Happy Superbowl Day!!!

Hopefully the team you were rooting for won (didn't happen for me... no interest in either team so I was rooting for the underdogs) or that you made your point spreads or whatever or won your squares in the office football poll (the hubby didn't.... not one bleepin' quarter).

Grocery store observations from yesterday- Over the holidays, there was a noticable drop in foot traffic at the grocery stores from previous years, and the sucky economy started to be the only headline and people cut back. And it's continued that way... just not as many people buying at the regular grocery store, more people at the produce mart where things are WAY cheaper, and a big difference in what you see in peoples carts. Lets just say I haven't seen anything like the one time there was a lady who had two - TWO - carts full of nothing but frozen dinners and processed convenience foods. I can't even imagine what that woman spent on groceries.

For Superbowl, there were more people shopping at the store, and for the usual Superbowl-type foods.... stuff for chili, chips, chicken wings, taco dips, etc. But it did seem like people were only buying for one or two dishes... I'd guess that a lot of people were doing more pot luck parties, where everyone brings something.

So... on the menu.... chicken wings and ribs. I figured I'd make the wings for a 3pm-ish snack, and we'd do the proper ribs for dinner. That meant start the wings at about 2pm, and throw in the ribs at 3pm. I also wanted to make some cornbread, made my slaw yesterday, and was thinking about some potato skins with some baked potatoes I had leftover after the hubby nixed the dinner I was just starting and wanted chinese food.

So... all that to do.... and what happened?

I got bored. I made some soup for a noon lunch.

I've never even had black bean soup, but it sounded good to me when I was shopping I saw the dried black beans, and that and some cheese quesadillas sounded like it'd be a killer lunch for this week.

I started the beans soaking last night, and figured I'd do the soup on Monday night. But I was bored. Why not now??

Started the veg, minus the green peppers. Didn't have any, and I'm not really a fan of green peppers anyway.



And beans, spices, chicken broth, and simmer....



Gave it a whirl with the stuck blender - although that gave up and feel apart about halfway thru. I love the colors.... kinds reminds me of one of my favorite things in the world.....



The Tivo remote. Sooo pretty. And hey look, it kinda matches my ottaman, too.

The glamour shot of my tasting portion, with some low fat cheese, low fat sour cream and a little salsa from the produce mart....



Very tasty.

Enough of that... on to the Superbowl food!!!

The wings, out of the fridge after steaming yesterday...



I was really kinda skeptical of the recipe. Fourty minutes in a 425 degree oven? Those things were going to come out overcooked (at least I thought). Even halfway thru, when I flipped them, I didn't think they'd turn out. But sure enough....



Totally. Beautiful.

And Totally. Tasty.

Tossed them with the hot sauce/butter... the recipe as-is isn't too spicy... a nice little bit of heat but nothing that will burn your tounge. Totally crispy skin, juicy meat.... this recipe just ROCKS. Well worth the 8 buck investment in the steamer insert thingy.

The wings we didn't eat, ready for transport to the brother-in-law's house after the first half of the game....



And on to the star of the show... ribs!!!



Believe it or not, there is ribs under all that foil. A few packets of my spice-rubbed ribs, then add the orange juice/margarita mix and seal them up. One very important thing... put the ribs in meat side DOWN... which I kept forgetting until I had the packets half closed and I had to keep going back to redo my work. But it got done.

After the THREE HOURS of salava-inducing smells of them braising in the oven, I took them out of their packages (I just chuck the liquid, I'm not a fan of the sauce in the recipe) and brush them with some of my favorite store-bought sauce, then stick under the broiler for a few minutes.....



Yeah. They do taste as good as they look.

The dinner spread.. my cornbread mini muffins (used a differnt mix, not Jiffy, and ick, they had cinnamon or something in them that I didn't like), some potato skins, and the ribs. We also had cole slaw, and some lovely Dixie beers. A wonderful meal.