Super Bowl recipes: The very best dips and snacks for your party

The staff at SB Nation has been working tirelessly to find the best recipes for your 2013 Super Bowl party. If you haven't check out the dedicated Super Bowl Recipe hub, well, your really should. On top of a ton of recipes, you can find chef Eli Kirshtein breaking down how to precisely do nachos right, Matt Ufford detailing his journey through "Gnawlins," and of course, Spilly's latest nauseating creation.

For more recipes, visit SB Nation's dedicated hub

The most useful bit for those in a party crunch are the recipes, however. I've taken the liberty of curating some of the best:

Dips

I'm probably not taking a huge leap of faith by saying that you probably are planning to serve chips, bread and/or anything else dippable during your Super Bowl party. You want to impress your guests beyond the sad open jar of Tostitos "Mild" salsa. Here are a couple jazzier options:

Crab meat dip:

If you want to make your party stand out, or even if you're sitting home alone and want to add a little something to the game, try out this recipe:

Crab Meat Dip:

• 1 can of crab meat
• 2 8 oz. sticks of cream cheese
• 1 small white onion (just shave a handful of thin pieces into the mix)
• 1 teaspoon of horseradish
  
• 1 teaspoon of Tabasco sauce
• Dash of salt
• Dash of pepper

This is a sure-fire recipe that you and your friends will love. Don't be shy about the horseradish either, that's what gives it a finishing kick.

Buffalo chicken dip:

This isn't the time to start serving escargot and expensive champagne, it's the time to stick with what football fans love the most. That's beer, mostly, but they also like chicken wings. Here's a twist on chicken wings that could be a big hit.

What you'll need for Buffalo chicken dip:

• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1 can (10 ounces) chunk white chicken, drained
• ½ cup of your favorite buffalo wing sauce
• ½ cup ranch salad dressing
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese
• Boat load of tortilla chips

Making Buffalo chicken dip is easy. All you have to do is spread the cream cheese into an ungreased shallow baking dish. Put the chicken on top of the cream cheese, the buffalo sauce on the chicken and the ranch dressing on top of the buffalo sauce. Finally, cover with the Colby-Monterey Jack cheese. Then just put the dish into the oven at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Serve warm with your boat load of chips.

Munchables:

A store-bought bag of chips are good, and buffalo wings are better, but something unique AND tasty is best. Here are two great options bound to blow some minds.

Baked Parmesan french fries:

Here's something that will taste good and let you munch throughout the entire game and through the post-game press conferences: Baked Parmesan french fires. The best part about making fries this way is you don't have to go through the hassle of the frying process.

Here are the ingredients you need:

• 5 Russet potatoes (if you have another favorite potato (sweet?) then go for it
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Here are the easy steps to make these awesome fries:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 F
2. Peel potatoes and cut into 1/2-inch slices, lengthwise.
3. Put the potatoes into a pot filled with cold water and a tablespoon of salt.
4. Boil the potatoes in the water just so the outside of the potatoes are cooked through (you should be able to put a knife through the side of the potato, but not all the way through easily)
5. Drain and put the potatoes in a bowl.
6. Toss the potatoes with olive oil, a tablespoon of salt and some black pepper. Put down one layer of potatoes on a baking sheet.
7. Bake the potatoes until they start to brown. Then sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top and bake some more until the potatoes brown more and the cheese melts a bit.
8. Remove from oven. Let cool a minute or two. Devour.

Bacon-wrapped stuffed dates:

These make a great bite-sized snack that is relatively easy to prepare and will have people thinking you are some sort of food wizard by the end of the night.

Ingredients:

• 16 dates
• 16 almonds
• 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles (if you don't like blue, use feta or goat cheese)
• 8 strips bacon, cut in half
• black pepper

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Make a slit along the date lengthwise to expose center of the date.
3. Remove the pit and replace it with an almond.
4. Stuff center of date with 1/2 tablespoon of cheese, full but not overflowing.
5. Roll date tightly in half strip of bacon and secure with toothpick.
6. Place dates on baking sheet and place in oven for 20 minutes.
7. Remove and sprinkle with black pepper.

The key is the bacon. Not just because it is one of the world's best tasting foods, but tightly wrapping each date in bacon will help cover up any mistakes you may have made in slicing or stuffing the dates.

Drinkable:

Beer. Beer. Beer. Sick of beer? Try this.

Jello shots:

The best part of all is that Jello Shots are stupidly easy to make. Jello should add a warning label that says: "WARNING: If you substitute half of the water for alcohol, which is RIDICULOUSLY easy to do, you might get poisoned!" That is all entirely true. A kid could make Jello, and therefore, a kid could make some of the strongest alcoholic beverages in the world and one of the easiest ways to get blacked out. How do you make Jello Shots?

Follow the directions on the Jello Box, but substitute half (or all if you want to get nuts; lets get nuts) of the water for your alcohol of choice. I can't guarantee to you that it's going to taste amazing, but I can guarantee to you that it's going to be shots that you'll be able to drink much quicker than regular shots. When it takes on that gelatinous form, whether that's a form you like or not, it almost entirely bypasses the tongue and the taste buds. Before you know it, you've got 150 milliliters of Smirnoff in your stomach. All you will realize is that five minutes ago you were dead sober and now you're doing just officer, fine.