Fancy French Fries

Well, I lied.  It's not so much that the French fries are fancy, but the way they are presented.  You know, there are whole books written about how to present food attractively and I live by the motto "it's all about the presentation."

Southern Living had this idea featured under "Appetizers", but we served them as part of the dinner, because French fries go much better with BBQ ribs and chicken than they would as an appetizer.  The French fries are called Salt-and-Pepper Oven Fries but they really they are Ore Ida "fast food" fries sprinkled with pepper and Kosher salt and served with a Lemon-Garlic Mayo dipping sauce.

Ingredients for the sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup mayo
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Combine minced garlic and lemon juice in a bowl.  Let stand for 5 minutes.  Add the mayo and parsley.  Stir well.  Add salt and pepper.

I served the French fries and dipping sauce in some small ice cream sundae bowls.  They were the perfect size!

St. Patrick's Day is on Wednesday and if you don't have much time to prepare something extravagant, here's an easy dessert.  It's not green, but if you love chocolate and mint, you'll love this.

You need one package of brownie mix, a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and peppermint extract.  Prepare the brownie mix as directed.  At the end, mix in one teaspoon of peppermint extract and the chocolate chips.  Bake in a 9x13 or 7x11 pan and serve!  The subtle mint flavor is so good you'll never want to make normal brownies again!

Football Brownies

These brownies are perfect for any football occasion because you can customize them for whichever team you are cheering! Next time I think I'll make them specific for the razorbacks and write "Go Hogs" or maybe "Go Lynx" for my college's team (but let's be serious, when did I ever go to a Rhodes game?).

I made these brownies for the Arkansas v. Georgia game last Saturday (we won't talk about the score...depressing). I was going to make the Razorback cookies again, but on Wednesday decided I wanted to try something different. So I started my search for a football cookie cutter. I called two stores who both told me that they did not have football cookie cutters, but did have Easter egg cookie cutters. I have an Easter egg cookie cutter and knew that it DID NOT look like a football, so I said sorry I'll call somewhere else. I was about to give up hope when I called Vanness. I should have called this store in the first place because they always have what I need. Remember the fish cake I made for Ben's birthday? This is where I got the cake mold after searching and searching other stores.

These brownies are totally semi-homemade. Sandra Lee would be proud. I used box mix (dun dun dun). Two boxes of Duncan Hines to be exact. I was in a rush to buy the chocolate icing, so I grabbed a container only to later find out that what I thought said "Triple Fudge Chocolate" was actually "Triple Fudge Chocolate Chip", so those are not air bubbles in the icing, but chocolate chips! The white icing is also store bought. I will be honest, if I had unlimited amounts of time, then I would have made everything from scratch, but sometimes things just don't work out.

Since brownies tend to crumble when trying to ice them, I put the chocolate icing in the microwave for 15-20 seconds, then more or less poured the icing over the brownies and let it spill over the sides (yummy). I put the white icing in an icing bag and used a small-ish tip to make the stitch marks. These were a huge hit at the tailgate and I will definitely be making them again!

Oh and just for kicks...

This is an Easter egg. ------------------------ This is a football.*

Obviously not the same thing!

*http://www.candylandcrafts.com/images/2310-645footballcomfortgripcc.jpg