Hi, I'm Rachel.

A few years ago I could barely boil water.

True story.

Determined to be a kick ass wife, I developed a love for football and learned to cook in my tiny Jersey City kitchen. I spend my days working in Manhattan, my nights and weekends chasing after a rambunctious toddler, and the hours in between cooking with my husband and feeding my TV habit...oh, and I blog about it all! 

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Entries in Superbowl (5)

Wednesday
Feb012012

A Whole Lotta Superbowl Recipes

Last night I had dinner with Lindsey at La Carbonara in NYC. La Carbonara is one of my favorite restaurants in New York City. It's so cute and the food is delicious and reasonably priced. Not to mention that the portions are actual portion sizes that you can eat! Who would have thought?! I have tried a number of dishes there, but my favorite is a whole wheat penne with broccoli rabe, diced chicken and mushrooms. Yum! Though there are about 1.1 million restaurants in NYC, I always gravitate to this one...it's just always good!

Meanwhile, I put together a whole bunch of recipes for the upcoming Superbowl that I think would be fantastic for any gathering, big or small. I hope you enjoy them!

Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Roasted Grape & Goat Cheese Bites

Pizza Dip (the ultimate crowd pleaser)

Gorgonzola & Fig Crostini

Greek Layer Dip

Pear Gorgonzola & Bacon Toasts

 

Baked Potato Bar

 

Spinach Pinwheels

Crunchy Buffalo Tenders + Blue Cheese Dressing

Skillet Tortilla Pizza

 

Baked Shrimp Po'Boys

Baked Goat Cheese

 

Grown up Macaroni & Cheese

 

Greek-style Sloppy Joes

 

Chocolate Dipped Fruit Pops + Marshmallow Dip

 

Blue Velvet Giants Superbowl Cupcakes

Giants Popcorn Party Mix

Red & Blue Giants Cake Bars

Questions of the Day:

What are you making for Sunday's game?

Do you go back to the same restaurants time after time?

 

psst...Christine is rounding up her January Favorites! I love these kinds of posts!

Monday
Jan302012

Blue Velvet Giants Superbowl Cupcakes

In case you didn't already guess...I'm kinda sorta just a little excited that the Giants are in the Superbowl.

I made blue velvet cupcakes to celebrate. Nothing says Go Big Blue like royal blue cupcakes with sweet buttercream and red non-pareils. Don't you think?

Last time I tried to make a velvet cake, it was a big fat fail. This time, I made sure that I would get it right. It's for the Giants after all. Oh and t-shirts work nicely as backgrounds for cupcake photos. Just sayin'!

When I pulled them out of the oven, I did a little Cruz-style salsa to celebrate the fact that they turned out blue...not mossy, not brown...just beautiful, Giants blue. You can do it too. And you should! Everyone needs a little kitchen salsa in their lives. And some blue velvet cupcakes.

Then I tasted the cupcakes. And I was in a little bit of heaven. Especially since they were incredibly easy and only 6 WW Points+ per cupcake. Even if you don't make these for the Superbowl, you should make them for a random evening...they are just so pretty and yummy. Though I'd rather you make them for the Superbowl.

I just have to decide which of my Giants shirts to wear on Sunday. I'm thinking about my Bradshaw t-shirt (shown above). I like him.

Blue Velvet Giants Superbowl Cupcakes
*Adapted from Betty Crocker
Yields 24 cupcakes
1 cupcake = 6 WW Points+

1 box Supermoist white cake mix
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/4 C buttermilk
1/3 C canola oil
3 eggs
3 bottles blue food coloring
1 toothpick full violet food coloring gel/paste

for the frosting:
1/2 C butter, at room temperature
2 C confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 Tbsp milk

red nonpareils, if desired

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix cake mix, cocoa powder, eggs, oil and buttermilk together, starting with 30 seconds on low speed, then increasing to medium speed for 1 minute. Add in food coloring (I still have it all over my hands. Classy) and beat for 1 minute more until totally blue and combined. Pour into 2 muffin tins lined with baking cups. Fill about 2/3 full. Bake for 16 - 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

To make the frosting, beat the butter. Add in sugar, 1 cup at a time, thinning out with milk as necessary. Beat in vanilla. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Serve with milk. Eat many.

I know what you're thinking. Is she going to be shoving Giants stuff down our throats all week? Maybe No. But I really love these cupcakes! I hope you like them too!

For some other Giants-themed goodies, you should check out my white chocolate pretzel Giants popcorn...

...and marbled Giants cake bars

Have a great week, everyone!

Questions of the Day:

Will you be watching the Superbowl? Are you just in it for the food and party? I usually am just in it for the party, but not this time!

How was your weekend?

Monday
Feb072011

Busy Weekend + Dessert Coma

Happy Monday to all! I hope you all had a great weekend! We were very busy and I can't believe that Monday is already here once again. On Friday we ordered from Boca Grande in JC and had a terrible experience! Our order took 2 hours and when it arrived, they had given me mole sauce on my vegetable enchiladas instead of salsa verde. We've ordered from here before and had great dinners, but this was one of the worst.

Aside from that, I got a super sweet early Valentine's Day gift (more on that tomorrow), we celebrated 2 birthdays on Saturday (Shaun's Uncle Johnny and our bestie Ryan) and then spent the Superbowl overindulging, doing a bit of betting and going to sleep way too late!

We kicked off the evening with a little cooking in my parents kitchen. Despite his bum wing, Shaun got to work on his latest creation...fried pickles!

They were crunchy, dilly and a fantastic Superbowl snack. Served with a bit of horseradish dipping sauce, this was my favorite food of the night. Bum wings aren't keeping this guy down!

My mom and Kimberly made Mom's famous + hearty turkey chili...

...while no game day would be complete without the classic pizza dip.

 

Also in the mix, buffalo chicken nuggets!

 

There was also delicious spinach dip, veggies for dipping and skirt steak skewers.

 

We topped off the evening with lots 'o desserts.

 

And of course I ended up with a small plate full of goodies. Rounding out the mix was a banana-nutella cupcake, Grandma Mary's pound cake (one of my favorite desserts ever and one I'm determined to master someday), cakey brownies and $50 fudge cake. I just about slipped into a food coma after this one.

And now you understand why I will be hitting the gym every night this week :)

So there you have it. A quick rundown of our Superbowl Sunday. How did you spend your weekend? What are you quintessential party foods?