Fiesta Dinnerware has so many colors to choose from (15 in all), which make it really easy to show your team spirit! But maybe your team isn’t battling it out for number one this year, or maybe like us, you choose to remain neutral. No problem! For this blog post, we decided to go with Shamrock, Slate and White.
Game Day Décor
You don’t have to go over the top on decorations for a football party. We kept it simple for our table, with a focus on the food. We incorporated black and white stripes here and there with some fun paper, banners and whimsical straws to represent the look of a referee uniform. All things chalk board are “in” right now, so how could we pass up the opportunity to recreate that classic look of a game play scrawled out on a tabletop chalkboard? We incorporated some turf on our table to represent the football field, along with some tiny footballs and these great farm stand boxes to hold our delicious popcorn. To make the boxes a little prettier, we tied raffia around them and added some football-themed stickers. We found game-day toothpicks to give our appetizers a look of team spirit, as well.
Maple Bacon Jalapeño Poppers
Most people make jalapeño poppers with some sort of cream cheese variation. We have a delicious new take on this recipe. Instead of cream cheese, we filled the jalapeños with a combination of maple syrup and Swiss cheese and wrapped it all in bacon. It may sound strange to add maple syrup to jalapeño poppers, but trust us, it is delicious! The addition of the maple syrup helps to balance out the heat of the peppers and works so well with the bacon. If you’ve ever tried candied bacon, you know how well maple syrup and bacon work together!
- 2 cups of Biscoff crumbs (1.5-8.8oz packages)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tsp salt
- 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 16 ounces mascarpone, room temp
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 13.4 ounces cookie butter (1 jar)
- Grind Biscoff cookies in a food processor until fine crumbs. Mix in melted butter. The mixture should be crumbly and hold together when pinched. Press into a 9” or 10” springform pan and chill in the refrigerator while making batter.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream sugar and cream cheese in a stand mixer or with hand mixer. Beat until fluffy. Add mascarpone and beat until fully incorporated. Add eggs one at a time, making sure to scrape down the bowl after each addition. Add vanilla and mix well.
- Reserve one cup of batter and set aside. Pour the remaining batter into the crust. Add the cookie butter to reserved batter and beat until incorporated and smooth. Dollop tablespoons of cookie butter batter on top of the plain cheesecake batter to create a dotted surface. Then, take a knife and swirl the cookie butter batter into the plain batter in small circular motions.
- Place cheesecake onto a rimmed baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees for one hour or until it is puffy, dry around the edge but wet in the center. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate uncovered overnight. Serve chilled.
Spicy Caramel Popcorn
The idea for this snack is from A Cozy Kitchen’s Spicy Caramel Bacon Popcorn recipe. We decided not to overdo the bacon since we already used that in the jalapeño poppers, so we eliminated that ingredient. Even without the bacon, this popcorn has a deliciously addictive flavor. But if you’re a bacon enthusiast, by all means, go ahead and include it! (You’ll notice we made a big batch in one of our Baking Bowls. We suggest you do the same!)
Greek Salad Skewers
Instead of making a full salad, we decided to make something that would be easy for guests to snack on while watching the game. We put together these fun Greek Salad Skewers with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese, Greek olives, and Greek dressing. These salad skewers are so easy to make and you can even do different variations like pasta salad skewers or wedge salad skewers.
Sparkling Minted Limeade
For the drinks, we went light and refreshing to balance out some of that heat from the jalapeños and the spicy popcorn. Sparkling Minted Limeade can easily be transformed into a mojito with a little white rum, if you prefer. We love this drink because it is not overly sweet and has such a fresh flavor.
- cooking spray
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 8 maraschino cherries
- 1 can sliced ring pineapple
- 1 (18.25 ounce) package pineapple cake mix (such as Duncan Hines® Pineapple Supreme)
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/3 cups pineapple juice
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- Move an oven rack into the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Spray 8 Ramekins with cooking spray.
- Spoon 2 teaspoon melted butter into the bottom of each sprayed Ramekins.
- Spoon 2 tablespoon brown sugar in each Ramekins.
- Place sliced pineapple into the bottom of the Ramekins
- Place a maraschino cherry into the center of the pineapple ring in each FIESTA ramekins.
- Mix pineapple cake mix, eggs, pineapple juice, and vegetable oil in a large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until moistened, about 30 seconds. Turn mixer speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes.
- Pour pineapple cake batter into the Ramekins filling them ¾ full; do not overfill.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a pineapple cake comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
- Allow cupcakes to cool at least 5 minutes before inverting Ramekins onto the Fiesta appetizer plate to release. Serve with pineapple and cherry sides up.
