Championship Sunday 2018 Edition

I am all caught up on my country blogs, now just one more blog to go! 

Every year, we make NFL inspired pizzas for Championship Sunday. We started the tradition in 2014 , and we made them again in 2015, 2016, and 2017. In 2016, we also decided to start doing them for the draft- you know, so we could eat some crappy team pizzas too! 

For the AFC we had the New England Clam Chowder Pizza, and the Jacksonville Fruit Tart Pizza. Worth noting: I don't actually follow the recipe on either of these. 

First of all, we've have the New England pizza literally every year since we started doing this. (Could someone else PLEASE go to the AFC Championship game?) It's supposed to be a clam bake pizza, with canned clams (yea, I know- BLAH!) But, I have a rule to make it like the recipe says for the first go around. The next year, I put crab on it. But it still just seemed dry- like it was missing something. The third time was the charm though. I buy a little of the clam chowder from Publix deli, thicken it up, spread it over the pizza sprinkle it with cheese (and bacon bits if you prefer), and ta-da! You finally have a New England pizza I can eat year after year, which I'll apparently have to do until stinkin Tom Brady finally decides to retire. 

Then there's the Jacksonville pizza. We've never had it for Championship Sunday before, but we had had it for the draft (way to get most improved this year, Jacksonville!) Anyway, the recipe wants the pizza crust and a creme cheese based frosting. Neither of those are appealing together. So instead (and this is the only pizza I don't use a Boboli crust for)- I make a cake crust out of a box cake mix. As long as you add a little less oil and water, you can spread it out pretty easily on pizza tray (lightly sprayed with PAM of course), and get your crust. Then I use whipped cream with a little extra powdered sugar sprinkled in for the frosting. The boys like this one so much, Peyton asks for it for his birthday cake. 

Over in the NFC we had TWO newcomers. I hadn't made either of these before. We had the Minnesota Grilled Chicken Pizza, and the Philidelphia Cheesesteak Pizza. 

Like I said, this was our first go around- so I made these exactly like the recipe said. The Philly cheesesteak was good, but missing something for sure. There was no sauce here, so it seemed a little dry. If we made this again, I'm thinking some cheesey sauce like how they pour warm cheese all over the sandwiches. Something cheddary, warm, and spreadable. 

Asa and I really liked the Minnesota pizza, but the boys were not so into it. It had gouda, mushroom, spinach and red onions on it. I wouldn't change anything about this one. The boys say if I make it again, I have to leave off the mushroom, but that won't be happening. Maybe I'll be nice and do it on half. 

Of course we were really, really rooting for a Vikings, Jaguars super bowl, no matter how much of a long shot that might have been. So of course we ended up with the Eagles vs. the Patriots. And now I'm stuck rooting for the eagles. Blah. (I guess it's better than the Saints vs. the Patriots, but then there were the Eagles fans who flipped all of us off at the Bucs game, with kids in tow). 

Anyway, besides Championship Sunday, our lives have been all dogs and countries. 

Even our chores around the house were about dogs. We had to bury some pavers under the gate to keep Phenom from digging over. Fun story: our neighbors got a Beagle puppy for Christmas and it keeps digging it's way over to our yard. It's so cute, I feel bad sending her back. I'm sure eventually she won't be small enough to make it over, but for now she is TINY. Ellie does like to sniff her and lick her face when she digs under though. 

Etta is actually no longer the problem child dog. She still isn't 'living' with everyone else, but she is spending more and more time out and around the house and out and about with her doggie siblings. I can even have my morning coffee with her on the couch in the family room (well, I could, it's not her fault I haven't been able to the last three days- I'll get to that in a minute). She did make it through her vet visit. She's healthy as a horse, except for a few allergies. She has to take Benadryl and has a prescription spray for her belly (it's red because of those allergies). Oh, and she'll need sunscreen for her nose in the summer, apparently.  But the vet guesses she's only about one, and marked her down as a Standard American Bulldog. 

She's even learning new tricks with Ellie. She learned 'paw' and 'down' this week. 

Also worth noting: Ellie really likes to go running with Etta. But one might say she isn't as in of good of shape. She needs to spend some time with the heating pad, or she gets really stiff. The vet also gave her some daily glucosamine supplements, so she has those too. 

And then there's Porkchop. He had his little operation on Thursday. He also got microchipped and had his teeth cleaned, and two of them pulled. Basically, he hates his life right now- and is making sure we all hate ours as well. He has Houdini-ed himself out of his cone once (luckily we caught it)- and has put his foot through it multiple other times. Did I mention the SCREAMING? Not even whining at this point, it's screaming. Today has been slightly better (or maybe I just think that because Hayden and Asa sat with him all day while I got to spend time with Etta), but yesterday I timed him. The longest he was quiet the 12 hours I sat with him was 17 minutes, and that was BY FAR the record. 

I'm not sure if it is because of the cone, the pain, the fact that he can't be on his anxiety medication while he takes the pain pills, or the fact he can't be with Ellie (who he loves to be with) because the cone TOTALLY freaks her out, and Porkchop insists on ramming into her. Either way between Etta's allergy medicine, Ellie's stuff for her sore muscles, and Porkchops five different medications, we're running a full on animal hospital here. 

Porkchop literally has to be watched 24 hours a day- because if he gets out of that, he's going to rip his stitches, and he's going to cost even more money. So, it's become an all hands-on-deck situation, where I've got my teenagers taking the night shift so Asa and I can sleep.  

The first night he was home we realized he had to be watched, and he can't be jumping up on anything- so we sat around brainstorming until we literally dismantled Calib's bed and put half his furniture in the family room so that Porkchop could be in there without jumping up on anything. I only hope this helps with his aggression, or I really don't know what to do at this point. Keep your fingers crossed for us. 

I have dreams of eating dinner all together, maybe even leaving the house together someday. It was NHL All Star Weekend and Gasparilla in Tampa this weekend, plus the Pro Bowl at Disney and we missed it all to sit at home with dogs. It's almost a good thing Asa isn't working right now, I'm not sure how we would be pulling this all off otherwise. 

Next Up: Hopefully dogs who get along (and sleep through the night),  some leads on the job front for Asa, and something-anything- relaxing. Oh, and hopefully the last of the countries. But, I'm not holding my breath for that one either. 

Canada

We're down to countries I either put off because I was hoping we could do some big ticket item for the day (which never happened), or because I just never found anything all that appealing in terms of recipes. 

Canada falls under the 'big ticket item that just never happened', and so we kind of unceremoniously dumped it on the day Porkchop (that's my doggie for anyone who doesn't know) had his surgery because it seemed like an easy one to check off the list. 

But, I mean, it's Canada. ,More than 36 million people live in Canada, and of that 36 million, something like 90 percent lives within 100 miles of the USA border. It's basically like the northern United States with better taste in fries, and leaders.   (Yes, I linked to Justin Trudeau's twitter page, so what?) 

So, I mean, is it any wonder they're one of the happiest populations in the world? 

Also, you can drink in Canada when you're 19. I would know this because I went to college 45 minutes from Windsor, Canada. Why drink at college illegally, when you are just under an hour from being able to be served? I mean, not that I personally would know (hi mom!) And, those were the days when you didn't need a passport to go. Life was simpler back then. 

Also, my college roommate was basically from Canada. Or, at least she pretended to be. She liked hockey enough to be a Canadian. (Hi Emily!) 

I even went to Canada on my band trip when I was a senior in high school. We went to see Phantom of the Opera and to our landmark: The CN Tower. The communications and observation tower in Toronto was completed in 1976, and was once the tallest tower in the entire world at 1,815 feet. It held the record for 34 years (until 2010-- so it was the tallest when I visited!). It is now the 3rd tallest tower  (there's a taller tower in China and Japan). At least it can still claim the tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere. 

By the way, that's totally a picture of me on my band trip with a bunch of other lovely band ladies (I'm in the middle in the black shirt). 

With 3.86 million square miles of land Canada is the second biggest country in the world by landmass.(And it is home to around 2 million lakes!)

 All together Canada is roughly the same size as Europe, though most people (80% at least) live in urban areas. But there are still indigenous Inuit tribes living in the Arctic territory of northern Canada. Some even still have igloos. And I'm sure they spot polar bears!

Canada's Manitoba region is probably the best known place in the world for seeing polar bears. During the winter, when the bay freezes over, the bears live some 40 to 150 miles out on the ice, hunting seal. Add taking a tundra vehicle to see Churchill's Polar Bears to Corinne's bucket list (you know with the pigs in the Bahamas, and the rescued bears in Kosovo! 

Oh, and while I'm at it, I wouldn't mind checking out the annual bathtub races that take place in Nanaimo, British Columbia. (Stay tuned for Nanaimo Bars named for the same town--- oh my gosh!) 

In other Canada trademarks we of course have maple syrup, mysterious beasts like the sasquatch and the ogopogo, and of course going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Oh, and MOOSE! (man, I'm linking back to like fourth blog EVER there) SO many Moose! Some estimates say maybe a million. 

The boys made their Canada postcards. 

Calib's featured going over the falls in a barrel! 

Peyton did a tight-rope walker over the falls, with the CN tower in front and Mount Thor, Canada's pure granite mountain peek- that has the world's greatest vertical drop of 4,100 feet. 

Hayden was the only one to include a moose, so I voted for his. (Plus his polar bear is totes adorbs). 

Like I mentioned, over the course of this project we've had lots of options/opportunities to get to Canada day. 

We could go to the Disney pavilion for Canada; Le Cellier is awesome, but very expensive. The Daily Poutine at Disney Springs has AWESOME Poutine, but Peyton isn't a fan  (I know, how does MY kid not like Poutine?) When we were in Ohio one of the few times I floated the idea of hitting Tim Hortons and calling it Canada Day, but nobody liked that idea much. I hoped maybe we could hit the Cirque du Soleil show at Disney before it was discontinued on December 31st, but that never happened.

So, here we are wrapping things up on this crazy country project, and I figured we'd just gloss over Canada and move on. But then, while on Twitter one night I saw some glorious news: Taco Bell was getting fries come January 25th. 

Ok, let me explain WHY that was exciting. Asa and I ate at Le Cellier two and a half years ago, for our fifth anniversary. We had an awesome waitress who was from Canada (Disney likes to make sure it's pavillions are pretty authentic), and while discussing our love for poutine, and asking for her recommendation on which to order,she explained how poutine is EVERYWHERE in Canada. 

She said everyone has their own version, and then she told us how Taco Bell even had 'Fry Supreme' and when she first moved here, she went to Taco Bell and tried to order it, and they were like 'what? whats that?' She was very upset she had moved to a country without Fry Supreme. 

And then two and a half years later, I heard Taco Bell were getting fries. We could finally get the Fry Supreme! (To be clear, I'm not a big Taco Bell Fan.. but at this point, I had to try it!) 

And let me tell you, as far as Taco Bell food goes, this was pretty good. Fry Supreme is a winner. And for that waitress, if she's still in the US, I hope she had a very good day on January 25th, since she could finally get her fry supreme. 

Canada day was also the day Porkchop had surgery, so I thought we could do a Canada inspired dinner as well. We were going easy, and did the vegetable part of dinner before we even left to pick him up, so it could roast in the oven while we were gone (the boys were here). We made Roasted Root Vegetables, and I even got the beets. (They were on sale $1.50 for a whole bunch so I thought I'd give it a whirl). 

We also had blueberries, the national fruit, and a famous dessert the Nanaimo Bars. 

All of that with Mac and Cheese, or should I say 'Kraft Dinner' or 'KD'. Kraft Dinner has been called the de facto national dish of Canada.Packaged in Quebec, Canadians purchase 1.7 million of the 7 million boxes sold globally each week and eat an average of 3.2 boxes of Kraft Dinner each year, 55% more than Americans. The meal is the most popular grocery item in the country,where "Kraft Dinner" has iconic status and has become a generic trademark of sorts for macaroni and cheese.

I can't exactly give this meal five spoons up, although we all wanted to. 

It's mostly because we did not care for those root vegetables. It all just tasted like beets. And it was gross. I usually love carrots and parsnips, but I couldn't get it down. 

The rest of it was good, but since KD is just Mac and Cheese from a box, and blueberries are blueberries we were like... can we really give this five spoons up? 

Those Nanaimo Bars were pretty awesome though, even if they didn't come out of the pan as cleanly as the picture showed. Those earned spoons up all around, for sure. 

We debated what color we had enough of, to color in the second biggest country in the world. We picked wrong. We're going to have to go get another bottle of the color 'Dream On' to finish it off. 

183 countries down, THIRTEEN!!!!!! to go! 

Next Up: I actually don't know. 

We kind of stalled out with all the dog issues over the weekend. We'll pick up as soon as we can all actually sit down for a meal together, instead of being on dog duty at varying times of the day. 

Madagascar

Google Madagascar, and the first thing that wants to come up is the animated film, or penguins. But, it's worth noting no actual penguins live in Madagascar. There is a story about a real-life penguin who must have taken a wrong turn and gotten lost there in the 1950's, but other than that, there are no Penguins of Madagascar. 

The 100 species of Lemurs are the real animal stars of Madagascar. The island broke off of the African continent somewhere around 150 to 100 million years ago, isolating it from the rest of the world. Those lemurs? They're ONLY found in the wild in Madagascar. In fact, the reason lemurs have been able to thrive in Madagascar is because no other primates inhabit the island.

But lemurs aren't the only species unique to Madagascar, because of all the endemic animals and plants of Madagascar, many scientists refer to Madagascar as 'the 8th continent'. Of the 250,00 unique species found in Madagascar, 70% is found nowhere else. 

We went through and noted some of the unique animals:

The Fossa looks like a cat, and is related to the Mongoose. They live in trees and weigh around 20 pounds. 

The Aye-Aye is a tiny little ugly lemur, and only weighs about 5 pounds fully grown. It has a long narrow middle finger for finding grubs in trees. 

The Indri is also a lemur- but it is the largest of them all. They're monogamous and only find a new partner when they become a widow. 

The Sifaka is a lemur who gets their name because it's the sound they make. It's an onomatopoeic animal that gets around like a kangaroo in trees! 

There's the Tomato Frogs that look like- you guessed it- a tomato. When they are threatened, they puff their body up twice their size and secrete a snotty glue like substance that make their predators eyes and lips stick together. 

There's also the rainbow chameleons that changes it colors depending on how it feels, and  its surroundings. In fact, almost half the world's species of animals can be found on Madagascar. 

Animals aren't the only thing unique to the island. Of the 14,000 plants native to Madagascar 90% are found nowhere else in the world. 

Our landmark isn't endemic to Madagascar, but it make it no less impressive. The Alley of the Baobabs, known locally as Renala ('Mother of the Forrest') is a prominent group of Baobab trees lining the dirt road between two towns in western Madagascar. It's striking landscape draws travelers from around the world, and as such it's one of the most visited places in Madagascar. 

There are 25 of the 98 foot tall Baobab trees along the dirt road. These trees are impressive for their ability to hold vast amounts of water in the trunks (something like 26,000 gallons), and their longevity (800 years old-- at least!) 

It's Africa's tree of life. But, you don't have to go to Africa to see one (or at least a replica one- there's one in Kilimanjaro Safari's at Disney's Animal Kingdom!) 

Another big plant of Madagascar, though not unique to the island is Vanilla. The world's second most expensive spice in the world, is found in the seedpods of vanilla orchid. (Madagascar and Indonesia are the largest producers of vanilla). 

Madagascar isn't just about it's unique plants and animals. Spread over it's 226,000 plus square miles is nearly 30 million Malagasy. (Yup, that's what you call someone from Madagascar- Malagasy). 

There are over 20 ethnic groups divided mostly by where they live: either the Highlanders (living in the middle of the island), or the Coastals (living, obviously on the coast). 

The Malagasy people are among some of the poorest in the world. The average Malagasy makes around one US dollar per day, and 70% of the country is said to live below the poverty line. Some say it's a country that is poor- but not poor enough for aid (an old article, but still worth checking out). 

Most of the country's economy is based on agriculture, and there are a couple of problems with this. 

One, much of the forest, where you can find all those awesome animals and plants have been chopped down and burned to make way for farmers. Only about 10% of the forests of Madagascar remain from it's 'pre-human' state, and as the forest disappears, some of those plants and animals have gone extinct (somewhere around 18 species of lemurs alone). 

But now, climate change induced droughts, and poor farming habits have led to having crappy soil. You think the price of vanilla is high now? Just wait. 

The Malagasy, however, power through. They are fiercely patriotic, and believe family is central to life. They go about their day in their freeway-less country, getting around on their zebu-drawn carts, speaking Malagasy and French, using the internet (all be it slowly).

 Life is much of what you'd expect from a developing nation who isn't too far off from experiencing coups. But that doesn't stop the people from remaining friendly and warm-hearted. . 

The boys made their postcards for the second largest island nation (Indonesia is the first), and the fourth largest island overall. 

Calib's postcard included lemurs and Baobab trees. 

Peyton noted the red tomato frog, and the baobab trees. 

And Hayden drew a dirt road for the Alley of the Baobabs. 

For our Madagascar meal we had Madagascar Meatloaf (although in Madagascar it is probably made with zebu- ours was just ground beef!) Vanilla Sweet Potato Casserole, Madagascar Fruit Salad, carrots (I had some spinach thing- but then apparently the tortoise at all my spinach- yes, that's a thing in my house), and Malagasy Fruity Clafouti (Cherry Custard) for dessert. 

This meal (that doesn't photograph that well) earned four spoons up.... 

...and I'm upset about that. In fact it was one of our favorites. Everyone raved about it... except.... guesses anyone? Yup, Peyton. 

Everyone else said 'just make it five spoons up!' but, what would the integratey of my spoons system be if I lied for the sake of the heavenly meatloaf and delcious fruit salad. 

Even Asa didn't complain about the sweet potatoes (although we did use a mix of sweet and Idaho- we feel like that helps people like the sweet potatoes a little more.) 

Anyway, make this one. Unless you have any really picky eaters (see: Peyton), you're family will like this one. And make extra sauce to pour over that meatloaf. You're going to want it. 

We colored Madagascar in teal, just off the coast of dark purple Mozambique. 

That's 182 down, FOURTEEN to go! 

Next Up: Canada