By Brian G. Schommer

Do you ever catch yourself using words or phrases of your youth? Do you then realize by the looks on the faces of everyone younger than you that nobody has a clue what you mean? This is a common occurrence in my life, and it is moments like this that I attempt to turn into “teaching” moments. For example, the word “hodgepodge” which basically means “mixture” or “jumble” according to Merriam- Webster, a go-to dictionary since 1828. I have always known what the word means, but I thought it was two separate words. Admit it, until I shared this little nugget of knowledge, you did too! Today’s column will be a bit of a hodgepodge, or for those foodie types, a literary potluck, which is also one word and not two.

Super Bowl Weekend this year was two things: Different and COLD. On Saturday, my buddy Terry and I were going to participate in an ice fishing tournament held by “Fishing for Life,” a wonderful organization that any outdoors type, especially fans of fishing, should check out. You can do that by going to www.fishingforlife.org on the web where you will find a plethora of information about this non-profit that was founded in 2004, right here in Minnesota. Their mission is simple: “To serve youth, families, veterans and communities through fishing and outdoor programs.” The subzero temps were enough for the organization to postpone the tourney for a week. Terry and I thought about it, went back and forth a bit and even strongly contemplated going fishing anyhow, despite the cold. I mean, as he pointed out when I was questioning the logic, “we have fished when it was 30 below at Lake of the Woods.” A combination of a bit of conventional wisdom (which I guess you get more of as you age) and a little tummy bug for Terry led us to make the decision to skip ice fishing. From what I heard from local anglers; the bite remained slow.

That is the cold part, but here is the different part. In the past, we have hosted a Super Bowl Party at our house. People would mix and mingle, eat a hodgepodge of food as our parties were of the “potluck” variety and nobody at any time knew what the score of the game was. We did, however, all know what the best foods on our table were, who made them, if they had a recipe and what each of us thought the best commercial was. This year, no party and all members of the Schommer household pretty much watched the entire game. Our food spread consisted of nacho cheese dip made with that processed block of cheese type product, a can of no-beans chili and a can of tomatoes with chiles combined in a crockpot, a taco dip plate and little wieners in BBQ sauce from yours truly. My daughter Marisa made potstickers with homemade sweet and sour sauce while Mary made an apple pie, brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Appetizers for forty… except we are four and Brett does not like any of this stuff. It all freezes, so I see “chili cheese dogs” and a few other “leftover surprise” meals during the next few weeks. This too would be different as there were never leftovers at our parties in the past.

One last Super Bowl related item… Going into the game, did anyone see a 31-9 game in the favor of Tampa Bay? Not me. We do “playoff picks” in our house as a friendly, non-wager type activity. I was the champ this year, going 11-2 on my selections during this year’s NFL playoffs. One of my losses was in the Super Bowl as I picked the “Baby Goat” for the win (Patrick Mahomes). Many call Tom Brady “The Goat” (Greatest Of All Time) and Mahomes, the extremely fun to watch Kansas City Quarterback has been given the moniker by many as the Baby GOAT, as he is quite a bit younger than Mr. Brady. While I was incorrect in my choice of the winner and, thus had to wear the “hat of shame” for a bit (another tradition in our house), I was happy to see Rookies Antoine Winfield, Jr. and Tyler Johnson, former Minnesota Golden Gophers, earn their SB rings. As for the commercials, half-time show and such… meh? Not the best and certainly not the worst. I did like the Bass Pro Shops commercial as it said, “Let’s get back to nature.” That one struck a little chord with me.

An event that was postponed due to the cold that you may want to check out is “Winter Wonderland” at the Hastings Public House. This event is a fundraiser for the Hastings YMCA with all sorts of “cool” activities including things like snowshoeing, boot skating, sledding and more. There will be outdoor treats, beverages of all varieties and vendors selling various crafts and items. Go to www.hastingspublichouse. com for more information and to register for the event that will now take place on Sunday, February 21, 2021. For those of you reading this in the Pierce County or Cottage Grove Journals, the Hastings Public House is what is formerly known as “The Hastings Country Club.”

Moving ahead with this “mishmash”, which according to Merriam-Webster once again, is one word and not two and is defined as a “hodgepodge” or jumble; Punxsutawney Phil, the famed Groundhog has predicted another 6 weeks of winter. I am confident that this was not great news to my baseball “brothers and sisters” who are counting down the days to pitchers and catchers reporting. To those sharing my snowmobiling, ice fishing and other winter passions, the news was accepted with a smile. If you are wondering how often good old Phil is correct, Stormfax Almanac has tracked his accuracy to be about 39-40% of the time, which puts him in line with most meteorologists. My mom used to say that baseball players and weather folks are the only ones who can perform around 30% and keep their jobs. If you get a hit 30% of your at-bats, that is hitting .300 which is certainly respectable. Time will tell on Phil’s prediction… I think the best we can all do is just take it a day at a time. Another mom saying… “Instead of guessing what is going to happen, do your best to make positive things happen.” I sure miss that woman; she was a true gem.

Speaking of gems… My pal, local chiropractor and Rotary President Linden Pfeiffer faced the frigid cold temps headon to take the picture of the “unwilling to freeze” Vermillion Falls. The Vermillion Falls are certainly on of Hastings Gems and as you can see, beautiful all times of the year. Pfeiffer did share that “it is very slippery down there, so if you are going to venture out, be careful.” There are lots of gems in the area… Cottage Grove Ravine Park is still on my list for exploring and the Carpenter Nature Center has a campus near Hudson, Wisconsin that is getting a lot of attention with a few projects upcoming that will really put this area on the map, similar to the center outside of Hastings in Washington County. While “conventional wisdom” may have kept most of us indoors this past week, the same wisdom tells me that the cold temps are only temporary. Soon, we will get to do what the Bass Pro Shops advertisement suggested. We can get back to nature… and Enjoy the Great Outdoors.