Allrecipes Allstar Ramona Cruz-Peters Shares Her Epic Menu for the Super Bowl

Name: Ramona Cruz-Peters
Location: Road Rock, Texas
The Reason to Gather: The Super Bowl
Number of People at the Party: 8, including Ramona’s family (Ramona, Nik, Mal, and Sawyer)

Allrecipes Allstar Ramona Cruz-Peters is a lifelong fan of the Super Bowl. After dancing in the half-time show for Super Bowl XXXII in 1998, the Austin-based cookbook author and editor-in-chief at Fab Everyday was officially hooked on the Big Game; she and her husband have been hosting Super Bowl soirees since shortly after moving in together in 2006. On Super Bowl Sunday, Cruz-Peters prioritizes enjoying time with friends, using shortcuts like pre-made ingredients to keep her workload in the kitchen more manageable. She adds special touches through décor like an artificial turf table runner, football-themed menu items, and water bottles wrapped in referee-like striped wrapping paper. We chatted with Cruz-Peters to learn more about how she gathers–and feeds!—her football-forward friends on Super Bowl Sunday.

Tell me about your family’s love of the Super Bowl.

Both my husband Nik and I grew up in sports-loving families. Ever since I was a kid, I saw Super Bowl Sunday as a holiday. My mother used to joke that the Monday after the Super Bowl should be a day off of work! One of my favorite life memories was getting to dance in the Super Bowl XXXII half-time show in San Diego and see some of the action and grand scale of the event firsthand. When I met my husband several years later, we both realized pretty quickly that we shared a love of sports, both collegiate and professional, and it’s been something we’ve embraced and celebrated together ever since. I even included “in good Texas Longhorns seasons and in bad” in my wedding vows to my husband!

How do you like to gather friends for the Big Game?

Whether or not one of our teams (Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints) was in the Big Game, we have always seen the event as a reason to gather with friends and family and have some fun around the theme of football. Sometimes it’s a bigger party, and sometimes it’s more intimate with just a few close family and friends. Regardless of the size of the party, I love to find ways to really dig into the theme, to make it fun and festive for anyone who comes over, whether they are passionate about their team playing, there for the commercials and half-time show, or just #TeamSnacks. Since our teams haven’t been to the Super Bowl in a while, our parties have been less stressful, which makes it easier to focus on the fun of the get-together and just enjoy an entertaining football game.

How do you develop your menu every year? Is there anything you have to include?  

There are a few recipes that we include every year out of tradition like Crock Pot Party Meatballs and Strawberry Footballs (see recipes below), but I do enjoy adding at least one new recipe each year. I like to stick to individually-portioned foods and bites when I can, and I love to decorate things to look like footballs. If something is brown (think chocolate, bean dip, even slider buns) it can become a football by adding some white laces (in icing for desserts and sweets, or in sour cream for savory foods).

How do you prepare for the big day? Do you do a lot in advance or do you knock it all out day-of?

Like with any party, it starts with a plan for the menu and decorations, then shopping lists. I like my food to be hot and fresh, so I save most of the cooking for the big day, at least for the hot food. To take the stress off of the rest of the party planning, I will do any décor DIYs in the days leading up to the party so that the day itself is all about execution and cooking. 

Are there any grocery staples you lean on for Super Bowl Sunday entertaining?

I love my grocery store’s (H-E-B) brand of frozen cooked beef and pork meatballs, so I always use them as a base for my Crock Pot Party Meatballs recipe. My go-to tortilla chips are Julio’s, so I get them every year to serve with the dips. Occasionally I will get pre-made cupcakes or brownie bites when I want to use a shortcut, and then I’ll add my own decorations or cupcake toppers to them. I’ll also use pre-made phyllo cups, pie crust, or puff pastry dough, and even pre-made cheese balls as a base for some of the recipes I make. I’m big on balance in order to provide as much as I can to my guests with the least amount of stress for myself as a host.

Last question: What’s your preferred drink for the Super Bowl?

I try to have a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks available for guests of all ages to enjoy, and for me, that includes bubbly! Champagne and Prosecco are my drinks of choice for most occasions, so I like to have some mini bottles of Prosecco (splits) in the beer cooler for myself or anyone else who likes sparkling wine. You’ll usually find me holding onto one at tailgates while everyone else is holding a beer. 

Ramona’s Favorite Super Bowl Recipes

• Crock Pot Party Meatballs 
• Football Layered Dip: Ramona uses her existing Halloween Spiderweb Layered Dip recipe on Allrecipes, but with the sour cream laces piped on to look like a football instead of a spiderweb, like the example in this post on her blog.
• Mini Bacon Cheese Balls: Ramona uses her existing Bacon-Ranch Cheese Ball recipe on Allrecipes but made into small, individual-sized balls rolled in bacon and chives and served on a pretzel stick, like the example in this post on her blog.
• Mini Chicken and Corn Tacos 
• Strawberry Footballs: Ramona uses an existing Allrecipes Chocolate-Covered Strawberries recipe, but with frosting laces piped on to look like a football, like the example in this post on her blog.