i'm just here for the food.

Cinderella and football: they go together, right? I love the story of Cinderella. One of my favorite versions? 'Ever After' with Drew Barrymore. Remember the part where the step-sister was like, "Of course not mother. I'm only here for the food." That's who I am when it comes to sports.

Now I know that 2011 Superbowl XLV has come and gone, but I can't help but post about my treats [Again, I'm still catching up on my posts]. First thing's first. I don't follow football. I enjoy watching college games every now and again, and I definitely enjoy tailgating and parties. But I don't know much about the actual game. My hubs knows a lot of facts and rules and such, but he doesn't follow either.

To you sports fans out there, it will come as a disappointment to you that I am a bit of a bandwagon sports fan. It's just not exciting for me unless I know it's high stakes or something of the sort. So I only watched the last couple Bears' games, including their loss to the Packers. No Superbowl for Chicago. Oh well.

Every year, we get invited to a couple Superbowl parties; this year we ended up going to my sister-in-law's. They were rooting for the Steelers. I was rooting for the food. Going to my sister-in-law's (shout out to Anne!), there's never a shortage of good grub. The hubs and I weren't staying for the whole game -- long drive and work in the morning peeps -- we literally were going for the food...and the company of course!

Since we were going to arrive a little earlier, I figured a pre-game snack would be perf. Everybody loves the standard salty Chex mix party mix, or even puppy chow/muddy buddies, but I was feeling a bit crazy and decided on a sweet and salty mix. I saw a Christmas version with Santa hats, and I knew team megaphones would work out great. I made it all the night before, threw it in a huge bowl, and took it to the party, where it was enjoyed by most [not everyone can handle the sweet and salty together...it's a serious combination].

Sweet n Salty Party Mix

adapted from cookies and cups

Ingredients:

3 cups mini pretzels (I used 4)

1/2 cup craisins (I used 3/4 cup dried cranberries)

2 cups Rice Chex (I used 3)

(I added about 1 cup of plain bugles, on top of the 1 cup of 'megaphone' covered bugles) 1 cup salted dry roasted peanuts (I used 1 cup cinnamon almonds)

2 cups holiday colored m&m's (I didn't measure, just picked out team colors from the large bag)

8 oz. white chocolate for melting

Directions:

Spread all of your ingredients, EXCEPT cinnamon almonds, m&m's and megaphone Bugles, out on a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. Melt the white chocolate according to the package directions and drizzle over the mix. Transfer into a large bowl and gently stir to coat the mix with chocolate. Return mix to the baking sheet to allow chocolate to set and dry. Add the 'megaphone' covered bugles after this.

For Megaphone Bugles:

Bugles

Colored candy melts

Toothpicks

Choose about 1 cup of "well-shaped" (not too curved, etc.) Bugles. Melt candy melts according the package directions. Dip each Bugle using a fork and toothpick in order to let the excess candy melts to drip off. Place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Repeat until all Bugles are coated. After they have set and dried, using another candy melt color, use a toothpick to write/draw the team's logo. You could probably use a pastry bag/triangle, but I prefer the control of the toothpick.

And since I had some blue candy melts on hand, I couldn't help but give a shout out to Chicago.

Like I said, I'm here for the food. 

And so is she. ;)