Friday Football Foodie – 9-Layer Ranchero Dip Kickoff Special

Your fantasy picks are set. You have put fresh batteries in the Tivo remote for your own instant replays. You have either ordered the NFL Sunday Ticket or have memorized the NFL local broadcast and blackout maps.

You are ready for football.

You have been training for this for weeks. Pizza Loaves with Watermelon-Vodka Slushees, Buffalo Chicken Dips with Blueberri Stoli Lemon Fizz, Mexican Pinwheels and Mary Pickfords, and homemade corn dogs with Rusty Nails. You even took a field trip out to check out some local Chicago sports bars over on Deadspin.

You are ready for football.

And on this, the holiest of weekends until the playoffs start, you are ready to tackle the greatest Football Foodie dish there is known to fans everywhere: The 9-Layer Rachero Dip. Also this week, Cocktail of the Week’s “Lucky Glass” and New Product Review: NBC’s Sunday Night Football has their own “Football Foodies”.

You will need –

3-4 Cans of no-fat refried beans (See the bacon down there? You don’t need the refried beans with fat, you are adding your own fresh fat.)
1/2 to 1 pound bacon
8 oz Sour cream (I usually double this, as you will see.)
2/3 cup mayo (Again, usually doubled.)
1 – 2 packets of taco seasoning
1 – 2 4 oz cans of green chilies
4-5 avocados (Use your best judgment here. If they are really small avocados, use 5-6.)
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tsp garlic powder
8 oz + shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups green onions
2 cups chopped tomatoes
6 oz – 12 oz sliced black olives

Mix together mayo, sour cream, and taco seasoning in a bowl. Remember how I said I usually double this mix? Much like coach Belichick and the injury report, I lied. I always double the amount of sour cream and mayo, and then usually use about a packet and a half of taco seasoning. (Really to taste, but remember the longer this sits, the more the spices will open up on the cream so do not over do it. ) You can also make your own taco seasoning by mixing together paprika, cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder if you happen to have all the above on hand.

Chop green onions and tomatoes. Put all three bowls into the fridge to chill while you make the next few layers.

Fry until very crispy 1/2 pound bacon. If you want to use more, I will not judge. It’s bacon for god’s sake, and there is no such thing as too much bacon.

Once cooked, remove the bacon from the pan. Drain off all the grease from both the bacon and the pan.

In the same skillet, heat refried beans so they absorb the trace amounts of bacon fat from the pan and crumble in the fried bacon. (BACON!)

Spread into large, deep serving platter or lasagna dish. Set aside to cool.

Mash together garlic powder, lemon, and avocados. Use more garlic powder to taste, and lemon juice as needed. Do not over mix or over season though, as you want to keep as much as the avocado flavor as you can. (Yes, I mash my avocados with a pastry blender. Best tool for the job.)

Layer on top of your bacon and beans base.

Drain water from green chiles, and add on top of the avocado layer. If you think your crew can handle the heat, add one small can of diced jalapenos to this layer.

Pour on your cream layer. I cannot say for certain, but I imagine this would be Cowboys great Nate Newton’s favorite layer.

Think Peyton Manning and spread out the coverage evenly.

Sprinkle on green onions.

Add on tomatoes.

Gratuitous extra shot of tomato layer, just because it’s pretty and it’s there. By game four CBS is going to call this the “Brady Quinn” shot.

Cover with olives, the more the better.

And finally, use as much cheese as you like, although I recommend not adding this layer while watching the Fox pre-game show as the dancing robots and Terry Bradshaw may render you lactose-intolerant.

Serve with a hearty chip.

One 9-Layer Rancho Dip should serve one medium sized football gathering through two games, or one large gathering through one. (Except for that one Super Bowl party with 60 people, where I turned my back for ten minutes and it was gone.)

Kickoff Cocktail of the Week: The Lucky Glass

We’ve spent the last few weeks trying out new drinks, but opening weekend, you want to be comfortable with your plays. Everyone has first week jitters, and your drink should be the least of your concerns. Go to what works. (Personally? I’m usually too nervous for the first game of the season and will probably have little more than water in the first half on Sunday morning.)

Just make sure no matter what you drink, you go to your lucky glass. It might be the same plastic Dolphins cup you’ve had since 1993. It might be the new beer stein your mother-in-law bought you last Christmas with the metal Seahawks logo glued to the front. It might have Winnie the Pooh on it. But we all have one. That glass that fits right in your hand and is the perfect weight; not so light you are apt to tip it over when you get excited, and not so heavy you cannot throw it in disgust without breaking something.

New Product Review: NBC’s Sunday Night Football – “Football Foodies”

If you go to www.sundaynightisfootballnight.com, you will see that NBC has embraced the “Football Foodies“ right at the top of their main page. Click through and you will be taken to Bravo’s “Top Chef” page where they have started a blog for the Football Foodies, which as of this time consists of nothing more than a few recipes pulled from the first few seasons of their show.

(Let the record state that I draw no conclusions from their first post date being the exact same day that I launched the Friday Football Foodie “Pizza Loaf”-style. This series is not a terrible original idea and I am far from the only person who loves alliteration.)

What I do think is terrible is that in the time since they rummaged through their vault to slap up something as a place holder, they have not bothered to update that page. Football has now officially started! People don’t have time come Saturday to keep looking for recipes, run to the market to get everything needed, watch the games on Sunday and still cook! This is on the front page of your site and you have not bothered to do anything else with it? For shame!

NBC, if you really need help with this segment just let us know, we would be more than happy to help. I won’t even ask for the secret number to Keith Olbermann’s red phone, I promise.

Next week: The long promised Football Foodie Brunch: Four Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Quiche, Bloody Marys, and Almond Champagne.