As I am writing this, ALL of our teams have basically pretty much sucked so far early in this season. “All” being my Chicago Bears, my hubby’s Seattle Seahawks, our neighbor Phyllis’s Philadelphia Eagles, and her hubby, Wally’s, New York Giants. ALL of our teams have yet to win a single game!!!! Hahahahahaha!!!!! WAY too funny.

Or, at least it was….until today. You see, as I write this, it’s Sunday, and almost 1:30 in the afternoon right now….and at 4:00 p.m., mine and my hubby’s team go helmet to helmet….in Seattle….the LOUDEST stadium in the NFL. Oh, joy.

This. Is not. Going to be good.

Luckily, I’m a much better loser than my hubby is, and I’m (sadly) already preparing for the Bears to lose. (I’m also a much nicer winner, and promise not to rub his nose in it if the Bears should actually happen to get lucky and win.) Pinky swear. 🙂

But the food will be good, the beers will be cold, and I promise not to kill him with my cast iron skillet over his head when he does his victory dance in the middle of the living room floor. 😉

I just plain love the game of football, and enjoy fixing fun treats to munch on and pig out with on game day! Camaraderie and rivalry can actually be a blast, and we’re both looking forward to the game.

At least we know ONE of our teams between the four of us is going to win today! 😀

So today’s game day grub are my chicken thigh tenders that will make your knees weak, accompanied by my Beer-Battered Sweet Cubanelle Rings!

I have been very blessed this year with growing tomatoes and peppers like they’re the last ones on the planet! Half the summer and now into fall, I’ve been up to my EYEBALLS in peppers, and today’s pick was 23 of them!!!! I gave almost half of them to our neighbors because both of my freezers are about to EXPLODE, and I’m starting to just plain get tired of them.

Sooooo, I’ve been using them in every possible way that I can think of. And this quick and pathetically easy recipe was a smash hit! I’m an onion ring and fried mushroom lover, and I’d take these over BOTH of those ANY day!

I whipped up a simple beer batter that literally takes seconds to make, and added just a hint of heat to balance out the sweetness of the peppers, and fried up those cubanelles into heavenly little rings of goodness!

I’m a dipper, a greedy dipper at that, I admit it! So sauces were definitely going to be made and served alongside! I’m a kid at heart and love to dip, what can I say? 😀

The first dipping sauce is simply TO. DIE. FOR. Omg….SO simple and incredibly delicious! Who says good things have to have umpteen ingredients to taste great??

It’s a repeat of the coating sauce, but mayo being the base instead of the extension. This combo of creamy mayo, basil pesto, and spicy brown mustard just can’t be beat!

This is the second sauce, that would also be very good with this! So, in case you run out of pesto, or want a variety of several sauces to choose from, this Honey-Mustard Ranch dipping sauce also goes very well with this!

So if you’re ready for some new Football Grub recipes for Game Day, you just landed in the right place! 😀

I used to cook for over 200 people on Super Bowl Sundays back at a club that I belonged to in Indiana, and it’s time to get my game day recipes back out and share! There will be a lot more fun coming soon, but for now, keep these little gems in mind! They may be simple, but they’re HIGHLY addictive and sooooo good!! And they really take almost no time to make using very few ingredients, most of which you probably already have right on hand!

Hope you enjoy, have a blast watching the games, and football gods give us strength not to kill those who dance a little too long in the end zone! 😉

Recipe for my Pesto Mustard Chicken Thigh Tenders here.

4 servings

Beer-Battered Sweet Red Cubanelle Rings

Ingredients

3 - 4 large sweet red cubanelle peppers, (depending on size), sliced into 1/2" wide rings
oil for frying

For Batter:

1 cup flour
1 cup beer
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. creole seasoning

Basil Pesto-Mustard Dipping Sauce:

1/2 cup heavy mayo such as Hellmann's
2 tsp. basil pesto
2 tsp. spicy brown mustard

Honey-Mustard Ranch Dipping Sauce:

1/4 cup bottled Ranch Dressing
1/2 tsp. real honey
1/4 tsp. spicy brown, Dijon or regular table mustard

Instructions

Slice off stem ends of peppers, take hold pot the seed pod inside and twist to remove. Shake out any seeds left inside. Slice into 1/2" rings.

In small to medium-sized bowl, whisk together batter ingredients until smooth, but can still have tiny lumps.

In large deep frying pan, heat 1½ - 2" of oil for frying until about 365º degrees. You don't want it overly hot.

Carefully well-coat and drop pepper rings, in batches, into oil. Peppers should rise to top immediately if oil is hot enough. (*Do one to test first.) Fry and turn with for even browning on both sides for about 5 -8 minutes depending on type of oil and how hot it is. They will be a light golden brown color.

Remove with a strainer or tongs to a paper towel lined rack placed over a baking sheet to rest. Continue until all are done.

In two small bowls, stir sauce ingredients for dipping.

Serve peppers hot with choice of dipping sauces.