In the early years of the Super Bowl, Mad Magazine predicted that it would become a full-fledged national holiday. Little did the “usual gang of idiots” (Mad’s term, not mine) know how right they’d be. Even people who hate football will congregate with friends, heckle the commercials, watch for wardrobe malfunctions during the half time show, and consume mass quantities of chips, chicken wings, and beer.
We’ve hosted a Super Bowl party for our friends for years. We stick to our tried and true recipes for chicken wings, a baked Buffalo variant and peanut-butter-coated. In previous years we’ve also made chili; however, this year we’ll have Cuban black beans and rice. This is another of our greatest hits. I made the beans today, since there won’t be much time to do so tomorrow. Once the beans are cooked, you stir in a sofrito containing onion, garlic, bell pepper, cilantro, tomato paste, and Sazon Goya. My tear ducts were working overtime while I was mincing the onions, as I wasn’t wearing contact lenses. Putting on my glasses didn’t help.
We usually offer a little drama when we host. Our female cat, Neli, arrived shortly before the Super Bowl six years ago. Several of the known twenty-somethings nearly came to blows wanting to hold onto her. Our first year hosting at Casa Sammamish, a shelf in the kitchen cabinet collapsed when I was trying to get out a serving bowl. Scads of dishes fell and broke around me. We managed to clean things up before our guests arrived. A year later, the water heater chose to die just before the game. Luckily, the landlord replaced it in the nick of time.
Am I rooting for either team this year? Not really. I’m hoping for good food and the company of friends. The game is secondary.
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