Why does football cause such dietary calamity?I know there are seasonal foods. I know there are traditional foods. I know there are ritual foods.
But football food? Disaster.
I have an odd habit of thumbing through the slick coupon inserts in the Sunday paper. Less and less will I find anything I want to buy (though some dishwasher soap had me clipping today). However, I look forward to my weekly thumb-through as a sort of culinary anthropology. I say to myself, when flipping quickly past startling "recipes" that call for such atrocities as a can of Manwich, "People really eat this? Isn't that cannibalism?"
It's a fun pastime, though. You can tell what time of the year it is from the coupons. We just got through the green-bean/fried-onion casserole season. And now we're in the preposterous "football diet" portion of our year. Chili. Chicken wings. Quesadillas.
And 7-Layer Dip!
I'm not about to go to the trouble of Googling this perversion, but as far as I know, it's only been on the edible landscape for the past decade or so. Who comes up with this stuff?
I don't know what the official seven layers are, but one of them is refried beans, and the dish is served bone cold. No thanks. Cold beans? Shudder.
However. (Yes, of course there's a however.) Since there are two playoff games on the tube today, and since certain food items are often found (as emergency rations, you understand) in my pantry, I decided to give Cranky a big plate of seven layers.
I nuked it briefly, so that it wasn't totally disgusting.
Heck, I ate a little of it myself, and I didn't die.
I will not tell you how to make it, but I will tell you what the seven layers were: refried beans, crumbled feta cheese, sour cream, totally out-of-season tomato salsa, chopped canned olives, avocado slices and minced cilantro. Served with home-baked corn chips made from commercial tortillas.
It made us happy.
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16 comments:
This has been an entirely snackless playoff Sunday for us, and a good thing, too. I lost my appetite during the first quarter of the Saints game and I haven't gained it back since. Maybe if the Colts score I'll heat up some leftovers.
btw, Chopper does the home made chip thing, but not nearly often enough.
Oh, goodgod, Mrs D, open a can of refried beans!
(I'm not supposed to say anything, but Cranky's from New England...)
Sher: I just read your tribute to your mom. Very sweet. (And you redeemed yourself on the bread pudding! I got one a' those up my sleeve.)
Kord, you're all such jockettes! But to the "food" ideas for the season: I am always mad about something as wonderful as real Buffalo wings being co-opted and misused, as in serving them wih Ranch dressing. I still have the yellowed clipping from the NYT when Craig Claiborne printed the original from its birthplace cafe. I still love them and the only hot sauce to use is Crystal and I won't hear any arguments. And by the way, you could make a seven-layer chopped salad to go with. Touchdown!!
I must admit that I am a huge fan of the 7 Layer Dip. I believe I first had a version of it at TGI Friday's back in the late 80s. The one in La Jolla used to be my home away from home back then. Or maybe it was my home. I remember that I often got phone calls there.
greetings from the Land of Seven Layer Salads! There are more than a few, as scary as that is!! One has peas!! They still make jell-o salads here too... Betty Crocker is alive! God save the queen!
Seven Layer Dip rocks!
I once ate a 7-layer dip that had 5 layers.
This is for Mrs. D- The Patriots just lost. Even dark chocolate dipped in peanut butter, dipped in caramel would have difficulty cheering me up right now. Maybe I should try refried beans.
Seven layer dip eh? round here they're all one layer maybe I'll have to change that!
Seven layer dip is like casserole and hotdish. Each person who makes it can create it at will and make it delicious. (we hope)
I love a good layered dip with crunchy homemade chips but NOT cold....yechhh there is something about eating cold beans that makes me quite gaggy.
All this football talk.....I am not a football watcher at all so I haven't much of a clue as to what is going on.hdnlng
Kudzu: You sure Claiborne specified Crystal? I always thought they used Frank's at the Anchor Bar. (Well, they *used* to. Now they're selling a proprietary brand of "wing sauce.")
Dagny: Enigmatic, as usual.
Stacie: You should be writing all of it down. Amazing.
Audra: Yesterday, for me too.
Susan: Why, you got gypped! (And today Cranky is an ex-Patriot.)
Beccy: You can wow your friends by serving it in a clear glass dish, so the layers show. Urp.
Kate: So my version was probably well within the canon. I think I had one with shredded iceberg lettuce once. And, to remind our readers: Crunchy Homemade Chips (from store-bought tortillas -- no oil, no salt).
We had some people over for the Bears game (WhooHoo!), and along with the requisite tortilla chips and dip (El Ranchero chips, made on Chicago's south side, and the best ever commercially-prepared chips on the market, if you live around Chicago, that is), I also served some cracked pepper smoked salmon with whole grain wheat thins as a healthier choice. It disappeared.
You can get it at World Market, two 8-oz packages (regular and the pepper) for $15.00 or less.
Actually, that seven layed salad with the peas is quite good. It's got lettuce, mayo, green onion, the peas, something, something else, and bacon crumbled on top.
~ Peggasus
Well, I can't put my hands on that clipping this morning but if memory serves, Craig only specified "bottled hot sauce". Frank's is a suitable sub, but no other comes close. And don't forget the celery sticks and proper blue cheese dressing.
Oh, I love those gross dips. They're a weakness, including Lipton onion soup mixed into sour cream. Can't get enough. Of course, you could mix just about anything into sour cream and I'd eat it. (It makes defeat go down a lot smoother, as my husband can attest.)
Hey, Anonymous: Wow, another vote for the layered salad. Frozen peas, I bet. Cute.
Gonna have to get my hands on those chips, next trip I make to Chicago. I might like the idea of the Cost Plus salmon better though; I know I can get that around here. :D
Kudzu: Totally, Crystal and Frank's are interchangeable. I could drink that stuff. And no Ranch dip! Blue cheese only, plus celery. Aw, shoot, now I'm hungry for wings.
Tammy: I taught myself how to recreate the Lipton's dip without Lipton's! (OK, rescind my credentials now.) Anyway, it uses a beef bouillon cube or two and a healthy shake of dried onion flakes (Costco).
It is long past time that someone questioned the concept of Manwich.
And the dip...my daughter had this at a friend's house once and she loved it. I'll have to make some for her. Too bad the Saints lost.
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