Somehow the evening took on an Italian flair, so we started with an array of anti-pasti dishes; meats, cheeses, tomatoes tossed in olive oil and fresh basil, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, pickled asparagus spears, roasted peppers, artichoke hearts, and breads to dip in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Most of these items were picked up at Costco, while the others were purchased at our local grocery store.
After the appetizers had been enjoyed sufficiently, we had fun creating personalized strombolis. Unfortunately, we were having so much fun I forgot to snap a picture. :( Using typical pizza ingredients, and dough purchased from the grocery store, everyone was able to make a stromboli filled with their favorite toppings. While researching stromboli recipes, I found this one to be the most helpful.
To continue the Italian theme, Italian sodas were served as drinks. I was adamantly opposed to using anything red during dinner, but most of the yummy-flavored syrups are red, so I caved just once. We offered strawberry, raspberry, coconut, or any combination of the three as flavors for the drinks. My mom thought using the small cups would make it feel more special, but it also made it much more of a pain to keep quenching everyone's thirst. We used 10 oz cups although the recipe called for using 16 oz of fluids. The modified recipe worked well, but next time I would prefer to use the larger cups. These recipes are the best I was able to find.
Although it didn't fit the theme of the night, I came across this recipe and couldn't resist. The original recipe calls for using jimmies, but I thought tinting shredded coconut would give a similar look but would taste a bit better. My brother, though, doesn't like coconut and convinced me to use a different color of frosting for the end zones and to use regular sugar sprinkles. I wanted to use blue colored gummies for BYU players and red colored gummies for Utah players, and I was lucky enough to find gummies called "Evil Twins", which come in a variety of colors. I also wanted my players to be more active than the players shown on the original picture, so I arranged a Utah fumble forced by Kyle Van Noy and recovered by BYU. The pocky stick goal posts suggested in the original recipe worked well, but they slipped off the tray when pulling them out of the freezer and broke on the ground so we decided to do without them.
The one thing that helped me get over BYUs loss that night was this amazing Oreo pizza. A few weeks before the game, my cousin told me about a pizza place by her house that serves Oreo pizza. She had me at Oreo and I dragged her out that night to eat it. After studying it thoroughly I figured I could probably re-create it home. It wasn't quite the same, but it was pretty dang close. To ensure I was on the right track, I searched for Oreo pizza recipes and found this one that confirmed my thought process and will hopefully help you if you decide to make it. The one thing missing from this recipe is how to make the icing. Those directions can be found here.
I hope this helps you when you're planning your game-day menus. I know for my family the food is almost as important as the game itself.
