The Super Bowl is in 3 days, so today and tomorrow, I’ve got a few party dips to share with you. These first two represent the two teams I’d rather see in the Super Bowl. Number one is, of course, my Arizona Cardinals. And the second would be the Green Bay Packers. I do realize that these two teams could never be in the Super Bowl together since they are both in the NFC (along with the New York Giants). But still, I’ve created a couple of dips as my show of support for next year. It was great coming up with the ideas for these recipes while looking online for fantasy football news and updates about the two final teams.

Tomorrow I’ll share the dips I created for the actual teams in Super Bowl XLVI, the New England Patriots, and the New York Giants.

Here in AZ, we love our heat and peppers. In Wisconsin, they love their cheese and beer. And we all love bacon…

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This is the final recipe from the grand lobster bake I hosted a week and a half ago.

First off, a few disclaimers. The photo above and 2 more in the body of the recipe (you will easily spot them!) is not my own but from an article in Fine Cooking. This recipe is inspired by the recipe in that article, created by the renowned baker and cookbook author, Rose Levy Beranbaum.  The reason for the snatched photos – yeah, I didn’t take enough while assembling the pie and when I served it at the lobster bake, I was in such a rush, I didn’t get a quality photo of a sliced piece either. No matter, this is one incredible pie~

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Good Tuesday morning! Thank you all for the lovely comments, the Facebook “likes”, and for encouraging your Facebook friends to also “like” LPG. The number of LPG “likes” went from 277 to 291, which is perfectly wonderful.

As I said yesterday, not one of the new 291 told me who suggested that they “like” LPG, but after some top-notch investigative work, I was able to determine the origin of several of the newbies. I discovered that the top two “saleswomen” were Jeanie Hays, who brought in at least three new people, and Amy Kilpatrick, who brought in at least two new people. In addition, Amy posted 4 comments here on the blog and Jeanie posted 1 comment. So Amy and Jeanie had the most tickets in the drawing – with 10 each!

All in all, there were 23 different people’s names in the big salad bowl with a total of 63 tickets. This is high-level math for me, so imagine the work involved – I believe that I  have a little tension headache from it! But alas…. we have our winners! And they are ~

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Just a quick reminder that our CONTEST ends tonight at midnight.

Thus far, LPG Facebook followers have increased from 277 to 291! Shy of my 325 goal, but steadily increasing, which is so encouraging.

The only Problem – NOT ONE of the new followers has told me that YOU (or anyone else for that matter) told them to follow LPG, so how can I give you the 3 tickets you deserve?!? I suppose it is possible that all the new followers are already blog followers who are just now following LPG on Facebook, and either way, each of them receives two tickets in the drawing… but if you sent them there, I need to know… by midnight tonight.

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Like just about everyone else I know, I love Mason jars! Check out my Mason jar Pinterest board to see just a few of the wonderful ideas clever people have come up with using these American icons. How about a little Wikipedia info on the beloved jars…

“A Mason jar is a glass jar used in canning to preserve food. It was invented and patented by John Landis Mason, a Philadelphia tinsmith in 1858. They are also called Ball jars, after Ball Corp., a popular and early manufacturer of the jars; fruit jars because they are often used to store fruit; “jam jars” or generically glass canning jars. While largely supplanted by other methods for commercial mass-production, they are still commonly used in home canning.”

I baked the cobblers for the clambake in wide-mouth (squat and fat) half-pint Kerr Mason jars and served homemade vanilla ice cream in regular-mouth (tall and thin) half-pint jars. Just as when using for canning, first sterilize the jars with boiling water – and when using for baking, place them in a water bath to prevent the jars from cracking.

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These potatoes are ridiculously easy and delicious. I used the milk solids that I’d skimmed from the pound of butter that I clarified for the lobster bake. Love being above using something that might have otherwise been wasted.

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Yeah, I’ve got a brand new thing that is totally wasting all my time… so much so, that I do not even remotely want to post another Lobster Bake recipe today… tomorrow, I promise! 

Instead, today I shall tell you about my addiction … AND… we shall have a little give-away.  Sound Fun? YES IT DOES!!!

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Succotash is a hot bean and corn dish that was  popular during the Great Depression because of the ingredients were more readily available than most other foods and relatively less expensive. I’m not a fan of traditional succotash… but turn it into a cold salad with basil dressing, and I’m all in!

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These buttery rolls are surprisingly light, perfect for soaking up the broth from the lobster bake.

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Along with the “stars” of the night… the actual lobsters, the clambake was the main course of the lobster bake evening.  The lobsters can be cooked right along with the whole “bake” but I, for one, don’t have a pot big enough to hold everything. As a result, the lobsters were boiled separately.

Since I wasn’t sure of any of the guests’ dietary restrictions, instead of the kielbasa I would generally use, I found a fabulous spicy chicken and spinach sausage at Costco and used that.  I also separated out the corn and served it next to some potatoes on the buffet, just because this time it fit better that way. But for that added pop of color, I would usually leave the corn in the “bake” as I have pictured above.

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