Superbowl Smorgasbord

I went to bed with a migraine last night and woke up with it this morning–to say I’m feeling decidedly out of sorts is an understatement. While I hobble like an old woman through my daily chores and decide which fairy tale to read for tomorrow that won’t kill my brain, I thought I’d share with you one of the recipes from our amazing Superbowl Sunday.

There are a bunch of Eagles fans in this apartment, so we didn’t care too much about who was playing the game and concentrated instead on what we were going to eat. Each of us chose a dish to make, so that everyone would be sure to enjoy something.

Our Munchie Menu:
Deviled eggs (Ariell)
Nanny’s potato salad (Kassidy)
Strawberry Pizza (Kassidy)
Spinach & Artichoke Dip (Joe)
Wings (Joe)
Date Layer Bars (Lee)
Mom Kontis’s Sticky Garlic Spare Ribs (Lee)
Buddy Valastro’s Bananas Foster (Joe)

We decided on all of these things earlier in the week and made the definitive list on Saturday — we made sure we had all the recipes and put together a list for the grocery store. And then we realized the dishwasher was broken.

Oh, fun.

I emailed a service request to the apartment complex on Sunday morning, and we headed off to the store.  When we got back, we decided what needed to be prepped first (the Strawberry Pizza crust) — Kassidy started working on that while I did the dishes and Joe cut up the massive pile of ribs we got from Costco into finger-sized pieces.

Kudos to all of us for being an amazing work force — with a kitchen the size of a walk-in closet and no dishwasher, we did a darned fine job and EVERYTHING turned out wonderful. We did scrimp on the chicken wings and bought ready made since we didn’t find any good wings at the store, and we didn’t end up making the bananas foster because we were all SO incredibly tired (and stuffed) by the 3rd Quarter that no one cared.

It was tough to say which dish was the star of the show because everything was so delicious — personally I think WE were the stars of the show for pulling it all off. We all went to bed tired, exhausted and grumpy…but we had a wonderful time.

I put a link to the bananas foster recipe in the menu — here’s the one for Sticky Garlic Spare ribs. The key to this one is getting good spare ribs — the first time we tried this one the ribs were too large and unevenly cut and it was disappointing. This time, it was PHENOMENAL. My mother got a priest drunk to steal this recipe, and it was totally worth it. The best part is how incredibly easy it is to make.

Mom Kontis’s Sticky Garlic Spare Ribs
A bunch of Spare Ribs (boneless are fine–cut finger size, if possible)

Syrup:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
3/4 cup soy sauce

Boil the ribs for 45 minutes, and then drain. Sprinkle liberally with garlic powder. Pan fry the ribs in syrup (you’ll probably need two pans) until the syrup becomes thick and sticky. (Watch carefully — if the sugar reduces too much, it will burn!)

Enjoy!