Test of the Titans

So yesterday had one of the most epic show downs in college football for the 2014 season: Auburn Tigers at Mississippi State Bulldogs! It was an awesome game. Along with said game was some awesome food too! For my Saturday football showdown I prepared Nutella Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing, Pizza Pull-a-Part Bread, and Crockpot Hamburger Dip. They were so good.

Nutella CupCakes with Cream Cheese Icing:

Ingredients: 

-CupCakes (12 cupcakes): 1cup Nutella, 10Tbs Self rising flour, 2 eggs, 1-2Tbs milk

-Icing (enough icing for 24 cupcakes): 8oz cream cheese (softened), 5 1/2cups powdered sugar, 5Tbs butter (softened), 2Tbs vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all cupcake ingridents. Divide mixture into a 12 cupcake tin lined with cupcake liners. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Once finished remove cupcakes from tin to cool. For Icing, mix all ingridents in a bowl with a hand mixer, till smooth. If icing is too liquid add more sugar or cool in refrigerator for a few minutes. Once icing is desired consistency, frost cupcakes as desired.

Pizza Pull-a-Part Bread:

Ingridents: 2 cans pizza dough, 1/3cup EVOO, 6oz package pepperoni, 2cups shredded monzarella cheese, 1cup shredded Parmesan cheese, 2Tbs Italian Seasoning.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut up pizza dough into quarter-size chunks. Place chunks in bowl with EVOO and coat. Chop-up pepperoni and add to bowl. Add seasoning and cheeses to bowl and stir well. Pour mixture into a bunt cake pan and bake for 30 minutes. Once finished remove pan. Take a rubber spatula or butter knife and run around inside of pan, then flip bread over onto plate. Serve with marinara sauce.

Crockpot Hamburger Dip

Ingridents: 1pound ground beef, 10oz can diced tomatoes, 8oz cream cheese (softened), 2cups shredded cheese (I chopped up some Velveeta), 1/2 cup real bacon bits.

Brown beef in large skillet or medium pot and drain (I used a a pot because I'm bad at spilling things when I stir). Return meat to stove top and add in cream cheese. Once cream cheese is well incorporated add in tomatoes and other    ingridents. Once the cheeses are melted pour mixture into crockpot. Let sit in crockpot 1 1/2-2 hours on low heat. Serve with tortilla chips.

All the food was delicious, except for my cupcakes. I read the directions wrong and baked them at 400 degrees instead of 325. So they were a bit dry (a lot according to my husband), but the icing was delicious. I just dipped my cupcake in milk and that helped. But for them being dry, Dusty ate 3 of them!

Anyways, once the food was ready it was time for the big game! I'm a big Aubutn fan, as well as a Mississippi State fan. So I really had to look within and decide who I wanted to win. In the end, I went with MSU, I just have a feeling that this is their year. Not to completely turn my back on my tigers, I did wear my Auburn jersey. Dusty said I was sending mixed signals.

Once the game got going I was super happy for my Bulldogs, but I was upset for my Tigers. Mississippi came out the gates with all Pistons firing, Auburn not so much. What I was wanting was for Mississippi State to win, but for Auburn to play a great game and give them a run for their money. Auburn did improve throughout the game, but Dak Prescott and those MSU Bulldogs never looked back after that first kickoff! Coach Dan Mullen looked so proud of his team last night it was amazing. Likewise, I have never seen Coach Gus Malzahn so upset and angry looking (reminded me of Nick Saban)! There were some questionable calls during the game, but isn't there bad calls in every game? Anyways, it was a great game and I'm glad I was able to watch it. Hopefully MSU will now be #1 and Auburn will still be in the top 10 come Sunday's polls.

Well try the recipes, give me feed back , and Hail State!

-Lesli

Saturday ReCaps

Today was an amazing day of food and football. The weather outside was perfect, mid 60's, bright and sunny with a slight breeze. Just the right weather for an SEC football Saturday.

The first game of the day was Mississippi State against Texas A&M. Kickoff was at 11. I was at the local Winn-Dixie during kickoff but quickly made it home in time to catch the rest of the game. During the first quarter while the Bulldogs started wooping up on A&M, me and the hubs started preparing our football food. 

We had sausage balls, little smokies, and rotel dip. It was glorious. 

Sausage balls:

Ingridents: 1.5 lb pork sausage (hot or mild), 3 cups Bisquik, 10 oz sharp cheddar shredded, and 1/4 cup milk.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all ingredients except milk. Add the milk until you are able to shape the dough into balls. Shape balls and place on greased baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden. 

Little Smokies Crockpot recipe:

Ingridents: 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup BBQ sauce, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce, and a package of little sausages.

 Mix all ingredients and put in crockpot. Cook on high for 2 hours or low for 4 hours.

Rotel Dip: 

Ingridents: 1.5 blocks of Velveeta cheese, 1 can rotel tomatoes with chiles

Cube cheese and place in microwave safe bowl with lid. Drain rotel tomatoes and add to cheese (do not stir). Microwave for 4 minutes. Stir. Microwave for an additional 4 minutes and stir again. Cheese should be melted through. Serve with tortilla chips.

Once the food was prepared we were in football Heaven. My Bulldogs were winning and playing great. It was an amazing game. This team is definitely going places! Hail State!

As soon as MSU had that game in the books, we switched on over to the Alabama at Ole Miss game. This game was intense the whole time. I love close games, except when my teams play. My husband pulls for Bama, so naturally that's who I want to win. However it didn't effect me too much, so once Alabama had the lead I took a nap. I woke midway through the third quarter and was able to see my Facebook news feed slowly explode into a mixture of happy fans and angry fans, maybe even some sad fans. It was ridiculous. Anyway Bama lost, it's happened before and it will happen again. Oh well, the best game was about to start!

I quickly flipped the tv back to ESPN to watch the dual of the Tigers, Auburn vs. LSU. Auburn led the way and never looked back! While watching the first quarter Dusty and I prepared dinner. 

We had New York strip, grilled shrimp, and grilled veggies.

The steak marinade is something my husband makes up, it consists of Dale's sauce and Coke with other spices thrown in. The shrimp were rubbed with Cajun spices, Jerk seasoning and EVOO. The steak and shrimp were both prepared ahead of time, so that they could marinate for 6 hours or so. The vegetables were rinsed and cut, then tossed in some lemon and Rosemary infused olive oil (I bought this at a farmers market my cousin has during the summer) before being seasoned with garlic pepper. Afterwards everything was grilled to perfection, except the squash. It was too mushy, I think next time I either need to cube it or cut it thinner and cook it longer. You live and you learn though. 

Anyways, the Auburn game was fantastic! LSU scored once in the first quarter and then never again. It was great! War Eagle!

Next week however is where my troubles will begin. My top two teams are both undefeated, which won't last long, because they play each other next Saturday. Who should I go for, my Auburn Tigers or my Mississippi State Bulldogs? If a tie was ever possible, I wish this could be it. I hate to see either team lose, but it's bound to happen. It will be a great game either way, that is for certain. 

Well until next time,

-Lesli