Football Food

Football Food!

Being new to this, I'm still trying to figure out what qualifies a food as being "blog-worthy"... and I'm coming to realize that that might mean something different for everybody. With that in mind, I decided to blog about any recipe new/old, good/amazing (because who wants the bad ones??) and just see what happens. :) So here goes:

Football season is a magical time in our house. My husband is the BIGGEST college football fan that I know. He's not the crazy/in your face/paint my entire body kind of fan, but he's the kind of fan who can tell you about every single team, their players, their strengths and weaknesses, their scores from every game of the season, etc... Because of this, we spend our Saturdays during the fall watching college football (he's lucky I became a football fan during college, otherwise he might not get this luxury).

Well this past Saturday we got an invitation from a couple from church that we don't know particularly well, to come over to watch THE game. My husband was very hesitant to leave his throne - his multi-view tv screen and freedom to flip back and forth between as many games as his heart desires, to watch a single game with a guy that he didn't know much about. So I did what any normal, logical, food-loving wife would do: I bribed him with food! Everyone else does that too, right?

I was asked to bring a side dish and dessert... and I had a REALLY hard time coming up with a side dish. I knew we were having pulled pork so I wanted to bring something simple but delicious. I searched and searched for ideas and finally narrowed it down to potato wedges or homemade mac 'n' cheese. I had potatoes in the pantry, so of course the potato wedges ended up being the winner.

I found the recipe here and figured it would be worth a shot. Now these aren't just any potato wedges - these are soaked in cream then smothered in cheese. Who doesn't love cheese? And they are pretty amazing (if I may say so myself!). But here's the recipe, so you decide!

Ingredients:
8-10 potatoes cut lengthwise into 1-inch wedges (the original recipe says to peel the potatoes, but I've never seen potato wedges like that and we kind of like the skin over here, but the choice is yours!)
3/4 cup half and half
1 1/4 cup milk  (the original call for 2 cups half and half, but honestly, that sounds WAY fattening to me and we just didn't have that much in our fridge, so I substituted a bit of skim milk for what I lacked in half and half)
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups shredded cheese (I used an Italian blend)
1/2 cup shredded parmesan (I just used the powdery stuff you put on Spaghetti...)
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
1/2 cup crumbled bacon (I omitted these last two, not because they didn't sound great, but because I didn't have them on hand and was not interested in making a trip to the store...)
* I also added a generous sprinkle of Cajun seasoning over the top just to give it an extra little kick, but like most other ingredients, that's totally up to you!

Sooo... you'll start with a whole pile of potatoes, scrub them well then slice them up.


Then you'll throw them in a pan. The recipe said to use a 9x13 pan, but mine didn't really fit in there, so I used a jelly roll pan instead (11x15, I think?). Then you pour the milky mixture over it and sprinkle it with the salt.**




Now you put it in the oven at 350* and bake for 45 minutes. Take it out, add the cheeses and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until your preferred doneness - whether you like them crispy or soft... Serve warm. These would be pretty amazing with Ranch dressing. And I am a little disappointed that I didn't add the bacon or parsley just because I'm sure it would look so much prettier, but here they are - and they are delicious!




**Now I must say, I was VERY hesitant about the milk/cream mixture. It sounded weird and kind of gross to me, but I went along with it anyway... It smelled interesting as it baked and when I took it out after 45 minutes it even had kind of a crusty milk skin on it. (Yeah, sounds terrible, right?) But I was already in way too far to back out at that point, so I covered it with the cheeses (I sprinkled on the parmesan first, then covered that with the shredded Italian cheese blend), and put it back in for another 20 minutes, trying to ignore the crusty-ness of the milk mixture.

And you know what? It totally paid off!! I've made potato wedges once before and while they were pretty tasty, they were also pretty dry. These ones were creamy and flavorful - kind of like mashed potatoes but with a little crispy-ness from the baked cheese. Mmmmmhmmmmm. :)

Oh, and if you're interested in what I made for dessert (and you should be, it was AWESOME!), you can find it here!



Needless to say, as bored as he may have been with the other guy, he was perfectly happy with the spoils of our visit... happy enough that he might even be willing to do it again. :)