We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day for football yesterday. It was HOT…about 84…and not a cloud in the sky. The stadium was sold out and the crowd was great. West Virginia clearly got our butts whipped the first half. Frustrating calls, penalty flags out the wazoo, and eleven points down definitely put a damper on things. I was thinking to myself (ok…I MAY have said it out loud) that maybe college football games weren’t my thing. Mr. FixIt looked at me and said, “It’s not over yet…you just wait.” As if he somehow held a crystal ball and knew a change was coming.
The halftime show was cool. The alumni band played because it was homecoming and they mentioned my friend Karen Nutter Ali as being the oldest alumni member playing. They crowned the homecoming king and queen. I ran into someone I knew. Then…the magic happened. The Mountaineers came out on the field looking less like an aberrant junior high school team and more like a well-oiled machine. Far less flags flew in the second half as the ‘eers finally settled down and got it together. Down eleven points as they left the field at the half, they ended up trouncing Texas Tech 46-35 to win the game. They always play John Denver’s “Almost Heaven” at the end of every game but the atmosphere is electric when sung in victory. My heart swelled and I teared up as I sang along with 65,000 Mountaineer fans. It was glorious!
After the game, we joined Mr. FixIt’s family for a tailgate party. I’m just now meeting more of his family and it was great fun! The meatball sliders I made were a big hit. Here’s the recipe.
Note: I used three pounds of ground beef so I added a little extra of the other ingredients to compensate. I also used jar sauce but added two cans of fire-roasted diced tomatoes and about a cup and a half of diet blackberry flavored fizzy water for a sweet kick. I used packaged hot rolls from the grocery store, cut them in half, added a meatball, a little sauce, and some shredded mozzarella cheese and topped with the other half of the roll to make a little sandwich. I arranged the sliders in two disposable aluminum baking pans. I brushed the tops with a little melted butter and sprinkled the top lightly with garlic salt, covered with foil and baked them at 375 until the cheese was melted. Yield: 24 sliders. These were SO good! I’ll definitely make them again.
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“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”
1 Corinthians 13:8 ESV
Glad you had such a great time!
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