Phoned-In Super Bowl

I didn't particularly feel well over Super Bowl weekend.  And I was behind the 8 ball on several projects.  So my original plan to retrieve Super Bowl-related serving pieces out of storage got nixed - oh, by midday on Saturday.  I decided to just make do with what I had at the apartment, with the late addition of a $5 kitchen rug that I picked up at Wal-Mart Sunday morning after church.  Am wondering if a disturbing pattern is developing, involving me and rugs from Wal-Mart, and me putting rugs from Wal-Mart on tables.  First, there was the pair of polka-dotted shag bath rugs that I incorporated into my Christmas decor, and now this rag rug.  But I liked the colors, and the pattern was kind of reminiscent of a football field.  Kind of.  You have to squint.  See, it has the grass color in it, and blue and red for the two teams?  It's admittedly a bit abstract.

Over the holidays, Friend Christi gifted me with this really cute set of Meri Me cupcake wrappers and toppers from Williams Sonoma, and she threw in some football-shaped napkins, so I worked those in (and, as luck would have it, the color scheme of the toppers was Giants/Patriots appropriate).

Continuing with the "phoned-in" theme:


1) This year's Super Bowl "party" consisted of spouse, the kids and me.  Oh, and the beasts, who didn't pay attention to the game but enjoyed lounging with the humans, and waiting for food to fall within their reach.

2) I bought most of the food (jalapeno poppers, cupcakes, this really delicious chocolate-drizzled popcorn that the kids Hoover-ed up in a nanosecond) and only "made" onion dip (if you call adding Lipton soup mix to sour cream "making" something, but it had been two years since I had had onion dip, and suddenly it sounded so yummy) and cheese dip.  Actually, the cheese dip was incidental to a pot of chili that I had simmering on the stove during the pregame show, to put up for meals later in the week.  When it was ready, I ladled some of the chili into a baking dish, added nacho cheese and some cream cheese, and pushed START on the microwave.  So, I don't know if the cheese dip really counts as something "made," either.  But, whatever.

I do get credit for making the chili (which, I hope, will sustain my family a couple of nights this week when I am off working on Reading Rocks decorations), and I also get credit for cooking a green chili pork roast in the Crock-Pot during the game.  And during the post-game.  And "The Voice."  And the local news.  And Jimmy Fallon.  Because it was a really, REALLY big roast, and it took forever to (1) cook and (2) cool down.  I froze half of the meat, but there's still a ton of it in the fridge, which I plan to serve in corn tortillas with salsa verde, sour cream and avocado slices.

Hopefully the abundance of yummy shredded pork will make up for the last-minute aspect of our Super Bowl  - um, I don't really know what to call it.  Wasn't a party, wasn't a meal.  Super Bowl snack-ortunity?  Yeah, I'm going to go with snack-ortunity.  Useful word.