The game is on the TV.  I’m not actually watching it.  It’s been painful.  Not the football itself, the musical performers.

Pardon me while I rant for a moment…

I am not a rah-rah-flag-waver but… The Star Spangled Banner is not a pop song.  The notes should be sung as written.  It is the NATIONAL ANTHEM and is not open to your personal off-key interpretation.  And…  If you’re going to sing the national anthem in front of a few bazillion people. please try and remember the words.  Sheesh!  That was bad.

So enough of that…  for the moment…

The Super Bowl.  Yawn.

I’m not a fan of either team, but I am rooting for Green Bay.  I dislike them less than Pittsburgh.  It’s really hard to get excited about the big game when your team isn’t playing.  I usually just care about the pool points, but I’m not even in a pool this year.  Double yawn.

But, we did have to eat, so I decided that we should at least have some Festive Football Food today.

We started this fun food-fest with cocktail franks wrapped in puff pastry.  Really.

One sheet of puff pastry topped with a bit of yellow mustard and one package of little cocktail franks.  Into a 425° oven for 20 minutes.

Next was focaccia.  Victor made this one.   He makes the Better Homes and Garden’s Pizza Dough.  It comes out great every time.

Better Homes and Gardens Pizza Dough

Ingredients

• 2-3/4  to 3-1/4 cups  all-purpose flour
• 1  pkg.  active dry yeast
• 1/2  tsp.  salt
• 1  cup  warm water (120 degrees F to 130 degrees F)
• 2  Tbsp.  cooking oil or olive oil

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl combine 1-1/4 cups of the flour, the yeast, and salt; add warm water and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.

2.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Lightly grease a large bowl; place dough in bowl and cover with a damp towel (make sure the towel does not touch the dough). Let dough rise in a warm place until double in size (30 minutes).

3.  Punch dough down. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a 16×12-inch rectangle. Place in a greased 16x12x1-inch baking pan.  Let rise 20 minutes.

4. Top with toppings of choice and bake at 375° about 25 minutes.

This time around he topped it with sun-dried tomatoes and fried peppers.  I served it up with bowls of Friday’s Mulligatawny.

As the day wore on, so did we.  Time for more snacking…

This time it was nachos.  I mean…  what’s football without the ultimate in junk food, eh?!?

These were extremely gooey-good!

The first thing I did with these was fry my own tortilla chips.  I have a deep-fryer.  I have to use it now and again…

I fried up a half-pound of ground beef and then added a can of chili.  Yes.  A can of chili.  Hormel Hot Chili, to be exact.  I had bought it for when Victor was in Dallas, but since I had made a batch… It’s been on the shelf collecting dust.

So I put half of the chips in the pan, added half the beef and chili mixture, and then a heaping helping of shredded Mexican blend cheese.  Another layer of chips, chili, and cheese, and it went into the oven for about 20 minutes at 350°.

When it came out, I topped it with salsa, guacamole, sour cream, and sliced black olives.

It was a total mess.  I loved every sloppy bite of it!

It’s getting towards the end of the game, both sides are trading touchdowns…  Time to get serious and watch the end.