What I Made Wednesday {Home Opener Celebration at Home}

Monday was our town's Home Opener and the whole city was strutting around in their Tribe gear. We're all excited about the Cleveland Indians and we like our chances this year. Since there is hope in the air, I thought our own Home Opener celebration was in order. Tickets to the game sold out faster than a Taylor Swift concert (OK not really but you get the idea).

Nifty article on how teams got their names: source.

This town is hungry for a Title and I was equally developing an appetite for all the over-priced trans fats I love to indulge in while at the ballpark. As far as I'm concerned, baseball is all about the food! I was determined to replicate that at home so "Get your POPcorn, PEAnuts, CAW-OLD BEEER" and grab a seat at our at-home stadium. Play Ball!

What You'll Need

Hot Dogs
Hamburgers
Sweet Relish
Ketchup
Stadium Mustard
Cut-up White Onion
Peanuts in a Shell
Cheez Wiz
Round Tortilla Chips
Jalapeno Peppers
Cracker Jack
Pepsi

We tried to be as authentic to the ballpark as possible - buying Pepsi instead of Coke, buying the peanuts from Peterson's, the same supplier the ballpark uses. A MUST is the stadium mustard - the official brand of Progressive Field! And, don't forget to cut up those onions into little cubes, not rings.

 

What You'll Do

If you heat up the Cheez Wiz according to its instructions, you'll end up with a very thick sauce. We're the ballpark, remember? We need our cheese to go the extra mile so we can make a profit so we need to thin it down a bit. To get the consistency we're used to, we added milk to the cheese sauce, heated it at 30-second intervals until it was melted and smooth. The ratio is about 5:1 - cheese sauce to milk.

House Rule: NO peanut shells on the floor!

Perhaps if you were sitting in the Luxury Boxseats your peanuts would be warm? I'm not sure, but at our at-home stadium, it's one of the perks. Place your peanuts in a microwave-safe bowl, wrap in a towel, and heat in your microwave until warm.

What You'll Need to Know to Finish

The speaker system we have attached to our television gives all kinds of different sound options. We changed the sound to "pavilion" and it sounded just like we were at the stadium (very echo-y). Along with the food, this helped us feel like we were there. You know the other thing that made us feel like it was baseball season, again? Losing to the New York Yankees. Let's hope it was an off night - 80 games to go!

Once the game was over, I didn't even mind the kitchen clean-up. I prefer it over the mad dash from the stadium parking lot to home. Ahhh!