Superbowl "Snack"

So, I'm not really big into the Superbowl or NFL football, though anyone that knows me knows that I'm a big sports nut. Anyway, on one of the sports blogs that I frequent I found this picture and directions to making this ultimate Superbowl Snack. This is high-caloric culinary creativity at it's finest, according to my unprofessional opinion. What do you think about this? Look very closely: guacomole, 58 twinkies, slim-jims (goal posts), salsa, nacho cheese, sour cream, bacon, chips, chex mix, cheetos, sausages, etc. This is sweeeeeet! If I ever host a big football party (doubtful), I hope I can remember and recreate this!

Ingredients:

The Field:
1 Pound of Guacamole
15 Oz. Queso Dip For The Steelers End Zone
15 Oz. Salsa For The Cardinals End Zone
2 Oz. Sour Cream for the Field Lines

The Players:
15 Vienna Sausages
Helmets - 3 Oz. Sharp Cheddar Cheese

The Goal Posts:
1 Slim Jim for Each Goal Post
1 Oz. Monterey Jack Cheddar To Anchor (each)

The Stands:
58 Twinkies
1 Pound of Bacon
1 Bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos
1 Bag of Cheetos
1 Bag of Corn Tortilla Chips
1 Bag of Chex Mix

TOTAL CALORIES: 24,375
TOTAL GRAMS OF FAT: 1,285
TOTAL COST: $86.47

The PROCESS

STEP 1 - Ingredients

Buy the ingredients listed above

STEP 2 - The Field:
Take one pound of guacamole and smear it on the center of a baking tray, leaving a section on either end for the end zones

STEP 3 - The End Zones
It's important here to fill one end zone with one filling, and one end zone with another, so that neither team receives home field deliciousness. We chose salsa for the Cardinals, and Queso dip for the Steelers

STEP 4 - Yard Lines
Take sour cream and put it into a turkey baster, then squeeze gently to make the yard lines across the field

STEP 5 - The Players and goal posts
Vienna sausages make delicious players, and tiny cheese wedge helmets help keep them from getting concussions. Two different types of cheese helps to distinguish the teams. The goal posts are made from Slim Jim's, that we cut up, then stuck together with tooth picks. Monterey Jack cheese was used as an anchor to keep them standing, with a tooth pick linking the two together. At no point was it necessary to "snap in to" any of these slim jims. Cutting worked better

FIELD REVIEW
Now that the field is finished, you can begin constructing the stadium around it, which you will also eat. It's important to lay down some paper towels, so that no food comes in contact with your disgusting table top. (Because if you're a person who makes this, you definitely have a disgusting table top)

STEP 6 - The Stadium
The twinkie is nature's brick. You can make your stadium as large as you want, depending on how many twinkies you have at your disposal. We had 58. And probably could have used 90. Use tooth picks to secure the twinkies to one another. This outer stadium wall will provide a delicious dessert when the contents of the stadium have been eaten.

STEP 7 - The Bacon Wall
The bacon wall is the most important part of the stadium, because it keeps the throngs of screaming fans, in this case chips, from falling on the field, in this case the guacamole and salsa. Insert tooth picks into the first row of twinkies, and then weave the bacon in and out of them, so that it forms a pliable wall.

STEP 8: The Fans/Chips
Without the fans, there would be no game. It's no different in your snack stadium, so select four different kinds of snacks to fill the stands. Be sure to use pieces of bacon to separate your crowd into sections.

STEP 9 - The Frenzy
Enjoy!

A New Job?

I probably scared a lot of people with the title of that post, maybe even my wife! I'm not changing my job, but if I could I think this would be my first choice:

http://www.islandreefjob.com/

They are currently accepting applications.

Nathan's Birthday '09

Nathan celebrated his birthday this week. Mary's brother Kris, and his fiance', Chelsea, came up from Utah to visit us before they get married in about 6 weeks, so we celebrated Nathan's birthday today along with some other friends of ours that Nathan adores. Last year this time we were in McCall with my parents and some other relatives enjoying lot's of snow. Today when we woke up there was about 3 inches of snow and it rapidly became 6-8 inches in the next few hours. I ended up going to my regular church meetings from 6:45 until about 10:30 and church was canceled due to the weather. Anyway, just before I left this morning, Nathan woke up so I got to give him a big hug and wish him a happy birthday. I like it when I get to be one of the first ones to have that nice little moment where I get to wish him a happy birthday, and it's so cute because he said "Happy Birthday - you too, Dad!"

One of the family traditions that we grew up with was getting to have our very own "sugar cereal" and so I picked up some cereal for Nathan (Albertson's version of Lucky Charms because it had a dinosaur on it's box-front). Reportedly, Nathan pretty much just ate the marshmallows and shared his goods with Sarah as well.

Here is the amazing Ice Cream Cake that Mary made. This is also a tradition thoroughly enjoyed by all and this was definitely Mary's best job at decorating one by far (maybe only the second one she's really tried to decorate). I honestly think that Nathan was a little confused about what this was because it didn't look at all like a cake and his own Thomas the Tank Engine was on his "cake". After he blew out the candles (with assistance from Dad because the only way that Nathan has learned to blow out of his mouth intentionally is by blowing in a way that flips up the front of his hair, which isn't very effective when you're trying to blow candles out), he had fun moving Thomas back and forth on the little train track. But once I cut up the cake, and put it in a bowl in front of him, he quickly realized it was legit and dug in.

What a cute little guy! Since he's started talking more we've been trying to teach him more words. About 1-2 months ago I wanted him to be able to answer the standard questions (name, age, etc.). Rather than confuse the kid, I just started teaching him to say he was three instead of two since his birthday wasn't too far away. So he's got that down.
Nathan got a lot of wonderful presents. In addition to the other pics below, he received his own Book of Mormon, PJ's, and a movie from Oma and Opa. He got a Pirate Ship flip book from my sister's family, a train and a train book from Kris and Chelsea and a whole bunch more Thomas the Tank Engine characters from Mary, Sarah, Jane and I. He was thrilled about all of the stuff and enjoyed meticulously tearing the wrapping paper off of the boxes.

Nathan got a great little Pre-Kindergarten learning kit/Hooked on Phonics set from Nanu and Bumpa and the kids are excited to dig into it and read some of the books and watch the DVD's. Nathan's excited because Sarah is so excited about it.

My grandma is amazing. She has a whole bunch of great grandkids and she still sends them cards that arrive either on the day of the person's birthday or the day before if it's on a holiday or Sunday. This was no exception! And she even sent $5.

It was a great day! We love our little Nathan so much and are so glad that he is in our family. We realize how much of a blessing it is to have these precious little souls with us and to enjoy these special moments and events with them. Happy Birthday Nathan!

Christmas '08

So, this is obviously long overdue, but if timeliness was a requirement I would've had to stop blogging long ago. Anyway, the kids didn't get up earlier than normal, which was nice... in fact I think they didn't get up until after 7 am (we'll enjoy this while it lasts). The tradition in my family growing up was to take a picture of the kids just before they got to run down the hall and open the presents. We have continued this tradition so here is our little trio together for Christmas for the first time. It was a beautiful morning, having snowed much of the night and it continued to snow for much of the day.

Nathan's Christmas was all about Thomas the Tank Engine stuff. He got this little interactive book (pic below) from his Nanu and Bumpa (Mary's parents) as well as Thomas PJ's, another book and a bunch of the trains that you'll see below. He also got a Disney Characters "I Spy" book that he really enjoys as well. He got a Dinoco (CARS) helicopter from Uncle Kris and some art supply stuff from his Aunt Jenny's family. The kid was in heaven! Thanks for all the wonderful gifts everyone.

Could this reaction be any more excited! Sarah got some first readers books from her Oma and Opa (my parents) and has really enjoyed them (if only she'd read them instead of trying to memorize the story and then just quoting it almost word for word after a couple of reads!). She got some My Little Ponies from her Uncle Kris, some play food stuff from Nanu and Bumpa, and some art supply stuff from Aunt Jenny's family. She also received a hat and glove set from her cousin Ruby. Thanks again for everything.

My Mom made this adorable skirt for Sarah and a matching one for Jane that they both should be able to wear in a few months. Adorable... Sarah is really excited and both of her matching outfits with Jane have come from her Oma and Opa and they look so cute together.

As mentioned above, Nathan got a bunch of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff. The pic above is of the stuff that he got from his Oma and Opa. Mary and I were so particularly excited for Nathan's Christmas because he's at the age where we know (sometimes) what he wants (and this year it was SO obvious) but he's not to the point where he's really asking for it. So we knew it would be (and it was) a totally, unexpected surprise of pure delight! It's so fun to be a parent at Christmas and seeing your kids get so excited over their presents. Anyway, so Nathan got this James and Rickety combo pictured above. As soon as he gets it he says "James" and takes them and runs into the toy room where his brio train tracks are (we've had a bunch of this for a while but we haven't really had any Thomas pieces to go with it) and starts playing. After a bit we go in and tell him that there are more presents to open. So he comes back in and opens the large set that we had gotten him with a bunch more Thomas characters and some more track. As soon as he opens this up he says "Huh! James!" and runs into the toy room to retrieve James where he had left it and bring them all together. The kid could not have been happier and it was so fun because, for the most part, he woke up that morning not expecting much of anything. So cute! Here he is below after his Dad totally loved using some of the new pieces to build a really cool train-track.
When we were younger (I don't even remember actually doing it) we all designed our own plates and then they were somehow laminated or something so we had them for a number of years. I know we did these at Christmas at some point because we always thought my Dad's plate was the coolest and it had some kind of a Santa on it, or something. Anyway, my parents got us this plate set for Sarah and Nathan and Jane to do some plates. Sarah was the only one that really did one on her own and it was pretty adorable as you can see above (it's a "kitty cat"). Nathan's was his hand traced, a little bird, and some clouds in the middle and then around the outside of the plate was some train track and then a bunch of the Thomas character's names as Nathan announced them. Jane's was cute too as it just had some stats about her being born and what she was currently doing (crawling, eating, nursing every three hours, getting bit by Nathan, talking, and some other stuff I can't remember). Anyway, we were really excited about these and the kids were excited to use them. However, unfortunately, it apparently wasn't a very good product as the dishwasher destroyed the finish on the plates the first time we ran them. We were really disappointed as we had carefully followed the directions :^( It was a really cute idea though!

The rest of our day was just spent with Mary and I playing some games and just enjoying relaxing. Last year we had these grand plans to cook this great dinner and then never got out of our jammies. So this year we changed course a bit and just did a whole bunch of appetizers. We made some really good stuffed mushrooms, had little smokies, cheese logs, wassail, and some other stuff. We just let the kids play all day and really enjoyed the day, though we terribly missed not being in W. WA with my family. However, we were grateful that we didn't plan on going because the weather certainly would've kept us at home. Anyway, we hope everyone had a wonderfully Merry Christmas! God Bless!

Christmas Eve '08

So on Christmas Eve in mid-afternoon, we were out delivering the last of our goodies to friends. We dropped by one family that we haven't spent a lot of time with but have been wanting to get to know more and who have watched our kids on occasion for Mary during the day. Anyway, when we stopped by they spontaneously invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner. Being lonely and missing company (family) and knowing that they were kind of in the same boat (used to big gatherings) we were excited to spend the evening with them. Instead of a simple yummy broccoli cheese soup for dinner, we had that plus ham, potatoes, homemade rolls and all the other good stuff. Their family does a pinata on Christmas Eve and so we had fun doing that with them and just being around them. Nathan loved just playing by himself with all their Thomas the Train stuff (a preview of sorts for him!) in the other room. Sarah loved being around their girls who are mostly a few years older. We enjoyed hanging out with DeRay and Emily. DeRay was preparing to go kayaking on Jan 1st (CRAZY!). Anyway, it was great fun and filled our need to spend some of Christmas with others. They were great surrogate family and it was so kind of them to have us over on short notice!

Here's Nathan swinging for the homemade pinata. He really enjoyed this (and so did Daddy!)

Here's Sarah giving it a good thump. She almost got hit one time diving in for candy a little too soon.

After spending time with our friends we went home and let the kids open their traditional new set of PJ's on Christmas Eve. They were both excited!

Jane did get some new PJ's as well but they don't quite fit her but they do match a pair that Sarah wore, so that'll be fun when they can wear them together. Jane was just as happpy with the tinsel and the bows! What a doll!
We got a little Nativity set from some friends in our Church earlier in the day and the kids had fun playing with that in their new jammies before bedtime. It was a nice Christmas Eve for our family.