Today we hosted a small Super Bowl party at our house. We tried to combine some all-American favorites (chips and guacamole and pumpkin pie) with some of our own family favorites (lamb ragu and one of our all time favorite appetizers -from the Swiss side of the family — melted raclette cheese with boiled potatoes). Russ and Erica brought pita and hummus and a great salad, and Mom said it was a very “eclectic” but delicious tail gate. Plus the Broncos won. (Sorry Carolina fans–we did think about making shrimp and grits in your honor but that’s too much work during the game, and we wanted to make it simple. Plus Mom was for the Broncos). So we made the pumpkin pie the day before, and the lamb ragu (which is simple and fast…thanks Mark Bittman) a few hours before game time so we didn’t have to miss any of the game. Mom started the water for the pasta after the first quarter and reheated the sauce, so we all ate that at half time.
For the raclette, we boiled the potatoes 1/2 hour before the game and melted the raclette on our special Swiss electric raclette grill during the first half….we set the grill up in front of the TV. Our (Swiss) grandmother gave the raclette grill to our dad before we were born, and its become part of our family food traditions. We are undecided as to whether we like fondue or raclette better. Both are fun to make and to eat.
For the pumpkin pie, Ali and I started it on Saturday to 1) give it time to cool(no one likes mushy pumpkin pie) and 2) We OBVIOUSLY could not of been cooking during the super bowl, so it makes sense to prepare it the night before. We started this classic dish by mixing salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Then we added this mixture to evaporated milk and the cooked pumpkin and voila the pumpkin mixture is ready! We then poured the mixture into a pie with graham cracker crust. Since there was leftover mixture we cooked miniature pumpkin bread.
Pre game appetizers: guacamole, hummus and raclette grill heating up.
Melting raclette on our raclette grill.
Ingredients for Lamb Ragu (so simple: onion, lamb, tomatoes, olive oil…) oh and a little milk at the end
Cooking lamb and onions for lamb ragu
Adding in tomatoes to lamb ragus sauce
Almost done…just need to simmer and add milk
Pumpkin pie and mini pumpkin bread
