Planning a Super Bowl party? Check out these apps

With the countdown to the Super Bowl underway, TUAW is here to highlight some apps that will help smooth out your party planning. Apple helped as well, releasing its own list of Super Bowl party apps. We'll share some of those with you, as well as a few of our own favorites.

Food

First and foremost is the food. Even though it's freezing cold outside, there's still a good indoor tailgating party to be had. Tailgating Recipes (US$0.99) and The Eye Chef: Big Game Edition ($1.99) offer some basic recipes for finger foods, such as seven-layer dip, layered crab spread, slaw, burgers and Texas chili. The Chili Chef ($1.99), Punchbowl (free) and Dip Diva ($0.99) will net you specialized recipes -- these are handy if, like my day job, you're planning to have a Super Bowl cooking contest.

Of course, many are old pros at handling Super Bowl parties. But if you still want to make sure your dishes get out on time, the KitchenPad Timer app ($2.99) will set up to nine different timers for you.

If you want to supply food for the party, try the free Kluckr for locating chicken wings. Or, if you want to cop out and just order pizza, you have a variety of pizza apps to utilize, including Papa John's, Pizza Hut and more. For beer and wine, Find Craft Beer ($0.99) will put you in touch with some of the best microbreweries out there, and Beer Ratings Guide ($2.99) and Wine Ratings Guide ($3.99) will help you chose among the plethora of spirits out there to bring to the party. If you're a budding bartender, Mixologist: Drink Recipes will put thousands of recipes at your fingertips for free with ads or $0.99 if you want a few more features.

Trivia

Rrevisit the past while waiting for kickoff with Sports Illustrated's The Football Book ($14.99). it's a gorgeous iPad magazine that relives some of the great football dynasties. There's magnificent photography, historical tidbits, articles and audio commentary by legendary sports photographer Neil Leifer.

You can also challenge your friends to a quick Super Bowl trivia game. RedZone SB ($1.99), Super Bowl - Know it All and History of the Super Bowl, both $0.99, and the free Super Bowl Quiz all offer facts and history about the Super Bowl that you can use to impress your guests. RedZone SB, Super Bowl - Know it All and Super Bowl Quiz offer traditional quiz formats while History of the Super Bowl is straight-up historic facts.

Commercials

Granted, there are quite a few people who aren't interested in the game itself, but the commercials instead. The free ADBOWL app will let you watch and vote on Super Bowl ads and see previous winners of the competition.

There you have it, football fans. Get downloading, get ready and enjoy the game.