Happy Super Chinese Groundhog Bowl!

I don’t mean to brag but I am venturing to guess that you did not celebrate Super Chinese Groundhog Bowl last night.

I did. And I’m sure you want to know how it is celebrated.

Settle in, my friend…this post is a doozie.

To begin, yesterday, in case you did not know, was Groundhog Day.

Suffice it to say, here in the great state of Indiana, we were not at all pleased with Punxsutawney Phil’s assessment of 6 more weeks of winter.

So we ate him; he was a little gamey (look at my pun ability…gamey, football game…yeah. Not my best work…and we’ll get to the football game part in a bit. Don’t bail out quite yet.)

OK, we didn’t eat the groundhog, but we kind of would like to roast him or something. I mean we’re not violent or anything like that but since he is solely responsible for this weather then some severe steps should be taken…agreed?

So we didn’t really celebrate Groundhog Day in any way shape, or form. Although I did record the movie…it was on TV the night before. I haven’t watched it yet but I will.

Maybe tomorrow night when I am snowed in. Again.

But I digress. Super Chinese Groundhog Bowl is cause for joy and celebration and all this talk of snow is bringing me down. I must move on.

So…yesterday afternoon, we went to my parent’s house. Following our discussion (albeit brief) about Phil and his calculation, we moved right into food and drink.

First up: soda tasting from Rocket Fizz. Have you been to a Rocket Fizz? Have you heard of Rocket Fizz? There’s one in Indianapolis which is still fairly new; I have yet to visit it, which I know is difficult to believe, with my proclivity for sugar. Don’t judge.

And yes, I used “proclivity” like it was nothing; it’s a fabulous word and I encourage each of you to drop it into at least one conversation a day for the next week. I don’t know why you would do that other than it will make you sound bright.

And well-read.

And why doesn’t want that?

And speaking of bright (notice my smooth segue…ooo, ah) my husband bought 5 bottles of various flavors of soda from Rocket Fizz for us for Christmas.

On New Year’s Eve, we tried the PBA’s flavors: one was Limeade Soda and the other one was Mud Pie Soda. Both were quite lovely, although the syrupiness of them was more than I could handle. Fortunately I did not have to drink a whole bottle…just a swig of each.

A swig was enough.

I tell you this because last night, we tried the ones he bought for my parents. And one of the choices was not nearly so appealing; we had Chocolate Soda and we had Bacon Soda.

As you can tell by the photos below which one was drinkable (dare I say even “good” in spite of the syrupiness) and which one was not.

Notice the shrimp and the bowl of oranges in the background; the shrimp (which were only there because we love shrimp and had nothing to do with the Super Bowl, Groundhog Day or Chinese New Year...this is our celebration so we make up the rules, umk?) were part of the appetizers, while the oranges and the red table cloth were part of the Chinese New Year decor.  We love a theme!

In case you can't tell, a swig was too much of the bacon soda.

Not even the PBA would take more than a tiny sip and these boys LOVE their bacon.

You may have noticed, you astute readers, that I only name 4 different sodas, whereas Mr. Always Random bought 5.

I forgot to bring mine over to my parent’s house, so my bottle is still chilling in my fridge.

In case you were wondering, mine is Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Soda.

I’ll keep you posted on how it is; I’m certain you’ll be on the edge of your seats.

So…after “drinks”, we moved on to appetizers: egg rolls and shrimp cocktail. Both of which were quite helpful in cleansing our palettes, I must confess. Especially the hot mustard for the egg rolls, and the St. Elmo’s cocktail sauce for the shrimp.

Yes, the eggrolls...I wasn't quick enough to get a picture before the 12yo grabbed one off the plate.
My mouth is watering just looking at this picture.

During appetizers, my 12yo quizzed us on our Chinese New Year knowledge. We didn’t do terribly well, except for those of us who were not necessarily aware that there would be a quiz and took it upon ourselves to Google information ahead of time.

Nerds, we are. Nerds.

Now why, you may be asking, did we celebrate Chinese New Year? (And two days late, mind you; that part is because we’re not all hung-up on celebrating ON a specific day…we give it a good window. That in addition to the fact that we were busy on Friday night...)

We celebrated Chinese New Year because frankly, we like any excuse to have good food.

And why do we need an excuse? I don’t know, but clearly we did in this scenario. Who is telling this story anyway?

Also, my 12yo had been asking for a while (maybe at least a couple years…) if we could celebrate Chinese New Year.

So we finally did. It may take me a while but I try to placate my children if at all possible. 

Case in point: two years.

Don’t judge.

After appetizers, we moved on to dinner. Also Chinese food. Yum-o.

I forgot to take pictures of it. You can probably guess what it looked like.

But I did get pictures of the table decorations. 

Who doesn't love a festive, themed napkin?

Red and gold are the colors of Chinese New Year...FYI.

My mom took the 12yo to Party City to see what they had in terms of Chinese New Year décor. Shocking that they had anything, actually. However, the store DID have a HUGE display for St Patrick’s Day.

So you can imagine what we’ll be celebrating in March…any excuse for a party! We’re such party animals. (Lest you be confused, that’s funny because we are SO not party animals…if this blog ever led you to believe otherwise, please accept my sincerest apologies.)

As soon as dinner was over, it was time for the Super Bowl. We didn’t have other snack foods, because we just ate…try to keep up…but my mom and the 10yo had put together an activity to keep us engaged in the game.

In hindsight, this was most helpful because (and this is in case you hadn’t heard…I am really not trying to beat a dead horse…or a dead Bronco as the case may be; that joke wasn’t really intentional until I re-read it and knew I had to call attention to it. Although you undoubtedly had already noticed it. I digress…) there wasn’t much of a game to watch.

So…for our activity: We each had to draw three pieces of paper from a basket. Each paper had written on it something which could happen during the course of a football game. If the item you drew happened, you got to choose a piece of candy from a big basket of candy. And if you were the first one to have all three of your “events” happen, then you got the whole basket of candy for yourself.

Par example: I drew “safety”, “injury” and “final play”. Obviously I wasn’t going to win the whole kit and caboodle (the whole “final play” thing pretty much was the nail in the coffin on that), but I did get a piece for “safety” and “injury”.

As an aside, the safety was a big shock, especially that it happened so early on.

Not just early but the first play.

Again…I’m beating the dead Bronco.

We also wrote down our predictions (written down so no one could copy…this is serious business for the glory of a major award) of the winner and the final score.

We were all wrong: we all chose Denver.

Yes...dead Bronco. Again.

I need to follow a bunny trail for a moment (shocking!) and say one thing which I promised to include. The “major award” comment reminded me. In “A Christmas Story”…the dad won a major award and it was the leg lamp. We’ll we didn’t have a leg lamp at our party yesterday, but we someone (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty…and innocent) who pointed out that we could sing “Jingle Bells” for Chinese New Year and be cheering for the Super Bowl.

Anyone?

Let me provide the clip for you then:

Yes, it’s bad…like I said. I take no credit for that.

Lastly but certainly not least: dessert…how could I possibly almost forget this?

We had dessert during halftime. I won’t even say anything about the halftime show except this: the Chili Peppers looked OLD. Because they are. I am, however, not old and just because I really enjoyed their music 20 years ago says or implies nothing about my age; only theirs. I was but a mere infant when I enjoyed their music.

Seems like the type of music my mother would have played for me when I was an infant, right?

And now to the best part of half-time: dessert. Not really Chinese at all…because according to Google, in China, the appropriate sweets for Chinese New Year would dried fruit rolled in sugar…and we all know how I feel about fruit in my dessert, so clearly that wasn’t happening. But this recipe was called “Chinese New Year Cookies”…so we totally went with it.

I am certain…as in without a shadow of a doubt…that people in China do not eat these cookies EVER, let alone for Chinese New Year.

But we did and they were delicious. They are, lest you be unaware, the official cookie of the Super Chinese Groundhog Bowl.

You may have had something similar in your lifetime. But here’s the recipe anyway; I am a full-service blogger.

Chinese New Year Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 c semisweet choc chips
• 2c butterscotch chips
• 4 cups chow mein noodles
• 2.5 cups peanuts

Instructions

• Melt both kinds of chips over low heat on the stove. 
• Mix in noodles and nuts and stir until well-mixed.
• Spread mixture in greased 9x13 pan and chill.
• Cut and Enjoy!

By the way, what I have presented was simply how we opted to celebrate Super Chinese Groundhog Bowl…you are welcome to mix it up however you’d like. Just be sure to let me and my readers know what you did…we’re always looking for an excuse to party!

Follow me on Facebook!