Husker Football Tailgate: Week 11- Rutgers

What comes around goes around. It’s an old axiom. Nebraska beat Michigan State, who beat Oregon, who beat Washington, who beat USC, who beat Utah, who beat Cal, who beat Texas, who beat Oklahoma, who beat Tennessee, who beat Georgia, who beat South Carolina, who beat North Carolina, who beat Duke, who beat Virginia Tech, who beat Purdue, who beat … Nebraska. I am going on record for saying Coach Riley will have them winning out the rest of the season.

Peanut butter brownie bars (photo Kelli Anne)

If you were out in the sunshine tailgating on Saturday I’m sure you had a great time. Some of the best memories of the day were fathers and sons playing catch with a football, lots of people talking optimistically about the game to come, fans still supporting the Huskers after a tough week, and some parking lot dancing afterward.

Up next for Big Red is Rutgers and even though they are 3-6, they have played Ohio State and Michigan so it wasn’t a cupcake schedule. With more guys coming back from injury the defense looked better and the receivers were stellar. A 2:30 kickoff and the game on BTN tv means some home cooked goodness this week. I’ve got a dessert (see above) proving “how sweet the victory” and a munchie that you just can’t help but pop into your mouth, the Pepperoni bites. They lasted all of 15 minutes when I tested it out on my office crew.

Pepperoni bite ingredients (photo Kelli Anne)

PEPPERONI BITES

1 8 oz. cream cheese

1 box frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1 cup parmesan (fresh is the best) cheese

1 TBSP minced garlic

1 package of pepperoni

Mix together the ingredients except the Pepperoni. Place pepperonis in a mini muffin pan and drop a dollop (I used a regular spoon) onto it and tuck it into the mini muffin cup. It will settle down in during baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and take them out. You can serve them warm or room temperature. I recommend taking them out of the pan and placing on a paper towel to soak up the extra grease before serving. I’ve seen other recipes that add in onions or peppers too.

Pepperoni bites ready for the oven (Photo Kelli Anne)

Now it’s time for a little sweet talk. No, not that kind, the kind that you don’t have to resist. These are shamelessly easy to make and they quickly disappear. I can only handle so much sweet but these are pleasantly decadent without that sugar overload feeling. One of the other great things is it doesn’t take long to prepare.

PEANUT BUTTER BROWNIES

1 pkg peanut butter cookie mix

1 box brownie mix (I went the dark chocolate route)

1 cup nutter butter cookies crumbled

8 Reese’s peanut butter cups cut up into pieces

Grease a 9 x 13 pan and prepare the peanut butter cookie mix per the directions. Pat it into the bottom of the pan. Layer the crumbled pieces of Nutter Butter and Reese’s on top. Mix the brownie per the direction on the box. Pour over the crumbled layer and bake in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out without batter.

Making the Peanut butter brownie bars (Photo Kelli Anne)

After this week the Cornhuskers get a much needed bye week. I can tell you even the reporters are looking forward to it. It will certainly help the “nicked” up on the Husker roster and we’re gonna need some extra prep time to get ready to destroy Iowa’s playoff hopes. I expect the game atmosphere to be good although I’m not sure anything will measure up to last week.

Memorial stadium and Lincoln were ROCKIN! It was great to see a little bit of healing going on with that win. Time to focus on those up next and don’t forget to tweet your tailgate photos to us at @TheHuskerCorner & @Kelian_NE. Get your Husker colors on and we’ll be watching and cheering at the tv. And as always, GO BIG RED!