CANADA GOES FOR GOLD

I'm sending some good vibes westward for the Canada-USA gold medal game with this olympic appy I made for a pre-game potluck.

OLYMPIC RING PRETZELS AND DIPPING SAUCES:

cooking spray
2 pkgs pre-made pizza dough
1 egg white
1/2 cup finishing salt

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees (or as directed by the instructions on your dough) and begin stretching out your dough to about 1/2 inch in thickness. Using scissors, cut stretched dough into 9 x 1/2 inch strips and create rings by pressing the loose ends together. Lay rings on a greased baking sheet spread at least 1 inch apart, and bake for about 10 minutes until dough is light golden brown. Remove rings from the oven and brush them lightly with egg white using a pastry brush. Working a few at a time, sprinkle the brushed rings with finishing salt before the egg white dries. Return the rings to the oven for another minute, and voila: beautiful olympic rings.

For the sauces, you can get creative. I used:

Blue: spinach dip with a hint of blue food colouring. Unfortunately, blue foods are pretty limited so I had no choice but to stick with the toxic goo effect. Other options include blueberries, blue corn chips, blue potatoes... Apparently blue foods aren't all that naturally appetizing, check this out: http://www.colormatters.com/appmatters.html

Black: Olive tapenade with a hint of concentrated black food colouring

Red: Sundried tomato tapenade with a spoonful of plain yogurt to lighten the colour a little

Yellow: good old dijon mustard

Green: mmmm pesto

All of the sauces that I used were store bought with a few minor tweaks, but if you're feeling super creative go for it and make your own. To finish things off, arrange the sauces in ramekins in the shape of the olympic rings, and surround them with your lovely pretzel rings. Ta-da, a relatively easy and wonderfully festive treat!