A little food preparation for a lot of Super Bowl fun

And I'll wash it all down with an Iron City Beer.  Make that three more, barkeep, and I'll toast the Packers with Stoney, Park4 and Rings90.  To the Packers!  Give me three points give me three points Mister and you won't see me no more.

Mooseloop~from yesterday.Midsommer Murders was a big hit here. It was a great series and we have repeats ad nauseum.
I'm watching the dawn over here. The sky is a uniform colour of mauve. Very strange - never seen that before.

Call me "Unamerican," but I'm going to see a play with a friend while everyone else is glued to their television sets. The otherwise pricey production is "buy one, get one free" as they have lagging sales for today due to Superbowl competition.

I wonder how many average people actually understand Roman numerals? Superbowl VL might mean "very loud" to a select few....

Bert~ When there is a big Wales rugby match on, it's bliss to go shopping. Parking spaces, sparsely peopled aisles in the supermarket, no queues. Lovely. Are you planning to call in at the DIY store to buy loft insulation and pipe-wrap on your way to see the play?
 

Hazel, you reminded me of growing up next to Michigan State University.  On Saturdays with a home game, we stayed home for the two hours before the game and the same after.  East Lansing, where the University is, has a population of 25,000.  The stadium holds over 100,000 people, so the influx was amazing.  During the game, shopping was breeze.
For those of you who will enjoy the Super Bowl, have fun.  We will have our usual Sunday evening.  Dinner out, and a quiet evening.  At least the snow is continuing to melt, and the temperature has remained about 40°F.  Come on Spring!

Oh yes, I looked at some of the recipes.  Some of them range from unhealthy to deadly.  If I ate like that, I'd weigh 500 pounds and be on skids for the graveyard.

Heart with the Packers. Head with the Steelers. Once spent an evening with Kenny "the Snake" Stabler and he handed me his ring and told me to put it on. I did. I felt like Green Lantern wearing the power ring. This is a game but also a media and an economic event of immense proportions.

Love all party foods but have to say chips and dip are my favorites allowing for continuous grazing. Guacamole, freshly prepared has a unique and soothing flavor that is hard to rival.

My Super Bowl was inherited from my maternal Grandmother. It's very pretty cut glass and a real pleasure to place on the table for special occasions.
The recipes ~ anything with lots of avocado and something edible to help shovel it into my face is good.

PAOLOS.................I love that song!
 
BERT........dying to know.......what play are you seeing? So many Cardinals are at the feeders..........they are little chubbies................
 
I love guacamole & I could easily attack the photo. But Like BERT & LYNN I don't so much care about the Super Bowl and will be having a quiet evening w/ a glass of wine and a movie. Have fun all you football fiends................
 
BERT & PAOLOS...............I so envy you because I am seriously craving a 5 way.................I swear if someone opened one down here they would rake in the money..............

HAZEL..............what do you recommend as a shovel?

A former NFL player put it something like this:

If the Super Bowl is the ultimate game, why do they play it each year?

Makes sense to me.

Oh, yes, guacamole with a little shaved onion in it, shoveled in with Fritos Scoops! Or those baked Kettle Cooked chips - sooo crispy! Not that I have any loyalty to either team, but we will watch the game, pull for the Packers this time (even tho they whomped up on our Falcons!), and have a fire in the fireplace. I am one of those gals who actually likes the game -- a good downfield pass threading the needle, right in the pocket, or one of those 99 yard kickoff runbacks, or a nice fumble that turns the tide!! Oh, Yea! But I also love the arts, so for Bebe's info, I am seeing the "49 Steps" play next Sunday with a lifelong friend. (I think it is 49, or is is 39?? Not really UP on the content.)

Hazel - I am with you on the reruns...We have Law and Order on at least 6 channels 24/7!! But I do love the Midsomer Murders series, and am not sated with it, as you in the UK are, bc it is new to me. I have a crush on Barnaby, even tho' he has a cool wife and daughter! He seems like the kind of man that could put his wingtips under my bed anytime! Of course, that would be disloyal to my first choice celebrity love interest, Alan Alda! Since it is fantasy, I guess it does not matter - no chance in reality, anyway! I tried to watch the Inspector Lyndley series, but he was just too obnoxious to me - no chemistry there! Is the actor who plays Barnaby in the news/tabloids? I'd like to know if he is also magnetic in his real life....Any info there?
 
"Super Bowls" inherited from past generations -- You mention one from a maternal g'mom of cut glass, so please describe further. Mine is green, clear glass and about 2 quarts. Another from the paternal g'mom is pink clear glass (both about 1920, I think) with a glass lid - both treasured for the grandmother connection. I do not put those in t he dishwasher!...and as you say, only bring them out for special occasions. Usually, I serve cold fruit salad in mine. How about yours?

Bebe~ A garlic-y bread is good. Or deep fried very thin sliced parsip or potato, or scooping it up in chunks of celery ..... I'm off on a food thing ... there has to be yogurt with fresh garden mint to go with it. I have spearmint growing in my pond. Which wows people somewhat when it's in the salad. I also have applemint which has very soft leaves and tastes and has an apple aroma. And Gingermint, which has a bit of bite ... anyboby can grow those things in a pot on the windowsill.

I love Midsommer Murder's too, but I'm not embarrased to say I'll be watching the Super Bowl today. Would have been better, for me, if the Jets were there, but you can't have everything.
 Speaking of Barnaby, I hear John Nettles, who I love, is stepped down after 14 years. His cousin "John" is coming to Midsommer.

MOOSELOOP..................Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I adore the Inspector Lindley series................I could watch it every night. please give it another chance.........................I love both of them...........check out blondie's bio; you will be fascinated...............he's got quite the family tree........................I've never heard of Midsomer murders, but it sounds great......will have to check it out............
 
Is the play based on the thriller movie of old? I believe it is the 39 Steps................

Actually it's spelled Midsomer, my mistake. Even though Nettles has departed, we will have Inspector Lewis around for a while. As we will the Super Bowl.

HAZEL.........MMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............................

Lynn830, I just had to write, things are still very much the same at MSU/EL.  At least they have been for the last 10 years.  It was always a relief to be out of town on football or basketball games days.
 

I miss the days when pro football ended in January.

Mooseloop~ The Superbowl is for wicked salad, fruit salad or boozy trifle. NOBODY is allowed to wash it up 'cept me. Carefully, by hand. No dishwasher.
Yasemin~ Nice to hear from you. Don't be shy, write on!

MICHAEL................I miss the days when there was NO pro football................bwaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha...........

GO PACK GO -  on the menu today Tacos with home made soft shells, chips, dips, pigs in a blanket, and a Gient chocolate chip cookie all washed down iwith some good "ole Wisocnin beer by the name of Leinenkugel's Honewiese and New Glarus Spotted Cow... Sunday's don't get better than that...   
 
Around here Sundays are really just Thanksgiving with snack foods especially when the Packers are in the SuperBowl.  

I have managed to tolerate a bit of avocado in a salad or sandwich but guacamole? No, too yellowy-green and too slippery.

paolos ~
Thanks for the reminder... you'd think that game would have been mentioned around here in the last couple weeks.
Where, by the way, 'points' would likely refer to the very excellent, yet inexpensive Stevens Point Brewery's (pronounced: brury) Pale Ale and three should carry you to halftime... maybe.

Midsomer Murders, a title that removes all doubt with respect to content, falls somewhere in the shadow of Inspector Lewis which will never, in my opinion, shake the throne of its parent; Inspector Morse.
What's not to love about a brilliant, irascible, romantic, beer drinking Detective Chief Inspector who solves hard crosswords in ink?
A small sample in which, oddly enough, Sergeant  Lewis has a deeply philosophical line delivered almost as a throw-away: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QYoMFZDkrc




http://www.midsomermurders.org/midsomer.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drXkoge-eWQ

Beebs ~
Funny; a three-way is a bit of perversion, while a five-way is a gift from God by way of Cincinnati.


Interestingly, John Buchan-- Lord Tweedsmuir-- was a favorite author of JFK's but more for "Pilgrim's Way," than " The 39 Steps."

rings90 ~
Well... you know.

Stoney- Does it have a door shaped like a beer keg? Been there I think!

Downton Abbey was ****.

TT ~
Curiously, though Stevens Point is only an hour away and we have drunk enough Pale Ale to float a boat, we have never been.

Your post re: Downton Abbey is enigmatic and I was thinking of asking if anyone had seen it.

If not, it is available here:
 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/index.html

And I would be interested in opinions.

In the early 1970s, we were in London on a Sunday and London was virtually empty.

Few moving vehicles.

Few folks milling about.

We boarded a bus for an afternoon tour of Kent.

We asked why London was so empty.

Easy, our tour guide told us. Everybody was at home watching England in the "football" playoffs.

It was nice having London more or less to ourselves for a little while.

Bebe- the time in the USA when there was no football was in the thirties and forties...whoa Nellie!

Thank you Keith Jackson!

Stoney, we have been watching Downton Abbey.

And there are several hours of it on our local PBS station today during the same hours as the Super Bowl. (Super Brawl?)

What a blessing for non-football folks.

bebe: You look pretty good for a Centurgenarian.

To the BBC watchers - Another series we loved was "Monarch of the Glen" about a Scottish lord and his family, running out of cash, creatively trying to hang on to the old homeplace. It was good until it got into the third generation and lost the older gentleman, became too much a soap opera, and lost any similarity to reality! We got that on Netflix, too. (Back to the Inspector Lyndley and Morse series:  I have tried both, but Lyndley is too egomaniacal to me, and Morse is too contemplative, slow. Sorry, Barnaby does it for my imagination! Poirot is too prissy. Miss Marple is too hen-ish.) Tell me some other detectives I can check out....Listening!

Stoney - Thank you for the Midsomer Murders fan site....I had not known of that. It lists all 85 episodes! That way I can find the ones we have not seen - a blessing to me! I have already made the TO SEE list, and am waiting in eager anticipation of more Barnaby! You're an angel!

Lotlot - I like your London experience! When we were in London in 1991 for a trustees' meeting of the Savannah College of Arts and Design, we stayed in the Ritz, so could walk everywhere downtown, and it was not crowded anywhere, including the Tube. However, we had been told it would rain, so we carried those dang umbrellas around for a week, and nary a drop of rain! Of course, we were glad for fair weather, but always mindful of toting that bumpershoot! My highlight was the day trip down to Canterbury, second only to the day out to Stratford-on-Avon, of course. We were there in May, so the flowers were blooming, and we had only wonderful impressions of London.
Someday, I want to go back and see the countryside, as well as settle and stay a while.

Midsomer Murders is a treat for both of us to watch and I have a hubby who is very good at finding the episodes.  We both enjoy it immensely.     We live in a university town and know well the logistics of getting things done before game traffic starts, running around like mad while the game is on--and not missing a single play because every store in town broadcasts it---rushing to get back home to hole up again while everyone exits.  Game days are some of the worst, but don't forget those "lovely" days when the fall semester starts and everyone is driving around lost and disoriented and with cars packed so densely full of goods that visibility is not the best.  Then it's best to avoid any street that's a one way, because someone will inevitably be going the wrong way.Gotta' love it!

For various reasons, we are today only a couple of miles from Cowboys Stadium, where the Super Bowl game will be played in just a few hours.

We can tell you that:

-- The ice is mostly gone.

-- It is sunny.

-- The temperature is fan friendly, in the 40s.

-- Excitement commands the Dallas-Worth area.

-- Despite what many in the media keep telling you, the stadium is in ARLINGTON, Texas, about 15 miles or so from Fort Worth and about the same distance from Dallas.

-- Traffic is heavy near the stadium, but you can move about easily once you get away from the stadium. It is a perfect day to take a drive as long as you are moving away from the stadium.

-- The private jets have been filling the air, bringing well-heeled fans in from all over the world.

-- For non-football fans, it is an almost perfect day for a picnic or sitting on the porch or in the yard and reading.

-- Football fans from Green Bay and from Pittsburgh are the perfect guests. It is great to have them here.

-- Prediction: The Steelers will win, although my heart is with Green Bay.

-- Another Prediction: Despite the snow and ice from earlier this week, Cowboys Stadium will be the site of the 50th Super Bowl. Reason: It is the stadium that can best accommodate the Super Bowl of Super Bowls -- the 50th.

-- Another Prediction: In coming years, Cowboys Stadium and the D-FW area will be the site of a national political convention.

Stoney- really enjoyed Downton Abbey set against the backdrop of the Titantic and WWI with the distinction in class and women's rights. The biting humor was superb.
I used to ski at a little hill near Slinger and remembered the local beers and the smelt. The neighborhood bars with decent food are something we miss in the South.

I LOVE Midsommer Murders, Downton Abbey, and all the rest of the BBC mystery and drama series.  Really -- does anyone deliver a better zinger or insightful, sarcastic comment than Maggie Smith?
 
But I enjoy sharing the Superbowl with the DBH (Dear Beloved Husband), so that will be on.  Thisis why God gave is video recorders.

Hello Hazel!  Not shy, just have very little to write/contribute, and busy with a postdoc in Cape Town!  with that, time for bed.

SUDDEN THOUGHT: They say that more than 5,000 members of the media are covering the Super Bowl. How many other events do you suppose there have been that drew this much coverage?

Tommy ~
Yes, Little Switzerland... sadly closed.
The line: "Hey, baby, wanna get smelt?" reads better than it sounds that little silver Lake Michigan fish actually pronounced -- schmelt.

To be honest, I learned a lot more about Downton Abbey re-watching online. Better image, better sound.
I am looking forward to next season. So many people waiting to get what's coming to them.

Violet Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith):

"What is a week end?"

Stoney- Maggie Smith is top shelf. One last memory. Air Wisconsin prop into that little airport in the middle of nowhere in a snowstorm was cause for a pint or two upon landing. Ruined many a good pair of Italian loafers in my youth by not wearing rubbers in the winter like the savvy locals.

Meanwhile, about 15 or so miles down the road from the Super Bowl in Arlington, Texas, the grand champion steer at the Fort Worth Stock show sold for $185,000 and the winning hog sold for $110,000.

Sooooeeee, pig.

Plus, the TCU Horned Frogs of Fort Worth -- the Rose Bowl Champions -- just signed their best football recruiting class ever.

By the way, the Steelers used TCU's indoor football facility to prepare for the Super Bowl and pronounced it excellent.

Lucky me, I live in the land of the BBC! The satellite thing brings me insomnia entertainment - I doze off & wake up to Animal Cops Houston or Forensic Detectives making a 'gruesome discovery.'

And Lawn Order, which Moose mentioned earlier.
 

haze, you are lucky indeed.

Mooseloop~ My, I am in posh company!!!! When you went to London you stayed at the Ritz!!!! It's just had a major re-furb and is looking superb. When I go to London, I kip on a friend's sofa!

Law & Order: UK is a peculiar mixture of law enforcement and prosecution chicanery and loose adherence to the law that, more often than not, results in the bad guy going home.
I really like the actors but the stories are implausible and the verdicts, annoying.

Stoney~ Re: Weekends: Every dog has his day, and those with broken tails their weak ends.

When we are in London, we often stay at the Green Park Hotel on Half Moon Street.
Wonderful place.

However, we spend most of our time out in the countryside, using B&Bs and small hotels.

We have made many friends in England and spend many hours visiting with them in their homes. They are the best folks you would ever hope to know.

Can't wait to get back again.

I'll be looking for anything but the football game.
I've made a veal piccata and will be cursing my cable channels for murder and mayhem.
Is the Antiques Roadshow on?

korthal, how about Pawn Stars? (yes, pawn, not porn.) Fun to watch.

Stoney--Thank you for my trip to Downton Abbey.  I've been immersed in viewing it for several hours....Thanks!

Steelers won the toss-- Hope that's not an omen!!

So far, my heart is winning.

Green Bay leads 7-0 in the first quarter.

the guacamole is going fast.

My heart is really winning.

Green Bay intercepts a pass, scores again.

Packers lead 14-0 in first quarter.

I predicted Steelers would win by 10.

But my heart said Packers would win by 13.

'Course, there is a long, long way to go.

Go Pack.  For my Wisconsin friends who love this team so much.  I *like* it, I hope they win, but the team that I call mine, for real, will always be the Chicago Bears, even if they never go to the Super Bowl, and even if I have to say "Wait till next year" every year into forever.  They're my team...................That said, we're watching the Game like it was the Bears in it, and I hope The Land of Cheese will be blessed with Victors, and that shiny trophy. GoPackGo!

Haze - I am not so posh...we were not in London on our own dime...the college was paying for all of the trustees of SCAD to stay there! (My husband had been in on the inception of the college founding. The Pres.-a friend of my husband's -  had once been a high school principal, and he and his wife looked for a non-profit way to make loads of money, so started a college. My husband was the first graduation/commencement guest speaker when they started SCAD in 1981.)
They had just opened a division of the college in London to teach historic restoration, so decided to fly the entire top level staff and trustees and families. I also lost my pay at work, because the school where I taught 11th grade judged my leave was not approved. I used 3 days of "personal leave," but the other days were taken out of my paycheck. It was entirely worth it!!

MOOSE.................it ate my message! I got Lindley & Lewis mixed up...............I adore Lewis...............Lindley is too angsty for me; I am married to an angsty man, so he needs to lighten up a tad. At least he has charm & great looks going for him.....something Kenneth Braunagh's new PBS show has not a bit of............ Frankly, there's not enough Lewis for me..........
 
RINGS.............I love pigs in blankets ( volcanic blankets if you add cheese), eat a piglet for me please! You all have a serious spread going on...............
 
STONEY..................someday maybe we all can get together over a 5 way...........it would bring us all that much closer....................bwaaaaahahaha........................... Because of other things going on I missed all but the last installment of DA..............I had to get all the background from my mother........what I saw I LOVED............Hugh, the actor who played the father........mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............the woman who played his socialist daughter was absolutely ravishing..................I so want to see this from the beginning............
 
MICHAEL...........just call me gruel girl.................
 
UMM..........those were halcyon days............
 
Go Patriots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Packers lead 21-10 at the half.

Some fans mad because their seats were not ready.

Some reported leaks in the stadium.

NFL is being quoted as saying some fans who could not get to their seats will get triple refund.

The Black-eyed Peas are absolutely awful..............the guys all seem to be dorks.................

Can't say much for the Super Bowl half time show.

Good time to go for a walk.

Was the Super Bowl half time show supposed to be music or an exercise video?

I kinda liked the half-time show.....they had more and better moves than any of the players and I thought Fergie was awesome! There are some benefits to being easily amused ...... It's almost always entertaining.....jmo

Ha! BBC is screening the SuperBowl. Thought I'd have a go at watching it. Well, I tried.

Slash saved Fergie and Usher saved the Black-Eyed Peas.

A save is a save is a save, I guess.

Hazel---Nos da.  It doesn't do much for me, either.  

Stoney: I loved Downton Abbey. I would love to see the UK version. Perhaps Netflix has it. maggie Smith had some of the best lines, e.g. "No Englishman would dream of dying in someone elses house!" and "No one wants to kiss a girl in black."           

Green Bay got it back and I don't have to watch "Black Eyed Peas" again. Life is good.

georgann, agreed.

PL................someone needs to go all Audrey Hepburn on Fergie, but then she might not amuse the gentlemen so much................somewhere Neil Young is drinking an overdose of benadryl to block the horror from his mind......................
 
LOTLOT...................exercise videos are the new music I guess..............maybe they'll have a pilates instructor next year............
 
Enjoy, you fans & Go Patriots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GEORGANN...............I'm sending you a copy of the Black Eyed Peas that plays over & over & over until you lose consciousness.................

The Steelers are back in action!

We have a game. 2 point conversion is a momentum shift. Kafka might solve problems by letting them devour him. I devour the Philly Steak and problem solve at least on some slef deceptive level. Speaking of problem solving, you must admit, the death of the Turk in the midst of an indiscretion presented a situation for the ladies at Downton.  I am attempting to multitask as I am also packing for an extended biz trip this week.

This has to be the first Super Bowl where both teams wore yellow pants..... A battle between bumble bees and leprechauns.... Evenly matched to boot.

Ooooh! Those yellow pants! Does my bum look big in this? YES!!!!!

Though I meant self, I subconsciously typed "slef", a coded message found on the Georgia Guidestones that are really the work of a secretive religious sect called the Rosicrucians, Glad I decoded that in time before the 2012 total meltdown.

Congratulations Greenbay. I blame the Black-Eyed Peas!

I think I'm ready for a Monty Python marathon now....

Just a few weeks 'till pitchers, catchers and the boys of summer start spring training.

Terrific Super Bowl game to watch.

Got my money's worth.

Every last dime of it.

Peter Lake, like you, I also am ready for the boys of summer.

Play Ball!

Can't wait for Opening Day.

For me, the Super Bowl game was a four-taco happening.

Now, it is back to pushups.

One, two, three . . .

Somehow the Packers pulled it out...in spite of Rodgers' receivers with dropsy! But give them credit, they led all the way....and recovered a few Steeler fumbles....Love those turnovers when they go your way! Glad the Pack won, but in a more contemplative mood, that's a h**l of a lot of money in one place for "just a game!" Are our American values just a bit skewed?!
 
I agree with those above who mentioned the yellow pants...too much of the same thing! Hard to keep up with the sides. And what about those young guys with the arms full of tattoos! Claiming your tribal pride is one thing, but how is that going to work with a job in a Fortune 500 office?! Ha! Guess it is preparing for a career as a fitness trainer after the NFL! And all that long hair, sweaty, hanging out on the shoulders! Not good grooming. Hardly an image of clean-cut sportsmen! Coaches need to put an end to that showboating-by-appearance fad.
 
Count another vote here to fire the Blackeyed Peas from TV primetime. What a mess of gyrations, stomping, space suits, screaming, and light effects! Remember the halftime shows when the bands marched and we applauded their formations?! Give me Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Trisha and Garth, or even Big and Rich, but those raucous special effects do not say musical art to my senses.

Back to my 10:07 post about the play: It is definitely :The 39 Steps" and after I Bing'd it, I realize what it is about! I had known of the old Hitchcock film of that name, and had vaguely heard it is revived again in NY, so now I know to expect a mystery farce with 4 actors playing all the parts! Fun!

Bebe.... I would have really enjoyed Neil Young 'Rockin' in the Free World' at halftime I have a difficult time picturing him watching the Super Bowl .... But if he did, he would probably have some Benadryl on hand... And not be bothering with a teaspoon.

I could picture him with Crazy Horse doin' a halftime show..... Wouldn't require any special effects either.

I still can't deny that my foot was-a-tap pin' during the B.E.Peas' set... And my foot knows what it likes better than I do. : )

Gosh, and I thought my Super Bowl menu had too many calories.

Here is what was on the White House Super Bowl menu:

– Bratwurst
– Kielbasa
– Cheeseburgers
– Deep Dish Pizza
– Buffalo Wings
– German Potato Salad
– Twice Baked Potatoes
– Snyders Potato Chips and Pretzels
– Chips and Dips
– Salad
– Ice Cream
– Beverages including the following beers: Hinterland Pale Ale & Amber Ale (from Wisconsin), Yuengling Lager and Light (from Pennsylvania) and White House Honey Ale.

"Please, sir, I want some more."