Kurt, arepas and cupcakes

I'll admit it - I'm not much of a football fan. However, I do get pretty excited about the Super Bowl every year (although I didn't know until Saturday who was playing)! You can't beat the food, friends and great commercials. 

I will say that I'm more inclined to care about the game if I hear something positive about one of the players. Like if they overcame a hardship or did something nice for someone. After receiving several e-mail forwards about Kurt Warner and his faith, I decided that I like him, so I would root for his team. Sadly, they lost. But Brian tells me that he has already won a Super Bowl, so I guess its ok.

We had a few couples over to watch Kurt with us - our new neighbors, Matt and Ashley, and our dear friends, Austin and Danielle. The game turned out to be pretty good - after halftime, it actually held my attention. And the Office episode afterward was hysterical. The part where they were doing CPR on the dummy and all ended up singing and dancing... and Angela's cat falling through the ceiling... this one has to be in my top five.

Anyway, back to the important part of the night: the food. A year or so ago, our friends Steven and Cristina introduced us to this wonderful South American specialty called "arepas." I've been dying to make them ever since. They're basically cornbread muffins - you serve them piping hot, cut a slot in the center, and stuff them with ham, shredded cheese, jelly, butter - really whatever you can fit inside. A glorified sandwich, I guess, but they're sooooo good (and healthy). I'm convinced they will soon follow cupcakes as the trendy "it" food.

(In case you're wondering, this is not one of my arepas. It looks a lot prettier than mine did.)

I got an official arepa maker for Christmas, so I decided to make my first batch for the Super Bowl. The only problem with arepas is that their main ingredient - pre-cooked yellow cornmeal - is EXTREMELY  hard to find. We spent several hours on Saturday traipsing all over Wichita looking for it - all to no avail. After church on Sunday, we tried a couple more places and I was on the verge of dispair when a wrong number dialed by my husband (I think he might have called an angel) led us to a little Hispanic grocery. We were so elated to see it on the shelf that we bought five bags of the stuff. 

The big game also gave me a great excuse to break out my Sprinkles cupcake mix. For anyone who hasn't yet discovered this - Sprinkles has bottled their magic and made it available to the common folk as a mix (available at any Sprinkles store or Williams Sonoma). I have now made three different mix flavors and I think they are just as good as the real thing. They even include their signature dots!

(In case you're wondering, these are my cupcakes. Didn't they turn out cute?)

Matt and Ashley

Danielle and Austin

Brian and Em