Super Bowl Snacks Edition

Unlike a lot of Southern gals, I’m not a football fan by birth.  I merely married into the NFL nation.  I have found however, that I really do enjoy watching the games and keeping up with our team with my husband.  (Go Redskins!)  This year to celebrate the Super Bowl we went to watch the game with our good friends Bridgett and Scott.  Scott is a big time, blue-bleeding Giants Fan, so of course we were pulling for them to win. 

No Super Bowl gathering is complete without some snack foods, right?  Bridgett was an excellent hostess with a great spread of wings, BBQ, and other yumminess.  I decided to bring my favorite pot luck appetizer, Artichoke Bread.  I found the original recipe for this in a magazine that would come with my power bill when we lived in North Carolina called “Carolina Country.”  It was a real crowd pleaser for office parties when I worked at Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff.  It’s the perfect party food because the dip is baked in the bread, so you have an all in one bite!

Ingredients:

• A loaf of French bread.
• 1 ½ cups of Sour Cream. 
• ½ cup of Butter, melted.
• 2 Tablespoons Sesame Seeds.  These are with the spices on the baking aisle in your grocery store.
• 3 cups of shredded cheese, this time I used Colby Jack.  Any combo of Cheddar, Monterrey Jack, or Colby would work well.
• ½ cup Parmesan.  I get shredded because I am not a big fan of the powdery parm in the Green Shaker, but you could use that if you like.
• 1 can of Artichoke Hearts, drained.
• 4 Garlic cloves.
• 2 Tablespoons parsley, freshly minced would be ideal, but I couldn’t find any, so I am using dried.
• 2 Teaspoons of lemon pepper seasoning.

First prep your bread loaf by cutting it in half length wise like this:

 Then hollow it out to make two bread boats.  Save the bread innards.  I just use my (clean!) fingers to go in and pinch out pieces.  You end up with empty vessels for filling:

Your inside bread bits are probably crumbly already, but I run the bread crumbs through my food processor to make them even crumblier.  Then in a large mixing bowl combine the bread crumbs, sour cream, melted butter and sesame seeds.  Spread this mixture into a baking dish.

Before Broilin'

Broil it for about five minutes, the take it out and stir the brown bits on top down into the mixture.  Continue broiling it for another five minutes or so.  DO NOT walk away from the broiler.  Broiling is a funny thing.  It requires close supervision.  It can take your food from barely done to burnt to a crisp in a matter of minutes.  Your mixture should come out of the broiler looking like this:

After Broilin'

while I am broiling I am combining the can of artichoke hearts, garlic cloves, parsley and lemon pepper in my food processor.  I blend them all up and come out with a pleasantly green mixture:

Now you are ready to assemble your dip!  In the big mixing bowl combine the broiled bread crumb mixture, the green artichoke mixture and the cheeses.  Now spoon the dip back into hollowed out bread boats.  I cover mine with extra cheese, because well, that’s just how I roll.  You could also put some extra sesame seeds or parsley on top.

Bake your bread at 350 for about 20 minutes or so, until the cheese is a gooey, melty, and a little brown and the dip is hot throughout.  

Yuuuuuum!

Cut into slices and serve hot.  I usually carry my loaves whole and don’t do the slicing until party time, or let the guests do their own slicing.  It’s super yummy and leftovers reheat well.  ENJOY!