Here's how we do it in Nashville.

For this years festivities, we have a little Chicago flare.

We're starting with Chris Yokely's Angus Taco Dip.

Ingredients:
Seasoned Angus ground beef
Sour Cream
Refried Beans
Jack and Cheddar shredded cheese
Diced Tomatillo
Block cheddar cheese
Chili Seasoning
Rotelle Tomatoes

First brown the ground beef with the chili seasoning and drain the fat. Layer the bottom with the ground beef. Then a layer of sour cream over the beef, followed by a layer of refried beans. Melt the tomatillo's, diced tomatoes and cheese together in saucepot and then layer the remaining dish with the mix, followed by the shredded cheddar and jack.

Chill for an evening in the refrigerator. Bake at 300 deg. for 30 minutes, allowing 30 to cool and serve with tortilla cheeps and salsa.

Moving on to the essentials, we have Ryan Finney's Gourmet Chili. Due to the secrecy of this culinary masterpiece, this recipe will not be allowed to be posted online. But I'll put it this way- have you ever had pineapple and chili together before?








Next we have Hickory Smoked Ribs. There are probably about a few hundred different ways to do ribs, and there is no one perfect style, it all depends on what you feel like. This year we decided to try a smoker and see what would happen.



Tmans Ribs


Starting off you need smoker. You can spend a few thousand dollars on serious smokers, or you can try what we did. We went with a Char-Broil 4754512 Electric Water Smoker, which our local Home Depot had in a box for $60. It fits up to 50 pounds of meat and the electric smoker has the advantage of being consistent with the low heat making it pretty much idiot proof for your first smoker.



Thanks to some customer reviews of this particular smoker at Amazon.com, we figured out how to max the consistent "ideal" temperature for the smoker in cold weather by covering whole thing in a blanket.

After you decide on the smoker, you need something to smoke. We took Jack Daniels Smoking Chips which are made from old Jacd Daniels Whisky Barrels, espresso and "Made in the Shade" coffee beans from Bongo Java, and soaked them in apple cider and water.



Inside the smoker you have a water pan, and you have to make sure this stays filled during the smoking process so the meat doesnt't dry out (tip: in cold weather use hot water), so we learned to cover the water pan with foil and leave a hole in the pan. Our pan was filled with red wine, apple cider and water.


For the ribs themselves we went with the regular full size pork spareribs. First thing with ribs is to take the membrane off the back of the rack. Clip an end of the membrane and grip it with a paper towel, it should come off with one pull.



Next we used an overnight marinade consisting of Coca Cola, cayenne, cumin, bay leaves and Stubbs Barbeque Sauce.



Two hours before smoking, take out the ribs.



Cover in a dry rub, we used just your regular grocery store rib seasoning. I'm sure that you could make a better rub using your own ingredients, but this being our first smoking adventure we decided to keep it simple. Wrap them in foil and place some of the marinade in with the meat and chill.



After getting your smoker up and running your ribs should have been in the dry rub for at least hours. One way to fit a bunch of racks in the little sized smoker we had is to get a standing rack for the smoker. We stacked them like so-



Then the waiting begins. Another advantage of the electric smoker is that once you get it up and running, all you need to do is check the temperature every so often to make sure it's staying consistent. The Char Broil has a gauge that explains it for you.



A little Guitar Hero while we wait.



For a salute to DA BEARS!@#!@$!!! Adam had some authentic Chicago Deep Dish Pizzas flown in on dry ice.



Well done my friend, well done...



45 minutes to game time, pizzas are in the oven, chili is being served, and it's time for the ribs to take a bath in some Stubbs BBQ sauce..




Looking ok from here..we'll let you know how things turned out at halftime..


Ribs turned out just fine, as did the pizzas..




Zack brought the filet tips wrapped with bacon, jalapeno's and cream cheese.









Did I mention after we took the ribs out we put some Nathan Hot Dogs in the smoker for a couple of hours?

Gourmet Chili Dog folks..




Here's your 2007 Super Bowl cooking crew.



Ah screw the Colts, I threw up in my mouth a little when Peyton was handed the lombardi trophy, but it tasted great!!


Happy Super Bowl everyone!