Groundhog Bowl

Did anyone else forget that it was Groundhog Day yesterday? I never remember Groundhog Day till I see it on the news feeds somewhere. It's like it has it's own cloaking device. So the only thing we wound up doing to mark the occasion was watching the Groundhog Day themed episode of Supernatural a couple weeks ago.

Can't say I'm surprised that we're in for another six weeks of winter. Not that it makes much difference down here, but I know plenty of people who are ready to just see it gone already.

I didn't forget about the Super Bowl. ::)

I can't say I'm a huge sports fan. Or much of a sports fan at all, really. I do like figure skating and gymnastics, which I also tend to forget about until the Olympics roll around - now that I can get excited about, I can't wait to see what the opening ceremony looks like this year! - but as for everyday sports? Nah. I kinda like having baseball on in the background while I'm doing something else. Football is also good background noise, and of course it's a natural part of the Thanksgiving soundtrack along with the parade and the dog show.

I make an exception for the super bowl though. It's almost equal to a minor holiday for me now. If I'm able, I like to do something for it. Truthfully I like any excuse to make an event out of something, especially if a theme is involved. I'm sure I drive everyone nuts with it. ::P It's a bit easier then when we're just planning a themed movie marathon, we all like some part of the super bowl festivities. TMU likes the stories and surrounding extras, we both like the commercials, and while TPU keeps claiming he's not interested this year because none of his teams made it (which didn't stop him from performing his usual game time antics) he's the only one that actually appreciates the game itself.

And of course it's a fantastic excuse for FOOD! ::D It's practically the snack food Thanksgiving. Totally ironic that this is the first post right after talking about losing weight, right?

We didn't originally plan to watch the actual game itself. We don't have cable, by choice, and with certain specific exceptions we prefer it that way. So since we thought no one was going to be streaming it in a way we could watch (something about having to have internet through a cable plan, which seems pretty stupid since then you wouldn't need to internet stream it) we planned to YouTube past and present super bowl commercials while we pigged out. In hindsight we could have planned on watching Groundhog Day as well as football movies like The Replacements or The Blind Side (maybe even Ace Ventura) but I didn't think of that till later. It wasn't that well planned this year. ::P

Turns out though that Fox actually did broadcast it normally, so we got to watch after all.

~*~

Now, to the first of the two actual most important parts of any super bowl game. The FOOD.

Most of our game day feast was made up of things we'd been saving up from Schwans, who have great food by the way. A little more expensive, but they deliver and we've found them to have superior quality in most things. There was one item we tried and didn't love so much, but I can't even remember what it was.

I can't rightfully claim that I'm a foodie, but I do like to play with food and it's always the right time to try something off of Pinterest. ::P I didn't want to be stuck doing too much cooking though so I only pulled a couple things out of my appetizer board.

We ended up being ready to eat about 3:30pm, a full three hours early for the game. Luckily there was plenty of pre-pre-game stuff to watch so we just cranked up the volume on the computer and started stuffing our faces.

First up were these:

Corn Dog Muffins. They're supposed to be made in a mini muffin tray, but we don't have one so I made them in regular and doubled the hot dog bits. Much simpler then actual corn dogs, perfect when you don't want to put in that much effort.

TMU tag teamed with me on these:

See the bits of lovely oozy cheese?

Philly cheese steak balls adapted from this recipe. We used her favorite bread dough recipe (that we use for pretty much everything) instead of the pre-made biscuits and damn did they turn out fantastic! We are so making these again, in many different varieties. TMU is pushing for sausage, egg, and cheese. I want chicken and broccoli alfredo.

Then we made our absolute favorite appetizer from Chili's:

I know, not glamorous. But this is real food, not food porn. ::P

Copycat Skillet Queso. We make this every time we're able, it was the one thing we were always guarunteed to get when we ate at Chili's. It's a damn good reproduction.

Then we had chicken tenders, twice baked potato skins, onion rings and mozzarella sticks from Schwans. The tenders reminded me a lot of KFC, this was our first time trying them.

Here's the whole buffet:

~*~

The second of the actual most important part of any super bowl game: The COMMERCIALS.

I readily admit it. In a complete reversal of ordinary life, the commercials are the only reason I ever look at the screen during the super bowl instead of my plate or whatever craft project I brought along. I miss the days when they didn't release them ahead of time so you either had to see the game or catch them online afterward. Seriously, what's the point of putting them out early? It's like peeking at your presents before Christmas morning.

Just for fun, here's a run down of both mine and TMU's favorites of this years batch. Since TPU was watching the actual game, he spent most of his commercial time running around.

TMU's Top Two

Budweiser's "Puppy Love" came in first. So damn cute! We saw this one ahead of time.
Volkswagon's "Wingy Thingies" came in a close second. She saw this one before me, told me I HAD to see it.

My Top Four

"Puppy Love" was my favorite too. Seriously, so damn cute! Budweiser almost never disappoints me, I look forward to their commercials the most. Only Coca-Cola can rival them in my commercial affections.
"Wingy Thingies" easily took second, even though I didn't see it till I looked it up on YouTube. I know that isn't it's actual title but that's my favorite part.
RadioShack's "The 80's Called..." would have been second if I never saw Wingy Thingies. Who doesn't like the 80's? One complaint: Just where was Freddy?
Bud Light's "Up For Whatever" comes in fourth. It was pretty funny, and also explains why The Terminator wasn't in the RadioShack commercial.

I had so much fun looking at old commercials I had to link a few more just because I can. ::D These are some of the most memorable Bud commercials in my mind. In no particular order:

The Original Budweiser Frogs, The Rocky One, The Dalmatians, Awwww!, Clydesdale Brotherhood Behind the Scenes, The 9/11 Tribute...I cried

~*~

All in all, a good super bowl sunday. Great food (I'll start being good again tomorrow, promise), good commercials, the game apparently wasn't the best, but it happens. Even Dusty got involved.

In that she was in the same part of the house we were.

I have to remember to use Seahawk colors when I get around to scrapping the actual pictures. Even though they're only of the food, unlike previous years when I tried to document the TV or TPU's dancing around or sulking, it's still what I did yesterday.

The leftovers. You didn't think we could eat all of that, did you? O_o Ok, we tried...

Here endeth the post. ::)