If you’re privileged enough to be hosting a party for the big event, you’ll want to make sure the food is up to par. What you choose to serve at your Super Bowl party is almost as important as the game itself. Failing to provide your guests with delicious, mouth-watering appetizers is like inviting them over without access to a TV or an endless supply of beer. It’s downright unacceptable.

So what are some great recipes for hosting the ultimate Super Bowl party? The trick is to mix things up a little without completely reinventing the wheel. For example, foods like pizza, chicken wings and mac and cheese aren’t necessarily the most innovative snacks to serve but your guests will love them – and you can add your own little touches to make them memorable and amazing for your guests.

Choosing from millions of recipes online can be a very daunting task – especially for first-time hosts. To make it easier for you, we’ve scoured HalfHourMeals.com for the three best Super Bowl 2012 recipes. These recipes offer a unique twist on signature dishes to keep your guests intrigued and interested all night long.

Consider these three tasty apps for your Super Bowl party this year:

*Click images to view recipes

Baked Mac and Cheese                    Buffalo Chicken Pizza                     Oven Baked Wings

1 – This dish is a Beer & Cheese Macaroni created by the foodies over at Homemade by Holman. They used smoked cheddar, sharp white cheddar, mild cheddar, and American cheese, along with 1 cup of Sam Adams Oktoberfest beer, to create this delicious looking cheese dish.

2 – Caramelized Cheese Grilled Cheese? Okay, you got our mouths drooling! The folks at Closet Cooking came up with this delicious looking dish that takes grilled cheese to another level. Why would you want a simple grilled cheese ever again after seeing this?

3 – These Italian Cheese Straws were discovered at What’s Cookin’ Chicago and just had to be a part of this list. These would work well as an appetizer or a side dish to pretty much any kind of soup you could imagine.

4 – Baked macaroni and cheese is probably in my top five favorite dishes, so we had to include one of these in our list. The most delicious baked macaroni dish we could find was found over at MarthaStewart.com — a macaroni dish featuring Beecher’s flagship cheese sauce that looks phenomenal.

5 – This grilled cheese sandwich made with a pita was found over at GrilledCheeseSocial.com and was affectionately named the “Old Goat” because… well, you guessed it — it contains goat cheese! Alongside peppers and mushrooms, this goat cheese grilled cheese sandwich has a real artisan feel that adds a level of class to the classic grilled cheese dish. We would love to try this one!

6 – We found a great cheese appetizer over at BHG.com that is as simple to make as it looks. These cheese triangles would be an excellent appetizer and would be sure to put a smile on the face of any guest you have over.

#10 – Cinnabon Popcorn

Cinnabon and popcorn, together at last. The Girl Who Ate Everything posted this delicious twist on popcorn that adds pecans, almond bark, white chooclate, cinnamon and vanilla to emulate the delicious taste of a Cinnabon.

#9 – Colored Caramel Popcorn

Risa at Baked Perfection posted this colorful cup of caramel corn that looks like a perfect snack for almost anytime of the day. These would look fantastic at a party and would be a great way to serve individual portions, too!

#8 – Cinnamon Popcorn

This cinnamon popcorn creation from The Finer Things In Life adds a bit of spice and is certainly one of the more creative ways to serve popcorn that we’ve seen. This would be a great one to serve during a movie on Valentine’s Day!

#7 – Chocolate Popcorn

If you’ve never tried chocolate popcorn before, we suggest you do yourself a favor and munch on some of this as soon as you can! You’ll wonder why folks put caramel and cheese on popcorn when they have chocolate as an option! This specific chocolate popcorn dish was found at Simply Scratch.

#6 – Cashew Caramel Popcorn

Cashews add a wonderful element to the ordinary caramel corn, and you might even find these are more addicting than the regular peanuts that are found in treats such as Cracker Jack. Our hats are off to the folks at Oh! Nuts for sharing this treat with the web.

#5 – Chewy Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls

The fine folks at Pillsbury published this unique popcorn treat that brings together some of the finest things in the world — peanut butter, chocolate and popcorn. You’ll want to definitely give these a try!

#4 – Popcorn Cake

The foodies at Cookies & Cups came up with this brilliant way to including popcorn and other various treats within a cake. As you can see, this cake looks really unique and would be an excellent way of impressing someone special on their birthday!

#3 – Oreo Popcorn

Oreo cookies + popcorn = pure magic. If you’re anything like us, you’re staring at this photo and thinking, “I need to make this!”. Kudos to the Kerry the Bakergirl for coming up with this delicious spin on two of our favorite snack foods.

#2 – Popcorn Brittle with M&Ms

These delicious popcorn treats look just as good as we’re sure they taste! Popcorn brittle with peanuts and M&Ms are the creation of the creative foodies over at SimpleAndDelicious.com, and we’re sure glad they decided to share these with the world! These look extremely easy to make and would be a really great way to impress your guests.

#1 – S’mores Popcorn

S’mores and popcorn? Is there really anything more amazing than this combination! The creative folks at Thirty Handmade Days shared this yummy creation and are solely responsible for making us extremely hungry at this very second. We want this popcorn!

Potato Gnocchi or Gnocchi di Patata by Mhelhanee

Corn Chowder with Potatoes by Penny

Roasted Red Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic by Sarah

Homemade Potato Chips by Sugarpies

Garlic Mashed Potatoes by Sarah

Be sure to let them know how you enjoy preparing their recipes.

Here are the oils I noticed tonight while shopping: vegetable, corn, saffron, peanut, walnut, coconut, sesame, grape-seed, olive, extra virgin olive, balsamic garlic, almond and Parmesan dipping oil. What a mind-boggling array! Fantastic for sure but how do we know what to choose and what’s the best oil for the occasion? I searched further and found vital information to share with you, to save you time in future. Here are three exceptional full-length articles explaining the intricacies to master before you shop. Click the links to see how well each article covers this subject. All of the answers may be found and it won’t seem like such a mystery anymore.

Whole Foods Guide To Oils

eHow Foods How To Choose Cooking Oils

The Nibble Magazine Cooking Oil Glossary A to Z (there are six pages)

Displayed Oils Photographs on Flickr by Nanniane

Mustard seeds, ground mustard seeds, table mustard with turmeric, a Bavarian sweet mustard, a Dijon and a coarse French mustard made mainly from black mustard seeds

Mustard Crisp Chicken by Better Homes and Gardens

Mustard Chicken Barbecue by Better Homes and Gardens

Mustard Crusted Pork Chops by Bonnie Walton

Three lovely recipes for your to consider for the upcoming Labor Day Weekend Menu. The next time you visit your market take a good look at the complex blends some companies have come up with. The shelves are packed with choices of mustard for every diner and cook.

Click here to see ten HHM Member Recipes using mustard!

]]> http://blog.halfhourmeals.com/food-for-thought/flavoring-chicken-and-pork-with-mustard/feed/ 0 http://blog.halfhourmeals.com/food-for-thought/impress-your-dinner-guests-with-color/ http://blog.halfhourmeals.com/food-for-thought/impress-your-dinner-guests-with-color/#comments Sun, 21 Aug 2011 21:58:44 +0000 Theresa H Hall http://blog.halfhourmeals.com/?p=6171 Discovering these unusually beautiful vegetables has been a tremendous find. Imagine them placed next to a succulent main dish of medium-rare filet mignon, or a grilled glazed pork loin, or a pair of perfectly grilled lamb chops. To please the eye is the first duty of a well-seasoned cook or chef. At first glance, food has to be appealing, well-plated, and impressive. These purple and blue vegetables taste the same as their more traditionally-colored counterparts, and they lend an immediate air of mystery to tempt us to try them. We sit down, pick up our silverware and gently cut a small portion to taste. Just knowing we are eating a vegetable so pretty makes us appreciate it more.

Beautiful Purple Pole Beans

Delicate Blue-Foot Chantrelle Mushrooms

Royal Purple Cauliflower

Deep Purple Potatoes

… and potatoes plated

Pair one of these vegetables with a sumptuous main course. Balance it with a bright crisp green salad so your family and guests will feel you have gone out of your way in order to make their meal even more spectacular. Sharing an inspired supper is a sure way to get the conversation flowing. And remember … even though these veggies are purple and blue, enjoying them will never give you The Blues!

A quick summary: cutting, measuring wet, matching utensils with clearly-written index cards, measuring dry, distinguishing hot from cold, i.e., Red = hot, Blue = cold … on to searching for ingredients and so forth. Reading left to right; Green for left ——–>> Red for right. Holly pointed out simple details to teach, motivate, encourage and allow someone with the will to learn, to work towards accomplishing their cooking goals by developing their basic cooking skills. The video is short, to-the-point and an educational eye-opener. Pre-Cooking: Teaching Children with Special Needs to Cook.

Your Special Chef. What an appropriately-named website. Once you land on their site, you can choose from their tabs and drop-down menus. The one in particular I want to point you toward (on the far right),  is the Site Map tab. Here they have many titles from which to choose, and the important part is that Anna Moyer has truly thought this through. Here they talk about showing these kids to recognize the utensils, the elements, practice before ever attempting actually to cook, so the child can feel prepared. They explain why it is fundamentally liberating to teach independence and develop their child’s most basic cooking skills. This includes exposing new cooks to textures, colors and smells. Teaching them to cook foods they might not wish to eat, but that they can share and serve others. They explain the importance of building upper-body strength and fine-tuning of motor skills. They believe that with practice these children will be able to understand basic cooking practices. They can be motivated to cook, and to try new recipes later on, enhancing a feeling of self-worth and pride in knowing they can be a chef if they are willing to try.

Why Teach Someone Cooking Skills?

“Working on cooking skills helps people to develop independence. In many cases, individuals with special needs have to live in 24-hour care environments,

but if they were able to make themselves a simple meal or snack they may be able to live in a less restrictive environment”.

Link for their Youtube site.

Today would have been her 98th birthday.

Julia Child died on August 13, 2004, days before her 91st birthday.

She became a legendary woman who forged through almost every French recipe, to break it down and create the first French cookbook to be written in the English language. She along with two co-writers were the start of the beginning of the food revolution, which was to take place in America and stretch around the world. She influenced millions of people by inviting us into her studio kitchen on her television series “The French Chef”, to prove to us all that we could make these recipes, too. She was a cooking pioneer, a television personality, the chef we loved to watch and she made it appear easy. She knew her craft and she taught the world to cook French cuisine, like none other since.

She teamed up with Chef Jacques Pepin to film their duo cooking show,

“Julia and Jacques: Cooking At Home”, and it worked beautifully.

She thoughtfully invited budding cooks and chefs to her television series “Cooking With Julia”.

Julia Child was clearly responsible in helping to launch many of their careers.

Here is a link so you can remember her as a huge PBS Food Icon. We miss you Julia!

Domino’s Light Agave Nectar.

Tangy Agave BBQ Sauce Recipe.

Domino’s Amber Agave Nectar.

Peachy Orange Jam.

I read that agave nectar is naturally sweet and has a low glycemic index and is a gluten-free product containing no allergens, plus it is Kosher Certified. Super! When heated the nectar becomes purified. The light brand offers sweetener without adding flavor and the amber brand adds a caramel flavoring, which is perfectly paired with pancakes, oatmeal and cereals. Domino has given cooks and bakers decades of quality products from the sugar cane and now … they are bringing us yet a newer way to make our kitchen experience even sweeter. Visit Domino to read and learn even more about agave, and to see their array of recommended recipes. Next time you shop be sure to pick up a bottle of this new product. Make something, snap a photograph and add your recipe here on your profile page. Let’s make our own decisions if we like this sweetener as much or more than Domino Granulated Sugar.