The Ultimate Guide to Game Day Hosting: 6 tips to host a game day gathering like a pro

From kickoff to the final whistle, game day is all about spending time with friends and family while rooting for your favorite team. When it’s your turn to host, you can bring all the fun of a tailgate party to the comfort of your couch with the proper plan for hosting.

Show Your Team Spirit
Make your guests feel excited from the moment they walk through the door – or as soon as they pull in the driveway – by decking out your space in team colors and memorabilia. Use football- or team-themed banners, flags, balloons, coasters and tablecloths to set the mood.

Wear your favorite jersey and create a stadium-like atmosphere with fun props like foam fingers or pom-poms for guests to use and cheer on their team.

Prep Ahead of Time to Score Big
Avoid a rush before kickoff by making a checklist of everything you’ll need. Ensure your TV and sound systems are working correctly and that you have access to the right channel or streaming platform.

Make a store run at least a day in advance to grab everything you’ll need for your watch party: dishes, snacks, drinks, tablecloths, trash bags and some household essentials like Finish Ultimate Dishwasher Detergent. Finish Ultimate tackles dish cleanup in the kitchen like a pro, so hosts can enjoy all the fun parts of game day without the worry.

If possible, pack your coolers the night before – just as you would for tailgating at the stadium – and prep and cook any dishes you can ahead of time, so you can enjoy the action with minimal interruptions.

Feed the Fans
Football fans are often foodies, too. A buffet-style food setup allows guests to help themselves to their favorite snacks and dishes throughout all four quarters.

Review your game plan ahead of kickoff to make sure your game day menu offers a variety of finger foods, such as wings, sliders and nachos. Then, take your menu to the next level with unique eats like this new saucy, cheesy creation – the TRUFF Hot Honey Bacon Cheddar Dip with Pretzel Bites – to add a spicy twist.

To complete the roster of game day eats, include a veggie tray or charcuterie board and a variety of beverages, including water, soda and juice. To stay on theme, consider serving cake or brownies in the shape of a football for dessert or topping cupcakes with icing in the team’s colors.

Tackle Cleanup
All those delicious snacks your guests are enjoying are sure to make a mess. For hosts tackling cleanup during the game, don’t miss out on all the on-screen action–turn to the star player to make cleanup a breeze: Finish Ultimate Dishwasher Detergent.

Finish Ultimate tackles tough game day messes, even without pre-rinsing, leaving hosts more time to cheer on their team and less time in the kitchen cleaning up.

Create the Perfect Viewing Environment
Ensure everyone has an unobstructed view by arranging your seating strategically. Use a combination of couches, chairs and floor cushions to accommodate your guests. Scatter small tables throughout the area within easy reach for guests to place their drinks and snacks while the action is live.

To ensure fans never miss a moment of the action, turn the TVs in other rooms to the game as well; just ensure the sound is down in case the main screen is ahead or behind of the secondary viewing options.

Consider Downtime Entertainment to Keep the Energy High
While the main event is watching the action, you can keep the excitement going during halftime and commercial breaks with fun activities like cornhole, football trivia, bingo, mascot matching or an old-fashioned game of catch. Also have some board games, card games or video games on hand for those who might want to take a break from watching or children who aren’t as engaged in the on-screen action.

For the ultimate game day recipe and to find more ways to tackle dish cleanup in the kitchen on game day, visit finishdishwashing.com/truff-hot-honey-bacon-cheddar-dip.

Hot Honey Bacon Cheddar Dip with Pretzel Bites

Recipe courtesy of Finish
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Servings: 12

• 5          slices bacon
• 1/2       cup honey
• 2          tablespoons TRUFF Original Hot Sauce
• 16        ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2/3       cup lager-style beer
• 1/4       cup Dijon mustard
• 24        ounces cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/2       cup fresh scallions, chopped
• 1          teaspoon garlic powder
• 1          teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2       teaspoon cracked black pepper
• 24        ounces frozen pretzel bites, baked according to package instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Evenly space bacon in 13-by-9-inch dishwasher-safe ceramic or glass baking dish.
3. Bake bacon 10 minutes.
4. Microwave honey 15-20 seconds. Add hot sauce and whisk to combine.
5. Remove bacon from oven and carefully pat dry with paper towels.
6. Brush bacon with hot honey and return to oven. Set aside any remaining hot honey for later use.
7. Bake bacon 10-15 minutes until brown and crisp. Set bacon aside to cool.
8. Chop bacon into small, bite-sized pieces.
9. Pour bacon pan drippings into bowl and discard once cool.
10. In bowl, whisk softened cream cheese, beer and mustard to combine.
11. Add grated cheddar cheese, chopped scallions, garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper. Stir until thoroughly combined.
12. Spread mixture evenly in 13-by-9-inch dishwasher-safe ceramic or glass baking dish.
13. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.
14. Remove from oven and rest 5 minutes.
15. Sprinkle top of dip with chopped bacon and drizzle with remaining hot honey.
16. Serve dip alongside baked pretzel bites.

SOURCE:
Finish

Convenient Breakfasts to Kickstart the New Year

Starting the morning on the right foot can set the tone for a productive day. Even when crunched for time before work or school, eating a filling breakfast before heading out the door is an important part of setting yourself up for success.

Between work, kids and making it to that early morning workout session, finding time to prepare a quick and tasty meal can be a real challenge. For a flavorful and easy breakfast that can be on the table in just 8 minutes when you’re in a rush, try this Quick Breakfast Skillet. With crispy bacon, scrambled eggs and rich cheddar cheese, it’s a perfect way to fuel your morning.

The secret, convenient ingredient: fluffy Minute Butter & Sea Salt Jasmine Rice Cups. Ready in just 60 seconds to fit into the day with no hassle, this versatile and flavorful ingredient is perfectly portioned in a BPA-free cup and features a delicious blend of familiar flavors to liven up breakfast.

Or try something new and delicious with this One-Pot Rice Shakshuka. A dish with origins in the Middle East and Northern Africa, shakshuka is traditionally made with a base of tomatoes, vegetables and seasonings, such as cumin and paprika. Then eggs are cracked on top and cooked in the sauce.

This version takes it a step further with the addition of Minute Instant White Rice, which provides a heartier texture to keep you feeling satisfied longer. Simply precooked and dried – nothing added but convenience – you can enjoy its light, fluffy texture after just 5 minutes in the microwave or on the stove. Plus, it works for those with dietary restrictions, including gluten-free, vegan or vegetarian.

Find more breakfast inspiration to keep you energized and ready to conquer the day at minuterice.com.

Quick Breakfast Skillet

Prep time: 2 minutes
Cook time: 6 minutes
Servings: 1

• 1          Minute Butter & Sea Salt Jasmine Rice Cup
• 1          slice bacon, chopped
• 1          egg
• 1/4       cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• cracked black pepper

1. Heat rice according to package directions.
2. Heat medium frying pan over medium heat and add bacon. Cook about 4 minutes, or to desired doneness.
3. Scramble egg and add to frying pan. Cook 1 minute, or to desired doneness.
4. In bowl, mix rice, egg and bacon mixture and cheese. Top with cracked black pepper.

Tips: Breakfast sausage or breakfast potatoes can be substituted for bacon. Add favorite hot sauce for a little heat.

 

One-Pot Rice Shakshuka

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Servings: 6

• 2          tablespoons olive oil
• 1          onion, diced
• 1          red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1          teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2       teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1          can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes with garlic and herbs
• 2          cups water
• 1 1/2    cups Minute Instant White Rice
• 6          eggs
• 1          tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley

1. Heat oven to 400 F.
2. In high-sided, ovenproof skillet over medium heat, heat oil. Add onion, bell pepper, cumin and smoked paprika; saute 8-10 minutes until vegetables are tender.
3. Add tomatoes and water to skillet. Bring to boil. Stir in rice and reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 3-5 minutes, or until most water is absorbed.
4. Using spoon, create six small wells in rice mixture. Crack one egg into each well. Transfer skillet to oven; cook 12-15 minutes, or until rice is tender, egg whites are set and yolks are runny, or until cooked as desired.
5. Garnish shakshuka with parsley before serving.

Tip: For spicy eggs, stir 1 tablespoon harissa paste into rice mixture before adding eggs. Or serve shakshuka with hot sauce.

SOURCE:
Minute Rice

Transform the daily grind to make life more interesting – a philosopher shares 3 strategies to help you attain the good life

Approaching your regular day with a new mindset can send you in an interesting direction. d3sign/Moment via Getty Images

Lorraine Besser, Middlebury

Imagine it’s Monday morning, too cold and too dark, but once that alarm goes off, you know you’ve got to rally. The kids have to get to school. You’ve got to get to work. And, of course, your ever-growing to-do list hangs over your head like a dark cloud, somehow both too threatening to ignore and too threatening to start its tasks.

On days like this, you may be grateful simply to make it through. But then it begins, all over again.

While you can’t escape the grind, you can transform it. The latest psychological research on the good life points the way: By shifting your mindset, you can make your day-to-day more interesting and create psychological richness within your life. Psychological richness describes a robust form of cognitive engagement. It’s distinct from happiness and meaning, but just as important to the good life.

In collaboration with Shigehiro Oishi and his research lab, I’ve investigated whether the field of positive psychology has largely overlooked an important dimension of the good life. As the philosopher on our team, I had two directives. First, I helped to define the concept of psychological richness and understand what distinguishes it from happiness and meaning. Second, I set out to explore why psychological richness is valuable.

Our initial studies found that people value experiences that stimulate their minds, challenge them and generate a range of emotions. Many would choose a life full of these experiences, which we describe as psychologically rich, over a happy life or a meaningful life.

This insight points to the important role psychological richness can play within the good life, but it stops short of explaining why it’s good and why people ought to make space for psychological richness within their lives. These are value-laden questions that can’t be answered through empirical research. Their answers are found instead through philosophical analysis.

My philosophical analysis suggests that psychological richness is good for you because it’s interesting. My book, “The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It,” shows how to add psychological richness to your life by making it more interesting.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by embracing a mindset characterized by curiosity, creativity and what I call “mindfulness 2.0.” When you bring these three perspectives to your day-to-day, you transform the grind into endless opportunities to experience the world as interesting. You develop the capacity to enhance your own life.

Mindfulness 2.0: Noticing without judging

What I call “mindfulness 2.0” means bringing nonevaluative awareness to the world around you – paying attention without judging.

Familiar from mindfulness practices, it’s a form of noticing that brings forth details you typically overlook: the texture of a houseplant’s leaves, the faces of the strangers you pass on the sidewalk, the differing heights of the cans on a store shelf. By bringing these details into your awareness, you stimulate your mind, allowing you to engage mentally with your surroundings in an active manner. Noticing things through mindfulness 2.0 is the first step toward having an interesting experience.

A good place to practice mindfulness 2.0 is during your morning commute. Because it’s routine, you probably don’t feel the need to engage much with the details of what you are doing. Instead you’ll find other ways to pass the time, such as listening to the news or your favorite podcast. These activities distract you from the otherwise boring commute by disengaging you from it.

Noticing an intriguing pattern as birds gather overhead can engage your mind as you move through the world. Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images

But you can also get through the commute by engaging with it to make it less boring. Here’s where the power of mindfulness 2.0 kicks in. Through actively noticing things around you – be it the people clustered at the bus stop, or the traffic patterns created by a stoplight, or a flock of birds swooping overhead – you engage your mind and set yourself up to experience the interesting.

Curiosity: Exploring through questions

Curiosity isn’t just for kids. No matter how much you know, there’s always something to be curious about – especially if you’ve learned to notice the details through mindfulness 2.0.

Say you’ve noticed, during your commute, the group of people gathered around the bus stop. Now let your curiosity take off: Was that bus stop always there? How long has that exceptionally weird real estate advertisement been stuck on the seatback? So many people lined up this cold morning. You might wonder if you’d feel a little more connected if you were with them. But then you notice that no one is talking. Do they ride the same bus together, every day, without acknowledging each other?

Through asking questions, you ask your mind to consider something it hadn’t before. You create new thoughts, and if you let your mind keep going, you’ll have an interesting experience, all the while making that same commute. Even better, you’ll have created that interesting experience on your own. You’ve harnessed an ability to enhance your life, an ability that’s completely within your control.

Creativity: Trying something new

While people often think of creativity as a talent, native only to artists or inventors, everyone has the ability to be creative. Creativity is a skill that involves forming new connections with your mind. You’re creative whenever you do something new or different. Whether it is painting a brilliant landscape or wearing a new color combination, developing a new dish or simply tweaking a recipe, it all falls under the umbrella of creativity.

Exploring what your green thumb can coax to flourish is one creative path. Luis Alvarez/DigitalVision via Getty Images

When you are creative, in big or small ways, you generate novelty within your life, and this puts you on the path toward experiencing psychological richness. Novelty all but forces the mind to think and feel in new ways, stimulating that robust form of cognitive engagement that brings the interesting.

Even just a little bit of creativity will bring novelty to your day-to-day routine. Wear something you don’t normally wear. Add a little flair to your handwriting or choose a different colored pen to write with. Change the patterns on your screen saver. Notice the impact these little tweaks have on your day. Little by little, they’ll add up to make your day just a little more interesting.

Everyone’s experience of what’s interesting is unique. There’s no one interesting experience for all of us, because the interesting depends entirely on how our minds engage, react and respond. Through developing mindfulness 2.0, and bringing curiosity and creativity to your experiences, you train your mind to engage, react and respond in ways that will transform any experience into an interesting one.

This is the power a mindset can bring. It’s a capacity to enhance our lives that anyone can develop.

Lorraine Besser, Professor of Philosophy, Middlebury

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.