Superbowl Sunday was eventful to say the least.
I’ll have to break it down into four parts –
Alarms (will explain)
Brunch
Superbowl fare
The Actual Game
Alarms
For Superbowl morning, Bill and I were heading to Hoboken, New Jersey for a catch up and so I could meet his longtime friends, The Sprengles. We were having brunch at Teak – which is very close to the Hoboken train station. I was watching some 90210 re-runs while Bill was starting to get ready when I heard ‘beep-beep-beep’ and it sounded like a smoke detector. Then it would stop. Then it would start again. Beep. Beep. Beep. I turned the TV down and asked Bill if he could hear it. We couldn’t smell smoke and there was no commotion but anyway, he thought he would go and check. He walked to his front door, opened it, looked out and closed it. He was super-cool-as-a-cucumber and just walked back and said “Well there is some smoke outside in the hallway… get your runners on as we may have to leave down the… FIRE ESCAPE.” I thought that he wasn’t really serious but still chucked my runners on while he went to get a cloth to put over his face to go out into the hallway. He told me to stay back near the fire escape but of course, I followed him so I could get a look. I need to know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING! He opened the door and it was just all SMOKE EVERYWHERE. I screamed and swore out loudly (sorry mum!) and bolted back through the apartment and was getting the bars open so I could be ready to jump. I heard him yell “It is OK!” and then he walked back to tell me – it was STEAM! Someone’s radiator had exploded in some apartment in the building and it had subsequently filled the apartment block with steam. We opened the bathroom window to look out and there was steam pouring from all floors. Then 10 minutes later there was a fireman knocking at the door asking if we were the ones that called them. It was surreal! I am thankful though because I realized through this experience that even though I really get a kick out of seeing fire escapes everywhere, I don’t really want to climb down one any time soon.
Brunch
Brunch was awesome! I am looking forward to discovering more of Hoboken. Being Grand Final Day it was great to see people waiting at 11.30 for a bar to open, all dressed in their gear – exactly of what would be going on in the last Saturday of September in Melbourne! It was my first time travelling on a PATH train – this runs for part of the normal New York Subway system and then links up the city with New Jersey. It was a quick commute and I can see the attraction to living in Hoboken. It reminded me of Williamstown!
Superbowl Fare
Home cooking ended up being the theme of our Superbowl dinner. Bill experimented with cooking chicken wings by steaming them first, then baking them at high heat and then we made a soy/honey and ginger glaze to pour over them. They were SO crispy and absolutely delicious without being greasy and messy to eat. Just delicious. We then made home made pizzas. I love love love pizza here but it is a little different to Australia as they don’t use ham as a normal topping. So we had ordered pizza dough from Fresh Direct. Now this looks exactly like it does in the pizza shop – it is a ball of dough and they give it to you in a zip lock bag. We used some of Bill’s magical spaghetti sauce (not a bologneise) as the base and then went to town with our toppings. I had got some beautiful smoked ham thinly sliced from Garden of Eden and some yummy pineapple and for the first time in 6 months – I had a Hawaiian Pizza!! Here is how they turned out –
The secret? Bill has a pizza stone in his oven which means the base is CRISPY and cooked perfectly. I could be quite content to live on home made pizza for the rest of my life!
Now this certainly is a change to my Superbowl party last year where I was in my hotel room in Hawaii and this is what I ate –
The Actual Game
Watching it on a big, huge, flatscreen, HD tv – awesome
The ads – not bad
The game – it goes on FOREVER
The last quarter – very entertaining
Bruce Springsteen – WOW
I was barracking for the Cardinals for Ben Graham but I wasn’t really worried about who would win – just as long as it was a good game. But wow the last quarter was fantastic to watch. I reckon I have watched probably 20 or so NFL games in my lifetime and I still, for the life of me, I do not understand the game and all the numbers all over the ground and all the measuring tape and strange decisions. I think it is just one of those games that you have had to grow up watching to understand. Nevertheless, they know how to entertain the masses – all the musical performances were fabulous!