I'm tempted to write about how I like the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl and, for that matter, the BCS National Championship game more than the holidays. I don't know that I really believe that, but I'm tempted to make a case for it. So I will.
It's an easy thing to state now that the holidays are over and it's the longest possible time until they'll be around again. But I still kind of think it's true because the holidays aren't really about what they're about. But NFL playoff football and the national championship game are almost completely about football. Some people, I realize, like to watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. Some people, perhaps, would claim that Super Bowl Sunday is the one day of the year when we watch television strictly for the commercials. Those people aren't invited to my house to eat pizza and watch the Super Bowl.
Ahh, pizza. I haven't written enough about pizza in the 9 months since WacoFork began. Today, however, seems like an extremely appropriate day to write about pizza.
Like many of you, I'm sure, I gathered with some friends on the first evening of this year to celebrate the fresh start of a new year. Being that we're almost a whole week into 2012, it seems like a long time ago already.
But we ate black-eyed peas, watched the Cowboys lose and claimed new year's resolutions. Being that we're almost a whole week into 2012, I'm sure many of those resolutions have already been abandoned.
At any rate, my friend, who will remain nameless due to her transgression, stated that one of her resolutions was to dine out less often. She said that to me! Can you believe it? I scowled at her.
It's a day for reflection, whether or not this makes any metaphysical sense.
I mean, ok, it's the end of a calendar year and tomorrow begins a new calendar year, which feels significant, mostly because we assign significance to it. But where does anything actually begin or end? Tomorrow the sun will probably rise just like it did today. Like Bono sang, "Nothing changes on New Year's Day" and while I'm not sure he was singing about the kind of existential ambiguity I'm describing here, it still applies.
It's late on New Year's Day almost January 2, which as we know this year is the day when many college bowl games will take center stage.
So it's like Monday is New Year's Day 2.0.
Therefore, I'm choosing right now to write about food and football once again, specifically RG3 and the Baylor Bears and San Antonio Mexican food.
In other words, the Alamo Bowl.
I think this slideshow will do one of two things, maybe both. It includes many pictures of food from many Waco restaurants, so it might cause viewers to crave something. Also, it is pretty much chronological from the time we launched in April, so it's an interesting way to reflect on 2011. It was for me, anyway.
Hope you enjoy it.
Today's photo of the Amelia's/Sironia chicken salad sandwich and spinach salad comes from local photographer/WacoFork friend Katie Burch.
During the course of creating this WacoFork thing, we've been thrilled by the way people want to participate with us. Burch and I, who see each other at the coffee shop and the pub pretty often, spoke about food pictures. I encouraged her to snap photos and send them to me and I would use them in blogs.
And that's how I ended up lunching at Amelia's/Sironia for the first time today.
For those in WacoFork land who will be hosting this Christmas weekend, remember Waco has some attractive take-home dinner options.
There's no shame in calling on Secret Chef or Crav to fill out the Christmas Eve or Christmas Day menu. Only delicious food. Also, nobody has to know it didn't come from the host's oven.
My Christmas gift to myself today: chicken fried steak, eggs and hash browns for breakfast, neatly wrapped in gravy and Tabasco sauce at The Coffee Shop in McGregor.
Or maybe it was a stocking stuffer, if the stocking were my belly.
News flash, people, we've arrived at the middle of December and our little town still has important football games ahead of it.
If you grew up a Midway Panther and went on to be a Baylor Bear, then your two football teams have a combined record of 21-5 this season as the Panthers prepare to play in the Class 4A Division I state championship game on Friday and the Bears look forward to meeting Washington in the Alamo Bowl.
Now that's a reason for happy hour.
