What are you making for the “big game” tomorrow, RMT’ers?

I am going to punt a quick post to you all today with a few last-minute, EASY ideas for tomorrow’s fun and festivities.

Football Pocket Pies. Some call these hand pies. I’ve posted about these pies before (you can go here for the method and baking temps and times). Today, I made a couple of different flavors. First, I did a pizza-style one with ricotta, provolone, and salami. I mixed some dried thyme and oregano into the ricotta, and I layered some one-inch square piece of ricotta with half-slices of thin-cut salami and a teaspoon of the ricotta. Since each pie should only have about two tablespoons of filling, I did my layers like this: provolone, salami, ricotta, salami, ricotta, provolone. I am sorry I didn’t get a photo of the innards of this, but I think you get the idea. Just don’t overstuff the pies or they will pop while baking (practice is the best measure here, folks). After brushing the tops of the pies with the beaten egg, I sprinkled them with some more dried oregano to kick up that pizza flavor. I decorated these with mini-football cut-outs from my scraps of pie dough (complete with laces!).

I also made my fig and ricotta pocket pies. You can go here for more photos of this kind inside and out. I’ve made these a few times before, and since I always have the Trader Joe’s fig butter and ricotta on hand, it’s an easy one for me to throw together. I sprinkled these pies with some dried thyme and decorated these as actual footballs (one line of pie dough down the long center hashed with “laces” of dough to mimic the threads of the ball).

While the pocket pies were our lunch this afternoon (I didn’t have enough ingredients on hand to make a yield worth my efforts for tomorrow’s party), I did test a couple of items that I do plan to take to the big event.

Corn Dog Mini-Muffins. I saw this recipe on Savory Simple for corn dog mini-muffins, so I grabbed this one and ran with it. Total touchdown RMT’ers! T scarfed them up one after another. That’s good, because they really were as easy as advertised (10 minutes of prep; 10 minutes in the oven). The only amount of time omitted was the 10 minutes for T to scarf these down! And let’s just get it out there: Yes, they look a little like boobies. But they do taste great and appeal to kids and adults alike, so it works out.

Trader Joe’s Blondies with Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups and Fleur-de-Sel Caramel Drizzle. This is a dessert made entirely of TJs wonderful ready-to-bake/go items. Sure, I could just bake and bring the blondies (they alone are pretty tasty), but I’ve found they really do better by mixing in some other items (you can see my Aloha-inspired blondies creation here). I prepared the blondies mix as instructed, but then unwrapped 8 of the peanut butter cups, cut those in half, and stuck them into the pan 4×4 as shown above before baking (baking instructions are on the box; I went with the shorter time for a chewier texture).

After the blondies baked, I cooled them in-pan a few minutes then removed them from the pan (inverted on a baking sheet then re-inverted onto a cutting board) and drizzled the caramel topping over the top with a fork. I cooled that for about 10-15 minutes more before cutting. That’s it! These are sweet, but oh-so-yummy.

Enjoy eating your way through the big game tomorrow, RMT’ers!

NOTE: I made a few successful improvements to these three recipes here.