GMTS Newsletter: March Madness Munchies

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Friday, March 9, 2012

Oh, March. How we've missed you.

Your madness, your tulips blooming, your one-day-a-year Irish folk drinking, your tease of nicer weather ahead.

But mainly, March, I love your basketball.

It's the one time a year any of us care about the Bucknells or George Masons of the world.

And the madness is already underway.

Sure, some coaches hate conference tournaments (I'm talking to you, Calipari), and who can blame them? But for the viewer? It doesn't get better than the next two weekends.

And you can't watch basketball without eating something, so I present to you my two favorite recipes for your basketball get-togethers. And both are stupid easy.

 

Kathrine's Famous Antipasto Platter

To call this a recipe is a bit heady. Basically, you're just assembling stuff. This will get eaten, and eaten quickly. You almost won't even have to wash the platter afterwards. I feel like I make this way too much, but if I don't bring it to parties, I am roundly reprimanded.

1/4 lb. salami

1/4 lb. pepperoni

1/4 lb. pastrami

1 jar pepperoncinis

1 can jumbo pitted olives

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1 block mozzarella cheese

1 block cheddar or colby cheese

white vinegar

Italian seasoning or fresh Italian herbs

Soak sliced onion in vinegar with a dash of Italian seasoning for several hours, overnight if possible. The trick here is all in presentation. Fold sliced meats in half and line alone the far edges of the platter. Slice cheese and arrange to overlap meats. In the middle, in a neat row, place olives, pepperoncinis and onion. Over the entire platter, drizzle vinegar and sprinkle Italian seasoning (or fresh herbs if you have them). You're done. Yep, it's that easy.

 

Memphis Sausage and Mushroom Dip

No, Memphis isn't known for its sausage, but I got this original recipe (which I've since tweaked) from a Memphis cookbook. Hence the name.

1 lb. bulk sausage (or Italian, if you prefer)

8 oz. cream cheese

1 carton of mushrooms

1/4- 1/2 red pepper, chopped

Worcestershire sauce

Garlic powder

 

Brown and drain sausage and add mushrooms and pepper. Cook until vegetables are tender. While they’re cooking, mix together cream cheese, garlic and Worcestershire sauce to taste. Put cream cheese mixture into hot skillet. From here, you can refrigerate it to heat up later, or just plop it in a serving dish. Serve with bagel chips or crackers. The great part about this dip is that you can be missing any ingredient other than sausage and cream cheese and it's still delicious.

There you have it. Now for when to watch your favorite teams …

From Today’s Show:

-Madness Has Arrived: Sit yourself in your recliner and prepare for 12 hours of some good basketball. You’ll want to start early in planting the seeds so that you can go home “sick” from work. A sneeze here, a cough there … not that I’m suggesting it. But, if for some reason you find yourself home say, around 1p.m., here’s the drill:

1p.m. - UK vs LSU. This shouldn’t be an issue for UK, unlike actually watching the game. It’s on ESPNU, which many of us in the Tri-State don’t get. But fear not if (or when) the Wildcats move on, you can see them on Channel 9.

7 p.m. - UC vs Syracuse. The Bearcats don’t get much rest after a double OT win against 13th ranked Georgetown last night.

9 p.m. -  Xavier vs Dayton. Again. Sports Director John Popovich points out both teams need this, more than likely, to even make it to the NCAA Tournament.

9:30 p.m. – Louisville vs Notre Dame. You can flip here during time outs or a potential blowout in the Muskie game.

11:15 p.m. – All Access. Join the 9 Sports team for all the highlights and post game reaction from the tourney games.

March Madness, welcome back.

-Top 9 Things: Basketball’s not your thing? Here are some other options to fill that weekend schedule.

Today's Distracting Link:

Question: Have you seen the marvelous breadfish?

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/breadfish/