Let Loose on a Friday Night With Asparagus!

Episode Transcript for Asparagus Cheese Casserole

So Kristen I thought I would start today's episode with a joke based on the recipe's ingredients oh that sounds like fun it would have been except the jokes that I found were so bad oh no really yeah so okay so this is the best one I found okay what kind of vegetable do you need for a flat tire I don't know a spare a gus oh that's awful and so cheesy cheesy that's a good one why didn't I think of that [Music] welcome to Mom's wooden spoon where the recipes are retro and so are your hosts you can say that again [Music] hello to you to me no to our listeners oh hello listeners yes if I may take just a quick second I wanted to jump off script really quick and wish my baby girl a happy birthday oh I know I'm going to cry oh it's tomorrow nice I know I can't believe how grown up she's getting wow yeah funny because I think this recipe is a great choice this is the vegetable in our progressive dinner that's right because while she hates most vegetables that's right the one in this one oddly is one of her favorites whoa yeah I find it odd so you know like you'd expect the kids to like corn and potato those are kind of like kids when you have a picky eater no my child likes brussels sprouts that's right and asparagus yeah yes and today's recipe from March 24th 1980 is asparagus cheese casserole wow it sounds yummy I mean who doesn't want that for their birthday right better than a cake actually speaking of asparagus and cakes oh why would we I don't know why we would but I actually found a recipe for an asparagus cake what yeah so it's that cutie patootie B. Dylan Hollis you remember he wrote the book it's a retro cooking book called baking yesteryear he is a cutie Patootie is he's all over social media I first found him on Tik Tok he does little Snippets of the recipe but I think he might cook full recipes on YouTube yes I have seen some of that he is kind of like us that's right in a cutie patootie form yep yep and he shows people his face in his kitchen he does and he makes really weird retro recipes and they turn out to be flipping amazingly delicious yes this asparagus cake did not huh and even better this recipe is from 1980 and so was the asparagus cake wow yeah so I thought that was perfect so in it it had grated asparagus vanilla and orange zest Okay so I have cooked baked goods yeah with grated zucchini in them and it makes them delicious and moist oh very much and fabulous like a zucchini bread or even a carrot cake they have vegetables in them yeah but I mean I've made chocolate muffins with grated zucchini yeah and it's delicious and you ate them I did you trickster yeah I did but they were they were delightful yeah asparagus has a little bit of a stronger flavor than zucchini yeah and not the same texture that a zucchini has he said that the cake was really moist but it tasted like the underside of a lawn mower oh oh earthy yeah grassy ew I mean we did make a beet cake that's true which when you got a bite a beet was a little earthy it was just a tiny bit earthy but I mean wow well just to follow up to Circle back I am not going to make that Cake for my little girl's birthday who who's not that little anymore she's a teenager but still the other nice thing about this recipe yeah it is cheesy asparagus and if you've been listening along you may think oh crap They're bringing back the velveeta no no no there is no Vita in this one people I know yeah sharp cheddar I think it is so I think that that's a win I think it's a big win so what's in this yes so asparagus yeah sharp cheddar that's right uhhuh then there's hardboiled egg six hardboiled eggs for 2 lbs of asparagus and 2 lb of asparagus is not as much as you would think pimientos I mean they put pimientos in everything in the 70s and 1980 is basically the 70s absolutely oh yeah yes that just makes we always had a jar of pimientos in the pantry we did yeah you may be surprised to know that we did not have a jar of pimientos in our pantry I had to go buy some oh I'm not surprised they're weird they're something that we just don't really use very much no do they really have a flavor is my question well I think they taste like peppers I mean they are peppers we'll have to taste one okay why don't you do it I will such a sucker oh my gosh and you know I was looking up 1980s asparagus okay so 1980s asparagus would be longer than I didn't know what I'd find out but I find it really fun when I'm researching for the podcast to just type in one of the ingredients in the recipe and then the year of the recipe you never know what you're going to find obviously quite often I find really weird stuff like the dude who ate live frogs remember that one oh I just yes yeah yeah so in this one I found that it had a list of the way most 1980 Americans like their asparagus okay and they liked it really really wide stems really thick stems and really almost overcooked interesting and that's probably why I didn't like asparagus when I was younger no I hated it when I was younger it's kind of Woody when it's really thick like that oh so you have Parlayed us which my friend just me I said that word the other day and she was like oh that's a good one I said it's different than parfait and she said I know I prefer a parfait me too so but we're gonna parlay into what I found about asparagus oh do tell yes because I really like asparagus you roast it it's delicious I like it kind of almost burnt crunchy oh so good and we always buy the stick thin asparagus because I far prefer the texture over the thick asparagus okay so I started looking up Woody asparagus oh because I wanted to I don't know I just wanted some information about how young asparagus is far superior to the thick old asparagus you know whatever and this is what I found okay regarding asparagus yes younger and thinner yes is really only good for supermodels what who said that I don't know someone who wrote an article about asparagus that's funny yes so what they were saying is that really the size has nothing to do with how Woody it is really if you are going to roast it or bake with it or pretty much do anything with it thicker is always better wow hands down yeah and they said it really it's not so much about whether it's um thick or not it's about whether it's fresh or not so they told you what to look for so I did when I picked it out I'm impressed what do you look for so it said that you want to look to make sure that the tips are closed tight okay these definitely are they and the bottoms still look juicy now I had a hard time with that because they were sitting upright in ice oh yeah so they all look juicy um so now that we've rinsed them and dried them I have no idea if the bottoms look juicy or not well they feel moist you know I don't that that looks juicy but right yeah okay so that's what you're supposed to look for and that's how you know that it's in it's Prime oh well I definitely have seen all dried out bottoms before you know I definitely noticed that yeah and they look a different color that see that's very bright green it is and they kind of look like bamboo wild yes yeah okay so these are juicy and closed tips okay then it says the other key is how you prepare your asparagus I'm super excited about this like I told my husband he you know Cooks in our house I told him last night we can do thick asparagus but you have to prepare at this one specific way oh my gosh do tell he rolled his eyes and looked back to the television and changed the channel and we're done he was not impressed at all okay so I'm excited I'm gonna grab one you grab one yep these are the instructions hold the stalk with two hands okay at the middle and bottom of the stalk got it okay and bend it it until it snaps okay okay we're trying oh it says the exact right amount of the tough part will come off every single time I always cut mine right but see look at our differences look how much you snapped off versus so they won't be all uniform they're not right interesting you're gonna get rid of the thick part every single time that is so cool I think that I was can you hear my yeah your aghastedness I was so so excited aghastness it's like a whole new world of asparagus oh my gosh let's do  more let's A Whole New World we're snapping asparagus one at a time oh and this one's horrible look at this one the Bottom's all white oh Wow Let's See How Far That snaps everybody's gonna be so excited about this podcast now look at it oh my gosh the one that was all white and bambooie at the bottom it's probably what a good two and a half inches yes and so far it's been maybe an inch wild but you know what

they're snapping almost perfectly to fit in the steamer because in this recipe you actually have to cook the asparagus first it says cook it until barely tender and drain well so I'm putting it in my good old microwave steamer from Tupperware I mean this sucker is old she has had this at least since the 80s I think this is so fun this is fun okay oh that was only about an inch mine too oh y'all this is very satisfying obviously it takes longer than if you just lined them all up and cut them because you have to do it one by one by one who look at that one three inches I mean look how gross that bottom was wow okay people are going to be like please move on this was you know we all do our little research about things I found this and I'm like yeah I'm done I'm gonna look no further I have found the the most genius idea of all genius ideas well you know what I don't necessarily know that this is any more time consuming because you just pick up and snap pick up and snap yeah yeah and it's kind of satisfying the snap it's you know how like snapping green beans is kind of fun yeah well I find that this is too so okay so one other the Hallmark of asparagus and I did tease this at the close of our last episode oh did you is that asparagus is known to make your pee smell delightful I avoided that topic thinking that would be way too crass for our listeners she has in fact mentioned it four times that I am exceedingly crass so gross in bringing this up but I felt like it's an important part of asparagus yeah so they don't know if everybody can smell it or if everybody's body processes it differently oh right so they don't know if people are stanking up the bathroom and they just don't notice it oh right so what you need to do is find someone that stanks it up and they're aware and then eat asparagus together and then you go and send in your sniffer oh that's a delightful party trick right there I mean that's a great bonding experience I love it yes you know what else makes your pee smell what coffee yes so no it's true work I pee pee and be like what why do I smell coffee I mean and it smells just like coffee like you just brewed a pot in the toilet I think it's hilarious because if you have like a I don't know a caramel nut frappe then you smell like caramel nut coffee no I have not smelled it like that yes the coffee smell changes depending on the type of coffee they please listeners if you have experienced your caramel nut frappe coming through in your urine please let us know I feel like that's perfect so then I was like what else do I talk about my husband is like they're eggs in this recipe right and I'm like yeah he's like farts delightful I'm not doing it he's like but you have to if you're talking about smelly bathroom things okay so speaking of asparagus we'll go back to asparagus Oh I thought we were going to stick with the farts no thank you I'm excited because you can say it on a podcast farty fart fart fart oh good Lawd so I found this strange question on a Reddit I do love me some Reddit  and here's the question people who quit drinking what are the craziest asparagus recipes to really let loose on a Friday night what does people who quit drinking have to do with asparagus recipes is it a way to have a tasty cocktail without booze what kind of cocktail would that be I don't get it that is odd a few people responded with why yeah what does this have to do with it and then other few people were like oh I found this crazy asparagus recipe they're like we don't care about the drinking part we just love to talk about asparagus yeah woohoo asparagus interesting yes so can we go back to boiled eggs but not talk about farts if we must okay cool I noticed that in the 1980s when I was looking up you know guess what I Googled boiled eggs in the 80s I love it yep yep boiled eggs in the 80s I noticed that people in the 80s loved their hard-boiled eggs because I swear to you that they used hardboiled eggs in the 70s as well in a lot of stuff yes and I have a thought oh do you when was it that some Health Organization said eggs are full of cholesterol and bad for you because I think that was a turning point for eggs oh right I think eggs were seen as like a miracle food you've got protein you've got all these wonderful things and then somebody said oh no they're chock full of cholesterol they're going to kill you don't eat these don't eat them so then the popularity of eggs went down and despite the fact that they've come back and said nope that was wrong it's good cholesterol all you want to eat them I just don't think they ever regained interesting so maybe it wasn't that eggs were everywhere in the 70s and 80s it's that they're not everywhere now that's what I'm postulating is also in the 80s yeah theorizing also in the 80s they made a lot of salads like ham salad baloney salad tuna salads that was definitely a regular ladies to lunch type of meal meal right and in every salad they would have chopped up hardboiled eggs yes or ladies who lunch would eat deviled eggs as you should both yeah absolutely they're delicious they were in potato salad they had them on salad bars I remember going to the Ponderosa salad bar and I dump some eggs on my salad to this day yeah that is my preference your mother-in-law made my most favorite pasta salad macaroni salad of all time because it had hardboiled eggs in it that's right she even decorated the top with sliced hardboiled eggs yes they're just delicious yep well that's cuz we grew up with them we didn't care about the cholesterol now did we yeah well it turns out you shouldn't okay so as we're talking Kristen has gotten the asparagus out put it in the casserole dish and is putting more in the steamer yeah and I have a question so as you very lovingly took it out and put it in the casserole dish they're all facing the same direction yes and I'm thinking to myself s do we want to do that cuz that means if you get a bite of casserole at this end it's all the butt ends you know and I had another question it doesn't say to chop it but this is going to be a weird casserole you're going to get a whole chunk of of a bunch of whole asparagus it's not like a casserole where you just scoop a spoon and you just get a right you wouldn't be able to but it doesn't say I'm looking it just says cook it and then drain well that's weird let me see washed and trimmed it doesn't say chopped back to Carrie's idea why don't we put the second pound going the opposite direction okay yeah let me get this in the microwave okay so while she's doing that I'll tell you what the recipe says so obviously you cook the asparagus until barely tender we did that then in a saucepan we're going to melt butter add in flour salt and pepper then we're going to put in some milk and thicken that great we're going to take that off the heat and add in Pemiento then in our casserole dish we are going to alternate layers of asparagus egg sauce and cheese whoa so I shouldn't have the asparagus in the casserole dish yet so we're gonna do some asparagus do you want to should we chop it it just really seems like we should although Mary doesn't say to chop the asparagus what do you think we ought to do it'll look a lot prettier if it's just spears and maybe we can figure out how to serve it look beautiful I don't know how on Earth you could serve it because you're not going to set yourself a slice going this way in which case you'd get a I don't think it's going to be thick I think it's going to be asparagus with cheese sauce and I think you're going to take tongs and take out a bunch and put it on your plate and then maybe a spoon and scoop a little more of the cheese sauce on top of it well if it's that then spears make sense let's give it a try yeah all right you you heard it here people if it doesn't work guess whose fault it is all Carrie's could you pour two cups of milk for me because I'm the roux here and 1 tbsp of butter for an entire 1/4 cup of flour does not make a really good roux it's very clumpy and powdery so I'm afraid it'll burn before I get the milk in yeah Kristen has been slaving away at the stove trying to make a roux struggling mightily it's an epic failure really because as I said before it's not enough butter for a quarter cup of flour it was one tablespoon for a 1/4 cup of flour and read the directions Again Carrie what did it say were you supposed to add the flour to the butter yeah so I'm I'm reading this to take any stress of failure off of Kristen because it very clearly says melt the butter in the saucepan blend in flour salt and pepper but she's right you're taking a tablespoon of butter and you're trying to blend in quite a bit of flour and it a 1/4 cup of flour and it just lumped it did and then when I added the milk I I couldn't get it mixed in it was these congealed blobs right and so we very quickly I've cut this obviously you won't be hearing all this well it's mostly because of the words that she said during this time it's true I let a few bombs go didn't I she she cut out the multiple swear words being thrown around the mom's wooden spoon kitchen so we grabbed a strainer I poured the sauce through the strainer into a bowl and then attempted to use a spatula to mash the lumps down through but take a look at this sauce it is perfectly thick it's perfectly beautiful I wonder if it's one of Mary's typos you know it really seems like it has to be I think she made a mistake doing the quarter cup oh I think a tablespoon would have worked just fine well that's what we're going with cuz it certainly wasn't my fault no the one thing that we are clear on is that Kristen did everything right yeah yes other than the swear words that we had to cut I did cut those so now it is time to add the pimiento to the sauce but as promised you we going to taste the pimiento I got two here so we can each try one with our Dirty Dirty Fingers ooh they're itty bitty little pieces I wonder if we'll be able to taste it car's taking a little sample first does it taste like anything yeah not much oh yeah it's a very it tastes like a bell pepper it does but a very mild I mean they're red bell peppers obviously which I think the red ones are more mild yeah it definitely tastes like a pepper and it has a little citrusy almost flavor to it it does a little brightness yeah yeah I think it'll look pretty in here so let me bring this sauce over okay it's pretty thick so I think that little bit of the liquid that comes with the pimentos will be okay but Carrie's trying to not get too much in there all right one tablespoon all right oh it's so pretty I mean I think that's ultimately why the' 70s love their pimiento oh it's just so pretty and chopped egg gives that yellow of the yolk it's really a a nice look adds a little color I think yeah oh that's a gorgeous little sauce there she sounds just like a chef oh do I yeah had your inner Gordon Ramsay going and then a beautiful sauce cuz he never just makes sauces they're always beautiful all right donkey get going he calls people donkeys does he really yeah apparently I don't see that part get a move on Donkey I don't know that he necessarily says it like Shrek donkey probably not probably not what you gonna do oh my gosh so now we have to chop six eggs yes and I have again my handy dandy harp cutter yes because it doesn't say chop it says slice what wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute eggs sliced oh my gosh we don't need oh yeah this a slicer it's a slicer good  lord it's not a chopper it's a slicer Chopper slicer if you want to uhuh so now I think we're ready to assemble we are Avengers Assemble oh Mom's wooden spoon assemble you're such a nerd I know right but she did put her arm up in Captain America fashion I was she totally looked like black widow for sure oh my gosh I do don't I yeah I'm so tough so Scarlet Johansson I totally missed about the sliced egg part I thought it was going to be chopped egg fo sure no sliced okay so now we are going a layer we're going to start with the asparagus okay and then we're going to put egg slices then some sauce and then some cheese okay and then do it again and we've already discussed we're going to alternate did we decide to alternate the asparagus did we decide to alternate I don't know that we well okay we can do that I'd say just to be careful it's not going to hurt anything all right is that a layer I think you need to do more cause look at all of this you know like building a raft yeah we're going to build an asparagus raft that's exactly it so so that way the sauce will stop at our asparagus raft yeah it won't go to the bottom we've made a couple of things where the sauce just was all at the bottom remember that cherry bread pudding so now we're one more right there oh my goodness let's see if I can find a short one there oh my goodness it's gorgeous perfect oh my gosh I wonder how many total eggs it's going to take per layer that was one egg okay so maybe one and a half yeah let's do one and a half per layer and we've got six so that'll give oh gosh that's math boy I don't know how this is going to turn out okay so no no no no no no sauce and cheese oh goodness gracious yeah yeah yeah oh let me keep Kristen on track here people she's messing it all up she keeps blaming poor Mary poor Mary boy it's difficult to know how much of each item I think this is going to be too much asparagus for this container I don't know and I think we're going to run out of sauce well I guess we'll just find out won't we well you know what I think we ought to do no I think we ought to do this layering off of the podcast time and come back when we're done putting the asparagus in the pan I think we need to keep going because I have a story to tell okay from the 80s all right this is what you want to talk about while you're preparing to eat oh okay okay so I found wacky news from the 80s oh I love wacky news yes and the title of this is Leonardo DeToenail what yes because again people love to talk about toenails when preparing to eat toenails ew oh yeah okay so here's the story you ready yeah in March of 1980 which is exactly when this recipe came out oh my gosh that's right super excited there were multiple female students yes at Southern California Universities so multiple Southern California universities yes that were complaining that someone had surreptitiously whoa mhm painted their toenails as they were studying in the library oh so this begs a lot of questions first off were they not wearing shoes in the library right yeah I don't know but the police dubbed the perpetrator Leonardo DeToenail I love that they did eventually nab a suspect whoa carrying 15 bottles of fingernail polish what but they had to let him go because he obviously denied and they had not caught him in the act there was a phantom toenail painter multiple female students complained that while in the library oh my gosh Leonardo DeToenail had beautifully designed some toenail art for them and they just didn't notice I don't know dude had a gift imagine crawling under tables to get to these I I how would somebody not notice that but anyway so many questions yeah okay but Leonardo was unable to stop himself even after being caught he had to do it again oh my goodness and so the next year no he got caught again he was ordered to attend a hearing but he never showed and I don't know if they didn't get his name or what but he was never seen again didn't get his name he just ran away I guess but they caught him once so how did they not I don't know Leonardo de toenail lived a free life of uh toenail painting surreptitiously oh that's funny is that not the funniest thing ever does that not make you want to eat some asparagus yeah toenails all the way baby well how about you do the next layer and I will tell you an article I found let's do that and I think we're gonna have two more layers I think we are I'm hoping it fits we may have to mash down with the asparagus you know okay so Carrie's going next I think the heads go on that side this time perfect so we are doing the flipflop the heads on one side and then the next layer the heads on the other yes that's sounds yummy cool well I found an article called 21 facts about life in the 80s that will seriously surprise young people do you sing it The Facts of Life The Facts of Life no uh I did not write down all 21 okay here's one that young kids would be blown away by one fact okay and that is that teachers and principles could actually spank badly behaving students oh for sure yeah I mean our dad was a Elementary School principal and he had a paddle hanging in the back room the paddle was a thing so here's another thing since there was no caller ID tons of crank calling went on oh my gosh crank calling was just a delightful part of life it was I was always so nervous oh that they were gonna know who you were yeah iI'd get trouble yes our dad would get mad at us oh that would be awful okay here's another one and this was definitely 80s not 70s classrooms often had a single desktop computer and you and your partner had an assigned time each week where you could use it and then early on the monitor had a black background with either white green or amber writing and that's basically it that doesn't sound familiar well yeah the Oregon Trail it was all just green on black yeah yes okay how about this there were pay phones everywhere oh heck yeah there were yep I still find it odd that there aren't I know right yeah you can see the old what used to be a pay phone it's funny isn't it I mean you think Clark Kent what is he gonna do how does he change now does he just spin like Wonder Woman I know spins like Wonder does he have to find a public restroom does he have to purchase a soda so that they'll allow him into the public restroom oh my gosh okay so let's put in our final layer of egg yeah it's going to perfect this is barely going to fit in this pan we might want to put it on a cookie sheet in case it boils over I think we very much want to okay this is the layer that should be the prettiest and the cream sauce has gotten kind of gloopy it is so thick now from sitting there at least there'll be cheese on the top and that'll look pretty and I think we saved quite a bit of cheese yeah cuz Kristen was real stingy with the previous layers of cheese I was a stingy lady so let me tell you a few more of these 21 facts yeah um how about the TV just going off at like midnight no more shows do you remember I think we've talked about this the American flag would come up yeah just nothing all done yep you're done go to bed yeah I remember I remember the first time that that happened to me I was like you were like I stayed up late enough to have the flag come that was wild that's pretty cool uh how about that you had to use maps to get everywhere oh my gosh and so people can't read Maps anymore no gosh do you remember going to Map Quest and having to print them out and take them with you in the car yes and then you'd save them in your glove box so funny yeah yeah that is so true yep yep okay and another one is cigarette vending machines being everywhere everywhere I do recall that I remember going to visit my friend in her apartment complex and they had a cigarette vending machine right there in the lobby I'll be darned yeah I bought some I remember going to big boy and they had a they had a cigarette vending machine where you'd wait to be seated oh yeah yeah I got to get your ciggies for after your meal right and coffee and then finally the last one calling the time and temperature oh that was the best do you remember the number no oh gosh I thought I did it was 782  I thought it was like 7474 oh right yeah nope I don't remember that's disappointing it is but another 80s thing you had to know all the phone numbers that's right I mean you had the Yellow Pages and the White Pages well sure but you know you just knew the people they weren't your phone to use right I had the funniest thing happened to me recently because I was just gonna say let's let you do the cheese because it's so loud Carrie's gonna put the rest of the cheese and then I'll tell you my funny phone story I think that's perfect me move those Rando slices oh that's lovely oh I think it looks pretty I should have been taking pictures for every layer and I failed right all right take a picture yes it looks really nice and that sauce is far thicker than I expected it to be I probably shouldn't have gotten it that thick but I'm also thinking with the asparagus letting off some juice maybe that'll be a good thing well I'm I'm curious if we should have cut the asparagus we shall see we'll find out I mean interesting I guess this is what happens when you're making something for the first time yeah you run into these what the heck do you do kind of thing and so then we're going to put it in the oven for Rando time till bubbly all right you want to throw it in the oven Kristen sure I'll toss it in the oven and then I'll tell you my funny phone storyoh yes it's a good one I've heard it and uh I feel like it's it's worthy of a mention okay so we have that in at 350 for unknown amount of time yes bubbly time yeah bubbly time so our friends came over to play cards yep and I put my phone on the kitchen counter I didn't want to have it on the table and be rude but I wanted if my son called me from college I could just quickly look and give them a text hey I'm not available and so after after they left were cleaning up and I couldn't find my phone and I'm looking everywhere I thought gosh I thought for sure I put that on the counter and I couldn't find it I mean we searched for 15 20 minutes looking for that daggone phone right all the way over the house and finally I realized maybe my friend Cheryl picked it up why would Cheryl do that right but then that was the only option yeah and so I thought I'll call Cheryl on my husband's phone I can't call Cheryl on my husband's phone because I don't know Cheryl's number it's in my phone he doesn't have Cheryl's number so I thought oh we'll call her husband Steve my husband doesn't have Steve's number I don't even have Steve's number so I thought what the heck maybe I'll call our friend Stephanie and she'll have oh my husband doesn't have Stephanie's number it wasn't in his phone so I got on social media and messaged her on Facebook Messenger on Instagram on everything hey I think you may have taken my the phone and my husband kept calling my phone over and over and over and finally after they arrived home her purse was buzzing yet her phone was in her hand she's like why is my purse buzzing because of course I had the ringer off right and that's when she called my husband back and was like I accidentally took Kristen's phone that was funny but what a predicament to be in right this is why everyone needs to have the people they love Yeah on their life 360 you can spy on them you can follow their every movement and you can message them totally boom you just need to stalk your friend I do I would like it because then i' know when they were almost at the house it is nice well we're going to take a break now and see how long it takes for that thing to get bubbly we'll come back and let you know and then we'll try some asparagus cheese casserole I'm kind of excited I like asparagus and I like eggs and cheese I mean what is there not to like unless it gets all liquidy and goopy and then maybe no I don't know I don't know I think I thickened the sauce too much again I think it was too much flour but you know what quit the griping we shall see yeah quit blaming poor Mary yeah I'm sorry Mare back off Kristen [Music]  we have asparagus cheese casserole yahoola we got it out of the oven we got a little nervous that it was never going to Bubble because the sauce was so thick I want to say it took about 35 minutes maybe 40 45 but yeah I checked it and then 10 minutes later I checked it again and it was then bubbling I was shocked yeah it's perfect and we also forgot to put the breadcrumbs on the top totally so that was a late addition yeah but it looks quite tasty it does oh and during our time sitting waiting for this thing to bake we did look up asparagus cheese recipes yeah which apparently I didn't do this time because there's not really another one of these recipes out there I was surprised no there were none with egg slices no not at all but we did find one in which they made a roux and they used five tablespoons of butter and a 1/4 cup of flour that's a lot different very different so we think the typo was in the butter yep and not the flour I agree I thought this was going to be easy to get out with two spoons this is a bear it is okay here we go okay it looks quite appetizing it's lovely really not sure if the sticks are better or if we'd have cut it would have been better I'm not sure I mean it sure looks pretty this way I think it would be a heck of a lot easier to serve with the chopped up asparagus I think you're right but then I don't know that the egg slices would lay as nicely on the top of each layer but when you're dishing it up the egg slices slide all over the place right exactly so do you want to taste it first sure I think we're going to cut a little bit yeah I got you a knife to cut a little bit off okay so while Carrie takes her bite I want to tell you all something hilarious and weird that I found out about a 1980s movie oh okay the movie is one of my favorites Dirty Dancing as you know before you even said what the movie was I was gonna scream Dirty Dancing did you all know that Dr Ruth Westheimer was supposed to be in Dirty Dancing what I know right she actually was really good friends with the person who wrote the movie and the the person wanted to cast her but when Dr Ruth found out that this particular character was a thief she said no oh she can talk about sex on TV all the time but you make her a thief no way what do you think Carrie how does it taste you know my first thought was it needs salt oh you know what I'm not surprised it only had a teaspoon of salt for 2 pounds of asparagus so I'm going to take a bite and then I'll get the salt shaker the breadcrumbs on the top are a little salty okay and so that adds a nice little flavor but as you get down into the lower layers uh without the breadcrumbs I think you need a little salt the asparagus a lovely texture I think it tastes really good it's not too cheesy the egg I thought added a nice little flavor it is Mild flavors for sure but the asparagus is kind of the highlight of the dish which it should be that's pretty good it it is pretty good but it needs salt mhm maybe some pepper yeah I was going to say a little cracked pepper yeah let's give it a try we'll go to round two I am happy to eat another bite of this me too it is not gross not even a little bit while this is not an asparagus birthday cake for your daughter I mean they can't all be winners I know she might enjoy this and now I'm going to use what our dad got us for Christmas the delightful self- grinding salt and pepper shakers he was so excited about these here we go how cool is that aren't they great and the funniest thing is we had just been at my mother-in-law's house and she had gotten some and she was so excited about them just so flipping fun except for sometimes I forget to take the cap off and and then you take the cap off and tons of Pepper or salt goes flying right okay my own fault I'm gonna go to bite number two okay I'm going to cut off another little bite I like the egg flavor in it it's so different how's the salt and pepper on it I would dare say m even a little more salt mhm oh that's delicious oh yeah you know what might be easiest is obviously you could add more salt into the sauce mmhm put the layer of asparagus down and salt it yeah maybe but then once you got the egg and everything else but you know what this is perfectly fine and then people could salt their own that's true it definitely needs salt it definitely does and that little bit of cracked pepper on the top really perked it up it did it called for 1/8 of a teaspoon of pepper how typically 1970s 80s recipe such a tiniest bit that we wouldn't even consider that today no well you don't even taste it no so I'd say you could absolutely spice up the sauce I'm going to add more please do salt because I enjoy that I'll eat that thing for lunch um good if you hate asparagus this is not the meal for you no because asparagus is absolutely highlighted in this dish but I could not agree more that egg adds such a unique and it's just so weird isn't it it's just so weird to add eggs with your asparagus yeah I would give it a two thumbs up maybe a thumb and a half two thumbs if you salted it that's true I was going in for another bite I feel like I did when we made those different mashed potatoes with the uh spinach and the mashed potato remember how I couldn't keep my finger out of it I just want to keep going in for bites yeah I'm excited so Kristen and I have not had lunch yet and it is lunch time for us and so this is really kind of hitting spot I think for us both it is you know what would be delicious if you went ahead and chopped up that asparagus and added some precooked chicken breast like get a rotisserie chicken toss some chicken in there that would be a full meal oh that's a great idea you'd have to get a bigger casserole dish because it just fits just and we tried to press down on the asparagus layer and it wasn't go nowhere no but it was a good what did we end up with four layers yeah and about 35-40 minutes in the oven yep it's a pretty versatile tasty dish I mean the egg gives some protein but I think if you toss some some nice chicken chunked up chicken breast in there that would make a full meal for your family it would be a real casserole that's comfort food right there it is absolutely all right well on that note that is it for this episode as always thank you for being with us in the kitchen our next episode is on April 21st and it will be using one of my favorite Pantry Staples ooh yes Kristen likes this Pantry staple so much that she currently has in her pantry now not one box not two but three boxes she really has just overdone it I did it was BOGO it's not my fault it was a BOGO sale so we'll let you know what that is next week and maybe there'll be a BOGO ready for you too see you later

bye thanks for listening to Mom's wooden spoon if you like what you heard don't forget to subscribe if you want a copy of this recipe or to see the pictures and other items from this episode go to our website momswoodenspoon.com if you'd rather check us out on Facebook or Instagram pick your poison don't say poison we're making food those eggs smell like sulfur or farts I really want to talk about farts for this one oh well it's the pee that's the bad part I know