Game on!

It's the Super Bowl, dammit, and that calls for the anti-gourmet, as far as I am concerned. I'm not much of a football person (or even much of a sports person) but I do enjoy championship games of whatever sport, and this one should be extra fun, what with the Patriots' winning streak and the fact that it's the home team playing them. And, you know, the commercials.

So here is the menu. It's just us, no party going on or anything:

• Sweet & Sour Meatballs in the Crock Pot (the kind that uses a whole bottle of chili sauce, a whole jar of grape jelly, and I've used frozen Aidell's meatballs that YMG refused to eat)
• Spinach dip with pita chips
• Guacamole with plain and lime tortilla chips
• Caesar salad, if anyone gets a craving for a vegetable
• Various puff-pastry eclairs and cream puffs left over from the frozen hors d'oeuvre tasting
• Beer

UPDATE: Our very, very fine next door neighbors, who have two excellent teenage daughters of the babysitting variety and YMG's best friend, are coming over with a pot of potato-dill soup and various other edibles and we're joining forces (and planning to make the big kids watch the younger ones). A good time, and adult imbibing, will be had by all.

Snack Report Update

I have a deep need to report on two excellent developments in the snack area.

First, the fine makers of Pirate Booty (a staple if you're a yuppie parent of small children, like myself) have come out with Cocoa Booty, which tastes like Cocoa Puffs, only you can eat it by the bagful and pretend it's good for you.

But second, and even better, Snyder's pretzels have come out with Buffalo Wing flavored pretzel pieces, and this is simply the best snack food ever developed, or at least since Wasabi Peas. Broken pieces of sourdough pretzels (obviously repurposing factory waste, but who cares! it's recycling!) coated with spicy, vinegary Buffalo Wing flavored stuff. Seriously, they are the best thing ever.

School Daze

Young Master Gateau is about to start kindergarten, so yesterday in the mail we got the information packet that included things like lists of the numerous school supplies we are expected to provide for the use of the whole class (apparently, they no longer hand out crayons; each kid is expected to contribute two packs each to the collective supply -- woo hoo! all those anti-school budget folks who carried on about having their taxes raised in some Communist plot to educate someone else's kids had no idea they were fostering this kind of socialist crayon distribution collective).

Anyway, among all the lists and directives was the instruction that we're to provide a "healthy, not sugary snack" and a drink each day, along with lunch (the school cafeteria does not sell food until the end of September, WTF? God, I'm cranky.) Since YMG does not eat fruits or vegetables, or half the other things normal kids eat, such as yogurt, string cheese, Goldfish crackers, etc., I'm not quite sure how I'm going to deal with this one. So far I have come up with:

pretzels
pita chips
fresh mozzarella balls
bread with butter
um, probably something else if I try really, really hard

Oy, and school hasn't even started yet.

Snacktastic!

From time to time, we will update you on our current food fixations. In the past, these have included Now 'n' Later candies, dried pineapple slices, Rice Krispies treats, bacon bits, and the Great Wasabi Pea Obsession of 1997 (A Happy Gift From the Earth).

Currently, I am going through a snack phase that centers on Trader Joe's Chili Spiced Mango. It's slices of dried sweetened mango, pretty well crusted with paprika, sugar, salt, citric acid, and cayenne. They're sweet, tangy, salty, and hot all at once, and I have been going through bags of them at a fairly steady clip for a couple of months now.