Help me Please with a creative idea!!!

[foodiedelite]

Rinsav,

Several years ago for St. Patrick's Day we converted our house into a pub.

On our family room mantle I put a full length mirror sideways, and put a whole bunch of different shaped booze bottles in front and then draped white lights (like for the holidays) over the bottles. If you don't have a mantle, you could use a flat full length mirror placed flat on your breakfast bar, or whereever. You could put liquor bottles directly on the mirror for a dramatic effect.

We also had a silly sign with "Rules of the Pub" on our front door, as the guests arrived. It had things like: "playing cards legal, but house must win." "Likker must be drank from glasses, but beer from cans ok."

For food, sounds like you have it covered. Also had you considered deep fried mushrooms or beer batter onion rings? It sounds like a lot of fun!

[olive101]

rinsav, I feel for you. My husband tells me this afternoon that he wants to go to Dave and Busters to watch the game. We live 45 min south of Philly and I already drive there twice a week for school, which is after work and I don't get home until 11:00PM. The game does not start until 9:00! I like your idea much more!

[LGBurns]

I know this may be too late but I have a recipe I wanted to recommend. These home fries are great--they are my husband's favorite. If you cut them slim enough, they get really crunchy. This recipe is from Eating Well back in 1998 (I think June/July).

Home Fries
Cut 1 1/2 lb. scrubbed Yukon Gold potatoes into 8 wedges each. Toss with 2 tsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Spread on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake in upper third of a 450 oven for 20 minutes. Turn potatoes and bake for 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown and tender. Makes 4 servings.
Notes: I always use extra-virgin olive oil and kosher salt -- both give this a huge flavor boost.

[rinsav]

Hi all you creative people out there! I just had a fun idea for my boyfriend's birthday and thought I could maybe enlist all you guys for a little help. My BF's B-day was actually last Saturday but we couldn't really celebrate cause we were away. I thought about taking him to some fancy restaurant tonight but had two thoughts....(1) we've been eating out a lot lately and (2) the Sixers game is on tonight and I know he'd rather watch it than tape it. So, I thought that maybe I'd create a little sports bar right in our very own home! I'll decorate the place a little bit, get some good beers and create a fun menu with a sports bar theme. Any ideas??? I have a few but your ideas would be so helpful! My few initial thoughts are wings, maybe chicken fingers, that kind of stuff. Recipes to accompany the ideas would be fantastic!

Thanks so much! Quick help would be greatly appreciated cause I'll need to run out for ingredients shortly. Thanks again!

[greysangel]

How about loaded potato skins? Not light but certainly yummy http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif I don't have a recipe but you can stuff potatoes with whatever you want!

Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard or spicy cajun fingers would be a good alterantive to buffalo wings.

How about loaded nachos? Or the CL BBQ chicken pizza?

Here are a couple other ideas with recipes:

Reuben Bites
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes


24 mini rye breads (e.g., party rye)
1/4 cup fat-free Thousand Island dressing
4 x 4 oz (115 g) paper-thin slices reduced-fat Swiss cheese, sliced into 24 mini pieces
1/4 lb (115 g) lean corned beef, cut into 24 pieces
1 cup sauerkraut, drained


1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place rye bread on sheet and coat each piece with spray.

2. Add a 1/2 teaspoon Thousand Island dressing to each piece of bread. Layer each piece with 1 piece each Swiss cheese and corned beef and 2 teaspoons sauerkraut.

3. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

Number of servings: 24


Nutritional profile per serving: Calories 53.1, Protein 3.1g, Fat 2.1g, Saturated fat 1.0g, Carbohydrate 5.7g, Fiber 0.9g, Cholesterol 7.1mg, Iron 0.5mg, Sodium 209.3mg, Calcium 43.4mg


Thai Chicken Roll Ups:

2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons light mayonnaise
1 tablespoon reduced-fat peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 (10-inch) flour tortillas
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
4 large napa (Chinese) cabbage leaves
6 ounces thinly sliced deli-roasted chicken or turkey breast
1 cup red bell pepper strips


Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl; stir well with a whisk. Spread each tortilla with 1 tablespoon mayonnaise mixture. Top each tortilla with 2 tablespoons basil, 1 cabbage leaf, one-fourth of chicken, and 1/4 cup bell pepper, and roll up. Wrap in plastic wrap; chill.
Yield: 4 servings.

CALORIES 319 (29% from fat); FAT 10.3g (sat 1.8g, mono 3.9g, poly 4g); PROTEIN 15.9g; CARB 39.8g; FIBER 2.40g; CHOL 2mg; IRON 2.80mg; SODIUM 763mg; CALC 98mg


MINI BLACK & WHITE COOKIES


Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Other Time: 150 minutes



Cookies
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Frosting
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp fat-free milk
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tbsp cocoa


1. Cream together 4 tablespoons butter, ricotta and 1/2 cup sugar. Add vanilla and egg; mix thoroughly.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, and blend into rest of mixture. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

3. Place chilled dough on a strip of wax paper and roll into a 14-inch (36 cm) cylinder. Put in freezer for 2 to 3 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Slice off 1/3-inch thick rounds and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes (cookies should stay pale in color). Cool on baking rack.

5. For icing: Melt 2 tablespoons butter in microwave or over a very low flame. Mix with oil and milk. Sift confectioners’ sugar, and blend into liquids. Divide icing into two bowls. To one bowl add cocoa and mix to blend.

6. When cookies are cool, spread white icing on half of each cookie and chocolate icing on other half of each cookie, or cover each cookie completely with one type of icing. Yields 1 cookie per serving.

Number of servings: 42


Enjoy!

JeAnne...WOO HOO I'M A MEMBER!

[rinsav]

Thanks, Greyangel, for those great ideas! Do you happen to have any good recipes for chicken fingers? Thanks again! I'm excited. I think this will be fun! I just spoke to my parents, who have a basement filled with beer signs. I'm going to run over there and grab some to place around the apartment. That will give it a real sports bar feel!

[Susann]

Are you artistic? You could name the sports bar and make a sign. If you are serving the beer in mugs, freeze the mugs first. Hmmm...If you have baskets to serve the wings and chicken fingers in, that might be cute. I will try to think of more ideas. What a cute idea! Have fun!

[aka]

You'd think I'd be able to come up with something since I used to be a cook at a Sports Bar, but I think the thoughts so far are about what I'd suggest...chicken wings, loaded nachos, chicken fingers, breaded/deep fried veggies with a dip, fried mozzarella sticks, fries, burgers...maybe go "kind of" sports bar and do a big sandwich (perhaps the one in the June cover issue that I've heard about).

Another idea is to look through January issues of different food magazines (if you keep old magazines)...they might have some "Super Bowl" themes/food/decorating ideas that will inspire you.

I guess it's too late (not to mention totally impractical) to rent a big-screen tv if you don't already have one...or a pool table.

Lilia

[rinsav]

These are all great ideas. Aka, the great thing is that we have a big screen TV! Perfect, huh? Mozzarella sticks are a great idea. He loves them! They seem like they'd be easy to make. I'll go search for a recipe right now. I just found one for Oven Fried Chicken Fingers with Honey-Mustard Dipping sauce. Thanks again, everyone!

[greysangel]

With the chicken fingers, I usually just dip strips in egg and coat with corn flake crumbs or seasoned bread crumbs...sprinkle with cajun seasoning and bake at 350 on a sprayed baking sheet.

If you want buffalo style brush them with hot sauce before coating them http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

JeAnne

[buddie]

oh that sounds sooo cool!

i will suggest this EASY YUMMY bean dip for chips!

Bean Dip
1 canned kidney beans, mashed
1 lb ground beef cooked and drained
1 small can of diced green chilis
1 bottle of HOT ketchup (heinz makes what is called HOT ketchup)
block of cheddar cheese

cooked the meat and then add all the rest of the ingredients mixing well until cheese is melted and hot. serve with chips! yummy! saves well in refrig reheat in microwave

i love the potato skins idea. oh how about tator tots!!

OH don't forget the TIP JAR!!! LOL

[aka]

Just remembered I have football cookbook. Here's a non-traditional version of chicken fingers...I make changes to this which are noted at the end.

Coconut Chicken (If you hate coconut, no need to read on I guess)

5 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips, cubes or left whole (strips is best I think)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 tsp seasoned salt (regular will do in a pinch I think)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup plus 2 tsp flour
1 bag cocounut flakes
peanut oil for frying

Dry chicken breasts. Mix together mild, egg, salt, pepper and garlic. Gradually whisk in flour. Dip each piece of chicken in egg mixture, then roll in coconut.

Fry in oil at 325-350 until golden. Serve with sauce. Chicken can be coated hours ahead of frying. You can also fry ahead and reheat at 350 for 10-15 mintues.

For a change, substitute sesame seeds or crushed almonds for the coconut.

My notes: when I made this I didn't use just coconut...I used bread crumbs, added some coconut to my liking and some sesame seeds, a little cayenne pepper and voila. Anything goes really.

For more "normal strips", cut chicken into strips. coat with flour which has been mixed with a little salt. Dip in beaten egg mixture. Then dip in breadcrumbs which have been seasoned to taste with pepper...maybe some dried oregano or thyme...paprika... maybe you just decide to buy "Italian Seasoned" bread crumbs and just use that whatever you think you like.

Get yourself some plum sauce or some honey-mustard dip and there you go.

Hope this was at least a little helpful!

Lilia