What's the Score? And Pass the Puffed Sauerkraut!

Whether your team is playing in the game or not, Super Bowl Sunday has become an All-American excuse to eat too much, drink, party, snack until you hurl and maybe get into some ridiculous prop bets with your brother. Or, um, so I've heard.

Awesome fast food chain White Castle once suggested declaring Super Bowl Monday a national holiday so we could all sleep off our hangovers and food comas. And maybe go shopping for some Activa.

But if you're tired of the same old nachos, salsas, wings and chili on Super Bowl Sunday, Wired rounded up some recipes from molecular gastronomists (ie, egghead chefs) including Wylie Dufresne and TOP CHEF 4's Richard Blaise that will have your guests, mmmm, I'm guessing the word is perplexed.

With little or no rooting interest and no great storyline like last year's quest for 19-0, I have no big culinary plans for Sunday night. If I'm nice maybe my wife will make some of her awesome pizza though I am sure we'll be making some Blue-Cheese Bacon Dip...

• 3 slices of bacon
• Half an 8 oz. brick of cream cheese
• Crumbled Blue Cheese

Cut bacon in half and cook till crispy. I've found the microwave works great for this and I simply lay the slices between two paper towels and nuke according to package instructions. Once that's done, put the cream cheese and a handful of blue cheese crumbles in a microwave safe dish and nuke until it's just getting melty (hate to get all technical on you). Remove from microwave and stir till blended. Crumble bacon and add sparingly to dip until you get the cheese-to-bacon ration you desire. I usually end up using three or four strips. Serve with crackers and/or fruit slices (apple and pear work nicely).

Update: You usually have to go hunting around for tales of Super Bowl parties that end in tragedy. Not this year. Saw this story about an accidental shooting at a Philadelphia party when I opened up Philly.com this morning.