Monday Musings from Melinda by Melinda M.

I did it. I never did it before. I always managed to have other people do it. I mean, I still don’t readily admit to eating them so why should I make them…? But if someone else makes them, well that’s another story…

It wasn’t pretty at first. Fortunately I had a forgiving crowd. You see unexpectedly, my younger daughter was going to host her own Super Bowl party and I agreed to stay home and out of the way for it. Not unexpectedly, I asked her to make at least one Super Bowl snack and she picked her favorite: 7-layer dip. So I went out and got all of the ingredients the day before: sour cream, cream cheese, tomato, olives, green bell pepper, got um all. No need to get cheddar cheese and refried beans because I already had those. Or did I?

Well, it turns out that I did not have the star of the 7-layer dip show: the beans. Once again, my self-assuredness, my assumptions, got the better of me. And even though there was a full day and several errands between the initial grocery shop and game day kick off, I never did check for them until, well, kick off. Argh!!

So quick – what can I pull together that five 13-year-olds will like (and for which I actually have all the ingredients)? SPAM musubi! The game had already started, the friends were here and I was feeling bad about the beans.

So I jumped in and started the rice. Then I got a quick tutorial from my daughter on how to put it all together and then…and then it got ugly. So much rice! Not wrapped tight enough! The first batch was a disaster. The second a little less so but still, not pretty. I was, however, starting to understand which parts of the process I was messing up.

By the third round, I have to say I nailed it. And by “nailed,” I mean that I got them to look like musubis a mom from Hilo should know how to make.

Fortunately our guests had brought other foods to save the day – pizzas, brownies, and even layered Jell-O.

No matter where we are, there is always the layered Jell-O, which is so much better than regular Jell-O.

So while I don’t really care who won Super Bowl LI, I’m pretty happy that Team Mom came back to win the day at home.