Day 5: Not enough football, way too much food

College football is big in America, and in Boise it's the cornerstone of culture. A key factor behind this is the team's coach, Chris Petersen, who has a phenomenal 56-4 win-loss record at Boise State.

The whole town stops when the Broncos play. More accurately the whole town goes nuts: the stadium fills (33,500 capacity), as does the carpark for the tailgate parties (I'm guessing 50,000), every sports bar in the city (while I'm making up numbers, another 75,000), while everybody else watches it at home. Like we did.

The family hosted the Tuesday night football party. Apparently it's compulsory to wear a Boise State jersey's or t-shirts. Fortunately Judi thoughtfully picked up a couple for Emma and I, so we weren't banned from the party.

Most of the day was devoted to chatting, and preparing massive quantities of food for the night, with extra goodies for our benefit: chorizos, thai noodles, chile con queso, hamburgers, salsa, refried beans, potato chips, BBQ chicken wings - and elk bites.
Elk bites are fabulous. I'd describe the taste of elk as being like beef with a touch of venison, maybe a hint of kangaroo (apologies to vegetarian readers if this is distressing. Please be advised it's going to get worse).

How I'd make an elk bite:

1) Punch it.
2) Wait to be bitten.

How to prepare an elk-bite Smith-style:

1) Get your brother-in-law to

• shoot an elk with a big-ass gun:

• schlep it two miles out of the woods.
  
• butcher it.
• marinate the elk for five hours.
• wrap the elk in jalapenos, onions and/or portobello mushrooms, followed by a strip of bacon.
• barbeque them.

2) Push your brother-in-law out of the way and pig out.

Waaaay too much food. I barely had room for beer.

As for the game, that was good too: big TV, very loud sound system,and lots of cheering as Boise smashed Louisiana Tech 49-20.