Super Bowl Junk Food, February 1, 2015

My wife really likes to watch the Super Bowl. I'd be just as happy settling in with a book or an art project. But, since we are doing the whole football things, I've gotten into the habit of making chili every year for it. One year, my Buffalo chicken chili actually even won a contest. I'm not much of a chili specialist or a from-scratch kind of girl when it comes to chili, but I like my chili quite a bit. I can't exactly give a recipe because I just throw a bunch of stuff together. Most of you probably have a great chili recipe of your own, but if you want to know my throw-together version, what I basically do is:

Cook some ground beef (I like 90% or more lean). Drain it. Add canned diced tomatoes (1 can to 1 lb. beef), canned kidney beans (same), jarred salsa (same---I like Newman's Own medium salsa), a bunch of chopped garlic, chile powder, cumin, and a smidgy bit of cayenne. Then, I cook it until it's nice and hot. I like saltine crackers crunched up in mine. Jeannene likes tortilla chips. We both like cornbread. We had all three here tonight, along with shredded cheddar and sour cream. Jeannene made the Chi Chis sweet corn cake mix for the cornbread. I tend toward Jiffy cornbread.

We usually do a bunch of appetizers, as well. I made guacamole (mashed avos, garlic powder, salt, lime juice). Jeannene made that Velveeta/Rotel/hot sausage dip. She also picked up some Buffalo chicken dip from the local grocery---the kids love it, so she wanted to make sure she had some on hand for their Super Bowl experience with us. They aren't much for football, but they sure do like food & on their budget, their meals tend to be a lot better when they visit us! Jeannene also made spicy garlic wings and parmesan garlic wings, which Pie plowed right through. Y'all should have seen the bone pile on his plate!

I forgot that Jeannene had picked up some Super Bowl brownies at the grocery, so I baked a pumpkin apple spice cake, from scratch! I'm not much of a baker, so it was fun to have it turn out pretty good. I think it'd've looked lots better had I left it unfrosted, but everyone really liked the frosting, so I was happy with a funny-looking cake. It was beautiful when it first came out of the bundt pan! The snowplow folks came to do our driveway shortly after I got it frosted, so it was fun to be able to send Jeannene out with big slices of cake for them!

Pumpkin Apple Spice Cake

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ginger

1 c. oil (you can sub applesauce)

1 tsp. vanilla

4 eggs

2 c. flour

15 oz. canned pumpkin

2 medium tart apples, peeled & diced (I used Honeycrisp)

1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans (I used a mix)

16 oz. powdered sugar

1/2 c. butter, room temperature

1 tbsp. vanilla

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature (neufchâtel is okay as a sub)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugars, baking soda, salt, & spices together. Add oil, 1 tsp. vanilla. Add flour, half a cup at a time. Add pumpkin. Add apple & nuts. Pour into a Bundt pan that's been greased & floured. Bake 1 hour. Beat powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and cream cheese until smooth. Let cake cool 5-10 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate. Allow to cool completely, then frost the cake. Serves 12.