Super Bowl Quiz

We had a wonderful time at our Super Bowl Party yesterday. I say "our" but actually my 16-year-old son spear-headed the whole event. I thought he did a great job. He planned the guest list, the menu, the decorations, the food, and did all the set up and take-down.

My son also organized a couple of different football-related games for during the party. One of them was a Super Bowl trivia quiz, which he wrote himself. I've pasted the quiz below. We had a trivia quiz at last year's party and everyone said it was too hard. So, this year my son tried to include a mix of easy, medium and more challenging questions in the quiz. Yesterday's winning guest won with a score of 75 percent. Why don't you try out the quiz and see how you do?!!

SUPERBOWL XLVI TRIVIA GAME

GRAND PRIZE: Superbowl XLVI Mug with Bonus T-Shirt

Question 1. CATEGORY: EASY
What is the name of the team with a blue star as a logo?
A. Jacksonville Jaguars
B. Houston Texans
C. Tennessee Titans
D. Dallas Cowboys

Question 2. CATEGORY: EASY
Which team does Eli Manning currently plan for?
A. Indianapolis Colts
B. New York Giants
C. Denver Broncos
D. None of the Above

Question 3. CATEGORY: EASY
Which one of these teams is based in Illinois?
A. Bears
B. Cardinals
C. Chargers
D. Panthers

Question 4. CATEGORY: MEDIUM
How many teams have never been to a superbowl?
A. 1
B. 4
C. 2
D. Every team has been in at least one superbowl.

Question 5. CATEGORY: MEDIUM
Which team went to four straight superbowls and lost all 4?
A. Raiders
B. Steelers
C. Vikings
D. Bills

Question 6. CATEGORY: MEDIUM
Which two teams participated in Superbowl III?
A. New York Jets & Baltimore Colts
B. Green Bay Packers & Kansas City Chiefs
C. Green Bay Packers & Miami Dolphins
D. Minnesota Vikings & Kansas City Chiefs

Question 7. CATEGORY: HARD
What was the name of the Tennessee Titans before they became the Tennessee Titans?
A.Houston Titans
B.Houston Oilers
C.Tennessee Oilers
D. Chicago Fire

Question 8. CATEGORY: EASY (Short Answer)
Name five NFL Quarterbacks:

Question 9. CATEGORY: EASY (Short Answer)
Name five NFL Running Backs:

Question 10. CATEGORY: MEDIUM
Who has played both baseball and football professionaly?
A. Tom Brady
B. Marshall Faulk
C. Deion Sanders
D. Peyton Manning

Question 11. CATEGORY: EASY
Who is the current starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys?
A. Drew Bledsoe
B. Troy Aikman
C. John Kitna
D. Tony Romo

Question 12. CATEGORY: EASY
Whatone of these teams played in Superbowl 46?
A. Cleveland Browns
B. New England Patriots
C. Carolina Panthers
D. Detroit Lions

Question 13. CATEGORY: MEDIUM
Which NFL team has won the most superbowls?
A.Pittsburgh Steelers
B. Dallas Cowboys
C. New England Patriots
D. Denver Broncos

Question 14. CATEGORY: MEDIUM
Who was the superbowl I MVP?
A.Bart Starr
B. Joe Namath
C.John Elway
D. Vince Lombardi

Question 15. CATEGORY: EXTREME
What was the final score of Superbowl XLII?
A.Patriots 17,Giants,14
B.Giants 20, Patriots 17
C. Giants 17, Patriots 14
D. Patriots 20, Giants 17

Question 16. CATEGORY: EXTREME (Short Answer)
Which player has gained the most MVP (most valuable player) awards?

Question 17. CATEGORY: HARD
Which player holds the record for most passing yards in a single season?
A. Drew Brees
B. Tom Brady
C. Matthew Stafford
D. Dan Marino

Question 18. CATEGORY: EXTREME
Who did the Patriots beat in Superbowl XXXVI?
A. Denver Broncos
B. Philidelphia Eagles
C. Carolina Panthers
D. St. Louis Rams

Question 19. CATEGORY: EXTREME
How many people approximently watched Superbowl XLV (last year)?
A. 50 Million Est.
B. 162.9 Million Est.
C. 200 Million Est.
D. 500 Million Est.

Question 20. CATEGORY: EXTREMEW
Which City/Area has hosted the most superbowls to date?
A. City of Tampa Bay
B. Los Angeles Area
C. City of New Orleans
D. City of Miami

Answers: D, B, A, B, D, A, C, C, D, B, A, A, C, Joe Montana, A, D, B, D,

Homemade Spinach and Chicken Ravioli

Today’s adventure was making homemade spinach and chicken ravioli. We had it for dinner tonight, and I made a lot extra to freeze, which I’ll serve to company at a dinner party in a couple weeks. To me, there’s nothing yummier than freshly-made homemade pasta (or homemade pasta that’s been frozen and thawed!).

I’ll be honest with you…it’s a several hour project to make your own ravioli. But…it’s just as easy to make several batches at once rather than just one. So I make a lot at a time and freeze it, which in that sense is a time saver. Now, in addition to having dinner ready for my family for tonight, I’ve got homemade ravioli frozen to serve to future dinner guests, and it’s all set to go.

I use pasta and filling recipes from a Cook’s Illustrated book, The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles. I have “tweaked” the recipes a bit though. In this blog post, I’ll give you a rundown of the ravioli making operation at my house.

First, I’ll start with the recipes:

PASTA:

3 cups all-purpose, semolina or bread flour
1 tsp. salt
5 large-eggs, beaten
1-2 tsp. cold water

Place flour in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pour in flour and salt. Pulse food processor a few times to evenly distribute salt. Add eggs and pulse until mixture starts to cling together. It should come together in one large mass, without sticking to the sides. Mixture should not be wet. If it doesn’t stick together, add 1-2 tsp cold water, a half teaspoon at a time. Once it holds together, remove dough from food processor. Knead about a minute, until dough is smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for about 30 to 60 minutes. This will make the dough easier to handle. While the dough is “resting” in the fridge, make the filling.

Here's a dough ball, resting...

FILLING:

¾ cup thawed, frozen spinach
1 cup cooked chicken breast cubes
1 small onion
2 T. butter
½ tsp. salt
1 cup ricotta cheese (whole or part skim)
¾ cup Parmesan cheese (ideally freshly grated)

Put chicken in food processor and pulse until chicken is coarsely ground. Set chicken aside. Next, squeeze out excess water from the spinach. Then put spinach in the food processor and pulse until spinach is chopped fine. Set spinach aside. Next, dice onion in food processor. Melt butter in large saucepan and add spinach and onion. Stir about 5 minutes, until onion is cooked and tender. Add salt, chicken and cheeses. Filling is now ready. (At this point, you can refrigerate the filling—up to one day—until you are ready to assemble your ravioli. This is actually a good time-saver; making both the pasta and filling for the ravioli, and assembling it, can be too time consuming for one day.)

Here's a photo of the filling, ready to be put into the ravioli:

To assemble your ravioli, you will need a pasta machine (to roll out the dough). It’s also helpful to have a ravioli maker to help you shape your raviolis (If you don’t have one, you can just put one sheet of dough on top of anther, and cut out your squares using a pastry wheel cutter—with a small spoonful of filling in the center of each.). The ravioli maker I use is made by Norpro, and consists of two parts—a metal frame that has 12 “holes” in it, and an indented, egg-carton shaped plastic form.

I’ll post a series of photos here so that you can see the process. Basically, what you do is use your pasta machine to roll out strips of the pasta dough. Start rolling your dough at the thickest width setting, and then pass the dough sheets through the machine several times, each time at a thinner thickness, until you’ve the dough’s been through the thinnest setting. The dough will be thin and translucent.



Next, cut out 12X4 inch strips of dough. Place a strip onto the metal frame (dust the strip of dough with flour first, which will make for easier removal of the ravioli squares when you’re finished).

Use the egg carton-shaped form to make indentations in each square. Fill each of these indentations with a rounded teaspoonful worth of filling.


Then place a second 12X4 inch strip of dough on top of that (again, lightly flouring the dough strip first). Roll across the covered frame with a wooden rolling pin. This will seal the two layers of dough together. The edges of the frame—showing the outlines of each ravioli square—will start to show through as you’re rolling.


When you can clearly see the metal edges, turn the ravioli form over and lightly tap it on the countertop. The raviolis will fall onto the countertop surface. If they don’t fall out by themselves, you can use the edge of a paring knife to carefully pry the ravioli squares out of the form.



Place the ravioli on a cookie sheet lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper. Freeze for about an hour to harden the ravioli so that they won’t stick together when you’re storing them. You can then put the ravioli in freezer bags and freeze them. They freeze well for 1-2 months. Or, if you’re going to prepare the ravioli fairly soon, you can store the ravioli in the refrigerator for 1-2 days before cooking them.

If you’ve frozen the ravioli, thaw them in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours before cooking them. To cook the ravioli, place them in salted, boiling water. Let them cook for 8 minutes or until tender. Serve covered with marinara or Alfredo sauce.

I like to serve these ravioli with Afredo sauce. Here’s my recipe:

ALFREDO SAUCE:

½ cup butter
4 T. cream cheese, softened
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half and half
1 tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
2/3 cup freshly-grated Parmesan cheese

In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Add cream cheese and stir until blended with butter. Stir in heavy cream and half and half. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Simmer for about 15 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!
~Becky