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Deep dish pizza is one of the dishes the city of Chicago is known for, so what better way for the Green Bay Packers to treat the bears than to bury them at home. Homemade pizza is a snap to make and fun if you set up a pizza bar.

Roll out premade pizza dough into individual disposable greased pie pans. Make sure the dough comes up the sides of the pan to create the deep dish.  Let rise 30 minutes in a warm place during pregame activities.

Set out tomato sauce, ranch salad dressing, and a white sauce such as Alfredo.

Offer an assortment of toppings with suggested combinations for those who are culinarily  challenged much like the Bear’s quarterback’s offense line is challenged.

Combine chopped bacon, spinach, and fresh tomatoes and parmesean cheese for a BLT pizza.

Use tomato sauce, chopped onions, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and mozerella cheese for a classic Chicago pizza.

Go upscale with cooked chicken breast, olives, artichoke hearts and ranch salad dressing, smothered in mild Havarti cheese.

Always use raw vegetables and cooked meats.  Bake in a 425 F pre-heated oven until the pizza dough browns on the bottom, about 20 minutes.

Use your imagination with the toppings.  A Mexican pizza could be black beans, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, chorizo sausage and tomatoes blanketed by cheddar cheese.

An oriental pizza could be pork, scallions, shredded carrots, mushrooms and water chestnuts.  No cheese but brush with plum sauce before baking.

The New Orleans Saints went home last year as losers of their wildcard playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks. The Green Bay Packers are making sure they go home as losers in the 2011 NFL season opener.  New Orleans is famous for jambalaya, gumbo and Po-boys.  The Packers are planning on stuffing the Saints much like those overstuffed po-boy sandwiches.

No time for fussing and fancy cooking when the game starts on the West Coast at 5:30 PM.  Grilling and chilling is about the most complicated it gets.  Traditionally po-boys are made with breaded and deep fried shrimp or oysters.  But not everybody likes seafood and fried foods are high in fats. Offer a choice of grilled chicken po-boys and fried shrimp.

Start the menu with a kickoff of gumbo, a rich intensively flavored soup that’s more like a stew.  At half time, lay out a spread of goodies for fan to make their own po-boys. Finish with smothered beignets.

Gumbo can be time consuming with a long list of ingredients but not if you do it this way.  Purchase a commercially-made soup such as Campbell’s Grilled Chicken and Sausage Gumbo.  Add additional andouille sausage slices.  Heat and serve.  Throw away the cans and no one will be the wiser.

Grill the chicken ahead of time.  When the game is on, the grill meister occasionally forgets to keep an eye on the food, especially during tense moments.  Charcoaled chicken does not a good sandwich make. An alternative is to buy a whole roasted chicken.  Remove the skin and bones.  Shred the meat.

Use prepackaged heat-and-serve breaded shrimp.  No sense making a mess in the kitchen while the game’s on. Deep frying takes concentration like grilling does.  Plan on eight shrimp per sandwich, po-boys are overstuffed remember.

Lay out the shredded chicken, shrimps, chopped lettuce, tomatoes, pickles both sour and sweet, and toasted crusty rolls sliced in half but still hinged together.  Offer a selection of spicy mustard, plain mayonnaise and chipotle mayonnaise — add 1/2 tsp of chipolte powder to 1 cup of plain mayonnaise. Chipotle mayonnaise is similar to remoulade sauce and easier to make. Fans build their own sandwiches and enjoy until the game resumes.

Add a few salads such as hoppin john, which is simply cooked black-eyed peas with bacon, celery and onions.  To each can of peas, add two slices of cooked crumbled bacon and their grease, 1/2 cup of celery and 1/4 cup of onions. Mix well.  Purchased potato salad rounds out the offering.  Add a raw veggie platter and you’re done. And so are the New Orleans Saints.

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About the only thing more controversial than which team has the best quarterback — it’s Aaron Rogers of course — are ribs.  Should you choose pork ribs, baby back ribs, beef ribs or short ribs. Should you use a dry rub or no rub? Bake them in the oven, grill or slow smoke them?  Sauce or sans sauce?  The questions are seemingly endless.  One thing is for sure, the Green Bay Packers will mop up the Kansas City Chiefs this week.

And speaking of mops, this menu includes baby back ribs marinated in a sweet and sour vinegar mop, smoked over a slow fire until the meat falls off the bone. Finish off the ribs with fire engine red sauce. And what goes better with ribs than coleslaw and baked beans –  not much.

Combine 2 cups of apple cider vinegar with 2 cups of apple juice.  Add three crushed cloves of garlic, one chopped onion, and up to four chopped jalapenos, the more you add the spicier the mop.  Set aside one cup of the mop in a zip lock bag.  Put the rest of the  mop in a large zip lock bag with the ribs. Marinate overnight.

Fire engine red sauce sounds complicated but it’s actually quite easy to prepare.  Pour one large can of tomato juice into a sauce pan, add the juice of a lemon, 2 tablespoons butter, one chopped onion, one chopped red sweet pepper, three chopped jalapenos  and 1/4 cup brown sugar.  Let simmer until the sauce is reduced by half.  That should take about an hour.

Light the grill.  When the coals are covered with gray ash, much like the Packers defense is going to cover the Kansas City Chiefs offense, spread the coals apart to lower the heat.  Wrap wood chips in aluminum foil.  Poke about four or five holes in the foil to let the smoke escape.   Add the packet next to but not touching the charcoal.  You want it to smoke not burn.

Grill for two hours, basting, or mopping, the ribs every 20 minutes with the reserved mop.

Serve the fire engine red sauce on the side for those that don’t like sauce on their ribs.

Coleslaw takes no time to prepare.  Add 1/2 cup of mayonnaise to 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of celery seeds and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, honey or white sugar.  Add the dressing to one package of shredded cabbage and toss.

Beef up your beans. To each can of beans add two slices cooked crumbled bacon, 1 tablespoon each of brown sugar, ketchup and apple cider vinegar.  Heat through.

Take a bite of the ribs while the Packers take a bite out of the Chiefs.

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