Super Bowl Party Planning

Today, Internet Manager Art Edge shows us how to throw an awesome Super Bowl party!

When planning a Super Bowl party the first thing you need to decide is how many people can you comfortably fit in your house or apartment and still see a TV! We have between 30 and 40 people every year for our party. Not everyone fits in our family room where we have the big flat screen TV so we have another, smaller flat screen HDTV in our kitchen since it always seems that people gather in there... after all that's where most of the appetizers and drinks are laid out! And one more thing, don't plan on watching much of the game as you’ll spend much of your time helping out your guests... sorry!

Of course, food is a big deal at a Super Bowl party. What we like to do is have our guests bring either an appetizer or a dessert, while we provide the main courses for dinner and the drinks. It's kind of cool to have everybody contribute, especially when other guests complement one another on their apps and desserts! Of course, you want to get the credit for the main courses, so do it up nice. We always have a couple of apps ourselves and add to them as the guests arrive. We serve dinner at halftime and desserts come out during the last quarter of the game; some folks wait until the game is over to indulge.

I always make chili. There are a million chili recipes out there so pick your favorite and go for it. I always make the chili the day before the game because mine is kind of labor intensive. My recipe is from The Whole Chile Pepper Cookbook by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach, . There are only three ingredients:

-8 dried New Mexico Chiles
-4 cups of beef broth
-2 pounds of meat, cut into ½" to 1" pieces (I use half beef and half pork)

I multiply this recipe by 6 for my party.

The preparation of the chiles takes quite awhile. I use half medium and half hot chiles that I get from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico, because I find their flavor to be superior to all other chiles. However, you can find similar chiles in your local grocery store. Start by roasting the chiles on a cookie sheet at 200 degrees for 5 minutes. Tear them apart (I use gloves to handle 50 chiles!) and empty out as many seeds as possible, but try not to lose the membrane... lots of flavor there! Soak them in some of the beef broth for an hour or so, then blend them in batches in a blender with the broth until smooth. It may take 5 or 10 minutes of blending per batch to get rid of all the little pieces. If you don't, you'll be picking them out of your teeth all night!

Brown the meat in some vegetable oil in a big pot. Deglaze the pot with some broth. Add the chile puree and the rest of the broth and bring to a boil. Simmer for a couple of hours uncovered - you want it to reduce down. Just taste some, you'll know when it's done. I always put out some shredded cheese and sour cream for those who can't take the heat!

Whatever you cook for halftime dinner in addition to the chili, put it all in those serving racks that you see at a buffet dinner. You can get them pretty cheap at your local party store along with the fuel cans to keep the water underneath the pans hot. You can use the racks over and over again. Those same stores have all the foil pans too - the really deep, long ones for the water and the half-size, shallower ones for the food. I always get the covers too. Most of the food I preheat in the oven when the game starts and transfer over to the racks just before halftime. I usually start the fuel heating the water by the end of the first quarter of the game. Some suggestions for the other dishes are: Chicken with artichokes, eggplant parm, baked ziti, ravioli in vegetable sauce, penne in vodka sauce or sliced ham. And of course don't forget sturdy paper plates (small for apps and desserts and large for dinner) and plastic utensils. We usually get all this at our local party store along with the pans and fuel for the food. We lay it all out on our dining room table and it's buffet/self serve style.

Of course, there are also the drinks. You need to know your crowd so you know how much beer and wine you need. We usually have a cooler with ice in our kitchen and put the beer and soda in there. We set aside part of a counter in the kitchen for the mixed drinks and wine. We set it up so that it's self serve as much as possible... we at least try to watch part of the game! We usually provide vodka, gin, tonic, OJ and both red and white wine. Our guests also usually bring some wine and beer so we put those additions out as well. Don't forget the ice for mixed drinks and soda. I usually take it out of the icemaker a few days before the game so I have homemade bags of ice in the freezer. Also, don't forget some limes depending on your drink selection. What would be really cool is to get a couple of Growlers of beer at Joe Canal's and have them on your self-serve bar. If you need help with your selection, or planning the amount to have on hand, you can always ask one of the friendly wine managers at your Joe Canal's store.

The final item is the pool. We draw it on a large piece of poster board. Use a yardstick and marker to draw enough vertical and horizontal lines to make 100 squares. Each square can cost $1, $2 or more depending on the number of people coming. Number the squares from 1 to 100, because many people like to pick by a number that's important to them. Put one team's name down the left of the big square and the other across the top. Number 10 little pieces of paper from 0 to 9 and fold them over. Just before the game starts have somebody pick them and put the numbers in sequence across the top, so that they're in a random order. Refold them and repeat down the left side. We have a prize for each quarter end with the largest for the final score.

Have a Happy Super Bowl Party! Make sure to leave us a comment and let us know how it turns out!