Roll Tide Bruschette

(We would like to take this opportunity to reflect upon those readers who don't care about football.  We are sorry, but for the next few months, you will have to endure many a post about the SEC.  Mostly on Saturdays.  You have been warned.)

Today is the first Alabama game.  A bit saddened that is against West Virginia, as EVERYONE I met today has on their yellow and blue.  I laid low, only changing into the BAMA shirt when I got home.

Last night I started cooking some beef cheeks for the game.  I used a winter chocolate spice blend, then braised them in beer  for 14 hours and we are pretty excited dig in.  We harvested our crop of Mexican cucumbers and we are going all in cucumber on the gin and soda.  Cucumber gin, cucumber soda, and a cucumber garnish.

Pre-game snacks include our Roll Tide Bruschette. 

This is a more upscale homage to 5 or 7 or 9-layer dip and chips.  I admit it, I was that kid who didn't want their food to touch! So layered dip is a bit problematic.  While I like the idea, I have to admit that after the first few chips, it starts to look like the bottom of my compost bucket.

So gearing up for football season, we got some University of Alabama jello molds.  No jello here, we made a spicy aspic.  (An aside about molds...They never actually look as good as they do on the "artists" rendering on the package.  One would be hard pressed to actually read the lettering on the University of Alabama mold, though the "A" does last for a brief second.   As for the elephant, he is there if you have a bold imagination.  but now that I have told you what you are looking at....)

 

We went very simple and small.  We put our layers in very tiny ramekins to avoid the overt mess.  Here's what we did.

One thin layer of goat cheese, thinned with a bit of milk.

One layer of herbs and scallions, finely chopped.

One layer of avocado.

A final layer of the goat cheese.

An aspic topper.

We toasted some slices of bread and dug in.

 Almost game time...Roll Tide.