Did everyone enjoy their weekends? The Super Bowl? I sure did, hence the silence around here yesterday. We hosted for the Super Bowl and had far too much fun, stayed up way later than I usually do on a Sunday night
(I'm usually hopping into bed around 9 to recover from weekend fun), ate all the good football food, etc. This weekend was all about birthdays and football for us.
Mom's Birthday:
We kicked off the weekend a little bit early last week and all got together to celebrate my mom's birthday. She does so much for us so we love a good excuse to celebrate her. We met up at our favorite italian restaurant for huge food portions and lots of chatter and catching up. We each pick what dessert we want for our birthday - usually some type of cake but this year mom decided she wanted ice cream sundaes so we had a sundae bar set up while she opened presents. Great night together.
D.C. & Birthday Brunching:
The birthday celebrations continued over the weekend and we headed down to DC to celebrate one of our best friends, Ashley's birthday. Derek and I got down in the morning just in time to head to brunch at
Local 16 with a big group of friends. This wasn't our first time brunching there as they have great food and bottomless mimosas/bellinis/bloody marys/pomegranate mimosas and some beer. We lucked out with seats on the rooftop with heaters to keep us warm of course.
We kept the celebrations going with some bar hopping around. Also, if you're local to DC, one of our best friends, Dom is the founder of an app called
Absorb DC. It will tell you the best happy hours & deals in town each day and plus their
instagram page shares the most delicious treats around DC - check them out!
Super Bowl 50:
We made sure not to stay in DC too late on Sunday so we could get back, rest up and host a gathering for the Super Bowl on Sunday night. Everyone came over around 5:00 to start the festivities and right around game time we had plenty of apps
{chili dip, poppers, sweet & sour kielbasa bites, buffalo wings and a nacho bar} and cocktails to sip.
Before kick off started we set each of the dogs up to pick a winner. We'd done it a couple years back with our family dog, Nash but this was Stella's first time to join in. We put a treat in front of each the Broncos and Pathers logo to see which they'd pick. Nash went first and went right for the Broncos. Stella was up next and went right to the Panthers, but she made sure to eat the treat in front of the Broncos after. It was funny how each was so certain.
It was nice to have the food prep out of the way to actually be able to enjoy the game. Meatballs were slow cooking for the main course and we served them up around half time with some potato skins and caesar salad skewers. No party is complete without dessert and I couldn't say no to a smaller football cake I saw at the grocery store.
Quick & Easy Recipes:
I hadn't searched Pinterest for football foods since Penn State's season ended and found plenty of new good ones - most I have to save for next season
{buffalo wings won out over buffalo meatballs} but I slipped a couple in for the game. A couple are literally so easy that I figured I'd just throw them in today - the rest will be coming later…
Chili Dip:
Ingredients: one block cream cheese (low fat), 1 can hormel chili - without beans, shredded cheddar cheese
Directions: spread the softened cream cheese in the bottom of a dip, evenly spread chili on top then lightly sprinkled with shredded cheese
(I used much less cheese than needed and it was delicious that way).
Sweet & Sour kielbasa Bites:
Ingredients: kielbasa, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup sweet BBQ sauce
Directions: cut the kielbasa into slices (I prefer thin) then place everything into the crockpot (on low) or oven (about 300 degrees) for about 1 1/2 to two hours. Cook at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.
