International Snack Fest!

In case you haven't heard, the Olympics have started! Hubby is a big Olympics fan, so I expect to have them up on our TV most of the next two weeks. (Personally, I fear we're not going to get through this round of competitions without something ugly going down security-wise. Guess I should start praying now.)

But tonight is the opening ceremonies (well, yes, I realize they actually happen this morning, but they are broadcast in the U.S. tonight), and I hope nothing happens to disrupt that because we have a new family tradition that I'm looking forward to.

International Snack Fest!

I came up with this two years ago for the opening ceremonies in London. We wanted to have a family night around the television enjoying the event, but I suspected my girls would get bored. So, I brought out a different food item every twenty minutes or so:

- Fortune cookies from China

- Ravioli from Italy

- Pretzels from Germany

- Bread dipped in olive oil from Greece

- Croissants from France

- Bacon from . . . Canada (Mm-hmm)

- Swiss cheese (yes, really)

- Cinnamon buns from Sweden (kinda stretched a bit there)

- Empanadas from Panama (because we'd just been to Panama – although the closest I could get in Siouxland was Totino's pizza rolls)

- Lettuce dipped in Russian dressing (REALLY stretched for that one)

- Sweet potato chips from Zimbabwe (just cuz the internet said they have a lot of sweet potatoes in Zimbabwe)

- And, of course, chocolate chip cookies from the good ol' USA.

This year, I'm going to look for some Swedish meatballs and some real empanadas (I think I've seen them here – we're in Texas now, after all). I'll replace the fortune cookies with crab rangoon and leave out the Russian dressing (even though it's in Russia this year . . . that was just kind of lame). There's a Pasha Express in the local HEB, so I might look for something better from them. The other big change we're making this year – we're not eating dinner ahead of time because by bedtime we were stuffed.

I can't tell you how much fun this was! And how much we're looking forward to it again this year!     U! S! A!     U! S! A!