Super Bowl Sunday

Yay! It's Super Bowl Sunday! I don't give much of a hoot for the game, but I sure do LOVE to make foods for the occasion. Today's menu is for one of the unhealthiest meals of the year. You have to do this once in a while, right?

Super Bowl Sunday Repast

I started yesterday with coleslaw. Actually, I made enough slaw for about 3 meals. I didn't want to have to repeat making it today. I chopped my celery, carrots, bell pepper, onion and cabbage. Then I made my slaw dressing. It is really yummy and puts the store-bought stuff to shame.

Slaw Dressing Recipe

1/2 jar salad dressing or mayonnaise, your choice
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 or 2 tablespoons white sugar, or to your taste

Mix all together and let set for about 10 minutes. This will give the sugar enough time to dissolve and you'll have to mix again. Refrigerate until ready to mix with the chopped cabbage mix. I mix only as much as we are going to eat at a time. Otherwise, it will get runny if you have leftovers for the following day.

Note: Do NOT substitute anything for the lemon juice. I tried vinegar, thinking "It's an acid. It will be just as good." WRONG! It was not good. Also...do NOT put salt in the dressing mix. Salt will pull the juices out of the cabbage and make the whole thing really runny. You don't want that.

Then I was going to make potato skins, but Hubby mentioned twice-baked potatoes. So I blended the two recipes and spiked it up a bit. No booze in here. Just extra cheese, garlic and sour cream are the ingredients to the 'spike'. I started these this morning with baking the potatoes.

Twice-Baked and Spiked Potatoes

Potatoes
Bacon, cooked and drained, one slice per potato half
Sour cream
Garlic, minced
Butter
Salt & Pepper
Yellow cheese(s) of your choice
Oil and Fryer

Wash and bake your potatoes. After they cool enough to handle, cut the potatoes in half longways. Hollow out the halves with a spoon until you have about a 1/4 inch of skin and potato shell. These should look like little boats and should lay by themselves on a flat baking pan. Save the potato you dug out of the shells. Set aside. Set the potato shells aside.

While still very warm, take the dug out potatoes and add a minced clove of garlic to the potatoes. Add butter, salt and pepper. Mix these together using a mixer or blend by hand. Put some sour cream in to make them creamy and set this potato mixture aside.

Take the potato boats and deep fry them at 400 degrees F until golden brown. Remove and drain. Place on a baking tray or dish that will go into the oven. You'll have to fry a couple of the potato skins at a time. Don't worry about keeping these hot. They will get baked again later.

Now fill the potato skins with the cooked bacon, a dollop of the potato mixture and top with the yellow cheese of your choice. I used two different kinds of cheese...smoked gouda and sharp cheddar. I put the gouda in after the bacon and sprinkled the cheddar on top to make them pretty.

Bake at 350 degrees F until the cheese melts on top. Or, broil and watch them carefully so they don't burn.

Lastly, I made the fried chicken. I began this first thing this morning. I pre-boil the chicken before I fry it. The chicken went into the fryer after the potatoes were put into the oven.

Needless to say, we pigged out on this meal. We each ate two halves of potato skins. I ate one piece of chicken and Hubby ate two. Add coleslaw and we're stuffed! I definitely have to get my seven miles in on the stationary bike tonight!

Our next snack will be sugar-free pumpkin pie I made the other day. We'll eat that at kickoff.

I hope all of you have a great Super Bowl Sunday.

Take care.

Sunday Work Day

After yesterday, you'd think we had enough of working out back. Well, we rolled out of bed this morning. Actually, my dog made me get out of bed because Hubby was already up. She won't stop barking until we're all together. Anyhow, when I rolled out of bed, I found out I had muscles I haven't used in a while. It wasn't all that bad, but I had a workout yesterday.

Today, we got up and went out back again. Hubby pressure washed the cement picnic set we have. It had a nice thick layer of black and brown mold growing on it. So much so that when Hubby pressure washed it, there was a bit of a raised area between the clean part and the moldy part. It was noticeable to me. The picnic set hadn't been treated before and we had it for about 8 or so years, so we decided to put a finish on it. We bought gray cement paint for our pavilion (which is almost completed) and I painted the picnic set today. Here it is.

Cement Picnic Set Just Painted

Looks pretty good, doesn't it? This was a few hour job because we had to wait until the cement dried before I could paint it. I didn't paint the bottom bit of about 1-2 inches because it was in the dirt or close to it. We're going to level it an put rock around the base so you won't be able to tell.

Hubby and I started our fires again after calling in another burn permit. We got some more stuff burnt up. It looks really clean out back. Next, we're going to get the rock for under the picnic set and enough for around the fire pit. Then, we'll be making some Adirondack-style chairs for around the pit. Hubby made two already, but they need a couple of coats of paint. He only got one coat on before the rains came. Now the things are starting to mold.

Thursday night, we got our order of bug spray. It is heavy duty stuff. We must be the last customer on the route. Our delivery guy comes around 7 pm. Our mosquitos are so bad we can't be outside for long. We sprayed immediately after we got the order. We were able to work outside yesterday and today WITHOUT MOSQUITOS! Yay!!! This stuff is supposed to last for about 6 weeks before we have to apply it again. We may have just found a way to get our yard back! It also took care of our mole crickets. One of the dogs kept picking up the dead bodies. I hope she didn't eat any. She likes to eat bugs for some reason. You'd think we didn't feed her. Blah!

Well, I hope you had a great day.

Take care.