The Final Wind Down to Superbowl 50 (2016)

In less than five hours the house will be filled with guests.  The week has been a whirlwind of preparations and yet surprisingly calm.  As with most of our entertaining, I relied on the tried and true dishes then added in a couple new dishes that hopefully will become favourites.  Yesterday, I made the pulled pork in the oven so the house smelled delicious during the long, slow cooking.  Today is more of assembling the dishes for serving although I still have the dips, vinaigrette, popcorn and cornmeal muffins.  It is going to be a busy morning but the final preparations for our Superbowl 50 Party should go smoothly!

Superbowl Menu Planning

My husband and I have been having a lazy Sunday, enjoying coffee and chatting about next weekends plans, pleased we don't have to go out in the rain.  Yes rain!  Here in beautiful southwestern Ontario, we are experiencing rain (heavy at times) and rather mild temperatures (highs in mid 40˚F) for this time of year.  We are lucky in that we were away for most of the cold weather but still folks in southwestern Ontario can't complain.  We have only shoveled once, haven't had to use the snowblower and the temperatures haven't been bad.  All in all, it has been a mild winter here.

Superbowl Sunday 2016 (February 7) is a week away!  We sent the invitation out last week so now have a good idea of the numbers.  It looks like we will be hosting our Superbowl Party for sixteen.  That means it is time to do the menu planning for this event.  Unlike many, menu planning does not nor has it ever played a large role in our day to day living however, it is a very useful tool I rely on for certain activities like camping and entertaining.

On the menu:
  
Snacks

• crudites with avocado/herb dips*
• cheese tray with crackers*
• nachos with cheese sauce/salsa/sour cream/pickled jalapeno peppers*
• cashews
• potato chips
• seasoned popcorn* 
• [bacon wrapped jalapeno peppers*]

Dinner

• pulled pork sandwiches* with garnishes (romaine lettuce, shredded cheese, red cabbage slaw*, dill pickles*, pickled red onion*) 
• spring mix salad* with vinaigrette*
• chili with corn muffins*

Dessert

•  banana cake* with cream cheese frosting*
•  peanut butter cookies* 

* homemade, needs prep ahead

A few menu items like the pickled jalapeno peppers, dill pickles and salsa are homemade pantry staples.  This afternoon I will firm up the recipes I will be using then base my grocery list on that.  I bought a pork loin for the pulled pork with part of it reserved for peameal bacon.  The bacon wrapped jalapeno peppers are in brackets as they are dependent on the availability of the fresh peppers.  Next, I will create a priority for the prep.  For example, cookies and crackers can be made 2 to 3 days prior to the event, pull pork 1 to 2 days before the event, corn muffins the day before and dips the day of.  I'm experimenting with the seasoned popcorn so will make a few trials before deciding on one or two for the party. 

And Here We Go...

The new year is well underway with January proving to be very busy!  We had a very eventful ending to our stay at our vacation home that resulted in my husband dislocating and fracturing his shoulder.  So, we had first hand experience of the US emergency health care system.  They were very good to my husband who is now healing nicely.  It will be a long haul healing but we are very blessed as thing could have been so much worse!  Normally, we are home by the 22nd of December but this year did not return until the 5th of January.  We had actually planned on staying closer to the 10th but really wanted to be home for follow-up medical care.  Since being home, we have already hosted one large gathering and our family Christmas.  Now it's time to get into a bit of a routine before we are off again!

We spent a total of 15 weeks out of Canada in 2015 with the longest portion of that being 7 weeks starting in November.  Most of that was spent in Florida but one week was in Aruba, another in Tennessee and we even managed to get to Bermuda as a port of call on a short cruise we took.  In all, we had an amazing year filled with beautiful memories.  A lot of the food we enjoyed was stellar!  I'll share more on that shortly. 

For now, we are back to good old home cooking like this left over chicken stir fry I made.  Stir fry is one of my favourite quick meals.  This time I used an ancient grains pasta - whole wheat pasta with quinoa, amaranth, millet, sorghum and teff.  This pasta has a slightly grainy texture with a mild nutty flavour that paired nicely with the left over chicken.  I substituted Worchestershire sauce for soy sauce to reduce the sodium.  Mushrooms, onions and broccoli completed the stir fry. 

I'm planning on resuming regular posting after my hectic hiatus of 2015.  We are hosting our annual Superbowl Party so I'll be sharing a few dishes we will be serving.  This is always a fun gathering that starts just after lunch and running until after midnight.  Next I will be focusing on ideas for Valentine's Day.   Stay tuned...