Super Bowl Sunday and being away from home for the first time in many years.
For all of non-American friends, today is Super Bowl Sunday. I am very curious to see what it's like in Arizona but in Texas it is actually a very serious holiday. In our little city (or big town) the roads would pretty much be abandoned by about 12 o'clock and it seemed the only people who would be out were the ones who were having to make second and third trips to the grocery store or pizza place. After all this time of basically living in a place where football is a literal religion, I still know almost nothing about the game. I understand the downs and what field goal range is but that's it. I have no idea what the positions are (other than quarter back, that ones easy), I have no idea why they throw the ball and some times give to someone else and I don't understand why time outs are so important (because the clock is always stopped anyways). I do however love Super Bowl Sunday--it was a time for me to get together with other girls and women and yap my little head off for several hours while having an excuse to eat as much fatty and spicy food as I could. This is leading into this larger subject of this week's blog...third trimester hormones have hit me like a sack of bricks and it seems like all I've been doing this week is crying.
For some reason the lack of Super Bowl prep really got to me. I'm still on my family's group text and all week last week were my mom and my sisters and now Bub's little sister making plans for Sunday (she is doing great in our old house--which really does make me happy). My older sister is hosting the day and it just hit me that I won't be there to see the kids running between the houses, I won't hear husbands grumble as we ask the to go grab a double boiler or the andouille for the gumbo. I wont get to see all the women in the house roll our eyes when it seems like the men overreact to something in the game. I won't get to hear my brother in law talk about how much of a softy Patrick Mahomes while at the same time saying how Taylor Swift has ruined the last several years of football with her presence. I think I've made it clear that I love people and I especially love my people and it really hit me that we won't be together today. We have many more of these coming up and I guess I need to get used to it but this one is a little rough. Coupled with the hormones, the tears have been flowing.
I think I'm going to keep this one a little shorter than normal...Bubs is in the kitchen making his queso dip. A true benefit to Arizona is that we've been able to get the real and fresh Hatch green chile pretty much whenever we want it. We could usually get it in the fall in Texas but other times of the year we'd have to settle for the cans--which is ok in a pinch but there is nothing like, meaty, fresh roasted real green chiles. I get annoyed at Bubs when he becomes so nationalistic over New Mexico but I can't deny, the Mexican food there is truly incredible, mostly because of the stellar ingredients. I am going to make my gumbo--and while I'm sure the shrimp here is fine, it just didn't look as good as the stuff that we get fresh from the Gulf. So I'm trying to figure out what I need to change to make it with chicken. Again not that big of a deal but just another little reminder that I'm not at home. I'll be ok.
WRT the Super Bowl, I didn't particularly have any horse in that race, but it wasn't a great game. I thought the best part was the Kendrick Lamar halftime presentation, and when he ended it by saying, "turn the TV off," I did.
ReplyDeleteI do feel the need to ask about your central Texas gumbo. I was born and raised in Cajun country, and you mention using shrimp and andouille, so I'm intrigued. Like you, I can't help but be skeptical about Arizona shrimp, but we're usually more basic chicken and sausage people anyway.
I make a South Carolina "Low Country" gumbo. It is tomato based with shrimp and any type of ham or sausage you like. I have also made it with smoked chicken thighs and even duck breast. I tried a Louisiana gumbo but I can't make a dark roux to save my life. I get to impatient and burn it every time. It is really the same but instead of roux and shrimp stock I use crushed tomatoes
DeleteHi Clem - Creole style shrimp gumbo will often use a tomato base. As you may be aware, Creole cuisine is chiefly associated with New Orleans, which makes it a little bit more metropolitan than Cajun cooking. To qualify as a Cajun gumbo, you need a roux base. In Acadiana, a gumbo with a tomato base is known as a "stew." This subject was actually covered recently in Southern Living: https://www.southernliving.com/food/dish/gumbo/tomatoes-in-gumbo
DeleteThe culture around major sporting events in the UK is very different to the experience in the US. Historically major sporting events were reserved for the BBC and the BBC does not show adverts (not broadcast, not streaming and not on its website) in the UK. Overseas it does so if you access the BBC you will see adverts. We do not. Even now commercial and satellite broadcasters are limited in the volume of advertising they can show (apparently an overall average of 7 minutes per hour, with limits of 12 minutes for any particular clock hour (8 minutes per hour between 6 pm and 11 pm).
ReplyDeleteCertain major sporting events are still reserved to the BBC.
The result is that we do have a culture that before and after the event and during intervals the broadcaster will have eminent pundits giving analysis, and the broadcasters compete on the quality of their analysis.
So there's never an issue of Taylor Swift or whoever doing whatever at half time, or spending hundreds of millions on *the* advert of the year. Instead people who watch are watching because they are interested in the game, and those that are not interested in the game don't watch.
Our closest equiavlent of the Super Bowl is probably the FA Cup Final but (even having regard to the population differential beween the US and the UK) the FA Cup Final will get nothing like the domestic coverage, or the hype, that the Superbowl gets.
don't want to be disrespectful but I can't avoid some European snobbery Here qouting Giles from Buffy the Vampire slayer. "I find it fascinating that a nation that prides it's self on it's virility finds it necessary to strap on forty pounds of protective gear just to play rugby"
ReplyDeleteApart from that I understand your feelings. The life you left seemed wonderful, except from the things that drive you here.