Tomorrow (Thursday, 6p pacific, on ESPN, nation-wide) the Fighting Ducks will host the Cal Bears at Autzen Stadium. It is one of our biggest conference games and everyone is so excited about the match-up. We are taking the Magna Peregrinus to Eugene for the "party in the parking lot" prior to the game.
Between the first and second quarters, the University of Oregon is honoring athletes with Oregon ties who recently competed in the World Track & Field Championships in Korea. (A large contingent of US athletes live and train in Oregon year-round.) Their introduction will be a subtle reminder to the 60,000 fans in Autzen Stadium to get their tickets to the 2012 Olympic Trials, which be held in Eugene - next June. The Olympic Trials track meet will choose the US team for the London Olympics. My Driver is on the organizing committee for the Olympic Trials, helping to plan the 10-day event.
Since so many athletes are coming to Autzen Stadium to be recognized, DT thought it would be a good idea to host them prior to the game at our tailgate.
24 athletes/significant others RSVP'ed yes!
Gold medal winners, silver medal winners, bronze medal winners and athletes who competed for the US in Korea will show up and eat a burger at a tailgate hosted by DT, me, Woody, Kathy, Mary & Steve! For many of the athletes, this will be their very first tailgate.
We plan to spoil them. For what they do day-in/day-out for us, serving them a burger is the least we can do.
This afternoon I went to Costco and purchased 48 frozen organic beef patties, buns, tomatoes, veggie trays, chips and assorted brewskis. Then I came home, made a pasta salad for 24. (Mary is making a potato salad for 24.)
In my spare time, I baked cookies.
A lot of cookies.
Rolled and ready to bake
Thank goodness I have two ovens. I made four recipes of my famous Big Soft Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe... except I made them about half the size as called for in the recipe. This produced nearly 12 dozen cookies.
The only bad thing is that the cookies do not have nuts. I feel it is basically sacrilege to not put pecans or walnuts in chocolate chip cookies, but apparently I am in the minority. Matthew Centrowitz (bronze medal, 1500m) prefers his chocolate chippers sans nuts, so no-nuts it is!I told you we are out to spoil the athletes!
The cookies are 100% organic: organic butter, organic eggs, organic brown sugar, organic white sugar, organic vanilla, organic flour and organic 72% cacao chocolate chips.
Organic does not mean healthy. These babies are loaded with fat. Organic fat is still fat, but if one is going to indulge...
I managed to cram 8 dozen cookies in this carrier.
I did not eat even one cookie.Dang. I hope they are good.
What did not fit in this carrier will be relegated to the freezer for another party.
It never rains at Autzen Stadium!On a personal note, Little Leo had his two month check-up today. Leo is 11 pounds, 10 ounces! Growing up so fast. He also had his first immunizations today. Poor little guy was a bit fussy this evening. I remember those days... and I remember in the 80's children's Tylenol contained alcohol.
The good old days.
Until my next update, I remain, your Suzy Homemaker correspondent.