The WWF Cookbook is a treasure trove of crazy recipes from the Attitude Era, each of which is purportedly the creation of one of the wrestlers. In Wrestling With Food, Sydney is on a mission to try cooking all of them to see if any are actually edible.
Contents
I know. I KNOW. It’s been what, a month? And at least three weeks past ‘Mania, but here I am bringing you the edition that covers the WWF cookbook recipes we made for our little Wrestlemania party.
My humble apologies, Wrestling With Food readers. It’s been a crazy old time, but it’s time to get back to business. So, without further ado (or excuses) let’s get going with Wrestling With Food: WRESTLEMANIA PARTY EDITION.
Ground rules (for this week): While I usually love to break these recipes down for you step by step, we’ve got to get through four of these and man, that would be quite the long article. SO, for this edition and this edition ONLY, I’ll list the ingredients and then go right to the review. Next week, don’t worry – it’ll be back to that classic Wrestling With Food that you know and love.
Also! An exciting AND terrifying part of this was I would be serving these recipes not only to Tom, but to guests! I enjoy that people just willingly let us do this to them.
In attendance, we had another member of the site, Joey (AKA @JoeySplashwater, formerly typicalROHfan)! We’d never met before that day but SPOILERS: he is a delight. Joey’s friend Juan was there too (who previously appeared on the site in this 4 on 4 Casual Fans feature and was also very nice), as well as a couple of our other friends (who haven’t been featured on the site whatsoever, so just FORGET about them).
The planning
Originally, we were thinking of doing an All-Dead-Wrestler Buffet, but after looking at the menu, choosing from only dead wrestlers didn’t lend a lot of cohesion to the meal (and frankly, I did not want to eat Paul Bearer’s Tuna Stuffed Tomatoes). So, we simply went with foods that seemed party appropriate and it turned out that the recipes we selected all came from wrestlers that couldn’t wrestle anymore, for a variety of reasons ranging from death to potential and actual paralysis.
Now, there was going to be another brand new recipe featured – that morning, I started with the Hollys’ Family Butter Cookies, as I wanted to get dessert out of the way ahead of time. While the ingredients read like they SHOULD be a tasty cookie (4 sticks of butter, 2 cups sugar, 6 eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 8 cups flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder – and yes, I halved that recipe), the end results were SO bland. So bland, in fact that I tried to doctor them with chocolate chips and toffee crunch (leftover from the good Lord Henry’s recipe) and still, no dice. I would take a picture of them for you, but that picture would have been of our garbage can as I threw them out. 0 out of 5 stars.
Resigned, I realized I would have to go back to the fan favorite: The Rock’s Favorite Choclate Chip Cookies. I’d tell you how I made those, but that’s old news and you can read all about it here!
MOVING ON. The final menu we decided on was: Edge’s Cocktail Party Meatballs, Droz’s Barbecue Chicken Pizza and Eddie Guerrero’s Mexican Tortilla Casserole.
Edge’s Cocktail Party Meatballs
Ingredients:
2 lbs lean ground beef, 1/4 cup peeled and grated potato, 1 egg, 1 small onion grated, salt to taste, ground pepper to taste, 1 teaspoon chopped parsley, 1 (13 oz) bottle chili sauce, 3.5 tablespoons grape jelly, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce.
The Verdict:
MY REVIEW:
It’s your basic meatball recipe, but you just simmer them in grape jelly and a can of chili sauce for about 30 minutes. Easy peasy! These were pretty good! Good enough for us to eat as leftovers the next day, and good enough, actually, for my friend to ask for the recipe. I could have given her any grape jelly meatball recipe, but rest assured I sent her the Edge recipe directly. 4 out of 5 stars!
TOM’S REVIEW IF HE EVEN REMEMBERS WHAT THEY TASTE LIKE:
My main man Edge came through with these meatballs – maybe even better than old Hardcore Holly’s? Anyway, they were good times and comfortably the best of the night (well, second best after The Rock’s cookies, but no-one’s usurping The Great One). 4¼ out of 5 stars.
JOEY’S REVIEW:
Tom and Syd hosted a wonderful Wrestlemania party. Meeting Sydney for the first time was great as she was a delight and Tom is always a guaranteed enjoyable time. I tried to make Perry Saturn’s Super Cookies from the WWF Cookbook for this evening but I could tell quite early in the process that they were bombing (this WWF Cookbook recipe is a LIE) and I didn’t wanna arrive late so I quit and brought bags of Swedish Fish like a real adult. I sat on a WWF No Mercy 2001 commemorative folding chair, ate great food with fellow cool humans and watched a fantastic show. From all aspects, a lovely time.
Edge’s Meatballs was the first course of the night and it was quite great. Tom gave me a sneak peak of what was to be had on this evening and this was the most anticipated. I wasn’t sure if the mixing of meat and jelly would be great or terrible. It was the former. After having them, not sure why these aren’t more common! 4½ out of 5 stars.
Droz’s Barbecue Chicken Pizza
Ingredients:
1 package refrigerated Pillsbury pizza dough, 1/2 cup J.R.’s BBQ sauce (or your favorite), 2 grilled chicken breasts (about 1/2 pound) grilled and diced, 1/2 medium red bell pepper, sliced. 1/2 medium green bell pepper, sliced, 1/2 medium yellow bell pepper, sliced, 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese, 1 cup (4 ounces) grated mild cheddar cheese
The Verdict:
MY REVIEW:
Again, easy peasy! I cheated and got the pre-cooked chicken because guys, I was making four of these recipes in one day and had to save time where I could. ALSO, no disrespect to the great JR, but we ran out of his BBQ sauce, so I went with a Jack Daniel’s version. SEEMED OKAY. Anyway, this also gave us leftovers for the next day which I happily ate. Another 4 out of 5 stars!
TOM’S REVIEW IF HE CAN EVEN RECALL WHAT HAPPENED AFTER BROCK ENDED THE STREAK:
Sorry Droz, but I wasn’t a fan. I’ve enjoyed BBQ chicken pizzas in the past, but the sauce just kind of overwhelmed every other flavour. Maybe good ol’ JR’s would have been better, but… well, probably not. 2 out of 5 stars.
JOEY’S REVIEW:
Droz’s BBQ Chicken Pizza was pretty good and I’m a mark for homemade pizza. Wrestlemania started to get hot around the time of the next two servings so my memory isn’t at the best when it comes to the exact thoughts but I do recall enjoying this a bit and having the idea to do homemade pizza more often. I have not followed through on my inspiration yet because I’m a slacker. 4 out of 5 stars.
Eddie Guerrero’s Mexican Tortilla Casserole
Ingredients:
2 (14 oz) cans Mexican style stewed tomatoes, 2/3 cups chopped fresh cilantro, 5 (6-inch) corn tortillas, 1.5 cups (6 oz) grated Monterey Jack cheese (reduced fat, if desired), 1.5 cups (6 oz) grated Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeños, low fat sour cream to taste, 1/4 cup sliced pitted black olives.
The Verdict:
MY REVIEW:
A resounding….meh. While I had high hopes (you are basically building a little lasagna with the tortillas and the cheese, and who is the victim there?), this was a little watery and was frankly kinda bland. I think you need to also bake this in fewer layers (the recipe calls for about five) as we found the middle was still just warm (even after cooking for twice the recommended time) while the outside was quite crispy. So, good intentions, Eddie! Just not great. Had Steve Blackman finally accepted one of my dinner invitations, I would have been embarrassed to serve this. 1½ stars out of 5 stars.
TOM’S REVIEW IF HE CAN EVEN REMEMBER WHAT HIS NAME IS:
I mean, all the elements were there but it just didn’t come together. Bland and watery and even though it was in the oven for longer than the recipe called (and our oven runs hot), it came out a little cold in the middle. A shameful ‘tribute’ to Eddie. 1¾ stars out of 5 stars.
JOEY’S REVIEW:
As mentioned before, my memory isn’t the best with these two dishes but if I recall correctly, this was tasty but not as tasty as its wrestling food peers on this evening. Are we sure this wasn’t Chavo Guerrero’s recipe instead of Eddie’s?
My friend Juan said that his favorite meal was the Tortilla Casserole. My rating would be a solid 3 out of 5 stars. I’ve known Juan since we were 14 so I can speak on his behalf and say his rating would be in the 4 star range. (I’d add his other ratings but I only asked which his favorite was and he name dropped this one.)
Also! I never got to review The Rock’s Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies as Wrestlemania was my first time having them so I must add it in. They were flawless. The Rock’s streak of everything associated with him being successful continues on. I was given a substantial amount of cookies to take home that could have lasted 3 days if I respected the concept of portion control. They didn’t even last 24 hours. 5 out of 5 stars.
WHEW. All done! I will never do four of these in one day again, as it made our kitchen roughly 95 degrees but it was a delight to meet Joey and inflict possible food poisoning on all of our friends! We’ll return next week where I talk about a lasagna that weighed five pounds and that I’m still eating.
If you have any WWF Cookbook recommendations, tweet me @Sydneyb79 with your suggestions!
– Look out for another Wrestling With Food soon, or check the Wrestling With Food archives for a full rundown of all the recipes covered so far. In the meantime, you can follow Sydney on Twitter.
