A while back I posted about the Snackadium created by Pillsbury, and although it was completely ridiculous, I decided to make one for last year’s Super Bowl. Pillsbury supplied instructions on a more tame version, which suited our crowd a bit better than the masterful displays of engineering you may see around Pinterest and blogs this time of year.

Here is what we came up with:

I feel it isn’t bad for our first try. I didn’t have a large enough “vessel” that resembled a stadium and I certainly didn’t have the time or materials to build one. This year I have come into possession of something that I think will do the trick so stay tuned for the post-mortum entry on SNACKADIUM 0H’ 15. For last year’s stadium, I made homemade guacamole for the field, which I highly recommend. I don’t really have a recipe for this because the proportions of ingredients change every time I make it. You just have to keep tasting until it is right. Basically, it is avocados, limes, red onion, jalapeno, cilantro, SALT. I live in Southern California so decent avocados are plentiful and cheap pretty much year round. I really dislike store bought or packaged guacamole, but if that is all you have then I suppose you are stuck. Costco has a decent packaged guacamole if you are in a bind. Protip: if you care about how photogenic your snackadium is, put the guacamole out last.

Our other snacks featured are mini crescent dogs (recipe here; I cut the crescent triangles in half with a pizza cutter, not thirds), store bought chicken tenders, baby carrots, different types of chips (one being the Garlic and Black Bean Tostitos, which are way better than they have any right to be – highly recommended), hummus, salsa, and 15 assorted sandwiches. When I decided upon making so many sandwiches for the perimeter I thought two things: everyone loves sandwiches, and how long could it possibly take to make 8-10 sandwiches? As it turns out, a very very long time. I think I cut all the onions and and tomatoes and such earlier in the day to save me some time later, but I didn’t start making the sandwiches until everyone had already arrived. This was a huge mistake. I guess I could have just slapped some meat and cheese between two pieces of bread and called it a day, but that would have been too easy. The sandwich making seemed to go on forever and was horribly laborious and I will not be making sandwiches for this year’s snackadium. I would like to point out that Pillsbury suggests baking their refrigerated french loaf dough for the bread portion of the sandwiches. THAT IS INSANE. I bought sandwich rolls at the grocery store for like $3.50 a sack and they were perfectly fine.

This year’s snackadium will be a group effort and my contribution will be the mini crescent rolls, Sriracha lime chicken wings, and mini wraps of hummus, bacon, tomato and lettuce wrapped in a spinach tortilla. My dad will be making bacon wrapped scallops, which are always a crowd pleaser. I will try to get pictures and the recipe from him, but I think it is just scallops wrapped in bacon with tobasco and lemon pepper that you pin together with a tooth pick and grill. You can also use shrimp. Anyway, I hope you all have a delicious Super Bowl