Tag: football snack

Categories
Appetizer Snack

The devil’s in the details for this addictive snack mix

Devil’s Chex is an addictive, tasty snack that comes together quickly and easily and is the perfect addition to the snack table for a get together or a movie night on the couch.
Devil’s Chex is an addictive, tasty snack that comes together quickly and easily and is the perfect addition to the snack table for a get together or a movie night on the couch.

There is a museum in Key West, Florida, that claims to house a haunted doll named Robert.

According to the museum’s website, thousands of people take the trip to see this supposedly haunted toy every year. Part of the local legend is that being disrespectful to the doll can lead to bad luck, which is why the museum also features tons of apology letters from people who are sure they have been cursed.

As a general rule, I view legends like haunted dolls as silly stories, meant to make kids nervous while sharing them at slumber parties. I will say that I have been known to knock on wood or make a wish while blowing out candles, though. (You can never be too careful.)

I approached the warning accompanying a recipe from Joseph Schmitz of Prairie Village for “Devil’s Chex” with the same skepticism.

“Regardless, it’s the Devil’s Chex because you can’t stop eating it no matter how much your mind says, ‘No. Stop, please,’” he wrote. “The Chex does not care. It owns you now.”

That description got me. I just had to see what the Schmitz Family recipe was all about, warning or not.

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Devil’s Chex

Devil’s Chex is an addictive, tasty snack that comes together quickly and easily and is the perfect addition to the snack table for a get together or a movie night on the couch.
Course Appetizer, Snack
Keyword butter, Cheez-It, Chex mix, corn Chex, easy snack, football snack, garlic powder, holiday snack, onion powder, peanuts, rice Chex, seasoned salt, seasoning salt, snack table, wheat Chex, Worcestershire

Ingredients

  • 2 cups corn Chex
  • 2 cups rice Chex
  • 2 cups wheat Chex
  • 1 cup Cheez-its optional
  • 1 cup peanuts optional
  • 6 tablespoons butter melted
  • 2 teaspoons onion powder
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 2 teaspoons seasoned salt
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.
  • In a large bowl, add the cereal, crackers and peanuts, and stir to combine.
  • In a small bowl, combine the butter, onion powder, garlic powder, seasoned salt and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine, and then mix it well with the cereal. Spread the coated cereal mixture into a large roasting pan or onto a couple rimmed baking sheets.
  • Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Joseph said he thought it might just be the same recipe as the one on the Chex box, but after a little Googling, I found that the Schmitzes have adjusted their recipe a bit from the original over the years.

I decided to make a half batch of the recipe, and it does brown up just a bit quicker than the full one, so be sure to keep an eye on it if you do the same.

This was very tasty, and I never should have doubted Joseph’s warnings—it got me. Despite setting the bowl out of my own reach several times, I found myself with multiple handfuls throughout the evening. It would be a fabulous companion to a board or card game night.

So, I guess I believe in one superstition after all. The good news is that this one isn’t too scary. It turns out that Devil’s Chex turned out to be downright heavenly.

This piece first appeared in print Dec. 5, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Air Fryer Appetizer Snack

Have a ball in the kitchen with a new potato dish

Garlic potato balls are made in the air fryer and are a wonderful texture, with a crispy outside and a mashed-potato-like inside.
Garlic potato balls are made in the air fryer and are a wonderful texture, with a crispy outside and a mashed-potato-like inside.

I love watching cooking shows when I have a free moment.

One of my favorite TV chefs is Lidia Bastianich. She specializes in all kinds of Italian dishes that look positively amazing. Going to her restaurant in Kansas City someday is definitely on my bucket list.

I have only tried making a couple of her recipes over the years. Honestly, I’m a little intimidated by her ability to make even complicated food look effortless.

That being said, I rarely have the same hangups when I watch videos on social media from amateur cooks. I figure if they can do it, I can do it.

Well, I was humbled a bit with this week’s recipe, because although I made something delicious, it wasn’t nearly as pretty as the product the influencer managed to create.

This came from a TikTok user, “PlanetFood.” I added extra seasoning in my version and eliminated a garlic butter sauce, just to try to cut down on the mass of calories in this dish.

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Garlic Potato Balls

Garlic potato balls are made in the air fryer and are a wonderful texture, with a crispy outside and a mashed-potato-like inside.
Course Appetizer, Snack
Keyword air fryer, cornstarch, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, potatoes, Russet potato

Ingredients

  • 2 large Russet potatoes peeled and cubed
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 2 teaspoons onion powder
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 tablespoons cornstarch

Instructions

  • In a large pot, boil the cubed potato they are fork tender.
  • When the potatoes are done, drain them well and add them to a large bowl. Add the garlic powder, onion powder and paprika.
  • Mash the potatoes with a masher or fork until the mixture is smooth.
  • Incorporate the cornstarch until it forms a thick mixture that you can easily shape with your hands. If it’s still too sticky or wet, add more cornstarch, a little at a time, until it reaches your desired consistency.
  • Roll the mixture into packed, one-inch balls.
  • Add the balls to the basket of an air fryer (you could also fry these the old-fashioned way in oil), and spray them lightly with cooking spray. Try to space them apart. You might have to fry them in batches.
  • Air fry the potato balls at 200 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring halfway through, until they are golden brown.
  • Serve immediately.

These were tasty. They are crispy on the outside and like mashed potatoes on the inside. That also means you should be careful about how quickly you pop them into your mouth. They get pretty hot on the inside.

Mine kind of deflated a bit, and they stuck together more than I expected. I should have given them a better spray of cooking oil and maybe made sure the mixture was packed a little tighter.

Regardless, I really liked these, and I think I might have to give them another try sometime to share on a snack table during a football game.

And I learned my lesson about not being too egotistical about which recipes seem “easy” out there online. I need to keep reminding myself that I’m no Lidia, even if sometimes I play her in the newspaper.

This piece first appeared in print Sept. 26, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Air Fryer Snack

Scuttle your other snack plans in favor of this crispy crab

With just three ingredients—olive oil, salt and pepper—and an air fryer imitation crab can be transformed into a crispy, chip-like snack.
With just three ingredients—olive oil, salt and pepper—and an air fryer imitation crab can be transformed into a crispy, chip-like snack.

Decades ago, a friend of mine introduced me to what my young brain was sure had to be one of the fanciest home-cooked meals one could create.

He boiled some fettuccine noodles (far past al dente), added a jar of pre-made alfredo sauce and mixed in the coup de grâce: imitation crab.

I know. I know. I really needed to get out more.

My tastes have become just a bit more refined than they were in my younger days. That probably has something to do with having an adult paycheck, too, although I can’t prove it.

I couldn’t remember the last time I decided to invest in some imitation crab until last week, when I saw a video of someone creating what appeared to be an interesting, crispy snack with their air fryer. I had to give it a try.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Airfryer Masterchef.” You can find the original post at https://airfryermasterchef.com/air-fryer-crab-sticks/. I did change anything, since these were already so simple.

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Air Fryer Crab Sticks

With just three ingredients—olive oil, salt and pepper—and an air fryer imitation crab can be transformed into a crispy, chip-like snack.
Course Snack
Keyword air fryer, football snack, imitation crab, simple snack

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces leg style imitation crab
  • olive oil
  • salt
  • pepper

Instructions

  • Carefully unroll each “crab leg” into a thin sheet (just do a little feeling, and you’ll find the seam to unroll them).
  • Cut the sheets into about one-fourth-inch strips and place them in a bowl.
  • Once the crab is all sliced, drizzle on some olive oil (you want just enough to give each strip a very light coating) and sprinkle in salt and pepper to taste. Mix the strips to evenly coat them in oil and seasoning.
  • Preheat your air fryer to 320 degrees and place a single layer of strips in the basket (you may need to do several batches). Fry for 15 minutes, stirring once during cooking.
  • Once the strips are browned and crispy, remove them from the air fryer. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container.

I thought these were pretty good and definitely an interesting way to eat imitation crab. They really just eat like potato chips as far as texture goes.

Joey was in the complete opposite camp. He tried several strips, hoping he might develop a taste for them, and he eventually announced he was out on the experiment.

I would say that if you can’t really stomach imitation crab in its normal form, you probably won’t like it in this one.

I do wonder if these would be improved with a little Old Bay seasoning instead of just salt and pepper. That’s probably what I’ll try with my next batch, since I still have some crab hanging out in my refrigerator.

I had to laugh, because after looking up what imitation crab is made of, I found an article that described it as being equivalent to a “seafood hot dog.” I guess it’s not quite as fancy as I once thought it was. I’ll just have to stick to making snack food with it instead.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 19, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Appetizer Main Dish Side Dish Snack

Kick football season off with a bang by making shotgun shells

These smoked shotgun shells are made with seasoned sausage stuffed into manicotti shells and wrapped in bacon. They are a fantastic dish for a football snack table.
These smoked shotgun shells are made with seasoned sausage stuffed into manicotti shells and wrapped in bacon. They are a fantastic dish for a football snack table.

As soon as the weekly forecast came out, telling us that the opening weekend of football would be perfect for spending some time outside, Joey announced we were going to invite some folks to watch the games and throw some food on the smoker.

Of course, I had to stick my nose in and announce to him that I already found the perfect recipe to try, and being completely used to me regularly doing this to him, he immediately agreed—even though the name caught him off guard for a second.

I wanted to make shotgun shells.

The recipe is actually aptly named, considering it consists of stuffed manicotti shells. I suppose it sounds a little more macho than calling them stuffed tubes.

Also, I know I have given you a couple smoker recipes of late, but these can also easily be made in your oven or on a normal grill (as long as you watch your temperature).

This comes from the website “Or Whatever You Do” by Nicole Johnson. You can find the original post at https://www.orwhateveryoudo.com/2022/05/traeger-smoked-shotgun-shells.html. I added garlic and extra spices to my version and used sausage instead of ground beef.

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Smoked Shotgun Shells

These smoked shotgun shells are made with seasoned sausage stuffed into manicotti shells and wrapped in bacon. They are a fantastic dish for a football snack table.
Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish
Keyword bacon, barbecue rub, barbecue sauce, barrel smoker, Big Green Egg, football snack, garlic, ground sausage, Kamado Joe, manicotti, shredded cheese, smoker, Traeger

Ingredients

  • 1 pound sausage
  • 1 cup shredded cheese I used Mexican blend
  • 2-3 tablespoons barbecue seasoning
  • 4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 12 manicotti shells uncooked
  • 12 slices bacon not thick sliced
  • about 1/4 cup barbecue sauce

Instructions

  • At least six hours before you want to start cooking, prepare your shotgun shells.
  • In a large bowl, mix the sausage with the cheese, seasoning and garlic. Once it is well combined, stuff each manicotti shell with the sausage and wrap each one with a strip of bacon.
  • Place the assembled shells in an airtight container or on a plate wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerate for six hours or overnight.
  • To cook them, preheat your smoker or oven to 250 degrees. Place the shells about an inch apart on the grill and let them cook with the lid closed for at least one hour before opening to check the temperature (you’re looking for 160 degrees for done sausage) and turning them on the grill to make sure they cook evenly.
  • Just before the shells are finished cooking (ours took about one and one-half hours), baste them with barbecue sauce on all sides.
  • Once the sausage in the center of the shells is cooked through and the bacon is crispy, remove them from the grill and serve.

These were absolutely fabulous. We didn’t have a single shotgun shell left by the time Sunday Night Football came on TV—and I made a double batch. It was absolutely perfect, both for lunch and for snacking during the later afternoon games.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, the manicotti cooked all the way through on the smoker. Joey and I were both really skeptical and almost par-boiled the shells just in case, but I decided to trust the process, and they were perfectly al dente by the time the sausage and bacon was done. It was a strange sort of magic that I don’t understand but definitely appreciate.

Hopefully we’ll have a few more weekends of dragging our TV outdoors for football and enjoying good food with good people in our backyard. But even if winter comes quickly and drives us indoors, I think shotgun shells will remain a regular on the menu.

This piece first appeared in print on Sept. 15, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Appetizer Snack

Garlic cheese bombs explode with flavor

An easy snack for the Super Bowl or any get together is garlic cheese bombs.
An easy snack for the Super Bowl or any get together is garlic cheese bombs.

With the Super Bowl right around the corner, I decided I better try out a new snack recipe. That’s especially since I’m likely to be craving something to eat while I grumpily watch the Patriots try to win yet another trophy.

I was really hoping to see two teams who’d never won the big game make it into the Super Bowl this year, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

I don’t like it, but I guess I’m an Eagles fan for the end of this year’s NFL season. The Chiefs have to not disappoint me one of these years, right? Right?

Well, the good news is I found a super easy recipe to try out on Super Bowl Sunday, so at least the food will be worth cheering for.

I found this recipe on the blog “Crunchy Creamy Sweet.” You can see the original at http://www.crunchycreamysweet.com/2015/12/11/easy-garlic-cheese-bombs-recipe/2/. I decreased the amount of butter a decent amount in my version and adjusted the amounts of some of the other ingredients, too.

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Garlic Cheese Bombs

An easy snack for the Super Bowl or any get together is garlic cheese bombs.
Course Appetizer, Snacks
Keyword canned biscuits, cheese, football snack, garlic, snack table

Ingredients

  • 1 tube eight biscuits
  • 8 ounce block mozzarella cheese
  • 5 tablespoons butter melted
  • 2 teaspoons dry ranch seasoning mix
  • 3 teaspoons minced garlic or 2 teaspoons garlic powder

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prep a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil for easier cleanup.
  • Cut each of the biscuits in half, and cut the block of cheese into 16 equal pieces.
  • Stir the ranch mix and garlic into the melted butter.
  • Flatten each biscuit half out with your palm and wrap each around a block of cheese, being careful to really seal off the seams as much as possible.
  • Place the dough onto the prepared baking sheet a couple inches apart.
  • Brush the butter mixture onto each (use a spoon to get some minced garlic on top of each, if your brush isn’t picking it up), and bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the dough is browned on top.
  • Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

These were good on their own but would also be great with marinara sauce on the side. Mine did explode quite a bit in the oven, but I’m also a big fan of toasty cheese, so I was not disappointed.

I suspect they didn’t hold together either because I didn’t seal my seams as well as I should have or I left them in a bit long (I used the whole 15 minutes), so if you really don’t want them to make a mess, I’d recommend really watching them around the 12-minute mark, and you might just decrease the amount of cheese you put in each one so you can seal them even more securely.

Hopefully this year’s Super Bowl will still be an entertaining game, but even if it isn’t, we’ll have plenty of snacks to drown our sorrows before we work on getting our hopes up for next year.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 25, 2018.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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