A Dozen Super Snacks....

Needless to say we're rooting for the Giants over the Patsies this Sunday, 'nuff said.

How about snacks, what are you having?
Here's some ideas I've gathered.

Check out this pie that's featured on Slice!

 Or how about the Cheesy Football from Kraft?

And then there's this wicked looking Pizza Dip from Brown Eyed Baker.

And then there's the Veggie Football Pizzas from Rock UR Party.

Maybe some Pizza Monkey Bread from Barbara Bakes?

Jalapeno Pigs in a Blanket (from EvilShenanigans)-Mandatory.

Oh man-Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites from Skinny Taste.

Now, this is what I'm talking' about! Becky's Famous Football Party Stromboli from Liv Life.

And then there were Baked Potato Skins from Itsy Bitsy Foodies.

California Sliders from Blog Chef.Net? I'll take a half dozen please.

Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos from Blog Chef.Net

And finally, Maple Chipotle BBQ Braised Ribs from Rock Recipes.

 Awesome Snacks Baby!

GO GIANTS!

Cuse vs. West Virginia......

Snacks for the game!

Cuse just beat beat West Virginia!

Here's what we had.

To start, some Hoffman's Dogs!

And then,

Fry 'em for a bit.

Wrap the dogs in Croissant tube dough, with some American Cheese, then bake!

And here's the result. 

Enjoy, my friends.

My Pie Monday......

Slice has a feature every Monday where you can send in pics of pizza you made, appropriately called 

My Pie Monday. 

They're always good, this week it was exceptional.

My Pie Monday Link Click Here Pizza heads!

My pizza loving friend DM Cavanagh submitted this one-Pie to die for!

Check out the rest-you won't be disappointed!

DM, I'm waitin' buddy!

Later!

Baby, Baby, It's Cold Outside........

It's gone way below zero the last few nights here in dear old Tupper.

It'd be nice to say that it's unusual, but that's just Tupper being Tupper, or for that matter this neck of the woods in the Adirondacks in January (and February and March).

It's a good day to crank up the stove, watch an NCIS marathon, cook, and in my case, post some pics from the last month or so. Oh yes, there's the pile of laundry in the bedroom that needs to be addressed.

I know, I should be doing laundry, but it's not like it's going anywhere, so here are some pics.

Meat pies (Tourtiere in French) pre-bake.

It's a long time French Canadian tradition to make make meat pies for the Christmas Holiday.

 I can remember going to my Grandmother's house after Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and having a slice.

For the past 3 or 4 years I've revived that tradition in my house.

I give them to family and friends and put a few in the freezer here.

Post-bake.

There are as many variations of meat pies as there are little towns and villages across Northern New York and Quebec.

Here's the recipe I use (Click Here).

Good food for a cold day!

The obligatory pizza pic.

Made that for a Syracuse basketball game last week.

And finally...

The puppy playing with a squash she found in the cupboard....

Can't wait until she stops teething!

So now I'm off to the kitchen or laundry room, or both.

Wait-the NCIS marathon is on!

Later!

Blogging and Beer Crust.........

Ya know, there's literally zillions of food/cooking/recipe sites and blogs out there.

I've got around 40 favorites on my sidebar and a crapload more bookmarked on the old computer.

Mine I do for shits and giggles, it keeps me entertained and hopefully dear readers, it might do the same for you too.

Getting back to the plethora of blogs out there it's surprising how many are of very high quality.  I discovered in a hurry that Tupper Cooks! would be a strictly amateur venture, at least until I retire.

It simply takes a tremendous amount of time to do a great blog, so kudos to those that pull it off.

One of the very cool things about getting into this part of cyberspace is that you meet some very cool and talented people.

One is Donna Curry, whose blog Cookistry is very well done.  She's a great cook and writer, her blog is well written, has great pics and is very entertaining. 

Donna's also very accommodating if you have questions about anything cooking related.

She's a pro.

Another blog that I read is Pavlov's Blog, by Michael Therieau. 

 Now here's a brand new blog, been up less than a month. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of many blogs, but (and this is key), the dude can write.

He's extremely knowledgeable about food and the food industry while at the same time being  piss your pants funny.

So if you get a chance, check 'em out!

So that was the blogging portion of this post, here's the Pizza Beer Crust Portion.
Pizza, Beer, what's not to like?

I was checking the King Arthur site and found this recipe for what looks to be a good crust.

Hopefully I'll get to try it this weekend.....

(Click Here for the Link to KA & The Recipe)

Quick Beer-Crust Pizza

Beer adds just a hint of fragrance and flavor to this quick pizza dough. 2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 1 1/2 cups semolina* 1 tablespoon Pizza Dough Flavor, optional 2 teaspoons instant yeast 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 ½ teaspoons salt 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 ½ cups room-temperature beer *Substitute unbleached all-purpose flour if you don't have semolina. 10 1/2 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 8 1/4 ounces semolina* 1 tablespoon Pizza Dough Flavor, optional 2 teaspoons instant yeast 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 ½ teaspoons salt 7/8 ounce olive oil 12 ounces room-temperature beer *Substitute unbleached all-purpose flour if you don't have semolina. 298g King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 234g semolina* 1 tablespoon Pizza Dough Flavor, optional 2 teaspoons instant yeast 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 ½ teaspoons salt 25g olive oil 340g room-temperature beer *Substitute unbleached all-purpose flour if you don't have semolina. Directions 1) Mix and knead together all of the dough ingredients — by hand, mixer or bread machine — until you've made a smooth, soft dough. 2) Cover the dough, and allow it to rise for 30 minutes, or for up to 2 hours. 3) Preheat the oven to 450°F with the pizza stone (if you're using one) on a lower rack. 4) Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a 10" to 12" round. 5) Place the rounds on parchment paper, if you're going to use a pizza stone. Or place the dough on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. For thin to medium crust, bake the pizzas immediately. For thicker crust, let them rise for 30 to 60 minutes. 6) Transfer the pizzas, parchment and all, to the baking stone. Or place the pans in the oven. 7) Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, top as desired, and bake for an additional 15 minutes, until the bottom crust is crisp and the cheese is bubbly and browned. 8) Remove from the oven, and serve hot. Yield: 2 pizzas.

Recipe summary Hands-on time: 20 mins. to 30 mins. Baking time: 18 mins. to 48 mins. Total time: 1 hrs 8 mins. to 3 hrs 28 mins. Yield: 2 crusts Tips from our bakers We like to top our pizzas with cheese, but prefer it to be gently melted, rather than browned/hard. To that end, we add any meat, veggies, etc. after 5 minutes of baking time; half the cheese after 15 minutes (total) baking time; bake for 3 minutes; add the remainder of the cheese, then bake for an additional 2 minutes, until the second addition of cheese is barely melted.

Happy Baking My Friends!

Pizza Funny.....

From Slice!

Happy Friggin' New Year!

Hey, better late than never, right!

Let's start the New Year off with a question I saw on Slice today.

This goes out to my BIL Tom-#1 he is.

Dagwood!

God, when I was a kid, I read the comics faithfully.  

Comic books, comics in the daily papers, and best of all the Sunday paper when they were all in color!

Not like today, where I could go on a rant about too much access to cartoons and comics for kids for 99 thousand different reasons, but 40 years ago it was special.

One of my favorites strips was Blondie by famous cartoonist Chic Young.

Dagwood was her husband of course.

If you're over 40 you might remember it, if not, well you missed out kids.

Now this discourse could go into the history of comics for the next hour, but I digress, this blog is about food.

You see Dagwood liked his sandwiches, and from the comic strip there has sprung a zillion variations of

"The Dagwood"

This pretty much sums it up. 

It was a big sammie!

Go ahead and google Dagwood Sandwich recipes and look at the images, it's mind blowing.

There are some big ass sandwiches out there!

Today, while thinking about what to have for supper on a work night, I ran across a recipe  for a Dagwood Grilled Cheese.

Click Here for Wicked Griled Cheese Recipes.

Looked really good. So I made my list, checked it twice, and off to Shaheen's IGA I went after work.

Here's what I got.

Cheese (American and Swiss), smoked ham, a red onion and a big tomato.

And a loaf of bread.

So , then there's the construction.

Buttered bread on the skillet, 1 slice of American with 1 slice of Swiss on top.

Ok, Got it? Bread, butter side down, then cheese.

Next, some deli sliced smoked ham and red onion slices which were sauteed' in butter.

Then a big old slice of tomato...

And a cap of American, why not?

Top 'em with another slice of buttered bread, and cook away kids.

And then,

Bam, Zoom! There's your Dagwood Grilled Cheese!

Stay Hungry My Friends!

P.S. I asked my wife if she thought I was nuts writing about grilled cheese sandwiches. I was relieved with her response, she said, " Honey, you're fine, tomorrow you can write about peanut butter and jelly."

I was relieved.