Oh boy, I survived the Superbowl. Actually, it was a delight, we had twenty people in our apartment, we made food, people brought food, we had beer, people brought beer...it was amazing, all of my friends are awesome and I love them and I almost wish there wasn't a super kick-ass football game to watch so I could have hung out more with all my peeps.
I had a tough time deciding what to make for this Superbowl. I go through phases of being really psyched about cooking and baking, and then some days, when I'm not feeling up to it, the whole idea gives me a headache and I just want to eat soup from a can. Or serve chips. You get my point.
I didn't go over board and only made two items; one was a family recipe, comforting and delicious, and the other was something new and different that I had only just thought of. I made my mom's (and I'm sure EVERYONE'S mom or aunt's) recipe for cheesy sausage on rye. I bought two 16oz. tubes of Jimmy Dean sausage (one hot, one regular), one packet of dry onion soup mix, and a two-pound block of Velveeta. When buying the Velveeta at the store, I spent 10 minutes looking in all of the places one would look for cheese, and finally I asked a shopgirl where they kept this darn Velveeta, because I'd be damned if they were 'sold out' of Velveeta. She told me it was in aisle 4 so I thanked her and headed that way. I get to aisle 4 and it starts off with cookies. A few feet later it's crackers. I'm worried now, thinking she's pointed me in the wrong direction, thinking that I wanted cheese crackers or something. I kept going, and half way down the aisle, on a higher shelf, is the Velveeta. It's not refrigerated, it's not even chilled, in fact it's just chillin' next to any other non perishable item at room temperature. And I'm going to serve this to my friends.
Despite the disturbing shelf life of my cheese, come Superbowl Sunday I browned the sausage, sprinkled in the onion soup mix, and then cut in the Velveeta until it was a gooey, cheesy mix. I scooped spoonfuls onto party rye squares and popped them in the oven for 10 minutes to get just a little crusty on top. They came out perfect, but in truth, they're hard to screw up.
My second dish was almond cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting. I hadn't ever made them before, but I knew there would be other chocolate-y desserts so I wanted to do something sweet, but lighter. After I frosted them I sprinkled extra loose coconut on top and the cupcakes just seemed ridiculously happy. They made me smile; I think that's ideal for a cupcake-they should make you smile when you see them-because how can the prospect of eating something so cute and delicious not seem like a terrific idea?
