A Super Duper Super Bowl!

Stacy has come and gone and I must say, we had a great visit! It was so nice to see my very best friend in the whole wide world…aside from my mom of course.

Doesn’t she look sporty!

Luckily Stacy was never a big drinker….which is one reason she wasn’t in the car with me when I crashed….actually, if she’d had anything to do with the situation that night, I would never have been in the car that night….BUT that means I’d probably still be drinking today and I probably would have crashed eventually anyway…..

…..but I digress, SO having her here for a visit wasn’t really a trigger for me to want to drink. As a matter of fact I have only seen her drunk a hand full of times, most of which were when we first met. She was WAY younger then and trying to impress a boy. Needless to say, we have both become older and much wiser since those days.

Here we are at our Super Bowl Party!

The super bowl party was a lot of work, but I enjoy that type of “work”. It was fun and I think those who came enjoyed themselves. Half of those I invited didn’t come….I guess that’s what happens when you have a party on a Sunday. I really think they ought to change the Super Bowl to a Saturday. Boy was I bushed on Monday! You’d think I’d gotten drunk!

My mister and I were the host and hostess, so we felt it would be most appropriate to be the “referees”! Stacy pulled for the 49ers, but had to do some research on exactly who #52 is since she borrowed the jersey.

I started the chilis early that Super Bowl Sunday morning and let them cook ALL DAY LONG! A wise lady named Margaret taught me to let things like this cook all day on low heat….and she was right! YUM! She always cooked her taco meat and her homemade spaghetti sauce that way and oh my gosh, both were amazing! She sure knew what she was doing in the kitchen!

As a matter of fact, Margaret was the first person I called the morning after my crash. I needed guidance and I KNEW she was the one to call. She was very very special to me. The first words out of her mouth after I told her I’d crashed Penelope and that I was drunk when I did it was a very firm “Call Don Bosch” (that was my amazing attorney). I knew that if that was her advice, I needed to take it. Not to mention, she works for a Knoxville law firm, so she’s definitely “in the know” when it comes to this sort of stuff. Like I said, she is a very wise lady and I have always respected every word out of her mouth. She was like a mom to me.

So, back to my chilis….I tend to get off the subject, can you tell? I’ll try to stay focused.

OH, and don’t worry, I made sure to wipe down my stove top before my guests came. Sorry for the dirty picture

I made Creamy White Chicken Chili and traditional Chili (I used the Wendy’s recipe and one person said “that’s the best chili I’ve ever had!….SCORE!)

I had already had tons of the traditional chili, since I’d just made it 2 weeks before the party (that’s when I got my inspiration to have a Super Bowl Chili Bar), but I’d never made the white chicken chili before and I’d been told it was a great recipe.

Needless to say, I’m sold. The white chicken chili was amazing! I made homemade southern corn bread ….is there any other kind? …..I tore up the corn bread into bits and put it in my chili. I had TWO bowls! It was THAT good!

(yes, you read that right…I said “tore up”…..normally that little expression is used like this…my car tore up….gotta love the south!)

Of course I’ll share the recipe with you….

1 pound of cooked chicken (diced or shredded)
1 onion, diced
1 garlic minced
2- 15oz. great northern beans, drained
1-14oz chicken broth
2 cans (40z.) chopped green chilis
salt to taste
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspooon red pepper
Combine all and cook for about 30 minutes
Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup of sour cream

I guarantee you’ll love it!! I boiled 2 lbs of skinless boneless chicken breasts the night before (I doubled the recipe….my mom always says you HAVE to make sure you have plenty of food for your guests. She kept telling me how embarrassing it would be to run out of food mid-party.) I chopped the chicken pretty fine right before I was ready to put it in the pot.

Once assembled, I transferred my chilis to crock pots. If you know anything about me and my party throwing, you know I couldn’t just set out ugly old crock pots….I wrapped them in burlap!

See, it’s all about presentation! Doesn’t that look better than seeing a crock pot? I think so!

Stacy “built” my new tiered serving stand. We decided she may just have a future at NASA.

She sure has become very handy in the kitchen! I think it was all the cooking lessons I gave her when I lived in Knoxville. (Those were some great times.)

OR it could also be the cookbook scrap book Stacy-Style that I made for her……

 

Yup, her handiness in the kitchen HAS to be the cookbook!

Here is the full Chili Bar spread……

See all of the toppings on our “Chili bar”? Cool, huh! We had hot dogs so you could make chili dogs, Fritos so you could make your own little Petro, and baked potatoes to top with chili and all the fixins. It was a foodie’s dream come true! Those colored things in the jar next to the oyster crackers kind of look like gummy worms, but they aren’t. They are chopped red, orange, and yellow bell peppers.

Here we are, hard at work. Aren’t we cute in our matching referee outfits? Oh, and notice the chex mix? That’s HOMEMADE chex mix, thank-you-very-much!! It was tasty, too!

Oh, and you can’t have a Super Bowl party without dessert…..

Oooh, I caught someone snatching a cookie! It looks like one little person’s hand and 2 big people’s hands! I can’t blame them, they were GOOOOOD!!!

Those were the best doggone chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made/tasted. And do you want to know the secret?? Dry vanilla pudding mix!! It doesn’t even have to be instant pudding mix, either. Oh my! I had no clue such a simple ingredient would make such amazing cookies! You need to give it a whirl the next time you make your own chocolate chip cookies!

Unfortunately, the indulgence does come with consequences…..

Thanks to all those sweets, I found myself right back in the dentist’s chair on Tuesday for some more fillings and drillings… (told you there were a lot! I had just taken a “break” from my last visit.)

I look like I’m being tortured here, but not to worry….I am in GREAT hands when I’m in Dr. Woodward’s chair! He sure knows how to numb a lady! Once again, I didn’t feel a thing! He’s a genius!

(It looks like I was a tad sloppy with my liquid eye liner that day….hmmm, I’ll have to do a better job….and Oh my, it looks like my foundation may be the wrong color! I’m a hot mess, y’all! At least my nose looks clean. I’d hate to have boogies on top of everything else!)

While waiting for the numbing meds to kick in, I got to catch up on the Kardashians!

Like I told you before, they try their best to meet ALL my needs at my dentist’s office….even my entertainment needs! They are SO accommodating it’s ridiculous!

Then, when they want to educate me on where I’m missing with my floss, they change the “source” and MY TEETH….the inside of my very own mouth appears on that TV screen! Pretty cool! SO cutting edge

Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you the most exciting part…..

No respectable Super Bowl party is complete without some good ol fashioned gambling….here’s our square sheet before everyone started picking their spots…

My friend Laurie and her husband Mike won at the end of the first quarter, no one won at the end of the second or third quarter, but GUESS WHO won at the end of the game????

STACY!!!

She won the whole pot! It was a whoppin’ fourteen dollars I think, but that’s better than nothin’ at all! Her winnings paid for some of her gas to get back to East Tennessee.
It was so nice to have her here and SO sad to have to say goodbye. Luckily we will be back up north(east) in about 2 weeks and we will get to see her again soon!

Until then, Stooks…..mmmmmmuuuahhhh! BIG air/cyber smoochies!