Football Watchin': UGA vs. Tennessee

What a hard couple of weeks for Georgia Football fans! I know this is a cooking blog and not a sports blog - but it has been difficult to keep up with my theme for my own anxiety over our standings. Anyway, we beat Tennessee soundly and it feels a little better now. Since it was a 3:30 game and we didn't tailgate, there wasn't really any food to speak of. Later, however, we had a great time at Anna's house as we celebrated my birthday and watched some more great college football games. There was a Mexican theme, inspired by a an obscure bottle of tequila which was apparently left in Anna and Lloyd's house by the previous owners. It cost 544 Pecos half-a-Century ago, has no English writing on it and it has an actual worm inside. Finally feeling brave enough to open it, Anna made us margaritas and we all brought a dish.

The Menu:

Homemade Salsa

Three-Layer Chili Dip

Spinach & Bean Dip

Tamal

Tortilla Chips & Pita Chips

Chocolate Ganache Cake

My dish, the tamal, wasn't as good as I had hoped. It is basically a large tamale pie. This was my second or third try at making one of Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen recipes and I'm not sold yet. I found it way too bready with not nearly enough meat filling. I like the concept though; so I may play with it a bit and report back if I hit on a better version of it.

Mindi's dish, the Spinach & Bean Dip, was very good. She adapted the filling for a lasagna roll recipe, adding spinach and adjusting the consistency, to make it into a dip. It tasted a little bit Italian and a little bit Mexican. I loved it.

Anna, of course, out-did herself as always. Her salsa recipe is outstanding as it blends traditional tomato salsa with tomatillos as well. She isn't one for taking short cuts and she always hand-chops everything. This ensures her salsa's wonderfully uniform consistency and beautiful color. I have never had her Three-Layer Chili Dip and it was wonderful. It looked easy to make and was completely gone at the end of the evening. The best food of the night award, however, goes to her Chocolate Ganache Cake. I have had it many times now and it is always perfect. While most cakes are delicate and light with a heavy chocolate-fudge type frosting; Anna's is just the opposite. The cake is moist but dense and the chocolate frosting is light and semi-sweet. The texture is perfect and I had no desire at all to ruin it with ice cream. Bravo.

It was a lovely evening, as always. Thanks everyone for helping me to celebrate my birthday! Hey Anna! You better bring the rest of that cake over for tea this week!!