HillbuzzTwo weeks ago I ran an article with some tips and food ideas for Election Night in case you wanted to do something special that centered around a Romney/Ryan theme:
you can find that HERE, including some recipes that are fun to make for foods that have a Wisconsin, Michigan, Utah, and Massachusetts feel (celebrating the states that have been important to Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan through the years).
Today I’m going to do the shopping and prep work for our own Election Night Watch Party here at Buzzquarters…so I thought I’d let you know what I’m making in case you wanted to do anything special too. I really get a kick out of bringing things in on a tight budget, so I’m not doing anything extravagant…though I am treated Justin, my friends, and myself to a honey-baked ham. As noted in the other post with the detailed food items from those various states, the ham makes me think of Utah because of the honey (Utah being the beehive state) but a honey-baked ham just also seems like something the Romneys and Ryans would have at a family event…and it makes me think of special occasions when I was a kid, because it was always a big deal to get one of these. As an adult, I reserve these honey-baked hams for only the most special of occasions…and if something is going to be epic and great, I call it “ham-worthy”.
Tomorrow night is most definitely ham-worthy, because Mitt Romney will be elected our 45th President and our four years of ObamaNightmare will be over. If that is not cause for the most special of celebrations, then I don’t know what is.
I’m going to make Mormon “funeral potatoes” to go with the ham, using a mix of red potatoes, Yukon gold, and purple potatoes that I already have…so it’s a red, white, and blue thing. You can find all these kinds of potatoes at your grocery store…and the purple ones are often included in a little medley of potatoes that’s around $4/bag. I mix the fancier ones in with the red ones that are a little cheaper and I get just the right colorful effect for a good price.
I am lucky enough to have a friend who sent me two cases of Vernors ginger ale, so that’s what I’ll be drinking tomorrow night as I don’t imbibe alcohol (which makes me more like Mitt Romney than I’d ever have imagined I’d be four years ago when I was so resistant to him being our 2012 nominee) … but Justin drinks beer so I got him a bunch of Leinenkugel, which is a beer from Wisconsin. Vernors is a very Michigan thing to drink…and I’m hoping that mitten-shaped state stuns the world by voting Republican this time (it’s a real long shot…but if it could ever happen, this would be the year for it).
I know a lot of people will be drinking champagne tomorrow…but I’d like you to think about trying something else that’s cheaper, tastes better, and is fun to make with your family. For something bubbly and nonalcoholic that’s not Vernors, you can buy club soda (super cheap…like 89-cents a 2-liter) or seltzer water (a little more expensive, but around a dollar-something) and your favorite kind of fruit juice and make a champagne-like mock cocktail (a mocktail) to enjoy the way you would champagne. I’d actually splurge and buy the canned nectars you sometimes find in the ethnic foods aisle of your supermarket or the juice and soda aisle of a Whole Foods: there’s peach nectar, guava, mango, passion fruit, watermelon, etc. I don’t remember the brand but they are in soda pop size cans but they are super-sweet fruit nectar drinks. Just pour a little of that juice in a glass…and then top the rest off with the club soda or seltzer. Alternatively, you can also take a pitcher and pour the juice in and then add the club soda to make a larger batch all at once; doing it this way means you can really stir it up well. But you have to drink it all pretty quickly or the bubbles will go flat so it’s not something you can make far ahead a time. I like making each drink to order…and I also kind of like the juice on the bottom because it makes that last sip sweet and surprising.
If you don’t have time to run out to the store to get anything special, look in your cupboards for peanut butter…because Anne Romney keeps saying on the campaign trail that Mitt puts peanut butter on everything. It appears our next president loves peanut butter in the way that President Reagan loved jelly beans. I think I might splurge and pickup some Reese’s peanut butter cups as a super special treat for Justin when I’m at the store. Just be careful if you buy these too because you’d be stunned at how many calories are in these things (just one cup is equal to about an hour on the treadmill in the gym…so keep that in mind if you’re indulging). I really want to celebrate tomorrow night, but I also don’t want to pay for it for a long time (like we are the Golden Age of Hope and Change).
Another great Romney-type thing to do is to go to Costco or wherever and get some rotisserie chickens and have those tomorrow night if you don’t want a honey ham. Anne Romney was on a tee-vee special where she talked about how much she loves getting those chickens for the family get-togethers the Romneys have.
Won’t it be wonderful come January when peanut butter and honey sandwiches and simple rotisserie chicken will be served in the White House instead of Wagyu beef and lobster every night the way the Obamas lived on YOUR tax dollars for the last four years?I never expected to like the Romneys as much as I do, but if I had to pinpoint exactly when I fell in love with this family it has to be during the Republican Convention when Craig Romney (the youngest) talked about his family and told the story about his dad Mitt in the kitchen fixing a light on the stove. He didn’t want to go out and buy an expensive bulb that was required for that model, so he just used a bulb he had already…but it was too bright. He then MacGyvered a shade for the bulb by taping a piece of cardboard a certain way so it blunted the glare. Problem solved!
I love that story because that’s the sort of thing I do all the time myself. I almost never have the things that something requires, exactly, so I just use what we have and make it work. Justin and I are always fixing things with duct tape or reusing stuff in inventive ways. There are these Crystal Lite lemonade and ice tea drinks I like to make in pitchers for the fridge and they come in these clear plastic tubes…and instead of throwing those away I use them at my desk to keep my pens, markers, paper clips, thumb drives, etc. organized. I think that’s something the Romneys would do too, instead of buying some expensive desk organizing set. The Obamas, of course, would have only gold-plated and ivory-encrusted finery. I will be glad to see things back to normal at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue soon!
I plan on spending all day tomorrow here on HB, doing a running livestream transcript of election day for the historical record. I’ll do it just like I do for the debates or other live events…and will keep updating as the day progresses. I’m going to be watching MSNBC for coverage…for the sole purpose of watching these people’s heads explode. It is the only instance you will ever see me recommend watching MSNBC. But, I need to see Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow have their public emotional breakdowns as it becomes clear that Barack Obama is losing BIG.
I hope you join us for the fun…and hope you share with us what you are doing tomorrow night for the election results. I feel like we’ve been through a lot together through the years and that tomorrow night we’ll turn a page and be able to start hoping and planning an Obama-free future that’s long deserved.
Read more
http://hillbuzz.org/planning-your-election-night-watch-party-for-tomorrow-58335
