Ask An OC Expert: Best Recipes For Super Bowl Sunday

With Super Bowl Sunday coming up, party planning is already in motion. A perfect excuse to hang with friends or family, Super Bowl Sunday has just the right recipe for great snacking and cocktailing and all-in-good-fun fanfare. Whatever teams are in the game, Executive Chef Jay Bogsinske of Saint Marc Pub Café, Bakery & Cheese Affinage, says the goal of Super Bowl Sunday party food and beverages is to be batch prepped and plentiful. Chef Jay shares three recipes for at-home cooks that offer bold flavors and can be easily prepared.

Jay Bogsinske, Executive Chef
Saint Marc Pub Cafe
21058 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite M230
Huntington Beach, CA 92648
(714) 374 - 1101
www.saintmarcusa.comExecutive Chef and Senior Director of Culinary Operations Jay Bogsinke for Saint Marc is a master chef working and creating in the kitchen for the last 25 years in establishments including Nine 05 Modern Asian, Le Grande Orange, Zinc Bistro, Michael's at the Citadel and the St. Francis restaurant in Phoenix, and was chef de cuisine at The Phoenician's nouveau Italian Il Terrazzo. Bogsinske says when hosting a Super Bowl party have fun and go big, planning food to be plentiful and easy to serve. He also suggests sweet and salty, hot and cold and spicy and herbaceous pairings and serving cocktails that appeal to just about anyone, like white or red sangria or Prohibition Punch - and lots of beer, of course. Bogsinske offers three of his Saint Marc recipes that make Super Bowl classic eats that guests can pop right into their mouths while catching the game.

Bacon Wrapped Dates With Chive Cream Cheese & Vermont Maple SyrupIngredients

• 2 packs of your favorite bacon (roughly 20-30 slices) uncooked. Tender belly maple cured bacon is recommended.
• 40 pitted Medjool dates
• 8 oz. real Vermont maple syrup
• 4 oz. minced chives (2 oz. for cream cheese and 2 oz. for garnish)
• 1 package toothpicks

Ingredients for stuffing:

• 1 cup cream cheese
• 2 oz. minced chives
• 1 pinch of sea salt
• 2 or 3 grinds of black pepper
• 1 disposable plastic pastry bag

Directions

1. Leave cream cheese out at room temperature for 1 hour to soften.
2. In a small mixing bowl, mix by hand the cream cheese, chives, salt and pepper until evenly incorporated.
3. Put cheese mixture into pastry bag and cut a 1/4 inch hole in the tip of the bag. Pipe cream cheese into the pitted dates and reserve dates.
4. Line up your individual slices of bacon, cut in half, like soldiers in a row about a half an inch apart from each other.
5. Put a stuffed date at the front end of the bacon and roll the date one and a half times in bacon. This typically takes about a half a piece of bacon. Stab a toothpick through the bacon and date to secure bacon during cooking.
6. Repeat the process until all dates are wrapped. Put dates on a baking sheet and cook for 20-25 minutes on 350-degree convection depending on the thickness of bacon.
7. When golden brown they are ready.
8. Drizzle with Vermont maple syrup and sprinkle chives on top.

Blue CeleryIngredients

• 2 heads of celery
• 1 cup cream cheese
• 1 cup Maytag blue cheese
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 disposable pastry bag
• 1 small package walnuts
• 2 oz. minced chives
• 8 oz. agave syrup

Directions

1. Toast your walnuts either in a saute pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes with constant movement, or in an oven on a sheet pan at 350 degrees for 5-8 minutes.
2. Once toasted run a quick chop through them to get them to 1/4 inch pieces and reserve at room temp.
3. Combine cream cheese and blue cheese in a mixing bowl, add salt and pepper and mix with electric mixer to blend until smooth.
4. Put cheese mix into piping bag and cut a 1/4 inch hole in the tip.
5. Wash celery heads and then cut 4-inch pieces on a 45 degree bias cut.
6. Take each piece and pipe a row down the channel of the celery about a 1/2 inch wide. Sprinkle celery and blue cheese with the walnut pieces and minced chives.
7. Drizzle with agave syrup and serve.

Related: Best Cheese Shops In Orange County

Avocado CrostiniIngredients

• 2 baguettes
• 8 California Hass avocados
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• Olive oil

Directions

1. Pit and peel avocados into a mixing bowl.
2. Take a large spoon and chop through the avocados roughly.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste and mix one more time to ensure seasoning is evenly distributed.
4. Don't over chop or overmix. You want 1-inch chunks of avocado.
5. Cut sourdough baguettes on 45 degree angles 4-5-inches long.
6. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toast (bake or grill) until crostini are golden.
7. Take a large spoonful of avocado and smear each toast with avocado.
8. Sprinkle with sea salt and drizzle with olive oil.

Related: Orange County Farmers Market Guide

Sheryl Craig is a writer with a passion for interesting finds and treasures in Los Angeles. She has a background in journalism and public relations. A mother of two daughters, Sheryl integrates her healthy lifestyle into raising her children. Her work can be found at Examiner.com.