30 Super Bowl Snacks to Serve the Day of the Big Game

womansday.com — When it's time for the big game, don't fumble! Step up your game and satisfy the hearty appetites of all those football fanatics gathered around the tube

BUFFALO POTATO SKINS
Active Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS
4 medium (about 8 oz each) baking potatoes, scrubbed
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1 Tbsp hot-pepper sauce
1⁄2 tsp salt
1⁄4 tsp onion powder
1⁄2 cup bottled lite blue cheese dressing

PREPARATION
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Pierce potatoes in 2 or 3 places with a fork. Bake directly on middle oven rack 45 to 55 minutes until tender when pierced. Increase oven temperature to 450°F. Have a rimmed baking sheet ready.
2. When cool enough to handle, cut potatoes lengthwise in quarters. With a spoon, scoop pulp from skins, leaving a 1⁄4-in.-thick shell (reserve pulp for another use). Place skin side down on ungreased baking sheet.
3. Mix butter, hot sauce, salt and onion powder in a small bowl. Brush evenly on potatoes. Bake 15 minutes or until browned at edges and crisp. Serve with blue cheese dressing for dipping.

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This Magnificent Dragon is a Cake!

Seriously. A dragon made of cake.

Made by Mike's Amazing Cakes.

Marinating steak in beer or wine 'reduces cancer chemicals'

Marinating steak in beer or wine before cooking it dramatically reduces levels of chemicals that can cause cancer, according to scientists.

By Martin Beckford

Shoppers are urged to avoid processed meats. Photo: Andrew Crowley

Researchers found that steeping the meat in alcohol for several hours cut the high levels of carcinogenic compounds triggered by frying it.

In addition, they discovered that beer was more effective than wine at lowering the cancer-forming chemicals, and also made for a better-looking and tastier meal.

New Scientist magazine, which reports the findings, stated: "If you are frying a steak and mindful of your health, then marinate it in either beer or red wine.

"So say food scientists who measured amounts of a family of carcinogens found in fried food after steeping them in booze."

Cooking food increases its levels of chemical compounds called heterocyclic amines (HAs), which can cause cancerous tumours.

Frying and grilling meat is particularly dangerous, because the intense heat turns the sugars and amino acids of muscle tissue into high levels of the compounds.

But scientists are gathering increasing amounts of evidence to show that the levels of HAs in cooked meat can be lowered by treating the food beforehand.

Isabel Ferreira and colleagues at the University of Porto in Portugal found that marinating steak in red wine or beer before frying – for six hours – cut levels of two types of HA by up to 90 per cent compared with untreated meat.

Beer was more efficient at reducing a third type of HA than wine, cutting levels significantly in four hours instead of six.

It also made the meat look, smell and taste better than the wine-marinated steak, according to the new report published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

"Tasters also preferred the smell, taste and appearance of beer-marinated steak," said New Scientist.

The researchers believe the alcoholic sauce cuts levels of the carcinogen by acting as a barrier – preventing water-soluble molecules moving to the surface of the steak where they would be turned into HAs by the high temperature.

"Beer contains more water-retaining sugars than wine and Ferreira says that may hinder the transport of water-soluble molecules to the steak's surface, where high heat converts them in HAs," New Scientist said.

Previous research has shown that a red wine marinade has a similar effect on HA levels in fried chicken, while a non-alcoholic version is also available. A sauce made of olive oil, lemon juice and garlic lowered HA levels in grilled chicken by as much as 90 per cent, a study found.

Cooking meat on lower heat and for a shorter period of time also prevents dangerous levels of HAs forming.

Research into reducing levels of HAs in cooked food comes after a series of studies have shown links between meat consumption and cancer.

Last year a landmark report on the causes of the disease published by the World Cancer Research Fund claimed that eating any processed meat, such as sausages, bacon and ham, significantly raises the risk of contracting bowel cancer.

Its report urged shoppers to avoid processed meats and advised eating a maximum of 1.1lb (500g) of cooked red meat a week.

Preparing bacon for the freezer [WITH ILLUSTRATIONS]

This is either the best kitchen tip ever or proof that H and I are certifiably insane… You know how bacon is delicious and you want to have it on hand? And you know how you don’t want to eat a pound of bacon every week? And you know how bacon generally comes in one pound packages with overlapping slices that freeze up into a giant block that cannot be quickly and easily thawed?

A Pound of Bacon

I think we may have solved this problem.

Take a baking sheet (or you may need two (or you may need to eat some of the bacon before you freeze it)) and lay a sheet of plastic wrap over it. Lay your slices of bacon side by side (not overlapping!) on the plastic wrap. Lay another sheet of plastic wrap over the bacon, smoothing it out so there’s no exposed meat. Put the baking sheet in the freezer.

Plastic wrapOf course, you don’t want a giant baking sheet of bacon in your freezer indefinitely. Once the bacon is frozen (overnight, probably), remove it from the freezer. Horizontally roll up the bacon, one strip at a time to form a cylinder of delicious frozen bacon (this may require some repositioning of the bacon in order to introduce adequate slack in the plastic. Or else you can take this into account pre-freezing, if you’ve got extra baking sheets and room in the freezer). Put the wrapped-up bacon in a gallon freezer bag.

Bacon Roll

Now, any quantity of bacon from one strip up to a full pound can be extracted from the freezer and ready to cook in less than a minute. Enjoy.

[UPDATE] Welcome Diggers. A few notes:

1. I have not filed for a patent on this technique. No doubt it has been done before.
2. Wax paper is a good idea. With wax paper, you could probably roll up the bacon before you freeze it, and it wouldn’t glump together.
3. My camera is broken (damn modern world). The drawings are better anyway.

Turkey for Dummies: Thanksgiving Dinner in 24 Easy Steps

Tom Grill/ Iconica

Steps 1-12: Roasting the Turkey

Figure five-and-a-half-to-six-and-a-half-hours roasting at 325 degrees F for a twenty- to twenty-two-pound unstuffed moderately chilled turkey.

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Lightly cook one cup each chopped carrots and onions for five to eight minutes; chop and set aside two cups each raw carrots and onions.

3. Dry the turkey inside and out with paper towels.

4. Sprinkle the cavity with two teaspoons salt and add cooked vegetables, along with a handful each of parsley and celery tops.

5. With a large needle and strong string, sew down the neck and cent flaps, and truss the legs and wings (nothing looks so indecent as a turkey with legs akimbo and cavity gapping; it deserves a more dignified fate).

6. Rub the turkey all over with soft butter, and place it breast up on a rack in a roasting pan.

7. Insert a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh, but not against bone.

8. Dip a double thickness of cheesecloth (enough to cover the turkey’s breast) in cooking oil and drape it over the turkey.

9. Roast in a preheated 325-degree F oven five-and-a-half-to-six-and-a half-hours (see below, step 12).

10. Baste every thirty minutes, at first with cooking oil, then with pan drippings.

11. About one-and-a-half hours before the end of the estimated cooking time, add raw carrots and onions to the pan.

12. The turkey is done when the mean thermometer reads 180 to 185 degrees F. (Some signs that it’s getting there: juices run from turkey into pan…drumstick moves fairly easily in socket…lower part of thigh, when penetrated deeply with fork, exudes clear yellow juice…people crowd around the stove saying "I think it’s done" and "looks right to me.") Remember: the turkey should rest, partially covered by foil, for about forty-five minutes after it comes out of the oven before you start carving it.

Steps 13-24: Making the Gravy

I once celebrated Thanksgiving at the home of a friend who threw out the giblets and made no gravy because she couldn't bear the thought of toughing gizzards and livers and hearts. She might as well have thrown out the turkey.

13. Chop the neck into two-inch pieces, quarter the gizzard, and halve the heart.

14. Brown the giblets in four tablespoons of cooking oil, drain, and remove from the pan.

15. Cook one cup each chopped carrots and onions in same oil five to eight minutes until tender.

16. Return the giblets to the pan, add one cup dry white wine, two cups chicken broth, and enough water to cover by an inch or so.

17. Add one teaspoon salt, one bay leaf, and one-half teaspoon sage.

18. Simmer partially covered for two and a half to three minutes.

19. Strain, degrease the pan, and return the stock into it.

20. Blend three tablespoons cornstarch with one-fourth cup chicken broth, beat the mixture into the stock, and simmer three to five minutes.

21. Remove from the heat but keep warm on the back of the stove until the turkey is done.

22. When you’re removed the turkey to the platter, spoon fat out of the roasting pan, add the turkey stock, and stir over moderately high heat for five minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.

23. Strain into a saucepan, degrease, correct the seasoning, reheat, and pour into a gravy boat.

24. Prepare for a standing ovation.

Adapted from "The Modern American Thanksgiving" by Glen Waggoner, from Esquire's November 1984 issue.