary, you can guess that there are other young family residents, resulting in many other kids for Judah to play with.  Back in California, Judah had no friends his age in the neighborhood and the closest playground was a 15-minute drive.  The closest playground here?  About 20 feet from my kitchen window. 

Needless to say, Judah is having the time of his life.  And, he is being forced to share his toys.  Today, he clobbered a girl twice his size as she ran towards his Hot Wheels collection that he so proudly displayed on the sidewalk.  Then after the blow, he yelled “Mine!”  That’s when I clobbered him.  Not really.  But, that’s when I wanted to.  :\

Judah’s a good kid.  But, he is really having to figure out this sharing thing.  I mean, he just turned two, and he’s never had to share his own toys very often, so I should give him some slack.  But, I’m going to nip it while it’s hot.

You know who else needs to work on their sharing skills?  Chick-fil-a.  I need them to share their various sauce recipes.  Specifically, their Polynesian sauce (right, Steph?).    But, trying to find a “copycat” recipe for them is pretty much impossible.  So, I took a few packets from their restaurant the other day and will be playing around in my kitchen with the ingredients listed.

Even though Chick-fil-a does have a honey mustard sauce, this honey mustard recipe is actually reminiscent of their “Chick-fil-a Sauce,” (although definitely not exact).  There are many different ways to make honey mustard.  Some people use horseradish, others add more honey, then someone else might throw in some OJ.  I like to keep it as simple as possible, with ingredients I always have on hand.  This formula is just that and creamy, tangy and the perfect dip for our chicken nuggets.

One day I decided I wanted to try making honey mustard to go with our chicken nuggets.  When I was reviewing the recipe and saw that mayonnaise was on the ingredient list, I immediately cringed because I knew I didn’t have it on hand and I did not want to go to the store.  Instead of giving up my quest for homemade honey mustard, I decided to look up a recipe for homemade mayo and was pleased with how surprisingly simple it was (even being an Alton Brown recipe). 

This requires a little bit of elbow grease as you whisk the ingredients into the egg yolk.  Although I haven’t tried it yet, myself, you can probably use an immersion blender or stand mixer instead.  Just a few staple ingredients, whisked briskly together, let set at room temperature for an hour and you have about a cup of mayo.  Perfect for homemade honey mustard or homemade ranch dressing, with just enough left over that I know won’t go to waste.

(Homemade honey mustard recipe coming soon.)

Now that we’re semi-settled in, I am enthusiastically diving back into the DIY journey.  This week, I will supply you with the three condiments recipes I made before the move, starting with my favorite of the three, this ranch dressing.  When I made my first batch last September, I doubled the recipe and still used it all up before it went bad.  I made Chicken Ranch Pizza, used it as a dip for my Oven “Fried” Pickles, and pretty much slathered it onto every other food that entered my  mouth.  When ranch dressing is available, it’s quite possible I abuse it.  Meaning, it goes on everything.  Now that I can have it homemade, without preservatives, I feel much better about this habit.    And, having it homemade is a measly 5 minutes away.

If you were with me when I made these other cookies last month, you’ll remember that Ben persuaded me to title them with the word “Dangerous”.  Similarly, he suggested I preface these cookies with any of the words “Ridiculous”, “Sick” or “Nasty” (all terms that mean extremely delicious, if you’re not up with some west-coast slang.)    But, I had to draw the line and didn’t take his advice this time.  I’m sure you will agree with me why.  Anyhow, it goes to show how much we loved these cookies.  I meant to save half of them for my mother-in-law when she came to visit, but somehow they disappeared before we knew it!  I believe there was one left when she arrived.  Oops!  At least they are HUGE cookies, so one was probably plenty.

I made these using Trader Joes’ mini peanut butter cups, but you can certainly use whatever brand miniature peanut butter cups you like.  You can even use the regular sized cups, because you just chop them up.  Judah had a really fun time helping me “strategically” place the chopped PB cups on top of each dough ball.  I really wish I would’ve snatched a photo.  He was a big help!

Enjoy these chewy, chocolaty, peanut buttery, unhealthy pieces of joy!  But, in moderation y’all! 

*Full disclosure:  I like Paula Deen and in no way am I making light of her health condition.  In fact, I am saddened by it and at the same time grateful for the wake-up call.  My heart goes out to her and the battle she is having with living with this condition and living with the stress of the media’s involvement.

Today is a new day, though, and I’m sitting here re-editing those lost photos so I can quickly get them back up on my blog, drinking as much water as I can to rid this cold, while glancing outside every few seconds at the beautiful falling snow.  And, you know what else I’m doing?  Snacking on these pretzels.  I just can’t get enough of them.

Last weekend, I made these to include in a treat package I sent to Ben at our new home in Mississippi, along with some pumpkin bread and his favorite cookies.  Judah and I are still in Michigan with my family until Sunday (totally itching to get down there!)  So, Ben’s living the bachelor life and having to unpack .  And, to prove it, here is a screen shot of his two latest Facebook statuses:

Poor guy.    Unfortunately, I’m assuming the post office lost the package (grrrr!) because the tracking information website doesn’t have any updates on it since the day I sent it (Monday) even though it was guaranteed I paid for it to be delivered (2 to 3 days) by Thursday (yesterday).  Ben still hasn’t received it. 

But, I’m going to rise above it and at least share the recipe with you so that maybe you can enjoy it with me.  Make them for your neighbors, make them to snack on while reading, or have a batch setting out at your Super Bowl party.  Your guests will be addicted, so be sure to have the recipe ready to share!  I’m sure Mr. Postman is chomping on them right now, too.

Finally, when we were visiting her in Colorado this Christmas, she made me her famous bumpy cakes.  They are not chocolate at all (although I think a chocolate version could be made) and they definitely are breakfast-y.  Her description was that they are in between a crepe and a pancake, and develop bumps in the batter when baked.  Yet, I now would add to the description that they are egg-y, and delightful.  To me, they are better to serve than crepes or pancakes because you do not have to stand over the stove/griddle, cooking up a batch for everyone.  Instead, you mix the ingredients and layer into a 9- x 13-inch pan then bake it.  This means all portions are done at the same time and everyone can enjoy a fresh piece together!  Slather on a little butter, drizzle with syrup and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  A breakfast of champions, if you ask me.