#186 Build A Snack Stadium

So I am sitting here trying to figure out what the hell I just watched for the past 3 1/2 hours. Since I probably won't post this for awhile, let me give you the date. It is 11/06/16. The Steelers just played the Ravens. Not even sure you could call that a football game. The Steelers played for like the last 9 minutes of the game. Maybe they forgot today was Daylight Savings time. Maybe their coaches lost their minds. Maybe Ben got sick of the ridiculous play calling and started making his own calls. Who knows? I sure as hell don't. All I know is I feel like a Browns fan....for real.

And Ravens fans, don't celebrate too hard. Your guys played like complete shit too. The Steelers just out-shitted you today. In fact the entire The AFC North seems hell bent on clogging the NFL's proverbial toilet. Call a plumber fast! One of the best divisions in the NFL has gone AWOL and it freaking sucks! I want my competitive, crazy ass division back! 

Anyways, as I sit here in Whatthefuckville, I start thinking about the playoffs. If the Steelers keep playing like the garbage I witnessed today, there will be no playoffs. However, I still get a little excited thinking about the playoffs for a completely different reason. Football Thanksgiving!! Let me explain.

Behold the Snack-adium!

The NFL playoffs, college bowl games and the Superbowl are like the first Thanksgiving of the year. Yes, way before that Thursday holiday in November. Or...not too long after that Thursday in November. I guess it all depends on perspective. Who cares. And....Football Thanksgiving also lasts way longer than just one day too. College bowl games start in December. By January you are into the the NFL playoffs then February brings the Superbowl. After the Superbowl there is depression. Even though it has become the No Fun League, you still miss it more than you think.

Why do I call it Football Thanksgiving you ask? Simple. Playoff football brings together gatherings of football fans to homes, bars, restaurants, social clubs etc. like a modern day mecca. No matter what team you love, no matter whether they make the playoffs or not, football fans and even non football fans still partake in the viewing of playoff games.

And what happens when fans gather together to celebrate playoffs and bowl games? Food happens! That's what! A bevy of fantastic football snacks and foods happen. I'm not gonna lie, I get almost as excited about the food as I do the games. It's the perfect excuse to throw diet plans out the door for a few weekends in December (college bowl games), January and February. Diets? Diets? There are no diets in football! Get going.

And this introvert with an extrovert personality loves partaking in the playoff festivities as well. Sometimes I go out to watch the games. Sometimes I invite a few people over. Sometimes I just wanna be alone. Back in 2012 for Superbowl XLVI, NY Giants vs the Patriots, I decided to invite a few people over. I was feeling social and wanted to create some awesome football snacks.

Boy...did I create some snacks. I decided to start searching the web for football snack ideas when I happened upon this photo of a football stadium made entirely of....food. OMG who is this genius I thought to myself??? This was a beautiful work of art that combined two of my most beloved things. Football and food!! And how they hell did they do that? This was ....I had no words. I think I cried a little. It was just so damned beautiful.

And so the quest began. I pulled up google and searched for football stadiums made from food. Turns out there were quite a few creative football geniuses out there. I came across many, many different pictures of food stadiums. I also learned that the PC term for it was Snack-adiums. Good to know. I want to be correct. The only problem I came across was, while there were many pictures of football Snack-adiums, there were little to no instructions on how to build one.

I did not allow that to deter me in my quest by no means. I'm a smart girl. I will figure this out. I started studying the pictures. Then I started crunching the numbers. Yea....some of these stadiums cost a small fortune to construct. I know mine was not cheap to make and it was small compared to some. I also noticed some were perfectly constructed. Not a chip or croissant weiner was out of place.

Mind you, I wore food prep gloves the entire time I erected my stadium but even then, the less I handled the food, the better. Mine was not as neat and perfect but it was still good. My other problem was, I could not decide what food I wanted in my stadium. I wanted it all. Cheese wedge flags, Slim Jim flag posts, dips, chips, sandwiches, pizza, hot appetizers....I wanted to do it all. I needed to calm down.

I still didn't know how I was going to construct this thing. I decided on a a smaller 8x11 pan for the field which would house spinach dip, taco dip and ranch dip. The taco dip would be covered with lettuce for grass. The other two dips would be the end zones. I also bought a roasting pan and cut it in half for the corners and 9x13 pan also cut in half for the sides. There were gaps in the four corners, but once I put the sandwiches and pizza around them, I could just dump chips in the gaps to cover them.

When I pieced it all together, it was a lot bigger than I was expecting. I was going to have to add more chips and appetizers to make it look full, otherwise it would just look cheap. When I have company over, I do not do half assed food. Add $30 more dollars to the budget. I didn't want to make anymore sandwiches, I had too many as is. So, I figured rice krispie treats would be good to put along the sides too. A little sweet to go with all the salt. Not gonna lie, this cost me around $115 to make. I could have probably spent less, but I am a food snob, especially when guests are coming. Got to have good stuff!

I realized I only had like 5 people coming over plus my kids. This was a lot of food for five people. The kids and I were going to be eating dips, pizza and sandwiches for days. I figured I could bring some into work too. I know it would get demolished there. LOL! It's all good. I wanted to make this and I had a lot of fun creating it.

So let me break down what I did.

Preparation:

• Buy a few pairs of food prep gloves. You are making sandwiches, stick people, flags, etc. You are also constructing a stadium out of food so obviously, you will be handling the food. You do not want your guests eating a bunch of food you man handled with your bare hands, no matter how clean they are. It's the right thing to do.
• I used my table top for the field and stadium.
• I covered the table top with waxed paper. Tin foil will work as well. Think I used waxed paper because I ran out of tin foil.
• I bought plastic cutting mats from the dollar store as well to place the stadium on. No food was touching the bare surface of my table. 

The Field:

• I separated the dips by placing club crackers in the pan to divide them.
• I made the taco dip field first since it was layered. Then I put the spinach and ranch dips in the end zones.
• I made the goal posts out of Slim Jims and toothpicks. They were too heavy to stand in the dip so I just had to deal with them leaning in the end zone. I also used club crackers to brace the goal posts. That was not planned.
• I made my football players out of pieces of Slim Jims and olives.

The Pats were the green helmets. The Giants were the black helmets.

This is Tom Brady getting sacked by Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul

The Walls:

• I made sandwiches with ham, cheese and salami. You can make what ever sandwiches you like. Just put the condiments on the side. They can make the bread soggy and some people do not like mustard or mayo.
• I cut squares of cold pizza in half as well to build the walls. 
• These walls fell over several times as I was putting them together. I almost threw a samwich at the wall due to frustration. 
• The rice krispie treats also did not want to co-operate. I had to hold them together with toothpicks. I just warned my guests to remove the tooth pick before eating.
• I made cheese wedge flags with block cheese and toothpicks. 

The Seats:

• The seats were easy. Next time I will have both the home and visitors side filled with hot appetizers like cheese sticks, popcorn chicken and pigs in blankets.
• I had way too many chips. Way too many. And chips go stale much faster. 
• You can fill your seats with whatever you like. I think next time I will make a fruit or veggie section of the stadium. 

The Stadium Grounds:

• I placed romaine slices around for grass to use with the sandwiches. 
• I also placed bowls of condiments and salsa around the lettuce. 

Give yourself some time to do this. It takes patience. Also, once constructed, gently cover with sheets of saran wrap until your guests arrive so the food does not dry out or get stale. Once my guests had their first helpings, I recovered the stadium until they were ready for more. Also, let your guests know where the microwave is for the hot appetizers. They do not stay warm very long sitting out.

Urge your guests to eat the food. My guests did not want to ruin my stadium. As awesome as it was, it was meant to be eaten. After some coaxing, they dug in. I made it for them. I took pictures of it before they came. LOL! It's cool. Eat up! Trash the stadium. The football stadiums get trashed during the playoffs. So should mine. Enjoy!

I really had a blast doing this. I promised myself the next time I would make one of these, it would be when the Steelers went back to the Superbowl. I am still waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Come on Steelers!! I want to make another Snack-adium! Do this!

* Note: The Steelers made it all the way to the AFC Championship game which was something I was not at all expecting after watching this game. It turned out to be a great season. Maybe next year......... Stairway To Seven!

Chrissy