Thursday, September 19, 2013

Football Friday

It's everyone's new favorite day of the week: Cool Dads Cook Football Friday! Last week Sunday the Wisconsin based test kitchen was supposed to spend the day apple picking. Too bad Mother Nature had other plans...

So instead we decided to have a pajama day, and make some snacks to enjoy during the Packer game. After the wife checked Pinterest, she saw we had all the ingredients (and then some) to make potato nachos. We had some leftover homemade pizza from the day before; and nothing says football food quite like pizza and nachos!

Potato Nachos

3-4 russet potatoes (we had red potatoes, and used 5-6 of those instead)
5-6 slices cooked bacon, crumbled (we had pre-cooked bacon, and diced a few slices of that)
1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (depends how cheesy you like your nachos)
Fresh parsley or chives (we went with chives)
Cooking spray

 
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
Clean the potatoes, and slice them into 1/8" slices. Kitchen tool time... for Christmas a few years ago my Mother-in-law bought me potato gloves. It was a pretty strange gift, but I use them constantly- it's the easiest way to get your potatoes really, really clean.
 
In addition to the potato gloves, I recommend using a mandolin to get the potatoes sliced correctly. I don't know about you, but I'm not good at eyeballing 1/8th of an inch and cutting accordingly. I let the mandolin do that for me.
 
 



Once the potatoes are sliced, put them in a pan with cold salted water and bring to a boil. Let them boil for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, carefully drain the potato slices and dry them on paper towel. They're going to be hot, but try and get them as dry as possible.
Meanwhile, slice up your bacon and chives. We also added fresh chopped jalapeno to half of the nachos.


 
 
Grease a baking sheet with cooking spray, and lay out the potato slices so they are overlapping (think tortilla chips when you're making traditional nachos). Sprinkle your toppings over the top of the potato slices.
 
Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
 
 
 
The results? Yum. My sister and brother-in-law happened to stop over before the game, and were thrilled to see we had made snacks. They raved about how delicious the "nachos" were.
 
Test Kitchen Notes
 
-Think outside the box with toppings- pepperoni, or different blends of cheese might be really interesting.
-We made a dipping sauce with Frank's Red Hot sauce and Greek yogurt- it was a delicious addition to the potatoes.
 
And now for some football predictions!
 
Green Bay Vs. Cincinnati
Both Dads picked the Packers- because they're brilliant
 
Dallas vs. St. Louis
Dad 1: Cowboys over the Rams
Dad 2: Rams over the Cowboys
 
San Diego vs. Tennessee
Dad 1: Chargers
Dad 2: Titans
 
Minnesota vs. Cleveland
Dad 1: Vikings
Dad 2: Vikings
 
New England vs. Tampa Bay
Dad 1: Patriots
Dad 2: Patriots
 
New Orleans vs. Arizona
Dad 1: Saints
Dad 2: Saints
 
Washington vs. Detroit
Dad 1: Redskins
Dad 2: Lions
 
NYG vs. Carolina
Dad 1: Giants
Dad 2: Giants
 
Houston vs. Baltimore
Dad 1: Texans
Dad 2: Texans
 
Atlanta vs. Miami
Dad 1: Falcons
Dad 2: Dolphins
 
Buffalo vs. NYJ
Dad 1: Bills
Dad 2: Bills
 
San Francisco vs. Indy
Dad 1: 49ers
Dad 2: 49ers
 
Seattle vs. Jacksonville
Dad 1: Seahawks
Dad 2: Seahawks
 
Chicago vs. Pittsburgh
Dad 1: Bears
Dad 2: Bears
 
Oakland vs. Denver
Dad 1: Broncos
Dad 2: Broncos
 
Hope you have a great weekend of football and food!
Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew
 
 
 
 
 


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