SEC + Big 10 = Awesome

What do you get when you put two girls with big hair, big ideas and a passion for football together? A LOT OF FUN.

I literally became friends with SLS during one of those, a friend of a friend of a friend things. We met a week ago through a friend at an outing on the hill. It had been a rough week for the both of us and we found solace in each others stories and love for football (we did our college picks after 10 mins of knowing each other). On the outside we seem extremely opposite – she is a tall blonde from Georgia who loves the SEC. Whereas, I’m the stocky girl with brownish curly frizz who is as open and crass as they can get in the Midwest….not to mention I speak of the Big 10 as if it’s my religion. Even though we are so opposite on the outside, we have a million commonalities. I am working on a southern charm….she’s attempting to be more ‘real’ like the Midwest. Funny how we both like each others demographics yet neither have visited each others homeland.

Now, I was nervous when I had invited her over to bake and watch football with me. I didn’t know how she’d take it. Most of the girls I’ve met here are more into being either very domestic or very wild. Rarely do I find the combo. Also, they have a hard time making themselves at home….something that I loathe. But SLS proved all of that wrong in mere seconds of walking in my door. I told her the agenda and she said she was game – YES! Then I said, would you like to order some food – she said, pizza would be good – YES! I realized I didn’t have anything besides water and milk to drink…. “What would you like to drink?” I ask. “Ummm….I see you have tequila.” – YES! We then proceed to bake our coffee cake, order a pizza and run to the liquor store to buy more tequila. Once back we settle down, watch a little FoxNews as our pre-game, then turned on the MNF and drank our margaritas. I said my home team (Vikings) was playing. She said, “Good, I’ll cheer for them.” – Didn’t I tell you she was awesome?!

After the first quarter she said – “Now what about those caramel apples?!” So we headed to the kitchen. Now this is the fun part. We weren’t just making regular old joe caramel apples….we were making Rocky Road Caramel apples. A few more steps, that made the kitchen into a disaster zone. You see, once you roll the apple in the caramel…you then roll it on a plate that has crushed nuts and mini-marshmallows on it. After that you drizzle chocolate on them. The caramel-ling them was easy…….but when you have two tipsy girls attempting this, you might end up burning your hands (HOT CARAMEL) and getting your hair full of sticky stuff (note: pull your hair back before doing this). But we managed to get all 6 (yes, pathetic little six) done….after 25 mins. The laughing kept us from doing it efficiently. Not to mention I took 10 breaks to sweep the 3x6 ft floor because the nuts were flying everywhere (note: pounding the apple on the nuts doesn’t make them stick any easier).

As a result – we made some kick-ass caramel apples which were very heavy and filled you up after 2 bites. Also, the apple coffee cake was a hit at work (we might have an Iron Chef USDEC sometime soon!). Only bad thing – the Vikes lost…..it was pathetic.