The Superbowl has to be pretty much my favorite sporting event of the year. Usually I’m hosting the party and usually I try to make food that represents the cities each participating team is from. This year however, Superbowl also happen to land on my brother’s 24th birthday. So I decided to combine my traditional method of cooking by way of cities plus what my brother wanted to eat for this bday to make this years goodies. Now I liked both teams but I personally was rooting for the Colts. Peyton Manning has been one of my favorite athletes ever since HE was in college. However, when I tried to research Indianapolis cuisine I didn’t really find a lot. So, sorry Indy but you weren’t totally represented at my party. New Orleans was a lot easier. I love Cajun and Creole cooking so I tried to pick a couple of super simple and not overfilling foods to nosh on…

Andouille Sausage Sandwich

- 1 package cooked Andouille sausage
- 1/2 cup Spicy Dijon Mustard
- 1/2 cup onions sliced
- 1/2 cup sliced green peppers
- 1/2 cup sliced red peppers
- 1/2 tbsp butter or margarine
- 4 sets of potato buns (or any buns of your choice)

Heat a pan on medium-high heat. Melt tablespoon of butter. Add peppers and onions and sauté for 3-4 minutes. I added the Andouille Sausage into the pan with the peppers and onion to heat up and allow any run off from the juice of the sausage to go straight into the pan.

Lightly toast buns in the toaster oven. Once everything is heated, remove from heat. Spread Dijon mustard generously on top bun. Take each sausage and slice into 4ths (so that you get 4 pieces of sausage from one sausage). Lay each slice of sausage flat side down onto bottom bun. Top with sauteed peppers and onion. Place top bun onto sausage and onions and enjoy. Super easy!

Green Chile Cheese Fries

- 1 package frozen french fries
- 1 can mild diced green chiles
- 3 cups shredded Mexican cheese mix (or you can use a combo of Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack etc.) – soy cheese for vegans
- salt and pepper to taste
- sour cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet or pan with foil. Lay out frozen fries onto foil. Cook fries for about 10-12 minutes according to package instructions in oven. Once fries are cooked or nearly cooked remove. Hit warm fries with some salt and pepper. Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups of cheese blend over fries. Sprinkle diced green chiles evenly over fries. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and place back in oven. Bake for an additional 10 minutes or until all cheese is fully melted. Remove from oven and allow to sit for a minute or so. Use a spatula to serve fries into dishes. Dollop a little sour cream on top and enjoy.

Buffalo Mac ‘n Cheese

– 1 box of elbow macaroni
1/4 cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced chicken (I used Tyson grilled chicken strips)
- 2 cups mild cheddar cheese
- 1/3 cup buffalo sauce
-1 tsp white pepper
-1 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter or margarine
- 1 tbsp flour
- water
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup crumbled bleu cheese (optional)

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add salt to the water. Drop in elbow macaroni and cook for 7-9 minutes or until the macaroni is al dente. Once macaroni is finished cooking, drain and set aside.

In a sauce pan begin making your cheese sauce. Heat pan on medium-high heat. Add margarine or butter and allow to melt fully before adding flour. Once you add flour, use a whisk to make sure all flour is incorporated with the melted butter. Add milk Turn the heat to low and allow milk to heat up for about a minute or so. After about a minute or so return heat to medium and add cheddar cheese. Whisk to quickly melt. Add buffalo sauce and whisk. Add celery and cook for 2-3 minutes to soften. Then add chicken.

Add the macaroni directly to the sauce pot Fold in macaroni with cheese and celery until it is fully incorporated. Add salt and pepper. Serve into dishes and top with crumbled bleu cheese (I hate bleu cheese but if you like it I imagine you’d want to do this)

Fried Okra w/Quick Remoulade

- 1/4 pound fresh okra, rinsed, tops and ends removed
- 1 cup tempura batter
- water
- Cajun seasoning
- oil for frying
- salt to taste

Remoulade
- 1/4 cup prepared horseradish
- 2 1/2 tbsp ketchup
- 2 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- salt and pepper to taste

Add oil to a frying pan and put the heat on medium-high.

Follow instructions for tempura using water to create a thick batter. Add cajun seasoning to batter. Cut okra into quarter-inch pieces. To test oil drop a small dot of batter into the oil. If the batter immediately comes up and starts frying, the oil is ready. If it drops towards the bottom of the pan then it still needs a few more minutes to heat up. Once oil is ready, dip okra into tempura batter by the handful (just so it’s easier for you to handle). Slowly drop battered okra into frying pan. Allow to fry for about a minute or until the outside is a golden brown. Remove fried okra from pan with a slotted spoon and place onto a paper-lined bowl. Hit the hot okra with a little bit of salt on top.

Repeat with remaining okra.

For remoulade, in a bowl combine all ingredients until fully incorporated and you get a nice light orangey color in the mix. Serve alongside fried okra for dipping.

Red Velvet Cheesecake

This was my own choice to serve as the “birthday cake” for my brother. I love red-velvet anything and I’d had a craving for Stephanie’s Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. If anyone has eaten it there then they know that the cheesecake comes layered much like many of Junior’s famous cheesecakes in New York. It was going to be quite the task for me because I’ve never made a layered cake before let alone 3 layers of 2 different kinds of cakes. But I knew if I could get anywhere near the results of The Cheesecake Factory and even better, Junior’s then it was a challenge I was wholeheartedly willing to accept. I started the night before by making the cheesecake so it would have several hours to refrigerate overnight…

Crustless Cheesecake
- 3 packages of 8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
- 3 eggs (egg substitute which is what I used and it came out just like normal cheesecake)
- 1 cup sugar or sugar substitute
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- pinch of salt
- Springform pan (imperative!)

Like the ingredients suggest, a spring form pan is imperative to make the cheesecake, ESPECIALLY since we are making it crustless.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a mixing bowl add cream cheese. Using a mixer, begin slowly mixing cream cheese together. Add sugar and continue to mix until fluffy. Add eggs or egg substitute and continue beating. Once all ingredients are incorporated add salt, lemon juice and vanilla one by one. Once everything is mixed scrape down all sides of the bowl to make sure everything has been mixed.

Spray your spring form pan with non-stick spray. Pour cheesecake batter into pan. Make sure it’s even in pan otherwise when you try to layer when preparing the cake you will get a lopsided cake. Place pan in oven and cook for about 40-45 minutes or until the cake passes the toothpick test.

Once cheesecake is done, remove from oven and allow to cool for about 30 minutes. Use a knife to just cut around the outer edge of the cake just to ensure that it doesn’t stick to the sides. Do not remove cake from pan. Place cake directly into fridge and allow to sit over night. I didn’t put any plastic wrap or foil over the pan because I didn’t want to run the risk of any leftover heat escaping the pan and causing condensation as a result onto the cake.

Red Velvet Cake
- 1 box red velvet cake mix
- 1 egg (or egg substitute according to cake directions)
- 1/3 cup oil (according to box instructions
- round cake pan same size as your spring form

Again the pan is imperative here. You want to make sure your cake pan is the same size as your spring form so you don’t have an uneven cake. Obviously you will want to refer before you make either cake so be sure you check before you go through the trouble of baking.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a bowl combine red velvet cake mix, egg, and oil. Use a mixer to mix all ingredients and create a smooth batter. Spray your cake pan with nonstick spray. Pour cake batter into pan and once again make sure it’s all even.

Place pan in oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until cake passes toothpick test. Once the cake is finished remove from oven and allow it to cool completely for about a half hour.

Layering the Cake
Remove cheesecake from fridge. Once your red-velvet cake is completely cooled, CAREFULLY remove it from the pan. The easiest way I found to do this was to place a large serving dish on top of the pan and then flip the pan over.

Now here’s where you have to be precise, the the bottom side up, carefully take a large sharp knife, gently put one hand on top of the cake, and with your other hand, cut the cake in half horizontally. Now, this part was definitely not my brightest moment but in the end everything turned out ok so no worries here. Once your knife comes through to the other side, carefully lift the top cut part of the cake, and place it on your serving dish flat bottom side down. Now don’t worry if you have bits of cake fall off here and there. You can do what I did and use it as topping.

Here’s where you may be asking what about the frosting? You can easily make your own but for time’s sake I bought 2 containers of Betty Croker’s Rich & Creamy Cream Cheese frosting.

Take a spatula (or if you have a pastry froster that’s a plus, I know I have one somewhere in my kitchen but I scoured everywhere and I couldn’t find it so I just used a spatula), and frost the outside and top of your cut cake until it is completely covered.

Next step is your cheesecake. Open the spring form pan. Using a spatula, gently lift your cheesecake from the bottom of the pan, and place on top of your first layer of frosted cake. Frost the outside and top of your cheesecake.

Next step, take the second part of your red velvet cake and place it on top of your cheesecake, the smooth side (or un-cut side) up. Frost the side and top of second layer of cake. Then like i said, any cake that had crumbled in the process I crumbled up and sprinkled it on top.

Place cake in fridge for about an hour. When ready, remove from fridge, cut and serve.

Lucky for me this cake was every bit delicious as I hoped it would be and thankfully not too sweet despite all the frosting.

Not Pictured: “New Orleans Hurricane”
Not pictured cause my family and friends are drunks and consumed it all. I came across this drink since I’m not exactly a mixologist on some bar website. Nowadays putting together the words New Orleans and Hurricanes isn’t exactly PC. SO! I’m changing the name of it to the Drew Breeze (ha ha get it?)

- dark rum
- light rum
- pineapple juice
- orange juice
- lime juice
- grenadine syrup (or I think any fruity syrup will do personally)
- sugar
- ice

Now I don’t have any proportions why? Cause when it comes to alcoholic drinks you can put however much of whatever you want into it. Looking to get drunk? Obviously add more rum. Don’t want to get drunk? Then add more juice it’s entirely up to you. Taste it and test it.

Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and serve in tall glasses and drink up.

I saw that I had some very ripe bananas lying around as well as an excess of rum. I know the obvious thought would be to just drink the rum, but I’m not much of a heavy drinker these days. My original plan was to make the traditional bananas foster but I didn’t quite feel like dealing with the flambé part of the dish. So I opted for something a bit more simpler and would last longer throughout the week to nom nom on and came up with this. The bars were light and chewy and the rum is very subtle in taste.

- 1/2 cup butter or unsalted margarine softened
- 1 1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or you can use wheat flour like I did)
- 1 cup dark brown sugar (raw sugar)
- 1 egg (egg substitute)
- 1 tbsp dark rum
- 1/2 tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (if you don’t have this you can use cinnamon and nutmeg)
- pinch of baking powder and baking soda
- pinch of salt

Frosting
- 1 cup plain cream cheese (Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese) at room temperature
- 1/2 tbsp white sugar (raw sugar or agave syrup)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp dark rum

Topping
- Nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray non-stick spray to a 9 inch pan (or if you want the bars to be a little thicker use a smaller pan). Use one bowl to combine all your wet and soft ingredients and a bowl to combine all your dry ingredients. For wet use a mixer cream together butter and sugar. Once you’ve got a creamy consistency add your remaining liquid ingredients: rum and egg. For dry ingredients combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Add to your wet ingredients. Add your mashed bananas and mix to get a batter like consistency. If you don’t mind your bars being a little chunky on the inside don’t worry if there are still chunks of bananas in it.

Pour batter into pan and make sure it’s even on all sides. Place in oven and bake for 22-25 minutes or until passes the toothpick test. Once it’s done remove from oven and allow to cool.

For the frosting, in a bowl combine cream cheese, rum, sugar and vanilla extract. Since I wasn’t handling a lot of cream cheese I just used a spoon to whip all the ingredients together. Once the bars have completely cooled, spread cream cheese frosting over the top. Even though they’ll be tempting to consume right away I put the pan in the fridge for about an hour to allow the frosting to set but it’s really up to you how you want to do it. Remove pan from fridge after about an hour and cut into square bars. I topped each of my bars with a walnut but it’s entirely your choice if you want to top them with anything. Eat and enjoy!

One thing I enjoy making is rainbow cupcakes. It’s just fun to do and the end product looks rad. They’re usually so colorful that you don’t need to put frosting on top (which I did eventually for these plus with red and green sprinkles but I have no picture of that).  I decided to make a batch of Christmas colored cupcakes to take with me to work.  As if we weren’t getting enough sweets sent to us from different companies and what not.  But I figured one last bit of sweetness couldn’t hurt.

– 2 boxes white cake mix
- eggs (egg substitute), oil and water according to cake mix directions
- Red & Green food coloring

Frosting
- 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened (Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Christmas colored sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, mix cake mix, eggs, oil and water to create a smooth batter. Separate the batter into 3 equal bowls. Add Red food color to one bowl and mix with a spoon.  Keep mixing until there is no white batter left in the bowl.  If you know your color wheel and what not you know that red and white obviously make pink.  Keep adding red food coloring until you get an actual red color in the batter.

In the second bowl add green food coloring to the batter and mix until there is no white left.  Leave the third bowl with the white batter.

Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.  Now, you can really do this however way you want; I personally liked layering the different batter colors alternating so i had some that were green on top, then red and so on into each cupcake liner.  Once you are done filling all the liners, using a toothpick, stick into the batter of each liner and slowly swirl them around to get a swirly, paisley effect.  Place them in the oven and bake for about 20-22 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test.

Remove from oven and allow them to cool.

For the frosting, add softened cream cheese to a bowl. Add vanilla extract and mix. Once all cupcakes are cooled frost each one. Sprinkle Christmas colored sprinkles on top.

Makes about 2 dozen

I try not to eat a lot of candy around the holidays but one of my favorite combinations any time of the year is mint and chocolate.  I always look forward to grabbing a bag of Hershey’s Mint Kisses because they’re always available during Christmas-time.  It can get a little dangerous, me, alone with a bag of mint kisses.  So instead of devouring them one by one I figured I would make a bark to share with my family and co-workers so I didn’t hog it all to myself.

- 1/2 bag mint-chocolate chips
- 1/2 bag white chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp Christmas colored sprinkles
- wax paper

Place a layer of wax paper onto a baking sheet. Use a double boiler to melt chocolate. Start with the mint chocolate chips first. Melt them in the double boiler and whisk as its melting. Keep whisking until all chips are melted and you see a nice sheen in the chocolate. You want to keep whisking in order to prevent the chocolate from being too hot and burning or curdling. Once all the chocolate is melted then remove from heat and pour onto wax paper. You want to pour it in the middle and allow itself to spread. Use a spatula to evenly coat the shape of the pan. If your chocolate doesn’t reach the edges that’s fine it doesn’t need to, just make sure it’s even to prevent it from being too thick or thin in certain places. Let it set, clean out your bowl or use another bowl because you will want to make sure it is completely dry.

Repeat process with white chocolate chips. Once all white chocolate chips are melted add sprinkles and continue to whisk. Once white chocolate is done pour over the mint chocolate on the wax paper. Use a spatula to smooth over white chocolate. If you mix the mint chocolate and white chocolate together don’t worry, not only will it make some fun paisley designs I like to say it gives the effect of “snow on the ground.” Set the tray in the fridge to harden for at least one hour, best overnight.

Once the chocolate has hardened, remove wax paper from the underside of the chocolate and begin to break into chunks. It doesn’t really matter how big or small you do it it’s not meant to be perfect shapes. Then eat and enjoy or this also makes a good gift in a tin or bag.

I had a little bit of a debacle with some store bought pie crusts. Namely they started to tear when I was ready to use them. They were no good for pies or cakes with all the tears but I didn’t want them to go to waste.  I decided to rummage around our pantry and see what I could come up with. I threw together a few ingredients and ended up with something quite tasty

- 1 store bought frozen pie crust thawed and rolled out
- Nutella
- handful of butterscotch chips

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. With the pie crust rolled out generously spread Nutella all over crust leaving a little bit of room at the end so it’s easy to roll. Sprinkle butterscotch chips across Nutella covered crust. Just keep away from edges. Take one and of the pie crust and beginning rolling. Once you have a roll place seam side down on a nonstick pan or spray a pan with non-stick spray. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Slice and serve and you’ll have an extra sweet treat.

Note: (I made this some time ago thus the crappy photo ha!) Also, this recipe is non-Vegan due to the boxed cake mix which includes non-fat milk. For the Vegan recipe click here.

Strawberries and lemonade two things that signify the start of summer. What’s more perfect then to combine the balance of sweetness and tartness into cupcakes topped with fresh strawberries? Recipe below:

- 1 box lemon cake mix (Duncan Hines/Betty Crocker whatever is your fix)
- water, vegetable oil, and eggs (egg substitute) according to cake box
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar (or sugar substitute i.e. Splenda — raw sugar for Vegans) (optional) – this is optional because the cake mix already has sugar however depending on how sweet the strawberries you are using are, the cake could lean more on the tart side. this is just for added sweetness
- 1/4 cup strawberries, pureed
- 18-24 slices of fresh strawberry

Frosting
- 1/2 cup cream cheese at room temperature (or 4oz of an 8oz pkge – you can also use light cream cheese here)
- 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
- 2 tbsp pureed strawberries
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar (or sugar substitute)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl combine cake mix, water, oil and eggs. Once all ingredients are incorporated add strawberry puree. Fold in puree and taste batter. If it’s too tart add sugar.
Line cupcake tins with cupcake liners. Pour batter into lined cupcake tins. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until it passes the “”toothpick test”

While cupcakes are baking, put together the frosting. In a bowl combine cream cheese, strawberry puree, rind, and sugar. Fold all ingredients together and set aside.

Once cupcakes are done, remove from oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before frosting. Frost cakes and enjoy!

Makes 18-24 cupcakes.