GOOOO PATS!!!!

It's Super Bowl Sunday, and we are celebrating because the home team is in the big game. I'm talking Patriots (now you know that I'm from New England).

We have all of the football food ready so we won't miss any of the commercials. Yeah, we're those kind of people who don't follow football until the very end of the season... and then we watch it mostly for the commercials. Of course, with the home team playing, it has a little more interest this year.

Don't tell anybody, but I'm in love with Tedy Bruschi. I know, I know - he's married with kids - but I promise I will just look and not touch. I have a couple of pictures of him hanging around the house. He's just the type of guy I've always wanted - short, stocky, dark-haired, rugged good looks - just like my first boyfriend. Bruschi sounds like an Italian name - and speaking of Italian, that's another thing that I like - Italian food.

I love to cook, and it shows. One of my favorite foods of all time is spaghetti. When we were kids, my father used to cook spaghetti for us with butter and mushroom powder. Heavenly! You don't find mushroom powder in the grocery stores these days, but you can find it on the internet.

People of Polish heritage (as I am) are generally very much into cooking with mushrooms. Here is a childhood recipe that I have always loved:

Sautee a batch of wild mushrooms in butter with sliced onions, salt and pepper. If you can't find wild mushrooms, shittake mushrooms are probably the next best thing. Portabella works OK. When the mushrooms and onions are tender, add a little splash of cream to the pan. Outrageously delicious. Use it as a side dish or over spaghetti.

I've gone mushroom picking with my mother, and in later years with my sister, but these days I stick to store-bought. If you don't know what you're doing, wild mushrooms can be lethal. And now that America has discovered 'gourmet' food, mushrooms are much more plentiful in the grocery store. I remember the days when all you could get were the plain white buttons. Better than canned, but nothing like wild.

On that note - I need to get a batch of frozen 'portabella bites' (puff pastry with mushroom stuffing) into the oven before the game starts.

GOOOOO PATS!!!