Super Bowl! Nachos and Dirt Cake

Man, you know what it turns out is really fun? Watching the Super Bowl when you actually care which team wins! I realize this post is super-delayed, but listen, I’ve been real busy, okay?

Every year at the Ehrlich household, we watch the Super Bowl and eat delicious treats. Sometimes we’ll order Buffalo wings, sometimes Mom and Dad will have a whole bunch of people over and order sandwiches and cookies and all sorts of goodies, and I’ll never forget the party we had the year that the Bucs won. But the one thing that really stands out in my mind is my mom’s nachos.

These things are bitchin’. I’m sorry, but that is the only way I can describe them. Mary Jo’s nachos* are absolutely off the chains. They are savory and tangy and spicy and complex, and I was always thrilled whenever she made them. They had green peppers and onions in them, yes, but that elusive flavor was so addicting that I didn’t mind eating around them. The Super Bowl and Mom’s Nachos are always going to be connected in my brain.

*Apparently they are actually Anne Kremer's nachos. Anne, your nachos are delicious.

So this year, trapped in my snowy house with only my housemates for company (which isn’t a bad thing- again, they’re great guys), I decided that I would have my own Super Bowl party just for me. I was gonna make Mom’s Nachos and dirt cake, and I was going to eat them and watch the gosh darned Super Bowl. AND I was going to cheer for a team! Hah! Take that, winter!

During the afternoon I made my dirt cake, and I’ll put the recipe at the bottom of the page because I have a feeling not very many people actually want to read it.

I made my nachos after the first quarter. I got out my ingredients: 1 lb ground beef, 2 cloves of garlic, a can of dark red kidney beans, a 16oz bottle of ketchup, a jar of Chili powder, a jar of garlic powder, salt, and Tabasco sauce.

“Who are you rooting for?” Andrew asked me as I minced the garlic.

“Um… I dunno. Who is playing who again? There’s the guys in gold pants versus the guys in blue…” I answered, dropping the minced garlic into my pan of simmering ground beef.

“Yeah, the New Orleans Saints are playing the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts are the guys in blue, they’re up by 10 right now,” Andrew informed me as I dumped a can of drained dark red kidney beans to my delightful meaty medley.

“New Orleans, huh? Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits is from New Orleans. I LOVE Popeyes fried chicken! I am going to root for New Orleans,” I happily declared while adding a generous amount of chili powder, salt, and garlic powder to my pan.

“Things aren’t looking good for them, Rachel,” Andrew reminded me as I dumped about half a bottle of ketchup onto my meat.

“That’s alright, I’m loyal to fried chicken,” I added a couple shakes of Tabasco sauce.

“Man, that smells really good.”

“Right? Let’s pour this over some chips and melt some cheese on this bad boy!”

In no time at all Andrew and I were back in his room, watching the Super Bowl and eating some spectacular nachos. Cooking for yourself is awesome because you can leave out the things you don’t like, such as the green peppers and onions. Eugh.

After we finished our nachos I cracked open my dirt cake, and we indulged in that while watching team fried chicken win an amazing and totally unexpected victory. What a great Super Bowl! Go Popeyes! If I had been a true fan I would have gone to Popeyes to celebrate, but at this point I was pretty full.

Dirt Cake:

Ingredients- 1 package Oreos, 2 packets instant chocolate pudding, 4 cups milk, 1 packet cool whip, 1 bag gummy worms (or gummy bears, in my case.)

Follow the directions for the chocolate pudding and get that all made. While the pudding is setting, crush up about 7 Oreos and place them at the bottom of whatever you are serving your dirt cake in. Then, mix in as much of the cool whip as you’d like with the chocolate pudding- I use the whole thing so the pudding is fluffy and light. Layer some of the pudding-cool whip mixture on top of the Oreos, and then add another layer of crushed Oreos. At this point you can top it with some gummy worms if you’d like- some people like to only have them on top, others layer them throughout the cake (or, really pudding). I put some gummy bears in the middle, and decided to call mine “horrible earthquake cake” rather than dirt cake. Add one more layer of pudding, and then top it again with a layer of crushed Oreos and gummy bears/worms. Simple, but so delicious!