Recipes for your Super Bowl Weekend - both Semi-Homemade... and not.so.much

Howdy from the Dallas area - home to Super Bowl XLV!  Whew, I was just out running errands and thank GOODNESS, the ice/snow is finally melting.  What a week. 

But now... on to important things, like what ARE we gonna snack on tomorrow?  In case you're looking for that perfect snack, I've got it for you.  I have to warn you, it's not all that semi-homemade... but when my friend Erin passed it along, I knew I had to share.  If you make this, I wanna see pics!

The Snackadium
(courtesy of ABC News)

They say you can't move this, once you make it, so make it where you want to serve it! 

What you'll need:

Guacamole
Cheese dip
Salsa
Sour cream
15 Vienna sausages
8 cubes yellow cheese
7 cubes white cheese
2 sausage sticks
2 slices Monterey Jack cheese
Sponge cake snacks
Cooked bacon
Bags of assorted snacks
20-oz. summer sausage


Equipment:
9 x 13-in. pan
Pastry bag with tip
Toothpicks
Wire

Step 1: Fill the field
Fill the middle of the pan with guacamole to represent grass. Then line one end zone with salsa and the other with cheese dip.


Step 2: Draw the yard lines
Draw yard lines with sour cream. Use the pastry bag to draw straight, even lines.


Step 3: Top sausages with cheese
Use toothpicks to secure cheese cubes to the tops of the Vienna sausages to represent players with helmets. Align the players with opposing colors on opposite sides of the field.


Step 4: Fabricate goal posts
Cut the sausage sticks and fabricate goal posts using toothpicks to hold them together. Then lay a slice of Monterey Jack cheese in either end zone, securing the posts through the cheese and to the field with toothpicks.


Step 5: Build the stadium
Build the stadium. Line the edges of the field with a layer of snack cakes and secure strips of bacon to the tops of the cakes with toothpicks. Add another row of cakes and bacon 4 inches outside of the first and make it 3 layers high.


Step 6: Add the fans
Fill the space between the stadium walls with different kinds and colors of chips or party mix to represent fans. Separate each kind of snack with a piece of bacon.


Step 7: Hang the blimp
Fashion a 20-ounce summer sausage into a blimp and hang it over the field with a wire. After you have displayed your masterpiece go ahead and enjoy your tasty football treat.
Recipe from howcast.com

What am I making?  I have a huge bag of wheat dinner rolls that I'm turning into sliders, ham and cheese sandwiches (and possibly grilled cheese for the kids). 

(Pic from Imperial Catering)

A couple of our go-to game day recipes (which are totally from my semi-homemade playbook):

Buffalo Chicken dip (a long time fav from my mom!)

(Photo from Frank's Red Hot)

Mix together:
8oz cream cheese
1/2 cup ranch dressing - or bleu cheese!
1/2 cup hot wing sauce (I use Frank's!)
chicken - I use a package of the already cooked chicken strips, but you can slice up chicken breasts you have, or a rotisserie chicken or even canned chicken

Then either heat in the microwave (stirring often) until hot OR bake 20 min at 350.
Serve with crackers, chips, celery sticks.

Bacon Wrapped Smokies (another one from Mom!)
This one is super simple!
Cut cheap bacon slices (cheaper because it's thinner and cooks better) into 1/3s.
Wrap around lil smokies and secure with a toothpick.
Place bacon smokies in a big cooking dish (lined with foil, so you don't have to clean this mess up!)
Sprinkle with brown sugar and bake at 325 for about 45 min.... or until the bacon is done and the brown sugar has carmelized.  Yummy!


And check out Amy's ideas on Living Locurto (Amy is from mr. fix-it's hometown and now she lives in the same suburb where I work - small world!  Naturally, she and mr. fix-it know ALL the same people back home and she's so sweet and creative!)  The Antipasto Bake she has pictured looks AMAZING (and seems pretty semi-homemade, too!)

I'm not even gonna think about the depression that enters my household as the last football game of the year wraps up.... ;)  Happy snacking!