"What can I bring?" Kristen texted on Monday, and I wrote back "drinks and Cody's appetite" before I could stop myself. Cody is a junior offensive lineman, and planning party food for a crowd that includes him is its own kind of math.
Sunday is the Super Bowl, and we're hosting twelve: the five of us, Kristen and Ryan with Cody and Avery, our neighbors Tuan and Lisa Nguyen from across the street, and Dan from Matt's warehouse. The groceries are already bought and put away, on two receipts that add up to $61.83. Guests are bringing the drinks. Here's the spread, the list, and what each part cost this time.
The spread
I make close to the same thing every year, because it works and because I don't want to think hard on a Sunday that runs past the kids' bedtime.
- Queso, with a bag of last August's roasted Hatch chiles stirred in
- Cheeseburger sliders on sweet rolls, baked all in one pan
- Wings from the air fryer, half plain and half buffalo
- Tortilla chips, a lot of them
- Brownies from a box, baked Saturday
- A veggie tray that, if history holds, nobody will touch
What it cost
- Wings, $17.52: six pounds of fresh party wings on a Kroger digital coupon at $2.29 a pound ($13.74), a bottle of hot sauce ($1.49) and ranch ($2.29). The buffalo sauce is that hot sauce plus butter from the fridge.
- Sliders, $21.24: two pounds of ground beef from Aldi ($11.98), two 12-packs of sweet rolls ($5.98), sliced cheddar ($2.49) and an onion ($0.79).
- Queso and chips, $10.36: a 2-pound loaf of processed cheese ($5.49), a can of diced tomatoes with green chiles ($0.89) and two big bags of tortilla chips ($3.98). The Hatch chiles came out of the chest freezer, already paid for back in August.
- Veggie tray, $6.99.
- Brownie mix, two boxes, $2.78. Eggs and oil from the pantry.
- Paper bowls, $2.94, for queso and wing bones. We still have plates and napkins left from Thanksgiving.
Total: $61.83, or about $5.15 a person, and there will be leftovers.
How Sunday runs
Game-day food works the same way a catering event does. Everything that can be done ahead gets done ahead, and the things that have to be hot go out in waves. Here's my ticket rail:
- Saturday: brownies baked and cut. Slider beef pressed into a sheet pan with chopped onion, baked at 400 for about 15 minutes, drained, cooled and cut into twenty-four squares, one for every roll.
- Sunday morning: wings patted dry, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder, and back in the fridge uncovered on a rack so the skin dries out. Veggie tray opened and arranged, so at least it looks loved.
- An hour before kickoff: queso into the Crock-Pot on low, stirred every 20 minutes.
- Thirty minutes before: sliders assembled, brushed with melted butter, covered with foil and baked at 350 for 15 minutes.
- Kickoff: first round of wings, both baskets of the air fryer at 400 for about 22 minutes, shaken halfway. Second round at the end of the first quarter, third at halftime, tossed in sauce in a big bowl as they come out.
Lessons from earlier years
A few years ago I made a seven-layer dip, a pot of chili and homemade pretzel bites, and spent the entire game in the kitchen. I couldn't tell you who won. Now I make fewer things in bigger amounts, and on game day the oven runs exactly once. The queso lives in the slow cooker instead of on the stove, because people dip from it for four hours, and a pot on a glass-top burner scorches on the bottom by the second quarter.
The air fryer was the real change. Before we had the dual-basket one, wings meant the oven at 425 for an hour while the sliders waited their turn. Now wings and sliders don't fight over anything, and I can watch the commercials with everybody else.
And I buy the veggie tray every year knowing exactly how it ends, because a table full of brown food looks sad without it. Matt has asked if we can just call it decoration and skip it. I told him we'd talk about it Monday, when it's back in the fridge with the plastic lid still on.
