That would've been a great game if we'd won. The game food was great regardless.

Saturday night, the Packers lost in overtime to the Cardinals in a classic contest, 26-20. Packers scored a touchdown on an incredible Hair Mary pass as time expired, but decided to kick the extra point to tie the score and force overtime. We lost the toss, the Cardinals scored quickly in overtime and we lost. Should've gone for the two-point conversion at the end of regulation. Oh, well.

The game food was anything but "oh, well." We did something new and, as it turns out, magnificent. You start with about 1-1/2 pounds of skirt steak, some salt and pepper, 4 oz. of parmigiano-reggiano cheese, some lemon zest and 3/4 cups of chopped fresh parsley:

Skirt steak was unavailable. Flank steak, my second choice, was available only in cuts much too thick. I went with top round. Whatever you use, make sure it is no more than 1/3 inch thick and at least 4 inches wide. If if fails to meet those parameters, get out the mallet and beat your meat:

Cut it in half width-wise:

Gitcher parsley:

Chop it up:

Take that cheese and spread it over the steak:

Spread the parsley on top of that:

Leave about a 1/2-inch margin around the edge of the meat. Now carefully roll that sucker up, starting at the narrowest end:

See?:

Yeah, it should look like that, more or less:

Take a length of butcher's twine and tie it around the middle:

Tie lengths of butcher's twine around the two ends, roughly halfway between the middle of the roll and the end, then cut that bad boy in half at the middle piece of twine:

Depending upon how wide your steak is, you might also cut the roll at the outer pieces of twine, as well. I did, leaving me with eight pinwheels:

Ideally, this is what they will all look like. Not all of them will be ideal:

 On a grill, or in the oven on broil, cook the pinwheels cut-side down for about 6 minutes, flip them and cook for another 6 minutes:

They gon' be good:

I also made some bacon-wrapped tater tots:

Made for a good first wave during the Patriots-Broncos game:

Later, I threw out some brown sugar bacon dogs:

All in all, the food experience was most satisfying, even if the game result was not. Considering how beat up we were, I was proud of the boys. Personally, I thought we should have won, but "should have" does not outweigh the score of the game. Next year, I guess. We'll see what kind of food porn we get between now and next football season.  Bon appetit.

We've got a little "Fuck yeah!" playoff-win game food porn

All last week I listened to Redskins fans on sports talk radio completely dismiss the possibility that the Redskins might lose their playoff game to the Packers on Sunday. The Redskins are playing really well, they said -- and they were -- and the Packers look like shit, they said -- and they did. Every last one of those fans ignored one thing -- the Packers have Aaron Rodgers. And Rodgers took over that game and spanked those Redskins until they cried for mama. Result: 35-18 Packers win, and the Redskins spent Monday cleaning out their lockers.

Naturally, we had game food. Of course we had stuffed skins:

The skins came out at the beginning of the game. With a 4:40 pm start, we had to have more food later, naturally. Also coming out at kickoff were some pigs in a blanket. Can't go wrong with pigs:

Looked good:

At halftime, I brought out the pizza jet swirls:

We also had bacon-wrapped tater tots:

Yeah, that looked good, too:

Next week, we are on to Arizona, where just a few weeks ago the Cardinals kicked the living shit out of the Packers. I am hoping for a better result this time, but, given the possibility that this will be the last Packers' game of the year, I am planning a more innovative game food menu. See you Saturday night on that one. Go Pack!

Change the game food, change the game result

Clearly, I am in control of how the Packers do. This week, I switched which Packers gear I wore for the game and what I fixed for game food. Result? Packers beat the shit out of the Vikings and regained control of the NFC North. Can't argue with success.

Anyway, this week was basically dinnertime game food, since the game was at 4:30 and we ate dinner at halftime. We had brats -- duh -- and I did not bother with game food porn pictures, as that would be boring.

However, I did fix some new game food for our pre-game appetizer, and it was as good as it was simple. Tater tots -- which are all the rage with the millenial generation these days, possibly because they are cheap and most millenials seem to be unemployed and living in their parents' basements -- wrapped in bacon, which makes all things wonderful. Preparation is simple. Just wrap the frozen tater tots in bacon:

Cook at 450 for about 20 minutes and serve:

I cannot even begin to describe how good these were. So I won't try. But they wer really good, and the Packers won by two touchdowns. I'm not saying there's a connection, but I am saying that I am fixing these on Thanksgiving. Draw your own conclusions.