My Creation

Sunday was the Super Bowl, and there are any number of things that could (and yet might) be covered here in this blog. An important thing to be sure I do get to is not the football, the commercials or the power failure which captivated the globe, but instead the food. One absolutely must find or host a Super Bowl party with some great food. Virtually everything is non-essential except for people, a television showing the game and food. I admit I can't imagine what else there could be but those three things, but why get hung up on that?

There was, of course, plenty to drink at our party. There was beer, of which I partook, and whiskey, of which I did not. Often enough I discharge my responsibilities by buying a case of beer, but this time around I did not. Plenty of people did, though, and we never wanted for any booze over the course of the day. One might argue that our long-term health prospects would improve considerably if we ever did run out, but we didn't.

The food was ample and varied. There were basic items like chips (tortilla and potato), salsa, dip, cheese puffs and more. There were "tea sandwiches", which were quite tasty. There was some kind of noodle dish, and there was a cauliflower item of some indescribably delicious nature. There was popcorn, and there might be more I don't remember. There was also what I made, and here we get to the real point.

At various times in childhood and adolescence, I was cajoled into cooking things by my mother. Often enough it was something like a pie, but not always. At least once, there was a jalapeno item that she had me make. You slice open the pepper, remove the guts and replace them with cream cheese. You wrap this in a slice of bacon and secure it with a toothpick. You bake that for around a half-hour, and serve them as they are.

I did this for the party on Sunday. I had a late night the preceding evening, and got a rather slow start the day of the game. Around an hour or so before the party was set to begin, I got going. I was a little tentative, but the item is simple to make, and while I took a lot longer to do it than I'd guess, they came out all right. This was in spite of my failure to ensure enough slices of bacon, which forced me to double up the jalapeno halves.

One thing that I have learned in life is that you never do the work of others where seeing your flaws is concerned. If they see that what you've done is deficient, so be it. Don't go telling them with your words or manner that what you've done is deficient. The odds are excellent that if you act like it's the way it's supposed to be, they'll never know the difference. So it proved to be, and the jalapeno poppers were a confirmed success.