Football Food Famlily & Friends

Was up between 730-8am. Glancing out back it looked wintry & cold. There were even some snow flurries. I started a pot of Starbucks coffee then played around online. Went for coffee 10 minutes later. Once again the Starbucks clogged the coffee maker making for a bit of a mess when I pulled the carafe away from the bay. Dang it! Took me a few minutes to get the mess in check.

Headed back to my PC with coffee sometime after 8am. Not only was it Michigan week, but we were also hosting some family members for TG later that afternoon. I planned to bake a chocolate pie and make risotto. I felt a little stress thinking about all that needed to happen.

Mindy was up and downstairs shortly before I left for a run. She had two of our crock-pots out, each hosting a large beef roast. I headed out the door around 920am. It was blustery and cold, far different from the blue skies and warm temps we enjoyed for most of the week. However, this weather was more fitting to the season as well as the Michigan OSU game. I ran just three miles for the 8th day in a row. Plan on getting back to my regular schedule beginning Monday.

Entered through the overhead garage door back at the house. Before even heading inside I put the aluminum extension ladder against the apex of the garage in preparation for hanging the lighted Xmas wreath. For some reason I was thinking it was stowed in the garage attic, but it wasn’t. Instead, it was in the basement. Frustrated with having to replace the incandescent light sets so often, last year we bought an LED set. Still, I tested the wreath before running it up the ladder. Really? It looked like half the bulbs were out. Dang it!

I tried the flicking the bulb trick on most of the lights that were out, but to no avail. Indy heard me dropping a couple ‘F’ bombs in frustration. This was the very reason I went with LEDs. I could either unwrap the LED set from the wreath and troubleshoot or go get another new set. I decided to at least give repair a try.
Anybody who’s messed with an old artificial wreath knows that they lose lots of needles much like a real tree/wreath. What a mess! After I had the 100 LED light set completely removed, I tested it once more. Still half the set was out. I took the light set inside where it was warm.

I opened the fuse slot exposing the two fuses. I thought I would replace them both since that would be the easiest fix. However, I couldn’t get the old fuses out no matter what I did. Mindy took a stab at it too. OK, let’s be smart about this. I went to the garage and got my volt/ohm meter. Dead battery! Dang it! Replaced the 9v battery then checked the fuses still in the plug. Both fuses were good. At least I knew they weren’t the problem. Asked Mindy where my baggie of spare Xmas bulbs was. She had it out for the hallway tree the day before. Sure enough, I put the two spare LED bulbs in there last year. Smart!

I decided to do the replace one at a time trick, starting at the very end. Long story short, the repair was easy. The 2nd bulb from the end was the problem. The filament was completely broken away from the bulbs shaft. I felt good about the easy fix, but had already wasted more time than I really had for such things. Still, I wasn’t about to leave a project half done. I wrapped the set around the wreath making sure to wrap it evenly while hiding the wires as best I could. Checked it again before running it up the ladder. All good!

Once in place I installed the timer in the garage. It’s an old fashioned mechanical timer that works like a clock. I had to monkey with it like I do every year making sure it was on and then set at the right time. I then run through the on/off cycle to make sure that it works as planned. Finally done with the wreath, I hooked up the front porch tree to the day/night timer as Mindy requested. That was far easier and went without incident.

I cleaned up the mess the wreath made on the garage floor then headed inside to get crackin’ on the chocolate pie and risotto. Mindy had a few things already on the stove too, but we coordinated our efforts earlier so that we would end up in each other’s way. I’m thinking that it was close to 11am. Having made a chocolate pie only three weeks prior, I was a bit more on top of the process and far more organized this go round. I got out all the ingredients I would need ahead of time as well as all the necessary bowls and measuring devices. I was well prepared.

Once I had the concoction cooking on the stove, I rolled out the pie dough that I made last Tuesday. I rolled it directly on the granite sprinkled with flour. I took a couple breaks to stir the chocolate filling and then baked my homemade pie dough at 400 degrees. I had the three egg yolks separated and ready for the combine once the mix was a boil. I checked my pie dough and found that the sides were inexplicably collapsing on themselves. Appeared to be shrinking far more than it should. Mindy recognized that as not enough flour in the dough. I agreed with her assessment simply from handling it. Seemed too moist & gooey. Wasn’t much I could do then accept carefully raise and press the sides against the pie dish with a spatula. That worked well enough. Crisis averted. Mindy showed me on the pie dough recipe where her it says to add more flour as necessary. Of course my question was, how do you know when more is necessary?

The funny thing is, I told her Tuesday that I thought I would add an extra ¼ cup of flour to each pie dough next time. Truth is, I never even read the back of the pie dough recipe index card. The filling recipe calls for taking about a half cup of the chocolate mixture and blending it with the 3 egg yolks before returning it to the entire batch. That went flawlessly this time.

The baked pie crust now cooling, I put the filling in the fridge to cool for a couple hours. And because I had a good system going, the mess was minimal this time. I was able to start on the risotto right away. It was 1150am and right before kick-off.

I worked on the risotto through the first half of the football game then put the completed concoction in a small crock-pot just to keep it warm. Jacob and I watched together from the family room. The Buckeyes took the early lead but then seemed to go soft. Happened a lot this season. The game was close throughout the entire first half. We took the lead three times in the first half alone but trailed at halftime 21-20.

There was much less scoring in the 2nd half, and while our offense continued to sputter, our defense rose to the occasion, playing perhaps their best ball of the year. How timely! I think Michigan turned the ball over three times in the second half. We could only turn those into 6 more points, leaving at least 10 easy ones on the field. Yikes! Still, that was enough to win again, which unless I’m mistaken is 9 out of the last 11.

I was just about to pour the chocolate pie filling into the cooled crust when I looked over the recipe card once more. On the back, down at the very bottom I discovered what I left out the last time. The last line says to add another tablespoon of butter and 1-1/2 tablespoons of vanilla. That’s a step I skipped completely last pie. I softened the butter, mixed it with the vanilla then beat it into the cooled mixture. Turned it silky smooth and gave it even more flavor. I left the completed pie in the fridge to continue cooling.

Expecting folks to show up around 4pm. We got a call from brother Tommy earlier sharing that he was ill and wasn’t going to make it over. The same could be said for Shelly and Kaileigh too. My mom couldn’t make it either. Her knee was too painful. All of sudden, it appeared we made way too much food. But that’s OK. Dad, Ashley, Lindsey and the gkids showed up. Ended being up just 10 of us.

Asked Lindsey if she would go after Powerball tickets at Circle K. I bought her and Ashley one too. That night’s drawing was for a whopping $325 million! Lindsey wanted to run to M&S carryout, convinced that would be where the winner’s sold.
Even though everybody showed up around 4pm, we didn’t plan to eat until about 530pm. The larger of the two roasts needed more time to cook anyway. Dinner was a hit. Everything turned out fine. Sometime during dessert, Mindy & I made plans to go to the new casino with my dad on Sunday afternoon. We’ve been wanting to check it out but neither of us have a clue when it comes to gambling. We settled on 1pm. We were very excited about the idea.

Everybody left before 7pm. In fact, by then we had the house back in order. Mindy expressed that she was tired and stretched out on the sofa for a nap. At the same time I suggested we walk over and visit Pat & Lisa, who were hosting their immediate family TG dinner that afternoon too. Mindy decided to walk over with me. I pocketed a White Rajah. Mindy wanted nothing.

Much like ours, it was a small gathering, only with fewer gkids – only one, Oscar. Pat proudly showed us how Oscar can now walk. Just learned. The funny thing is, when he falls, he stands right back up without any help. Doesn’t even use his hands. Instead, all legs. Too cute! We visited with the Shultz family for about an hour. We headed home shortly after the start of the Notre Dame/USC game. At home, I suggested we walk down to the neighbors. While Mindy was able to make an appearance earlier, I wasn’t able. I wanted to say hello to some of Kenny/Chrissy’s family. Mindy agreed. We walked down there next. Jacob opted to stay at home. Bella, of course, was already there playing with Lillian and Emily.

Some of Kenny’s work peeps were there, as were neighbors Teri and Mike. But the others either already left or hadn’t yet arrived. Chrissy already had quite the beer buzz going. The Notre Dame game was whirling on the tube, and fixated on it was Mike and Evan. They’re huge N.D. fans. I asked who he liked more, OSU or N.D? N.D. Hmmm?
Kenny’s cousin, Laura was there with her husband. He’s from Southern California and consequently a huge USC fan. He hardly had an opportunity to cheer as N.D. took the early lead and never relinquished. It was really loud, between the game and all the hooting and hollering. Mindy didn’t stay too long. She begged off for home and bed. She was about to fall asleep even before we visited with Pat & Lisa. Bella, Eiknarf and I stayed behind. Teri joked that I was allowed to stay. I didn’t mind. I laughed!
Rare for Kenny, he had out a half gallon of Jim Beam. And while I brought two Xmas ales, after drinking one, I switched to Beam and ice – no mixer. I had two of those along with a bunch of yummy football snacks they made available. I toyed briefly with the notion of getting hammered and hooting it up late into the night but ended up thinking better of it. I switched to water instead. Bella, Eiknarf and I headed home near the end of the 3rd quarter. Mindy was already in bed, but that I completely expected.
I tuned into the rest of the N.D. game, which they won. They and OSU are the only unbeaten teams in the country. They’ll almost certainly be going to the BCS championship game while the Buckeyes’ season is done. After the game I tuned to SNL, but fell asleep before it hardly got going. I woke on the sofa around 1am and headed for bed after turning off all the Xmas lights (tree and mantle).