Football Shmootball

Apparently, there are some big games on today. Sean and my father in law, John (who's birthday is today, birthday shout out to Papa John!) are Green Bay Packer fans. From the looks of these yahoos, the game went well:

My brother Mike is a Pittsburgh Steelers Superfan, and it looks like he will be celebrating tonight as well.

And while Julia pranced around in her cheerleader outfit and Katie grazed on the buffet, Henry was soaking up all the dudeliness. All my efforts at gender neutrality were erased in one afternoon of grunting and high-fiving. Sean clearly enjoyed having THE BOY around. I'll admit it was sweet to see. Sweet, in a very manly way.

Football was king in my house growing up. My daddy was the NUMBER ONE DALLAS COWBOYS FAN OF ALL TIME. Seriously, like the guys on the local sports radio knew him. He would tape the games to re-watch during the week, memorizing every play. That is not normal. My father knew more about football, and about sports in general, than any person I've ever met.

Sports are okay. I would never sit down and turn on the television and start surfing and see a sporting event and say "oh, hey! I'm going to watch this basketball/football/baseball/whateverball game." I would certainly never plan my day around it.

I will, however, gladly plan a menu around it. Today was chili, a couple of loaves of the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day! bread, cream cheese brownies and oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies. Sean made some of his really delicious wings and a friend brought this nasty-good hot bean dip stuff. It looks a little like dog food, but then you take a bite and want to roll around naked in a bathtub full of it.

My oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are fantastic, but I don't recommend rolling around in them. Too crumby. Here's the recipe:

1 stick butter, softened
1 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
1 1/3 C flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 C quick oats

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir together dry ingredients and add, beating well. Stir in chocolate chips and oats. Drop by teaspoons on lightly greased cookie sheet (skip this if you use a silpat. If you don't use a silpat, go buy a silpat. I love saying silpat.) Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes about 4 dozen.


The cream cheese brownie recipe is from Cook's Illustrated and they are pretty out of this world, too. As is the regular brownie recipe. It is so good that I have turned my back on the super yummy chemical in a box Ghiradelli brownies. Mostly.

As I type this, Sean is upstairs - alone now - watching the last bit of the late game. Occasionally, he will muttered instructions to the players, yell at an official, congratulate himself for his astute observations. As he looks forward to seeing his team play in the Superbowl, all I can think is "what am I going to make?".