Groundhog Day sort of snuck up on me this year. Not that I typically do anything to celebrate it: we do not hang up Groundhog decorations, nor do we countdown to Groundhog Day like we would a major holiday or birthday. No, I think why Groundhog Day is usually on my radar screen has nothing to do with the holiday itself.
Typically by the end of January in Ohio, we’ve had our share of big snows. Not so this year: like most of the country, our winter has been mild and largely snowless. I’ve written about how this has made my snow-loving boys none-too-happy. Without a big snow, we feel suspended in this “late fall/early spring” streak in our weather. Why just yesterday and also last week, we had temperatures hovering around 60!
So when I started to plan out my week on Sunday, and realized I needed to flip over to February, I saw “Groundhog Day” and thought to myself, “already?!” When Punxsatawney Phil emerges tomorrow morning, I will be far from downtrodden if we have more winter coming. Heck, I hope, for my boys’ sake, we do!
I started brainstorming fun Groundhog Day meals, and while you could do some really creative things with dishes like meatloaf shaped to look like a groundhog, or cupcakes in the same design, I was looking for easy, breezy ideas.
Here’s what I came up with:
*celebrate Groundhog Day with pork sausage, ie, ground hog. While this doesn’t really fly if you are a vegetarian, and you may not want to plant this idea in your young kid’s heads, older children and teenagers will most likely get a kick out of this (unless of course, your child is an animal-rights activist!)
*Remember the movie Groundhog Day? Bill Murray played a character who had to re-live February 2 again and again. Play up the “repeat” factor with a dish like Monday’s recipe for Pop’s Potatoes, aka, Twice Baked Potatoes.
*Refried Beans! Again, playing on the repeat factor...
*My personal favorite and what we’ll be doing this year: leftovers. Because really, do you need an excuse to take a night off from cooking?
Life is sweet,
SPC
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