Sunday February 6th 2011 marks the forty firth Superbowl featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Green Bay Packers.
You can enjoy the game by driving to your favorite local tavern or you can watch the game in the safety and comfort of your own home.
If you’re staying home, invite a few friends over to cheer on your favorite team. If you already have a home bar, you all ready have the best place in town to watch the big game. If you’re a Vikings or Bears fan, well, there’s always ice fishing (just kidding).
Drinks: Getting ready for the game means deciding on what food and drinks everyone can bring. As the host, we usually provide beer, and depending upon how many people you expect, you can do either cans or if you are so equipped you can do a keg.
Our keg box usually has a home brew on tap, but for this game (we live near Green Bay) we”ll put on a quarter barrel.
If you’re not equipped with a kegerator or keg box, and you expect a lot of guests, just go with the tub & pump supplied by your beer vendor. If your fiends like cocktails and you’re too cheap to ante up for the Grey Goose, just tell them to BYO (bring your own) booze.
Don’t forget the Cherry Bounce or Jello-Shots for touchdowns & Field Goals!
fry buffalo wings outside if you can, avoids the lingering deep fryer smell
Food: Of course you’ll want plenty of food to soak up the drinks, and the pot luck approach works great for big parties. Just come up with a list of your favorite hors d’evours and let your guests know what they can bring.
There’s plenty of prep work to do, so get started a few days before the big game. Save your cooking tasks for before or during the tailgate party. If you’re frying brats, you’re no cheese-head! Brats should be cooked on a grill. If you’re making buffalo wings (don’t forget the Franks hot sauce) then deep fry them outside.
To avoid smelling up the house, I do mine on the workbench in the garage.
Here’s a list of some of our easy to make favorites:
Brats (bratwurst, yes we live in Wisconsin)
Cheese & Cracker Tray (ditto)
Meatballs – don’t forget the toothpicks
Deviled Eggs
Shrimp w/ cocktail sauce. (Holland House)
Coconut Shrimp
Chicken Wings (the hotter the better!)
Rumaki (bacon wrapped water chestnuts or scallops)
Pizza Rolls
Weenie Tots (Little Smokies)
Avocado Dip
Reuben Dip
Chips & Dip
Veggie Pizza
Veggie Tray w/ dip
Pretzel dip
Fruit tray
Smoked oysters, pickled herring (for luck)
Nuts, peanuts, smoked almonds
Desert bars, rice crispy treats
Popcorn
That should give you some good ideas. If you can think of more please feel free to post a comment at the bottom of this article.
Be sure you have enough seating and of course a decent TV so everyone can catch the big plays. Our home theater adjacent to our bar area has a 65″ HD TV and in the bar area and 37″ LCD hanging from the ceiling. We set up our juke box with all the game related songs they play at the stadium like:
“Bang the Drum all Day” by Todd Rundgren
Ozzy’s “Crazy Train”
House of Pain’s “Jump Around”
Gun’s N ‘ Roses “Welcome to the Jungle”
Queen ” We Will Rock You”
Baja Men ” Who Let The Dogs Out”
and unfortunately Mambo #5 and Cotton-eyed Joe.
You get the idea….
Don’t pass up this opportunity to get together with your friends and cheer on your favorite team – GO PACK GO!
