Until Sunday, plenty of us counted on having the Eagles in our homes during the Super Bowl - their televised presence, that is, from Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Now that the players and staff are available to come for dinner in person, we don't have the heart to invite them.
To console ourselves, we engaged in a football fantasy (not to be confused with fantasy football). We've imagined what a potluck Super Bowl party with the Eagles would be like, and what everyone might contribute.
For protocol's sake, team owner Jeffrey Lurie would top the invitation list. Lurie could come early and cook during the endless pregame blather because his specialty is French toast, according to Jim Natal, author of The NFL Family Cookbook (Smithmark Publishers, out of print).
Lurie follows his mother's recipe - 6 eggs, 2/3 cup milk, 3/4 teaspoon vanilla, 5 thick slices of challah - though we hear he recently sold the naming rights and now calls it Lincoln Financial French Toast. (Just kidding, Mr. Lurie.)
With three sons and two daughters, Andy and Tammy Reid are used to cooking for a crowd. The coach's Western sandwiches, protein-rich and made in minutes, are an omelette-like mixture of ground beef and eggs. They were devised as a thrifty way to feed the family while Reid was the offensive coordinator at San Francisco State University.
Tammy Reid loves desserts in general and chocolate desserts in particular. She has baked Mississippi mud cake for the annual preseason gathering that the Reids host for the Eagles coaching staff. The recipe comes from her mother.
We'd eagerly await an RSVP from Mitchell, a Louisiana native whose late father, Blanche Mitchell, was a chef by profession, and his mother, Sophonia, a formidable home cook.
