Day 14: Chipotle Chili, Beer-Battered Onion Rings, Homemade Guacamole, Knock-You-Naked Brownies

There are so many game-day dips, dinners, and designs that are so much better than my humble spread!  Thanks to social media and pinterest, people everywhere tonight are putting together guacamole dips in the shape of a football field, snacks laid out like stadiums, and cakes in the shapes of footballs.  Maybe it's because the Pats aren't in the superbowl this year and I'm not a Bruno Mars fan, or maybe I'm just too partied-out thanks to a very crazy pre and post holiday season, but there's not much going on over here for the big game tonight.  In fact, I'm quite certain I'd much rather start watching season 8 of Dexter than the superbowl, but we did invite a few people over, and I'd been asked numerous times what I'm making for the game, so in the spirit of the game, here we are!  The good thing about making a "traditional" dish at the "traditional" time is that all the ingredients are on sale at the grocery store!  Avocados were at an awesome price, chili ingredients were all marked down, and of course tortilla chips were a steal.  Here's what we're serving at the Dattolo house tonight:

Chipotle Chili
2.5 lbs boneless stew meat (cut into chunks)

1/3 cup masa harina (or cornmeal or flour)
1 TB cumin
1/4 tsp salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 lg onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 TB canned chipotle chiles, chopped, plus 1 TB of the adobo sauce
3 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes w/ green chiles
14.5 oz beef broth
1 TB brown sugar
*Garnish: cheese, sour cream, avocado
Toss the meat with the cornmeal, cumin, and salt.  Place in slow-cooker.  Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on high for about 2-2.5 hours.  Serve with sour cream, cheese, and sliced avocado.  Serve with cornbread.  For skillet cornbread recipe, see Day 7.

Beer-Battered Onion Rings
Slice an onion into thick rings.  Soak in buttermilk with hot sauce, salt, pepper, and some thyme and refrigerate for a few hours.  When ready to fry, heat vegetable oil in a large pot on the stove.  For the batter, combine 1 cup of flour with 12 oz medium-bodied beer.  Mix to rid of any lumps.  To test that the oil is ready, you can drop a little batter into the oil.  If the batter sizzles and rises right to the top, the oil is hot enough.  Dip the onions into the batter to coat, and then in the oil until golden brown.  Remove from oil and place on a paper toweled-plate.

Onion Ring Dip

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
juice of 1/2 - 1 lime
hot sauce (to taste)
salt, pepper (to taste)
chipotle chili powder (1 tsp or to taste)
Mix well and refrigerate.

Homemade Guacamole
4 avocadoes
1/2 jalapeno, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
juice of 1/2 - 1 lime
hot sauce, to taste
salt, pepper, to taste
chipotle chili powder, to taste
Mix ingredients in the bowl of a food processor.  Blend until desired consistency.  *Be liberal with the salt!  Avocados are very mild, so the salt will really help to bring out the flavor.

Knock-You-Naked Brownies (recipe courtesy of one of my biggest culinary inspirations, Ree Drummond)
German chocolate cake mix
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/3 cup evaporated milk, plus 1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 pkg chewy caramel candies
1/2 cup (or more) chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350*.  Over a double-boiler, melt the caramels with 1/2 cup evaporated milk.  While the caramel melts, combine the cake mix, butter, pecans, and 1/3 cup evaporated milk.  The dough will be thick!  Press half of the dough into a greased 8 x 8 baking pan.  Bake for 8-10 minutes to set.  Remove from the oven and let cool about 1 minute.  Pour the melted caramel over the dough, and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top.  Press the remaining dough into the shape of a rectangle on a cutting board, then carefully place on top of the chocolate chips.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Let cool and refrigerate to set.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Enjoy!

Happy Superbowl Sunday and may the best team win! :)