Super Bowl Eats
Sundays in general are a huge day in both of our families food wise. However, I have had to endure the agony of the past five Sundays being filled with screaming, high-fiving, and sunflower seeds as the Giants advanced and eventually ended up in the Super Bowl. I am not a fan of football at all, but I promised my parents and Fabio that I would spend the day with them, and ended up cooking with my beautiful Mama all day.
I started off the afternoon with an appetizer that I found online for crostini with avocado and honey. It turned out to be so delicious I made it twice after the first ones were gone.
Ingredients:
Multigrain loaf
Avacado
Olive Oil
Red pepper flakes
Sea Salt
Honey
Slice the bread, toast it, drizzle with olive oil. Slice up avocado and mash on bread. Drizzle with honey, add sea salt and red pepper flake. YUM
For the main course, Fabio once again called for something meaty. I decided to make Ropa Vieja, which is one of my favorite Cuban Dishes. I found an awesome recipe online, and as a side dish, decided to make sweet mashed potatoes. I suppose you’re wondering how the two go together. Well, my favorite Cuban restaurant in Miami, Yuca had a special of Ropa Vieja that they served atop maple sweet mashed potatoes and I literally dream about this dish on a weekly basis.
You can find the recipe for the Ropa Vieja here. I’m personally not a fan of cumin. The recipe called for two teaspoons but I added less than one teaspoon. Also, I found that applewood smoked bacon really enhances the flavor as opposed to regular bacon. You can find thick cuts of applewood bacon at Whole Foods. Other than that, the recipe is AWESOME.
The sweet mashed potatoes were very simple: butter, maple syrup, milk, and salt to taste.
The Ropa was a big hit! Look how beautiful the colors look. The dark shredded beef on top of the bright orange potatoes made for a great picture.
Fabio picked up some delicious Ramstein beer from the local High Point Brewing Company in Butler, New Jersey. Fabio will be blogging about the brewery very soon. The brews were delicious and complimentary.
For dessert, I found an easy and delicious recipe for a very American dessert, as the day called for just that. Oreo cheesecake cupcakes sounded perfect. The recipe can be found here.
As for the game, my mother and I actually got into it for the final 10 minutes. Fabio refused to watch the game on my upstairs television because he said he was superstitious and the Giants won every single time that he watched the game from my basement TV. He was afraid that if he didn’t watch it downstairs the Giants would lose. So, there you have it ladies and gentlemen, for all you Giants fans, the fate of the team rested in the decision of Fabio Goncalves and which TV he watched from. Ha!
Take a look at their excited faces at the end of the game!
-Gabriella
