Appetizers For Football Parties!

This past Thursday was the opening game for the NFL season with Packers beating the Bears. With this sport comes a lot of parties and snacks! With so many chances to entertain; I have three recipes that I tested out for you guys that will be awesome to serve at your next NFL party! (Or just whenever you want an awesome snack!)

All three of these recipes are super simple and you don’t need loads of ingredients. Surprisingly only one utilizes a cheese from the Vineyard Market, the others use potato chips and some hot sauces we carry. Now onto our first recipe:

Broccoli Muffin Bites*

What you’ll need:

• 2 cups of broccoli, cooked and chopped
• 1 cup of Westminster Rustic Red shredded
• 12 – 14 Elki crackers, crumbled
• 1 egg

How to do it:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray
3. cook your broccoli (I used a steam in bag frozen one for simplicity)
4. once broccoli is cooked combine with cheese, crackers, and the egg and mix until well combined (you can use a food processor if you’d like)
5. spoon mixture into greased muffin tins about 3/4 full (they do not rise much so you want them pretty full)
6. top with additional crackers if desired
7. bake for 12-15 minutes until crackers are browned and mixture is fully cooked
8. serve and dig in!

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I made some macaroni and cheese for dinner last night and used the broccoli muffin bites as a fancy topper.

Broccoli Bite Atop Garlic Chipotle Mac & Cheese

The next recipe I tested out is so simple and I can’t believe I never thought of it before. Football usually goes with buffalo wings, and everyone loves fries, so why not combine the flavours together!

Buffalo Ranch Fries*

What you’ll need:

• a bag of frozen fries (I used waffle, but use whatever you want or have on hand)
• 1/3 cup Dales Pale Ale Buffalo Sauce
• 1 packet of ranch seasoning mix
• ranch dressing for dipping (optional)
• green onions for garnish (optional)

How to do it:

1. preheat oven to whatever the frozen bag of fries says to usually 400 to 450
2. toss frozen fries with ranch packet and buffalo sauce
3. spray baking sheet with nonstick spray
4. spread in an even layer on baking sheet
5. bake 18 to 20 minutes or until fries get desired crispiness
6. serve with ranch dressing

For my third recipe, I breaded chicken with Kettle Brand potato chips. It was super delicious. Best part is you can create a different combination by using a different flavour of Kettle chip. I used the Chili Lime and Sea Salt flavour in my chicken recipe.

Popcorn Chicken Bites*

What you’ll need:

• 3 cups of Kettle Brand potato chips, (I used like a bag and a half)
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk (or half and half)
• 1 lb of boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
• salt and pepper to taste
• cayenne or cajun seasoning (in case you want more flavour than the chips)

How to do it:

1. preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. crush potato chips using a food processor until fine crumbs form (I used a plastic bag and a rolling pin and my hands so it was a little chunkier for the crumbs) add 1 cup of flour and any cayenne or cajun seasoning, mix till blended, add to shallow dish
3. place remaining flour in a shallow dish
4. whisk eggs and milk together in a shallow dish
5. rub a baking sheet with olive oil or spray with nonstick spray
6. bread your chicken in this order, flour, egg mixture, kettle chip mixture
7. make sure you press down so the chicken gets coated
8. place on baking sheet
9. bake chicken for 6 minutes, flip and bake on other side for 6 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and the potato chips have slightly browned
10. serve with dipping sauce of your choice!

Let me know if you guys try out these recipes. I think they will all be a hit at any get together, not necessarily just football related! Oh and for those of you interested here is a photo of the cheeses I used in my mac and cheese dinner. It’s also super simple, just a bechamel sauce with these two grated cheeses added.

Happy eating! =)

*Original Recipes From: Broccoli Bites, Buffalo Ranch Waffle Fries, Spicy Popcorn Chicken Bites

Westminster Rustic Red — July Cheese of the Month

Now that the excitement of Independence Day has finally died down, I’m thrilled to be able to sit down again and talk some cheese!

This month, we’ve gotten the opportunity to feature a cheese that I’m pretty excited about. If you don’t know me really well, I love most cheeses, but I can be a little bit picky when it comes to my cheddars—it takes a lot for me to really fall in love with a cheddar. For me, they should have a slight tang but not be too sharp, yet still be very flavorful, and they should always be rich and creamy.

Well folks, this month I think we’ve hit the grand slam with Westminster Rustic Red. If the name gives anything away, you might have already guessed that this is a red cheddar. Contrary to popular belief, cheddar cheeses generally start out white or yellow-ish off-white; the orange or red cheddars most of us are familiar with are actually colored that way with the use of a natural coloring agent—annatto—which is derived from the seeds of a tropical fruit and gives these cheeses their gorgeous bright color.

To my surprise, this red cheddar was actually the product of an accident! Westminster explains that a “helveticus” culture was accidentally added to one of their batches of cheddar, and before realizing it, Rustic Red was made and aged into a brand new variety for the creamery. And what a delicious mistake it was.

A pasteurized cow’s milk cheese from England, Westminster Rustic Red is slightly crumbly in texture yet incredibly creamy on the tongue. The flavor is robust but not overwhelming, and it has just the perfect bite to it. This cheese is a fantastic addition to a cheese board chunked into pieces, or alone as a snack with a glass of your favorite Malbec.

This is truly a cheese you don’t want to skip out on– stop into your local Bottle King Vineyard Market this weekend for a bite!