Column: Funeral Potatoes

Each year in my household the “Super Bowl” serves as a wonderful opportunity to have some wonderful “game day” type food. I would like to say it is also a chance to also watch football but that isn’t always the case for everyone in the house.

While the game was going on, the two teenaged girls in the house had no interest and were instead went into the family room to watch what they wanted which was certainly not the Kansas City Chiefs or San Francisco 49ers. We used to make them sit with us and watch but they were miserable the entire time and this kind of led to a glum atmosphere. They will always pop their heads in the room to watch the halftime performance, but other than that they won’t even watch a commercial which seems to be over half of what is aired anyway. I seriously think if you took out all the commercials and a halftime show longer than the movie “Titanic” the game last Sunday probably only lasted about an hour and a half.

Sometimes I’m not sure I blame them because they game can often times be a stinker and listening to Joe Buck and Troy Aikman talk is kind of like a nail going down a chalkboard for three consecutive hours. I honestly think I’d rather eat an entire pound of sawdust then hear their nonstop thoughts about quarterback play.

While the girls certainly may not be watching the football, they are certainly involved with the food which is always the highlight of the day and usually the only time the girls talk to us other than the whining and complaining when it is time to do the dishes.

We always try to mix it up for the Super Bowl and this year was no different. The food was wonderful but looking back it was a very depressing menu, well at least it sounded very depressing.

I had been thinking of eating some really good sausages with a Velveeta cheese dip which I absolutely adore, but we had that recently and didn’t seem like the right route to take for the game. Instead, I decided to go with “Funeral Sandwiches”. Where I grew up a “Funeral Sandwich” was also known as a “Mormon Funeral Sandwich” and was always a really big hit at a potluck or larger gathering. I’ve never actually eaten one at a funeral, but at various other countless places when I lived in Wyoming. For those unfamiliar with the meal, our version includes ham and swiss placed in between King’s Hawaiian rolls that have a glorious butter and brown sugar sauce poured on it and baked. It is certainly not healthy, but it certainly is tasty.

When thinking of a side I had a really rough time coming up with something to go with those wonderful and glorious buttery, cheesy sandwiches. Rather than picking an easy and healthy option, I went in the complete opposite direction.

For some reason, the only thing I could think of as an acceptable side was “Funeral Potatoes” aka “Mormon Funeral Potatoes” or “Cheesy Potatoes”. It is a nightmare of stuff that is not good for you that includes butter, cheese, more cheese, sour cream, high sodium soup, and more cheese. But it is worth every bite.

It wasn’t until my mom and sister had texted me in our never-ending group text asking what I was eating that I realized that this unhealthy game day menu also sounded really depressing. I didn’t intend for this to happen, but it did sound like we were doing anything but celebrating.

I should have just called it ham and swiss sliders with cheesy potatoes, but I had to stick with what I knew.

I’m sure for next year’s game we will mix it up with something different, something equally awesome, and probably something that does not sound so depressin