The Playbook: How To Make A Snack Stadium

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Photos: Mark Shaw

Touchdown: Here's everything you need to know about building an extremely awesome snack stadium.

 

Let's talk gridiron snack style. Not all snack stadiums are created equal. Props go out to the insane constructions built-as carpenters or architectural model-makers make, using foam, cardboard, wood, metal. That's all fine if you want to go totally nuts with it, have the power tools, tons of free time and cheddar to spare. Truth be told, you can make the fiercest queso dip or hottest wings this side of the Great Buffalo River, but if you really want to impress your fellow Super Bowl party people, a custom-built snack stadium is a true crowd-pleaser. And, quite frankly, one hell of a delicious work of art. Here are a few pro tips:

• Know your plays
  Make a shopping list of your favorite snacks and pencil out a schematic of where they will fit in your stadium, especially if you need to enlist assistance.
• Avoid fumbles
  Build your snack stadium where it will be eaten. Off-site prep work is fine, but building and then moving your stadium is difficult.
• Time-outs
  Allow yourself ample construction time — this stage always takes longer than you'd expect. Budget your time accordingly, and again, do as much pregame prep as possible, especially the sliders, tacos and bratwurst.

Here's what you'll need:

• Equipment: aluminum pan, plastic squeeze bottle or large Ziploc bag, toothpicks, shotglasses
• Prepared food: flatbread and crackers, Rice Krispies Treats, brownies, donuts, 4 kinds of chips, 4 kinds of dip, sour cream, guacamole covered with seran wrap that touches its entire surface area (refrigerated to avoid discoloration), 2 kinds of cheese, 2 kinds of pitted olives, Slim Jims, beef sliders, mini-tacos, mini-bratwursts with buns, Hershey's miniatures, licorice rolls, Gatorade
• Produce/grocery: 4 large green peppers, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, peanuts

(Click on photos to enlarge or view as slide show.)

Assemble the "football players."

Slice different colors of cheese and olives and assemble your players. You'll be sticking them in the guac field at the very end of construction. 

Cut the baked goods

Cut Rice Krispies Treats, brownies, and donuts to size for use as your building blocks. 

Assemble the goal posts

Classic goal posts can be made out of Slim Jims and toothpicks. You'll place the Slim Jim goal posts, anchored by small blocks of cheese, at either end zone once the guac field is filled in. 

Make the green pepper dip bowls

Slice the tops off four green peppers. Hollow and fill with different dips like salsa, hummus, spinach, onion. If a pepper won't stand up, you can use the sliced off top portion as a stabilizer underneath. 

Assemble the stadium before adding guac

Place the peppers filled with dip at the corners of the guac pan to help anchor your "field" in place. Place Rice Krispie treats, flatbreads/crackers, brownies and donuts around your field to create elevation and channels to hold other the brats, tacos and sliders. Place Hershey's minis on top of licorice bites to make cars for the parking lot.

Add the guac and sour cream field

Add the guacamole to the field and smooth it out. Using your sour cream squeeze bottle, make yard lines and hash marks on the field. No squeeze bottle? Cut a tiny bit of the corner of a ziploc filled with sour cream for an impromptu piping bag.

Add the football players and goalposts

Configure the cheese and olive players on the field. Place the Slim Jim goal posts, anchored by small blocks of cheese, at either end zone. Place Gatorade shots on either sideline. Bask in the glory of your awesome snack stadium. Don't forget to take pictures quickly before your friends decimate your superdome.