Who’s in the kitchen: Super snack Sunday

This coming Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday. Although I’m a  Dolphin’s fan, I’ll be cheering on the Giants, alongside my husband, Jerry and close friends, who are diehard fans.

At least I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing The 72’ Dolphins remain the only NFL team to complete an entire season undefeated and untied from the opening game through the Super Bowl.

Americans will hold more parties in their homes than on any other day of the year, surpassing even New Year’s Eve. We’ll eat more food than on any single day of the year except Thanksgiving. It’s also the biggest day of the year for snack food consumption.

Consumers spend over $50 million each year to stock up on snacks for Super Bowl weekend. They’ll typically eat over 8.5 million pounds of tortilla chips, 4000 tons of popcorn, 14,500 tons of potato chips and 8 million pounds of guacamole to go with them. For millions of us, who couldn’t score tickets to the big game, a big screen TV with a great view of the game is the next best thing. For dedicated football fans, Super Bowl Sunday means watching the ultimate sporting event of the year, surrounded by fellow football fanatics at a great party with non-stop food and drinks.

Although most parties will have many die-hard football fans, there are also those, that know nothing about the game of football and really don’t care who wins the game, but they’ll never turn down an invitation to a Super Bowl Party. It’s a great excuse to get together with friends for fun and feasting. Many will tune in just to catch the commercials and the half time show.

Of the top 10 most watched television programs of all time, 9 of them are Super Bowls. For those of you who have not yet decided what to prepare, I chose a two easy to make, creative snacks to share with you.

So whether having a Super Bowl party at your house, attending someone else’s party, or just watching the game at home with your family, have fun, enjoy and happy snacking!!!

Better go easy on the hot sauce though. On Super Bowl Monday, sales of antacids increase by 20 percent and 6 percent of Americans will call in sick

Super Bowl Cupcakes

n 2 cups flour

n 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

n 2 cups sugar

n 1 cup milk or on dairy creamer

n 1 cup boiling water

n 11/2 tsp baking powder

n 11/2 tsp baking soda

n 1/8 sp salt

n 1 tsp vanilla extract

n 1/2 cup oil

n 2 extra large eggs

n non stick spray

Mix all dry ingredients then add the wet ones, except for the boiling water. Mix till blended and then add the boiling water.

Place paper cupcake holders in a 12-14 section cupcake pan and spray with non stick coating

Batter will be very thin. Pour 3/4 way up, to allow room to rise

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove and let cool

Decorating Ingredients and materials;

n 12 ounces rich whip

n Green food coloring

n Green sprinkles

n Pastry bag with #3 tip for piping the white whipped cream  (you can substitute a plastic bag and just snip off the end)

n Parchment paper

n Plastic squeeze bottle  for yellow melted chocolate coating

n 10 ounces yellow Wilton’s chocolate melting wafers (Michael’s)

n Green food coloring

Whip the cream and remove one quarter and place in the pastry bag with the # 3 tip

Mix the green food coloring into the remaining whipped cream.

Dip the tops of each cupcake into the whipped cream and smooth

then dip into the green sprinkles

With the white whipped cream, pipe out the lines on the cupcake, refer to the photo.

To make the goal posts, melt the yellow chocolate wafers in the microwave in 35 second intervals until melted. Pour into a plastic squeeze bottle and pipe out the goal posts onto a piece of parchment paper (refer to the cupcake again in the photo).

When goal posts are hard gently remove and insert them gently into the tops  the cupcakes

For those of you who would rather make this recipe a bit less time consuming, you can substitute a cake mix, for the home made cupcakes, and store bought white frosting for the whipped cream. Color the frosting green as you would the whipped cream. Remember to reserve a quarter of the frosting, before you color it green, so that you can  pipe out the white lines on top of the cupcake.

Strawberry Footballs

n 2 lbs of firm strawberries, with stem on

n 1 lb of chocolate dark coating (or Wilton’s dark chocolate wafers, if your party will be dairy).

n Pareve chocolate coating can be bought in the local kosher supermarkets (Shufra)

n 8 ounces non-dairy white chocolate coating

n Squeeze bottle for the white chocolate

n Parchment or wax paper

Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave at 30 second intervals, making sure no to burn the chocolate. One by one, dip each strawberry in the chocolate and lay them down to harden

Melt the white chocolate and pour into the squeeze bottle. sing the photo as a guide, pipe the white stitches on the “football” (strawberry)

When chocolate is hardened, gently remove from paper and place on a platter

Judy Joszef is a pastry and personal chef as well as a party planner. She spent 18 years as a pastry chef at Abigael’s, The Cedar Club, Centro and T42 in the Five Towns, before launching her current business. She may be contacted via email at kneadthedough@aol.com.