Superbowl Food and More Valentines

Hello all.  Having a case of the "Mondays" after that superbowl game? I guess I sort of am...getting off to a slow start today. 

How bout a recap of our weekend to help you through this Monday?  Friday night Mike and I decided to try a restaurant with good reviews in downtown Columbus.  I have not yet been to the downtown area, but apparently it's actually called "uptown" which makes no sense to me as it's in the Southern section of Columbus.  Anywho, the restaurant was called "The Loft" and I liked the atmosphere right away.  Just a small little restaurant with a bar, almost with a "Gatto's" feel for those of you familiar.  Mike and I both ordered seafood specials; mine was  a wolfish with a crab/lobster creamy sauce on it and Mike ordered crab cakes with mac 'n cheese. Both meals were delicious! Nice to find a local restaurant with good food.  We ended up running into a few guys from Mike's captain's course after dinner and hung out with them for awhile.  We also checked out a couple local bars in the area.  Overall quite a fun Friday night.

Saturday we didn't do very much...I may or may not have had a slight wine headache from the night before.  We spent the day with netflix and I baked some brownies in preparation for whatever superbowl plans we ended up making.  These brownies were AMAZING.  They are called "Knock You Naked Brownies" and I got them from the Pioneer Woman's blog.

Look closely, see that caramel layer in the middle? DELICIOUS!  Instead of a brownie mix you actually use a German chocolate cake mix, just prepared differently.  I highly recommend these!


Saturday night we went out for a quick dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  I got a cheeseburger there which I have never tried and it was fantastic! Not to mention those rolls they give you with the cinnamon butter sauce! Anyways, earlier that day Mike had made superbowl plans for us.  We were invited over to Brian and Cassie's house in Phenix City (we had been there once a few weeks ago for dinner).  Brian unfortunately broke some bones in his face (yes, face!) last week when he collided with another guy while playing ultimate football, and had to have surgery...yikes!  Anyways, Jessica and I were going to make and bring all the food for the game so that Brian and Cassie didn't have to worry about anything other than hosting the gathering!  After talking to Jessica I agreed to make several dishes, so Mike and I hit up the grocery store after dinner Saturday night.  That night i made potato salad for the first time, and it turned out great!

It was a big batch, so all three couples ended the evening with some potato salad leftovers! Mike and I will be eating these again tonight...and tomorrow night...and maybe the next night?  Here is the recipe I used: Potato Salad.

Sunday morning I got into the kitchen around 9:30am and wasn't finished cooking until 1:00pm!  Luckily, everything turned out great and we've got lots of leftovers! Here are some photos and recipe links:

 Bacon-Wrapped tater tots:

I didn't bake them until we got to the gathering.  Jesse James the cat attempted to make off with one of these, luckily I caught him (and yes, I threw that one out!).  The little piece of paper you see is a key for the different colored toothpicks.  Some of them were made with turkey bacon, some regular bacon and some had jalapenos in them.  I found this recipe on pinterest! Here's a link: Bacon Wrapped Tater Tots

 Buffalo Chicken Dip:

These are actually the leftovers transferred into a smaller dish! This is a recipe I received from Mike's cousin Elizabeth at my bridal shower over the summer.  Always a favorite!

Home-made salsa:

  Mike was very skeptical when I told him I wanted to make my own salsa.  He bit his tongue when he tried it....turned out great!  This is another recipe form Pioneer Woman's blog...I love her if you can't tell.  It made a pretty big batch so I froze half of it.   Very easy to make too! Here's the recipe: Restaurant Style Salsa.  I used only about 1/4C of cilantro though and you could still taste it.

Well I will end this little blog post with some photos of the last three day's valentines! Time to plan this week's dinners and head to the grocery store!

Day 4...Chocolate Covered Bananas:

Day 5:

Day 6:

Love,
Christine