Pizza, pizza and more pizza

Howdy!

I’m MIA this week – but it’s for a great reason!

I’m currently in Las Vegas for the International Pizza Expo. Yes, you read that right. An entire show dedicated to pizza!

Needless to say, I’m definitely eating, drinking and living well! I’ve only been here a day, and have already eaten some of the most delicious pizza of my life!

And drank the biggest margarita!

But what I’m loving most is the weather! It’s so nice to be able to walk outside in spring/summer clothes!

I’ll be back soon with more updates and recipes!

Italian Wedding Soup for the soul

Good morning afternoon!

The man of the house is working today, and it’s a lazy Sunday for the women of the house! I’m blogging, drinking tea, catching up on DVR’d shows, doing laundry and relaxing before a busy week, and Stella has assumed her usual Sunday position beside me, snoring on the couch. I am planning to wake her lazy, furry butt up soon to go for a walk. It’s a beautiful, sunny day – but it’s still FREEZING! Spring is almost here, but it sure doesn’t feel like it! The weather network says we’re sitting at MINUS FOUR. Can you believe it?! I’d settle for 0 C at this point, but -4 C! I just can’t. Thankfully I’m heading to some warmer parts for a business trip this week. We have a jam-packed schedule, so I don’t think I’ll be soaking up the sun too much, but it sure will be nice to escape these chilly temps for a few days!

I realized after I was almost done writing this that it’s St. Patrick’s Day! I think my dad’s mom has some Irish roots, but my red-headed hubby (who actually has Scottish heritage) is about my closest Irish connection. So, while all of you lads and lassies are celebrating your roots, here’s a recipe that’s far from Irish, but celebrates my roots!

On cold Sundays, I crave warm dishes that fill my house with comforting smells. I made Italian Wedding Soup a couple of Sundays ago, on a day similar to this, and it was a perfect Sunday meal. This recipe (and the beautiful soup tureen to accompany it!) was given to me by my mom’s first cousin, Linda, at my wedding shower last summer, and I was so excited to finally try it. It was super simple and so satisfying!

Start by heating a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot, and adding a finely chopped onion and three finely chopped carrots (I used a handful of baby carrots). Cook for about four minutes, until the onion starts to brown.

Add one clove of finely chopped garlic (or half a teaspoon of minced garlic from my beloved Costco jar!) and two teaspoons of sage, and cook for about a minute. Don’t overcook the garlic – a minute is perfect to release the fragrance of the garlic.

Start to build the soup base with three cups of chicken broth (or three chicken stock packets and three cups of water, which is what I did). Add in half a cup of parmesan cheese or one parmesan cheese rind. If you buy a brick of parmesan, don’t throw away the rind! I often use mine in soups or add them into my tomato sauce. The flavour it gives is unreal. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat and cook for about 7 or 8 more minutes.

While your soup is simmering, start the mini pork meatballs that make this soup truly filling and pleasing. If you’re not a fan of pork, use ground beef instead! In a large bowl, mix half a pound of ground pork, three tablespoons of breadcrumbs and a clove of garlic, finely chopped. I also added about a tablespoon of parmesan. Form into one-inch meatballs and set aside.

When your meatballs are formed, increase the heat of your soup to medium-high. Add in three quarters of a cup of small, round pasta. I used orzo, because it’s what I had on hand, but you could any variety of small, round pasta.

Cook for about six minutes, then add your meatballs. Let them cook for about four or five more minutes, until they are firm and float to the top. If you added a parmesan cheese rind, scoop it out and discard it now before it’s too hard to fish out.

You’re almost done! Stir in eight ounces (half a large container) of baby spinach. I had to do this in batches. The spinach wilts down beautifully, and brings the dish together.

Ladle into bowls and serve with a hunk of crusty bread.

This soup was delicious, and like so many soups, was almost better the next day because all of the flavours had melded together even more. Recipes like this with a long list of ingredients can be intimidating, but the majority of these ingredients are fridge and pantry staples. It all came together in under an hour, and made the house smell fabulous! I typically am more of a fan of creamier soups, but a bowl of this gave me the same warm feeling. Easy and pleasy. 🙂

Well, I’m off to get started on my laundry, and to drag the lazy white furball beside me out for a walk! Have a great Sunday!

Asian night!

Ever walk through the grocery store looking for something specific and then have an a-ha moment and change your mind?

That hasn’t happened to me lately. But I did have something similar happen not too long ago!

I was on my way home from a Saturday errand day with my mom and she needed to stop at a grocery store. Since I don’t shop at that store often, I took a few minutes to look around and see if there was anything interesting on sale. Lo and behold, there was a gigantic display of sushi on special for 50 per cent off! They had just been packaged that morning, and they were already on clearance. Score! I’m not a huge sushi eater. I don’t like fish, but I do love the vegetarian rolls. Alex is pretty adventurous and will try pretty much anything. We haven’t had sushi lately – mostly because there isn’t a sushi restaurant closer than 40 minutes away, and we never think to go there for dinner – so I was in the mood for some Asian fare. I picked up three kinds of sushi: avocado, spicy jalapeno roll and spicy California roll for us to try. I already had frozen edamame from Costco, so it was just a matter of another little appetizer to round off our Asian-inspired feast. Racking my brain to come up with something, it dawned on me. My favourite thing to order at Japanese/Thai restaurants? Spring rolls! I had almost everything I needed, except for bean sprouts and egg roll wrappers. Perfect!

Spring rolls are pretty easy to customize. I looked up a few different recipes and modified this one to suit our tastes and what we had in the fridge already. Here’s what you need to make about eight large spring rolls:

– A pack of spring roll or egg roll wrappers (usually found in the produce section of the grocery store. I opted for the larger egg roll variety because they’re easier to roll and great for tons of other apps, like the buffalo chicken egg rolls I made a couple weeks ago! Store the rest in a zip-loc bag in the fridge.)
– 1 cup of chopped carrots
– 2 cups of shredded cabbage. I used leftover bok choy
– a giant handful of bean sprouts
– a teaspoon of pepper
– two teaspoons of minced garlic
– four to five tablespoons of soy sauce
– a couple of chopped green onions
– about half a pound of ground beef or pork. I used a combination of both that I had already cooked and leftover from pasta the night before.
– four tablespoons of vegetable oil, divided

1. If your meat is raw, brown it in a frying pan. Drain and set aside. If you’re using meat that’s already cooked, skip to step 2.

2. Heat two tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a large pan and add the minced garlic. Fry until golden brown and fragrant, about two minutes. Side note: I usually use a garlic press or chop up my garlic really finely, but I saw a gigantic container of minced garlic at Costco for FIVE DOLLARS and couldn’t pass it up. I mean! It’s so convenient, and what a deal. About a half a tablespoon of minced garlic equals one garlic clove, in case you’re wondering.
3. Add the carrots, cabbage, bean sprouts, green onions, pepper, soy sauce and stir well. Saute for about two or three minutes.
4. Once combined, add the cooked beef and/or pork to meld the flavours. Transfer to a bowl and let the mixture cool while you prepare the wrapping station. Note: I learned the hard way that assembling the egg rolls does not work when the filling is hot. Give it lots of time to cool.

5. You’ll need three plates for this next part: one small plate with a bit of water, a large plate for wrapping and a large plate to keep the wrapped spring rolls.6. Lay a wrapper in front of you with a corner pointing toward you. Spread two or three tablespoons of the filling horizontally in the middle of the wrapper. Dip your fingers in the water and line all edges of the wrapper with water. Fold the bottom of the wrapper up over the filling and gently press down. Fold in both sides of the wrapper. Roll the spring roll up toward the top of the wrapper and seal all of the edges with water.
7. When all of your spring rolls are assembled, you’re ready to fry! These probably would be great baked too, but I was opting for authenticity over health in this case. 😉 Heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil in the frying pan until it’s hot. Turn the heat down to medium. Lay the spring rolls in the pan in a single layer and fry on all sides until they’re golden brown.

8. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and pat with paper towels to absorb the excess oil and serve with your favourite dipping sauce (I recommend sweet chili or plum sauce!).
This is an awesome basic recipe. They were perfect when dipped into sweet chili sauce, but when plain, they could have used an extra kick. I think next time I’ll chop up a chili pepper really fine and add it in for a little bit of heat. But you could certainly customize these in any way – add more veggies, or even shrimp! They were the perfect addition to our Asian-inspired dinner.

They were crispy on the outside and had the perfect amount of crunch on the inside. Maybe next time I’ll get really adventurous and try to make my own sushi! 😉

Easy weeknight lemon-pepper chicken and potato wedges

I have a love/hate relationship with Sundays.

My ideal weekend includes a productive Saturday and a relaxing Sunday. I usually spend my Saturday mornings cleaning the house (I try to do it a little bit at a time through the week, but it never seems to happen that way) and catching up on laundry. If Alex is working, I might spend the day with my mom at Costco or go grocery shopping/errand running. If he’s home, we’ll make breakfast together (and by that I mean he’ll make breakfast while I drag my lazy butt out of bed!), and work on house projects, wander around Home Depot or some other home improvement store, or take Stella for a walk. I like getting things done on Saturday so that we can take it sloooow on Sunday.

This weekend was a little bit different. On Friday night after work, my mom and I took off for a little shopping getaway. She found a great deal on a hotel in Buffalo and we went over for the night for some shopping and mother-daughter time! My mom and I are besties . . . seriously! It was so nice to have some time for just the two of us. We hit great some great sales and had some great eats! Saturday morning we had brunch at the hotel. Mom had a three-cheese fritatta and I opted for the buffalo-chicken breakfast panini. They were both fabulous, and we were absolutely stuffed!

Our meals kept us going as we shopped until we dropped – allllll day! We finally stopped around 4:30 on Saturday at Panera Bread for dinner before we went home. A cup of broccoli-cheddar soup and half a Frontega chicken panini for me . . . and a cup of French onion soup and a spinach power salad for mama!

Mmm, I love me some Panera. It’s finally making its way to Canada with a few locations near me, but I haven’t been to any of them yet. Probably a good thing that it’s not near where I live . . . I’m sure I’d visit far too often!

Anyway, we made it home and then I met up with Alex at our friends’ house before going to a Buck ‘n Doe for friends of ours. It was a super fun, but late night! What made it worse is that we changed the clocks ahead early this morning. I love that our days will be longer, but hated that we lost an hour today! Sundays always go by way too quickly, which is why I haaaate them, and today seemed to fly by. We did have a nice relaxing day, had lunch with friends and a delicious steak dinner, but it went by way too fast. I could have used an extra hour!

Earlier last week – before this beautiful weather hit! – I had a craving for some warm, soul-pleasing food. You know what I’m talking about, right? The meal that usually takes all day to prepare; one that fills the house with the best smell. But it was a weeknight, and I just wasn’t in the mood to get fancy. On nights like these, chicken is usually my go-to. I was smart and took out a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts to defrost the night before. When I got home, I decided I would make easy lemon-pepper chicken with asparagus and potato wedges.

I started by combining about a teaspoon of lemon pepper seasoning with a teaspoon of garlic powder. I sprinkled it all over the chicken breasts and popped them back in the fridge until I was ready to cook.

Meantime, I cut three medium-sized potatoes into wedges and soaked them in water for about an hour.

This releases some of the starch in the potatoes, so that they become extra crispy when you bake them. Soak them for as long as you can – at least 30 minutes – and pat them dry with paper towels thoroughly. Drizzle some EVOO and seasonings of your choice – I opted for plain old seasoning salt. Lay them on a non-stick sprayed baking sheet, and pop them in the oven at 400 F for about 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.

I put my asparagus in the oven at the same time as the potatoes. Baked vegetables are our fave around here. Whether it be broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower or even Brussels sprouts, a drizzle of EVOO and lots of salt and pepper does the trick for seasonings, and baked at 400 F for about 20 minutes keeps the crunch of the veggies that I love so much.

I decided to brown the chicken in a frying pan for about three or four minutes on each side to get an extra-crispy coating, then finished them in the oven along with the potatoes and asparagus. The chicken took about 15 more minutes in the oven, but be sure to cook them until they are no longer pink inside.

This was a simple, satisfying dinner that came together quickly. I had time to play with since Alex wasn’t due to arrive home until about two hours after I got home from work, but it could easily come together even quicker. The potato wedges were crispy, the asparagus was crunchy and vibrant green, and the chicken was perfectly spicy and tangy! A super soul-satisfying meal.

I can’t believe it’s already so late – I know we only lost one hour, and it’s worth it, but I always find this is a weird adjustment! Here’s to a great week of sunshine and good eats!

Home run!

I love experimenting and trying new things in the kitchen. Sometimes things don’t work out – like my brownie dessert from a few weeks ago. But sometimes, I hit it out of the park. Crunchy Buffalo Ranch Chicken is one of those recipes.

Toot, toot.

Hear that?

Just me . . . tooting my own horn.

😉

Crunchy Buffalo Ranch Chicken combines spicy buffalo wing sauce with tangy ranch seasoning, all rolled into crispy French-fried onions. This recipe is definitely a take-out fake-out. It doesn’t mimic a restaurant recipe, per se, but it certainly tastes fast-food worthy!

I work for two food trade magazines and, as part of my job, from time to time I am required to attend industry trade shows. At one show, I visited a company’s booth for a demonstration and received a bag of these crispy fried onions. They’re the crunchy garnish that restaurants often serve over top of salads, burgers and steaks. The bag sat in my pantry before I realized that the expiry date was soon approaching and I should try something with them. The back of the bag had recipes on it, including one that used the onions as breadcrumbs for chicken. When I turned to the trusty ole’ Internet, I found that other people had done this with rave reviews, and made some modifications to the recipe.

I started by cutting two boneless, skinless chicken breasts into nugget-sized pieces. You could leave the chicken breasts whole, but this ensured more of the crunchy coating covered each bite.

Prepare your dredging station. My usual breading process starts with dipping the meat in a beaten egg, followed by breadcrumbs and seasonings. In this recipe, I replaced the egg with my favourite buffalo wing sauce, and crushed up about one cup of fried onions into a breadcrumb consistency. For an extra kick, I added a package of ranch seasoning into the onions (usually I use homemade ranch seasoning, but I had an extra package kicking around). I’ve seen smaller packages of these fried onions in the salad dressing/crouton aisle at the grocery store. If you can’t find them, don’t sweat. Just substitute something else crunchy for the breading, like corn flakes – but don’t skip out on the ranch seasoning!

The chicken pieces were dunked into the buffalo wing sauce and rolled around in the onion and ranch powder mixture. Line up the chicken pieces on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 400 F for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

The buffalo wing sauce makes the chicken so tender, and with a crunchy coating and bite sized pieces, this chicken is perfectly poppable.

You guys, this chicken is the bomb. I’m not even kidding . . . I would make this (and eat it) every day if I could. And it got a double thumbs up from hubby – and my mama! She may or may not have kept the chicken I gave her to try all to herself. Hey, I’m not judging . . . I may or may not do the same thing!

Redemption!

I’m baaaaaack!

As I mentioned in my last post, things have been a bit hairy lately! I’ve recently had some additional responsibilities added to my plate at work, and the next two months are filled with deadlines and travelling. When I come home from work, it’s been hard to motivate myself to do the housework or tackle the DIY projects I’ve got on my to-do list, let alone sit in front of a computer again. Leanne posted this quote the other day and I gotta say, it’s been helpful to remind me to take one thing at a time.

But, no matter what comes up, a girl’s gotta eat!! Luckily, I have a wonderful husband who picks up the slack in lots of areas, including in the kitchen! It’s so nice coming home to dinner ready on the table. His enthusiasm for the kitchen is almost as big as mine: he loves to experiment and try new things. He recently made Thai coconut chicken curry with sautéed baby bok choi. Talk about yum!

But dessert was definitely the piece de resistance: Chocolate-bottom berry tarts!

We had the hardest time coming up with an actual name for these. Berry chocolate-bottomed tarts? Chocolate berry bottom tarts? Who knows. These babies were Un. Real.

His tart pastry was made from scratch and was perfectly buttery and flaky. The berry filling – made from raspberries, blackberries and blueberries – was tart and tangy. But the real star was the chocolate on the bottom. What a delightful surprise!

Everybody has a thing, in the kitchen, right? You know, their spectialty. Pies are normally Alex’s thing. His pastry is always perfect and he always manages to nail the filling and flavour combinations bang on. He’s a dedicated pie man too – last year, our oven stopped working a day or two before my birthday. That didn’t stop him from making me a strawberry pie and a birthday cake.. and barbecuing them both. The cake got a bit scorched and he had to remove the top lay over it, but the pie . . . wow. You never would have known he didn’t bake it in an oven! Everyone (especially me!) was so impressed. I’m a lucky woman.

So like I was saying, pies are his thing. But mini pies are his thaaang. I mean, who doesn’t love mini versions of everything? This girl does.

I digress.

We generally like saltier snacks in this house. But every once in a while, we love us some sweets, and there’s nothing better than a good old chocolate chip cookie. One recent Sunday morning, I decided to whip up a batch of my mom’s tried-and-true chocolate chip cookies.

I started by preheating my oven to 375 F and combining 2 and ¼ cups of flour, one teaspoon of baking soda and one teaspoon of salt in a small bowl.

In the bowl of my stand mixer, I beat a cup of softened butter, ¾ cup of granulated sugar, ¾ cup of packed brown sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla extract until it creamy. Then I added two large eggs, one at a time.

Once all my wet ingredients were combined, I gradually beat in the dry ingredients.

When everything was combined, I was about to stir in two cups of chocolate chips, when I realized . . . I didn’t have enough. Then it hit me – Alex used almost all of my chocolate-chip stash for his tarts. Oh. No. I had one cup of chocolate chips, which was not nearly enough.

Racking my brain and my cupboards for something else to add, the thought of baking half-chocolate-chip cookies wasn’t appealing to me. I could have added chopped nuts, but I am not a fan of nuts in my chocolate chip cookies . . . and we didn’t have any. As I spun the rack of my lazy susan over and over again, it hit me. I had just picked up some toffee bits at the bulk food store! YES!

Chocolate and toffee is a match made in heaven. I added a cup of toffee bits to my cookie batter and spooned the dough onto ungreased baking sheets. And just before I popped them into the oven to bake, a stroke of genius came over me. What goes better with toffee than anything? SALT. I grabbed my kosher salt and sprinkled some on top of each cookie dough ball.

The cookies baked at 375 F for about nine minutes (or until perfectly golden brown). We could hardly wait to get our hands on these babies, and they did not disappoint. I had to hide them in the freezer so they were out of plain sight, but they didn’t last long. Oh, and I made the rookie mistake of placing the dough balls way too close to each other, so some of the cookies stuck together as they baked. Didn’t change the way I felt about them though. These were a hit!

Now, I’m off to catch up on housework and put on a giant pot of Italian Wedding Soup for dinner. Have a great Sunday, everyone!

The world’s worst blogger.

Remember the time I swore up and down that I wouldn’t fall off the blogwagon after a handful of posts like I always do?!

Ahh. Memories.

I know. I’m the worst. Things have been super crazy nutso around here, and by the time I get home from work the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer. But that’s no excuse! I’ve still been eating, drinking and living well. And take photos of (almost!) every meal. So, I’ve got lots to share..and I will be back soon!

Saturday snapshots

I have to admit how lucky I am that Alex loves to cook and bake just as much as I do. This week he made Thai coconut curry chicken and chocolate-bottom berry tarts!

He makes pie pastry from scratch and it is mouthwatering! Flaky, buttery and strong enough to house a delectable chocolate berry filling that was the perfect combination of sweet and tart. Yum.

Alex was on nights this week, and I have to admit that as much as I love to cook, I can’t be bothered to make a meal just for myself. One of my favourite things to do on a night when he’s away is roast an entire head of garlic, warm up some goat cheese and make pita chips for a yummy appetizer. It’s easy and pleasy!

Let me know if you want me to post about how I do this. It’s a great appetizer for a girls’ night, or a night when your husband is away and you don’t have to worry about having garlicky breath. 😉

We were hit by snowstorm Nemo (anyone know why they called it that?) yesterday. I made it to work but the drive wasn’t very nice. Today, however, is much nicer! The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the temps were mild – a perfect day to take Stella, our goldendoodle, to the park to play in the snow!

We brought a ball for her to play with, and it was hilarious watching her chase it and dig it out from the foot of snow covering the baseball diamond.

I swear it’s in here somewhere...

Maybe if I stick my butt in the air a little higher I’ll find it…

Needless to say, she was pooped after running around for a while. We came home to our house smelling like one of my favourite scents – homemade tomato sauce and meatballs simmering on the stove for a delicious lunch of meatball subs (check out my meatball recipe here!).

This was Alex’s, topped with jalapeños..blegh!
We all promptly hit the couch for a nap shortly after. A perfect Saturday! 🙂

Super Bowl eats, part 2

Like I mentioned in my last post, we had some friends over to watch the Beyonce concert Super Bowl on Sunday night. Chili and baked potatoes are the perfect winter comfort foods, and are pretty low-maintenance when you’re feeding a crowd that includes hungry, burly, football-watching men. 🙂

I love trying new recipes, but I’m always skeptical of trying new things when I have to bring something somewhere, or feed company. Case in point: I made a brownie fruit pizza for my friend Melissa’s baby shower on Sunday, and it was an epic fail, presentation-wise. A brownie crust topped with a cream-cheese frosting and fresh berries – seems pretty foolproof, right? Well, it tasted great, but I think it sat on top of a hot stove for a few minutes before it was served, which caused it to melt. 😦 Look how nice it looked before I brought it to the hall!

Oh well – we still munched on it afterwards, and although it was a gooey mess, it was still delicious!

Anyway, all that said, chili in a Crock Pot is pretty hard to screw up, but I wanted to stick with a pretty basic recipe. However, I have heard (and read) several times that a certain unexpected ingredient adds a great kick to chili – chocolate! I was excited when I found this recipe and picked up everything I needed from the short list of ingredients at the grocery store.

I started the chili on Sunday morning by browning two pounds of ground beef (from Jepson’s Fresh Meats, of course!) with two chopped onions and four cloves of garlic, diced into small pieces.

When the meat was nicely browned and caramelized, I added the mixture to the Crock Pot along with two 28-ounce cans of diced tomatoes . . .

. . . an 18-ounce can of mixed beans . . .

. . . four additional minced garlic cloves and some spices: three tablespoons of chili powder, a tablespoon of cumin, a teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

And the two ingredients that made the chili stand out – a teaspoon of hot pepper sauce . . .

And two tablespoons of chopped baking chocolate. Yum!

Give the ingredients a good stir, set the temperature to low and let it simmer away for seven to eight hours!

I have to admit – I’m not a huge chili fan. I already told you about how much I hate tomatoes, and let’s face it – tomatoes are a main component of chili! But this recipe was pretty delicious, and I enjoyed it topped over a hot baked potato. 🙂 The rest of our guests seemed to like it too – I was counting on having leftovers for lunch, but it disappeared! Not that I’m complaining – I think the biggest compliment to any chef is having empty plates and serving dishes!

Alex’s bowl – a blurry picture, since he grabbed the bowl right away to gobble it down!

On to the baked potatoes: no real recipe here, just a bunch of baked potatoes scrubbed and poked, drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt and baked at 400 F for about an hour and a half, or until done. I made a whole bunch and baked them in recyclable aluminum trays covered with tin foil for easy cleanup. Serve the potatoes alongside chili with tons of toppings on the side . . .

Sour cream, jalapeno peppers, green onion, bacon bits, broccoli, cheese and salsa . . .

And check out these adorable chocolate-covered strawberries my sweet friend Audrey made! Not a chili topping, but a delicious dessert! 🙂 We also munched on bacon-wrapped water chestnuts, buffalo chicken wing dip, meatballs and nachos. It was a feast, I tell ya, and the perfect Super Bowl (or any!) Sunday meal. I’m still full!

Super Bowl eats, part 1

Happy Bachelor night Monday. 🙂

I’ll admit it – the Bachelor is totally my guilty pleasure (alright, admittedly I have more than one guilty pleasure show..this is one of the Monday-night shows!!). Alex plays hockey on Monday nights, so I’m able to watch it myself without any manly complaints ;).

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m still full from the weekend. Last year we decided to have friends over to watch the Super Bowl – actually, I think our friends invited themselves, because our living room is fairly spacious! 😉 Last year I cooked up a huge Crock Pot full of chili and probably close to two dozen baked potatoes and spread out a ton of toppings, and we feasted! It was so fun – the guys watched the game, while the girls gabbed and munched on great food before and after the halftime show. We decided to do it again this year, and since last year’s table was such a hit, I went with the same game plan this year.

This Sunday was even busier than normal, because besides preparing all of our goodies for the evening, we celebrated my great friend Melissa and her sweet baby girl Kennedy with a baby shower! It was a fantastic afternoon, and of course, like any baby shower, we munched on delicious dips, appetizers, sweets and cake all afternoon! None of us expected to be hungry later on, but somehow we managed to slurp the last of the chili down later that night (although I’m sure the boys had something to do with that, too!) ;).

Since Sunday was going to be a busy day, I tried to do most of the prep work Saturday, which made things a lot easier! I knew the chili could be started Sunday morning before I had to leave for the shower and the baked potatoes and toppings could wait until I got home, but I did everything else I could on Saturday, including starting this mouthwatering appetizer – bacon-wrapped water chestnuts!

Savoury, salty bacon is wrapped around a crunchy water chestnut and baked in a spicy-sweet sauce, resulting in an irresistible, perfectly poppable bite.

This recipe is a surefire crowdpleaser, and it’s seriously so simple – my mom has been making it for a few years, and I’ve memorized it – there are only a handful of ingredients!

Bacon-wrapped water chestnuts

1 package of bacon

2 cans of whole water chestnuts

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup chili sauce

Start by pre-heating your oven to 350 F and cutting your bacon in half. Wrap each half-slice of bacon around a whole water chestnut, secure with a toothpick and pop ’em into an oven-safe dish.

Simple, right?! I bought sliced water chestnuts by mistake, but they worked fine – I stacked two or three slices together to maximize the crunch factor.

Meanwhile, combine the mayo, brown sugar and chili sauce into a sweet and tangy sauce and pour over the water chestnuts. If you’re preparing these a day ahead of your event, leave the sauce on the side until you’re ready to bake and store everything in the fridge. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes and watch them disappear shortly after you pull them out!

Seriously, these babies were such a hit that I didn’t even have a chance to take a picture of the finish product. I was smart and divided the recipe into two dishes so the boys had their own and didn’t steal from ours! 😉 Everyone loved them, even this guy!

OK, so Travis doesn’t actually have teeth (and they are probably a little too advanced for a seven-month-old with no teeth to eat!!), but he’s so darn cute, and his parents both loved them, so I’m sure he will too someday. 🙂

Alright, back to the Bachelor. That Tierra is something else . . . !!! Not gonna lie, I’m super excited for a double dose of the drama this week!

Stay tuned for the second dose of my Super Bowl feastivities. Get it? Feast-ivities . . . ha. Wow.