FOOTBALL FANS SCORE SUPER SNACKS AT STEW LEONARD'S FOR THE BIG GAME

NORWALK, Conn., Jan. 8, 2007 - Super Bowl XLI, takes place on February 4, 2007 at Dolphin Stadium - Miami Gardens, Fla. Only 70,000 fans can physically fit in the stadium, so the rest of the 140 million people expected to watch the game will be doing so from the comfort of their own home or local sports bar.

What are we doing while watching the game? The answer is, apparently, eating. According to The Food Institute, Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest eating day of the year, after Thanksgiving. Here are some stats to keep in mind as you're snacking:

• 1,200: Calories the average person consumes watching the game (Calorie Control Council)
• 35 million: Pounds of snack food is eaten, with potato chips being the most popular snack food weighing in at 11 million pounds consumed on Super Bowl Sunday. (Snack Food Association)
• 49.5 million: Pounds of avocados will be eaten - enough to cover the football field end zone to end zone in guacamole (California Avocado Commission.)

To assemble a winning lineup of snacks for your team, Stew Leonard's asked their quarterbacks of the kitchen to provide tips on shopping for and preparing your football feast.

Guac' Rocks
Avocado sales double and sales of prepared guacamole triple (see recipe that follows) at Stew's the week leading up to Super Bowl Sunday. Here are some winning tips for picking and storing avocados for preparing guacamole at home:

• Hold some avocados in the palm of your hand. Select those that seem heavy for their size.
• To determine ripeness, pull the stem off the end to see if the flesh is green.
• If they are not yet ripe, store on a kitchen counter or put in a paper bag to ripen fast.
• To remove the pit, cut the avocado in half lengthwise, around the pit. Hold one half in each hand and turn the sides in opposite directions to separate the halves. To remove pit, carefully strike the pit with a knife, allowing the knife to stick into the pit, and turn to remove.

California Guacamole Dip From Stew Leonard's Winning Recipes Cookbook
Ingredients:
2 large ripe Haas avocados, peeled, halved, and pitted
Juice of 1 lime
¼ cup finely minced onion
2 tablespoons minced fresh or canned Serrano or jalapeno chilies
¾ cup peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped tomato
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Method
In a medium bowl, place the avocados and lime juice. Slice the avocados into chunks. With a fork, coarsely mash the avocados. Add the onion, chilies, tomato, cilantro, salt and pepper mixing until well blended. Makes 6 servings.

The Linebacker of Potato Chips - Stew Leonard's Fresh-Made Kettle Style Potato Chips
Stew Leonard's began making all-natural, hand-made kettle-style potato chips in May of '06 in the Danbury store and they've been flying out of the fryer ever since. Stew's Yonkers and Norwalk locations also recently began offering the chips. The key to the chips' popularity is the type of potatoes used. Stew Leonard's Kettle-Style Potato Chips are made from Idaho Russet Burbank chef-style potatoes - giant one-pound potatoes that result in not only a golden, more flavorful chip, but one that is three times larger than typical bagged chips. Since they are cooked in a 100% soybean oil, they contain no trans fat or cholesterol.

"The chips are hard to resist, especially when they come out warm from the fryer," says Art Weiss, Stew Leonard's director of fresh prepared products. "They are also great with any of our prepared dips, such as Tuscan White Bean or Spinach Dip."

Tuscan White Bean Dip (sold at Stew's Danbury store)
Ingredients:
2, 19 oz cans of Northern white beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup olive oil
½ bunch of fresh cilantro, washed, rinsed and stems removed
½ cup of chopped fresh garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Combine ingredients in a bowl. Puree in a mixer for 10 minutes or until smooth. Chill in refrigerator for 20 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings.

Favorite Finger Food - Chicken Wings
"The most popular department at Stew Leonard's on Super Bowl weekend is the barbeque (which went trans fat free in Jan. '06). Between all three stores, Stew's will sell 10,000 pounds of Buffalo wings and Italian wingettes, along with baby back ribs and fried chicken," said Andrew Colton, Norwalk store president. "We'll also have wing platters packaged with blue cheese dip ready to go, for customers on a shopping blitz."

To make traditional Anchor Bar style Buffalo wings, purchase Stew Leonard's precooked, breaded and fried chicken wings. Heat them in the oven or in a foil tent on the grill. In a mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup hot sauce with 1/3 cup melted butter. Whisk until smooth. Toss the heated wings in the bowl to coat.

Stew Leonard's catering offers a variety of platters such as shrimp, sushi, fruit or vegetable, as well as three-foot grinders, wraps and more. The menu can be viewed at www.stewleonards.com. and Stew Leonard's catering consultants take orders by phone seven days a week between 9:00 A.M. and 6:00 P.M. at Norwalk: 203.750.6168; Danbury: 203.790.8030 ext. 6228; Yonkers: 914.375.4700.

Stew Leonard's began as a small dairy store founded in Norwalk, Conn. in 1969 with just seven employees. Today, Stew Leonard's is still family-owned and operated, but has grown to become a nearly $300 million dollar business with 2,000 employees. In addition to the original store in Norwalk, Conn., Stew Leonard's has stores in Danbury, Conn. and Yonkers, NY., with additional stores planned in Newington, Connecticut, East Farmingdale, N.Y and Orange, Connecticut. For more information, visit Stew Leonard's website at www.stewleonards.com.