Episode Transcript for Party Tetrazzini

Kristen, it is already December. We are in a great month for gatherings and get-togethers of all kinds. You are right. I'm so excited. Are we going to make something fun and festive to get people in the mood? Yes, we are. We are going to get this party started.

[Music] Welcome to Mom's Wooden Spoon, where the recipes are retro and so are your hosts. You can say that again.

[Music]

Today we are going back to a recipe book from Grandma Honey. Yay. Yes. This one is not as old as dirt. No. Nope. It's a far more recent recent is the word and it's got a great title. Invigorating Vittles a cookbook for energy conservation. That's right. So my question is are we conserving the energy of the chef? Oh or of the chef's household. I have an answer. Oh do you? Okay. Because the book is published by the Monongahela Power Company. Oh. So, which is odd. You'd think they'd want you to use all the power you could. Exactly. Pay them some good money. Right. Right. And so they cook things in this cookbook in good old electric skillets, which is what we're doing. Okay. Popcorn poppers. Oh, yes. And toaster ovens. I mean, you could take this cookbook to college with you. You so could. Although they're regular oven recipes, but what I was so excited about is we have our mom's original probably 1960s electric skillet. Yeah, this sucker is old. It is so old that as I was plugging it in to test it. I made taco meat in it the other night just to make sure it still worked. Right. The plastic on the plug, the rubber on the plug started to slide forward as I was plugging it in. Did you get electrician's tape? I did because I thought my fingers are gonna end up on these prongs that are plugged in. So, yeah, I wrapped it in electrician's tape. It's good now. That's wild You want to plug it in, Carrie? No. I mean, I remember my mom cooking in it. Your mom, too? My mom, too? Yeah, I do. She cooked in this thing a lot. A lot. I was trying to think about what she would have been cooking. French toast. Really? Is that what you remember? Uh-huh. French toast always in the electric skillet. There were a few meals that without a doubt they were in the electric skillet. They were in the electric skillet. I wonder if she did hamburgers cuz it's a nice lot of space in an electric skillet. Uh apparently a lot of housewives in the 70s were making hamburgers. They were making sloppy joe's goulash. I don't know cuz it's a nice flat surface. And so pancakes obviously, right? When you need a nice flat surface without the pan edges getting in your way. Exactly. Here was one recipe I found that was hilarious. It said if you wanted to go uh super complex, okay, you could make a dish from the 70s uh like pork chops with Pepsi and ketchup. Oh, delish. Yummer. Our mom did not make that. She did not. No. Thank you, mom. That's right. Yeah. You know, I remember when she lived down here before she moved and all of this, you know, Mary's Memo stuff got started, having like the grandkids over and her pulling out the electric skillet to make pancakes. Oh, really? Oh, that's cool. Cuz I was like, A, you still have that? Exactly. And B, you thought to use it? I mean, I have just a big flat pan now. Yeah. You know, to make them on, but I thought like a little griddle, right? Yeah. Absolutely. Well, I think this is great. I'm so glad I have it. was wonderful to make the taco meat in. My son was at work. We were going to eat and then he was going to eat when he got home and so I just put the lid on. I turned it down to low. I didn't have to keep the stove top on. It was really handy. Well, you know, and now they have those huge outdoor electric griddles. Oh, yes. You know, there's recipes and people cooking on those things all over the place on social media. I I saw somebody making like a cobbler on this big Oh, wild. Yeah. which I thought was kind of weird, but Oh, you can make a cobbler in an electric skillet. Totally could. Totally. Yeah. But so I mean it's not like the electric skillet has gone out of fashion, right? They just changed how it looks a little bit. Exactly. I am a little nervous about this one because some of whatever is coating it is scraped off. So are we going to get poisoned? You know, we've eaten out of this sucker for a long, long time. So I don't think this one time is what's going to do it. Thank goodness. Yeah. Yeah. So, with that, what are we making, you ask? Oh, exactly. We're asking. Yeah. It is called party tetrazzini. It's getting I don't know what is I was going to say. Hot in here. So, take off all your clothes. I don't think so. Let's get it started in here. It's a party in here. That's not how it goes. Oh, boy. Delete. How about celebration? Our friend Kristen's favorite song. I feel like this is going nowhere fast. No, nowhere fast. No. Okay. In the electric skillet, party tetrazzini. Yes. I noticed in the recipe it calls for sherry. Oh sherry. Oh, Sherry get it? Oh my gosh. How are we going to go on with this humor? I don't know. Okay, moving on. Uh, so my thought was is this party tetrazzini because there's booze in it? Yes, I want to know. And then I learned alas no. Oh. Uh, all tetrazzini has sherry or white wine in it. So, the original tetrazzini apparently was very fancy. Apparently, apparently very rich dish combined cooked sketti uh tossed with tender cooked poultry and enrobed in a sherry cream parmesan cheese sauce and slightly sauteed mushrooms. Mmmm I mean when you add all those nice words in I know fancy and it sounds delicious. Yeah. That's my favorite part about chefs. Yeah. We're going to be having a delightful meal this evening. It is enrobed. Enriched flavorful combination of I mean come on. It's chicken soup in a can folks. But they make it sound so good. They do. The original recipe was created by this fancy chef. He wanted to impress this Florentine opera singer called Louisa Tetrazzini. There is zero Italian other than the fact that there's spaghetti in it and the lady they named it after was was Italian. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Well, apparently it was this thing back in the late 1800s where these fancy chefs would name stuff after famous female performers. Oh, well that's nice so let me tell you some of them. Okay. There was one created for Australian soprano Dame Nelly Melba. Melba toast. Yes. Because she went to the restaurant and she couldn't get thin enough toast and was disgusted. So the chef made Melba toast for her and then later in order to impress her created peach Melba. Oh my. I know. Miss Melba. That was by French chef August Escopier. Oh wow. He was fancy too. Yes. And then Okay. We have had this before. I actually made these for a friend's wedding. Delicious pavlovas. Oh yes. Yeah. Which are meringues that are baked and then they're tender on the outside and crispy on the inside. And then you put fruit and whipped cream on the top. And that was named after a Russian prima ballerina named Anna Pavlova. Of course. Yes. And then there's also a variety of melon. Really? Named after 19th century Swedish schapr schaprano. Let me guess. Janice cantaloupe. No, that's not it. No, it's Norine Honeydew. [Laughter] Wanda Watermelon.

Jenny Lind. Carrie. Jenny Lind. What's the melon? It's a Jenny Lind melon. Oh, I've never even heard of it. Wanda watermelon would have been way better. Really much better. All right, let's tell people what's in this party. Tetrazzini. Oh, some tetrazzini crap. No. Um, there is onion and butter. We're using cream of mushroom soup instead of delicious parmesan cream enrobing sauce. Right. We're just opening up the can of conveyed soup and plopping it in. We ain't sautéing any mushrooms lightly. They're just in the soup, right? Yep. Adding a little water. Of course, that soup's condensed. Oh, yeah. No parmesan at all. Instead, we're using sharp cheddar. And it didn't even say sharp cheddar. It said shredded sharp processed cheese. Processed cheese. Cuz processed cheese melts better. I went with the real stuff. Thank you. Of course, the serry spaghetti, turkey, pimento, always cuz this recipe is actually from 1981. So that's basically the 70s. Yes, absolutely. And some parsley. Clearly the last two are Christmasy. No, I don't I don't know about that. It's red and green that I know. It's such a party, Carrie. It is just a party. Yep. So, we are going to chop up a whole bunch of stuff and then cook some pasta. Yep. And then ultimately our little electric skillet is just for mixing it all together. Yeah. I think we'll sauté the onions a little bit, but that's basically the only thing that needs cooked. The turkey is cooked. Yep. And then we're going to melt the cheese into a lovely sauce. And uh that's that's kind of it. So Kristen, Carrie since the cooking of this seems to be relatively simple, you're just going to let me do it all. Right. Well, I mean, yeah, that's not noteworthy. Oh, that's just another day at mom's room spoon. Um, no. What I decided, oh my, we should do Yes. is bought a whole bottle of Sherry. That's true. Um, because I didn't have any cuz I would say, who does? But you know what? If you own Sherry, kudos to you. No kidding. You're making some fancy fancy meals. Rock on with your bad self. Yeah, I had exactly two bottles of sherry to choose from. Oh, yeah. Apparently, the area that I live in does not like their sherry. Not a big fan of sherry. All right, here goes the pimentos. And Kristen's pride as she struggled struggled mightily to open them. So funny. So, what is Sherry? You ask. I really do not know. And I did not look it up cuz I did not care. I'm just kidding. Do tell. Now I'm going to tell you it is a fortified wine. Oh. Um, another fortified wine is port. Oh, yes. Okay. So, when I went to the liquor store, one option, two options of cherry, countless options of port. Really? Apparently in this area, if you're going to drink a fortified wine, it's got to be it's port or nothing. Yeah. Port or nothing. Absolutely. But, so, um, cherry is made in Spain. Port is made in Portugal, of course. Okay. And there is a region known as the Sherry Triangle in Andalusia, Spain. What is that? Like the Bermuda Triangle. Do planes get lost? No, it just depends on how much sherry you drink. You may get lost. You might in the sherry triangle. And so it's fortified with brandy. So it's wine mixed with brandy. So fancy. We are going to have dry sherry. I think it's like a tablespoon of sherry. You have an entire flipping bottle. I know, right? For a tablespoon. But no worries. Yes, we're gonna drink the rest. Oh, we totally will. I have found us two mixed drinks that feature sherry. Apparently, sherry is fun to use in mixed drinks because it's alcohol content is lower than like rum or tequila or something like that. So, if you wanted kind of a lower alcohol content drink, which I usually do cuz I'm lightweight, right? You could have sherry in it. Oh, nice. So, I picked two of my favorites. Plus, we had the ingredients handy. I was going to try and pick you a gin drink. Yeah. But it called for celery bitters. Oh, no. No, no, no. Thank you. I don't know what they are. I don't know. And I don't want to know. So, I didn't pick that one. So, our two drinks is a sherry colada. Oh, yes, please. Yes. So, I've got the pineapple, the cream of cocoa. lime juice I cannot wait. All right, let's prep all those ingredients. Okay, start drinking. What's the other one? The other one. And I got a little deets on this one. You have deets. It's called a sherry cobbler. Exquise me. Doesn't it sound delightful

Okay so there was an article in a booze magazine that somebody had written about the Sherry cobbler and I copied far too much of it, but the dude is an excellent author and I needed to share. Oh my gosh. Okay, so here's some information about the Sherry cobbler. Please tell. It's not a particularly amusing name for a drink, but beggars can't be choosers, especially not sweltering ones. What? People back in the 1830s when the cobbler first turned up didn't have air conditioning or even Vornado fans. This drink was all they had when the weather turned repulsive. Well, okay. They had it and the mint julep. Yuck. Yes. Yeah. While we like to think that back then before there were cars and traffic lights and I whatnots, you could be as drunk as a boiled owl and still go about your day. That's true. There were a few poor souls who couldn't. Oh, for them since there's nothing more indrunkening than a julep indrunkening. Mhm. There was the cobbler. A good size splash of cherry, which has all the flavor of booze but less than half the horsepower. A little sugar and a slice or two of orange. Shaken with ice like the devil himself was whipping on you. Serve with a straw if you like. It was probably the sherry cobbler that got us using those suckers in the first place. Nothing more refreshing has ever been created. I'll take a good cobbler over video games and the celebrity antics of any day. What? Although, if I could, I'd have all three. Wow, that is awesome writing. And I need me a cherry cobbler now. Okay. So, I am going to measure out these little turkey chunks that I have made. And before we get to drinking, I did want to tell you uh some stuff I found in this delightful invigorating vittles cookbook. Okay. I mean, we are going to be so invigorated between our refreshing cherry and our our invigorating vittles and our energy conservation. Holy crimoly. Holy moly. Here's what it said at the beginning of the cookbook. like on the second page it said, "Considering the 1,095 meals prepared in your kitchen each year. We compiled a cookbook to help you conserve cooking energy through the wise use of kitchen appliances." And all I want to say is, "Don't act like you know me, Monongahela Power. Don't act like you know me. I ain't cooking 1,095 meals." Oh my gosh. And then you turn the page and they had an entire kitchen wisdom section. Oh, we need some kitchen wisdom. Yes, we do. It says use the range only for intended purpose. The range is only efficient for cooking. So, do not use it to dry hair. What? That's what it said in the cookbook. Do not use it to dry hair. Was there what? Someone actually Okay, so it would be an electric range. You're not going to set your hair on fire necessarily. You might. I mean, if it gets close to the burner or are they putting their heads in the oven to dry their hair? Well, they said, "Oh, is the range also the oven?" I don't know. Is the range just the stove top? I don't know these 80s lingo. I don't know. I'll go look that up. Don't ask me these things. Carrie doesn't cook How the heck is she supposed to know? That's outside my knowledge base. All right, I'm going to look it up while Carrie starts making some drinks. Yes, I love you and drinking so much that I spent last night working into the wee hours of the morning making a homemade simple syrup Carrie to go in our sherry cobbler. Wow. I know. And it's in ounces. What the holy heck? I don't know. Do you have how do I measure a 1/4 of an ounce and 3 oz? Let me see what I have. And by the way, a range is a kitchen appliance that uses electricity to power both the cooktop and the oven. So, it's both. So, you maybe they were sticking it in the oven. Wow. How about that? All right. So, I'm going to need some ice. While Kristen's getting something to measure ounces, I'm going to loudly put some ice in our shaker. Okay.

It's real quiet, so no problems. Yep. Okay, while we're being loud, let me get the cheese. Okay. And then I get to shake it brutally. I'm very excited about that. Oh, I like brutal shaking usually of people, but mostly me. Mostly Carrie shake her brutally. This is only one ounce. Okay. Well, I mean, it's all I got. Carrie, you did not come prepared obvi I mean, you made the simple syrup. Whatever. I mean, I was really proud of myself now. How I'm going to pour that into the I don't know. There there's going to be mess. I'll tell you what, I am okay with mess if you're making me a delicious delicious cocktail, Carrie. Well, according to this, it will be refreshing. AF I can't wait. Do I need to cut these? Al fresco. Ooh la la, I'm just kidding. Do I need to cut the oranges? Uh, yes. Oh, we do. How are they supposed to be cut? Um, it says one orange half wheel. I don't know what that is. I was just going to slice that sucker in half and stick them both in there. Squeeze and shake cuz these are little tangerines. These are like cuties, right? But it's what I had. What it says is to shake brutally and that this will cause the orange to to come out the juice. So, I'll just cut it in half. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. We do two halves per shake. Okay. Put that in there. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, I'm going to do one for you and then one for me. Oh, wow. Okay. So, I did the simple syrup. So, she has simple syrup in there. She has the orange in there. The one cutie. And then what? Okay. And then 3 oz of sherry. That's a boatload of cherry. Now, the trouble is, can her old eyes see the measuring marks on the shot glass? Really hard. I've never had sherry. Have you? Nope. Let's smell it. It smells like that peach brandy that dad had. Oh, that the Amish people made. The Amish made. Our father loves to pick up booze from the Amish. He last time we got catnip wine. Catnip wine. That was so sweet. Some horrifying stuff. Sickeningly sweet. My husband drank the heck out of that peach brandy. Oh, really? Yeah. he kind of liked it. No, no, no. That was also not a winner. All right. He's going to shake. It's going to be loud. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. And then I'm going to put a little ice in the glass, too. Okay. I think we can share what's in here. Okay. All right. Here we go. Here we go. Let's see what we think of  the sherry cobbler. It's kind of a peachy color. I don't drink brandy, so this will all be unique. All right. Are you going to taste first or am I? Oh, I think we clinky and simultaneously. Here we go. Clinky. Okay. One, two, three. Cheers. Party tetrazzini.

Oh, that is refreshing and delightful. It really is good. I would absolutely drink that. It mostly tastes like orange with just a little hint of peach brandy. Yeah, made by the Amish. Yeah, that's really nice and refreshing and super cold. He did not lie. I don't know who you were, anonymous Oh, booze magazine author, but this is so good. I want to drink this fortnightly. Yeah, I'm I'm down. And we have one to go. So, let's slurp this sucker down. Heck yeah. And move on to round two. Oh, you guys, just you wait till the end of this show but remember less alcohol. So, yeah, chug a lug, baby. Yeah, we're going to be less funny than we normally are when we're drinking due to the low alcohol content. I think that's tasty. I enjoyed that. Well, now I feel like I know what we can do with the rest of this bottle when I get it home. Heck yeah. That's  delightful. Okay, let's keep that bottle open and let's go on to those coladas. Oh gosh. Okay, I was going to drink my sherry first, but no no. Let's go baby. Kristen's like, "Ooh, I took two sips. I'll set it aside and I set it aside." And I'm like, "Oh, alcohol. Foul. All or nothing, baby. All or nothing. All right, fine. How about while you sip your delicious cocktail, I will tell you about some delicious cocktail party foods from 1981." I too wrote down just three party foods from 1981. Cocktail party food. Do you think we have the same ones? We might. Let's see. Okay. Okay. What was the first one that you had on your list? Shrimp cocktail. Absolutely. Oh, I remember our mom serving shrimp cocktail. I do. And you know what? On my list, it said that these are party appetizers that aren't served anymore. I would have to disagree. I've had shrimp cocktail. Yes. But I haven't gone to my friend's house and they're like, "Hey, Kristen, here's a beer. Want some shrimp?" Have you had it in a martini glass filled with cocktail sauce? Cocktail sauce and romaine lettuce leaves. Yeah. And the shrimp shrimp hung decoratively on the rib. I have not. Then I feel like All right. 1981 version. All right. Well, pigs in a blanket not on my list. I had pigs in a blanket yesterday at our friend's house. Oh, I love pigs in a blanket. Me, too. And you don't even have to wrap them yourself anymore. No, you buy those frozen babies. They're easy peasy. Yes, ma'am. Uhhuh. Clams Casino. Oh, I have had those, but not at someone's party. I've never heard of it. Wow. So, I'll tell you what it is in case Well, I didn't know. Apparently, you do. It's a baked clam dish often topped with a mixture of breadcrumbs, bacon, and peppers. Yes. Offering a salty and savory bite that I would kindly decline. I know. They're pretty good. What do you do? You eat it on something like on a cracker. No, really. It's just Yeah, you just kind of scoop it out and eat it. It's got the breadcrumbs in it with your hand like with a spoon or a fork. Oh, okay. Yeah. Just checking. Or your fingers, whatever. Cocktail weenies in barbecue sauce. Oh, yeah. I've I've had those at parties. Yeah. Not recently, I don't think. No. No. You can make them in that same sauce that you do meatballs in. Yes. Oh gosh, there's enough booze in this. You're feeling it? Uhhuh. I'm like, the world is trippy and I'm on drugs, so maybe I should stop drinking. Yeah, I would probably do that. I mean, stop that. Yeah. Okay. Uh, did you have any others? Cuz I do. And I wrote down Kristen is going to correct me on my pronunciation. Oh, yep. Here we go. Let's see. Vol au vent. Vol au vent I think it's called Oh, okay. It's puff piss. It's puff puff. What pastry filled with a savory mixture like creamy chicken or seafood? It's like tetrazzini without the spaghetti. Gosh, we need puff pastry. We could put tetrazzini in it and call it vol au vent. Oui oui Okay, so I am clearly not going to drink anymore. No, but wait, I had one more I wanted to tell you. Okay, there was this one on the list that I have a never had before, b never heard of, and c hope to never see in my lifetime. Oh, okay. French onion soup shots. Oh, they put French onion soup in shot glasses. Wait, they put like a little crouton, a little crouton in the bottom, a little soup, and then what? They melt some cheese over the top so you can burn the ever loving crap out of the roof of your mouth. Exactly. as the melted cheese adheres to the roof of your mouth and chokes you to death. And then the shot of hot soup scalds your throat as well. All the way down I mean, that sounds delightful. Delicious. Or do they serve it cold once the soup has gotten gelatinous? Ooh, even better. Even better, man. That's a tough one. I know, right? Wow. Okay, on that note, I got to make more drinks. We need to go away to make this because it has to be made in a blender. Yes. So, we'll go away. We're gonna make the booze and we'll come back and tell you how delicious it is. So, you can be very, very jealous. Yeah. We'll drink it on live. Yeah. Live on camera. What? She's been drinking. [Music] Okay, so first good news. Yes, Kristen did not make the blender squirt all over the kitchen. Yay. I know. It was close. She jumped a mile high when the blender went off. It made me nervous. Yes. The orange jello debacle did not repeat itself. No. No. So, success in that regard. We now have a nice sherry colada. Um just in case you were interested in making one, it has sherry. It's basically a pina colada just with sherry instead of rum. That's right. Um but so it's got the cream of coconut, pineapple juice, lime juice. Tell them the  weird thing, Carrie. Yeah. It has six drops of a salt tincture. Oh my. Yeah. And so you basically combine four parts water to one part salt. Well, thank goodness. I usually think of tinctures as having alcohol in them. So, thank goodness it's not like rubbing alcohol with salt. No. And then I dropped a little bit of that in it. Wild that sounds weird. It does sound weird. But that was the recipe. This makes me a little nervous now with the salt tincture. Salt. Shall we clinky and drinky? Oh, well, heck yeah. All right, so this is the sherry colada. Oo. Oh, sherry. Oh, you can taste the salt. It's okay. It's not very sweet. It's not. Normally pina coladas are so sweet. There's nothing sweet in it other than the pineapple juice, right? And the Yeah. Yeah. Pineapple juice. Yeah. Pass on this one. Kristen really doesn't like it. She is uh making the oogh face. I'm going to try one more little sippy. But um no, you're I mean if they didn't call it a colada, it would be yummy. I have had drinks that kind of taste like this. It's very tart. It's bright. I love the kind of creaminess of it. Don't call it a colada and I'm down with it. Yeah, I agree. And there is zero alcohol flavor. None whatsoever. None whatsoever. A lot of lime. I probably would do a little more lime. A little less lime. You think? Less would be a lot more appropriate. she's been drankin'. I mean, what? Yeah. A little less lime and maybe a little sugar. Not that you need a lot, but just a little. Some of that simple syrup from the last drink would be nice. Forget the salt tincture. Yes. And add in some simple syrup. I think that would do it. Yeah, that would be delicious. It's refreshing. If you're not expecting a colada You know, expectations are everything and so I expected something sweet and delicious and this was tart and refreshing. Yes. Yeah, very much. Although I'm I'm kind of excited. I'm so glad that we looked into Sherry. What a unique thing that I never would have known that you could use it in mixed drinks. I know, right? I never would have thought of that. And I do have to tell our listeners, Carrie comes across as having an alcohol problem. She really barely ever drinks, but we do enjoy new recipes for it and talking about it and joking about it. Oh, absolutely. And it's fun every now and then to add it to an episode. It is fun. Yes. You know, Kristen, as we were getting ready to make the colada, said to me, "We're going on a vacation together." Yes. And she was like, "You should bring the ingredients for that sherry cobbler. I would drink that." I would. And I I never in a million years would have made a drink with Sherry. Like, what an old person beverage. Exactly. Okay. So, I think it's time we get this uh pasta going. Pasta going. Yeah. Two cups of cooked pasta. How the heck do you decide how much raw pasta to put in? I don't know. But Kristen has decided because this is an American dish. Yeah, that it is perfectly acceptable to break the pasta. I would rather not have big long pasta noodles in my tetrazzini. Italians will lose their minds if they know you've broken it. But this is not an Italian dish. And so in perfect American or I mean ours, we grew up cutting our spaghetti with a knife and a fork. I didn't cut our spaghetti. Didn't know they they twirled it. No, not until I was much much older. Is this going to be two cups or do we need more? No. I said, "Let's go for it." Oh, Lord. Let's just do it. Okay. Willy-nilly style. Yep. Here we go. It'll be close enough. It's hard to break that much. Oh, she flinged it all over everywhere. It's burning in the stove. Carrie gets to clean up Don't put your hair in it. Do you remember as a kid taking a raw spaghetti piece and chewing on it? Did you ever do that? Uh, yeah. My dog loves it. Really? Oh, he gets so excited when you cook spaghetti and want you to give him some raw. Cute. Cute. I was going to say, do you remember as a kid ironing your hair straight? No, I did. Well, yours was straight. Yeah. I mean, I I literally put my long hair on an ironing board. You are kidding me. Ran the iron over the hair. I always wanted mine to be curly. I got me spiral perms and stuff. Yeah. Well, I mean, I did that, too, but then later on, I wanted it straight as straight could be. You Ironed it. That's before straight irons. It wasn't. But the straight irons stunk and they didn't really make my hair big and frizzy. Oh, if I wanted it flat and straight, I had to iron it. Just FYI, if you're thinking that you want to give this a shot tomorrow, turn the steam off. I was going to ask you, you steamed it. I I did. Sure. Once or twice. It hurts cuz then steam as you know, when it's up close to your head, it has nowhere to go but to your scalp. Exactly. Very burny. Very burny. feels like burning. Uh-huh. So, Kristen didn't believe my original go for it and added in an extra handful of I did. I was nervous. So, when we get done and she's complaining that she's made seven and 1/2 cups of pasta, she has no one to blame but herself. All my fault. I always make too much pasta. Always. You know, it's kind of like having a party. You always serve twice as much food as you need to. Exactly. Speaking of parties, and this is called party tetrazzini. Yes. I have a I don't know what stepsister-in-law. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Step-sister-in-law. That when her kids were uh little. Yes. In order to get them to eat, everything was party food. That's right. That's how she'd get them to eat, she's like, "Ooh, carrots. What party food? Party carrots. You guys coming up for your party liver and onions you want a plate of this party food?" Yeah. And all of a sudden, it was delightful. What a good idea. So, I'm wondering if that's what this is cuz it's obviously not the booze. No. What makes it party? Maybe it's because it has pimentos in it. Pimentos make everything a party. Carrie in the 80s. Everything in the 70s and 80s. Yes. Pimentos and parsley. Yeah. That's a party right there. It is. Yeah. Well, I'm wondering if we should start cooking. The pasta has 9 minutes. Okay. Uh should we start? Yeah, let's do it. The sauce Yes. Okay, that means you have to grab the electric skillet and bring it on up over here. All right, here I come. Of course, there are no directions for how hot to cook it. And this sucker gets hot fast. So hot. But that's part of why it's so great. I'm going to take a picture. Oh, yes. Of this gloriously old. It's gorg. Oh, it is. Has the steam vent on the top that you can Oh, I used to play with that. Me, too. Oh, I thought that was the coolest. And there's also you'll see like a little chart on the top. It's all torn off. It has been torn off as long as I can remember. Oh yeah. And it gives you various temperatures with which to cook food. And my mom, she didn't need that. Oh no, she knew how to cook pancakes. What temp to cook pancakes. What temp to cook potatoes that you could then turn into mashed potatoes. Only if you're a genius. That's right. Okay, let's get started. I think we need to add the butter. Oh yes. So, first we're going to do butter and then we're going to Is it butter and onions? Saute some onions. Yep. Okay. So, cook onion and butter till tender. Kristen's putting her hand over to see if it's hot and I'm threatening to smack her hand into the skillet. That is not Good. Yeah, I see some of the It does smell funky. I did make I made taco meat in this. It's It's Oh, it smells like taco meat. Is that what it smells like? Yes, I think so. Yeah. You can see where the non-stick coating has come off because my mom, she had metal utensils. Oh, heck yeah. She wasn't using any just plastic on this. Oh, heck no. This is meant to be used. Yeah, maybe a wooden spoon if we were lucky, but no. Well, so she was busy spanking us with that. So, yeah. So, our first step is to cook our onions in butter until tender. And Kristen cut those up so minuscule that this should take 2.2 seconds. 2.2. And gosh, I only have it on 250 and they are sizzling. They are. It is. Sounds like cooking in here peoples. It does. I noticed when I made the taco meat that it got hot real fast. It does. And I think it gets way hotter than it says. Yeah, I think it does, too. It's hard to control. It's kind of like trying to cook uh English muffins on a skillet as well. Oh, yes. we could Cook English muffins with this sucker. We could. Heck yeah. Yeah. I didn't even think about that back when we made those. Yeah. Thank you, Grandma Honey, for a couple of good skillet ideas. Electric skillet. Absolutely. Okay. So, once they're cooked and tender, we're going to blend in the soup, water, cheese, and sherry over low heat until cheese is melted. And then add the remaining ingredients, which are what? Pimentos and the parsley. And the spaghetti. Oh, and the sketti. Yeah. Okay. I don't think the onions are tender yet. No, I don't think so. So, we're just going to have to keep jibber jabbering. Yeah. Okay. Well, I have some fun stuff, too. Fantastic. Yeah, cuz I'm not fun at all. No, she's not. Okay. So, 1981. Yes, I thought it would be fun to look up some fun toys from 1981. And I came upon a Hasbro catalog. So, all the Hasbro toys, right? And I want to know if you remember this toy, this game. Okay. Uh because it's all over social media right now. My son was talking about it and I was like, "Oh, I remember this. I never had it. I was scared of this." Okay. Operation. No, but that was scary. Oh, was it the one where you put the puzzle pieces in and then it popped up? Exact. What was that one called? I don't know. Exaggeration fear and make you wet your pants game. Yes. No. No. This one was called I vant to bite your finger. No. It was a game where of course it was Dracula and you would play the board game. I know, right? play the board game and there was a clock on it and if you hit something in just the right way, his cape would open up and it would say, "I vant to bite your finger and you would have to stick your finger in his mouth and his teeth would chomp down on you and leave two fang marks." What? And then you were out or something like that. Yes, it was just markers. That looked so scary to me. I don't want anybody bite my finger. That's hilarious. I vant to bite your finger. And how fast do you think those markers dried up? No kidding, right? I bought some Dollar Tree dry erase markers. Yeah, I bet they dry up about as fast as those suckers did. Oh, I bet they did. Just FYI, if you buy the cheapest Dollar Tree dry erase markers, you get about four words out of them. Short words. Four words. Short words. saying, you know, don't go right supercalifragilisticexpialadocious. You're making it halfway through. Oh my goodness. Yes. Okay. Another one. That was the best one, really. Okay. Yeah. I've never heard of it. And I follow on Instagram this couple that play a million different games. They're constantly playing. You need to go see if they've ever played a Vant to Bite Your Finger. Yeah. I don't I've never seen it. Oh my gosh. There was a comment online about this and the person said, uh, the adult version checks your blood sugar.

It's not a game. We need to get it for our dad.

I vant to check your diabetes. I like it. I like it. Okay. And I'm pretty positive you'll remember these cuz you would break your ankle on these. They were called romper stompers and they were basically two plastic buckets with strings. Do you remember those? I Yeah, we did not have the We did not have romper stompers. We in fact had two plastic buckets with string. Did we? Yeah. Yeah. Did Dad make them Yes. I knew we had something like that. Dad also made us stilts. Yes. Yes. We sucked at those. Oh, we sucked. So, so bad. And romper stompers hurt, man. You twist your ankle on them. Well, I mean, it's cuz they were buckets. So, first off, your foot was longer than the actual bucket was wide. Yeah. Romper stompers, too. Were I thought they were more the No, they were little buckets. They were little buckets, but later on they made some that were foot size, I think. Oh my gosh. All right. Are those onions looking good? They are looking good. We got to dump in the soup, the water, the cheese. Come on. What else? Okay. I don't know. Let's see. Soup. I'm I'm blind. Soup, water, cheese, and sherry. Don't forget the sherry. Oh, sherry yeah. All right. Here's the Here's the water. Okay. Carrie's got the soup I dumped in the water. Let me grab the sherry and then we'll add the sherry that has much less in it now. It really does. Oh my gosh, it's half gone. Carrie, what have you been doing? Dranking. Dranking. It was one tablespoon, right? I don't know. But that sounds right Well, I'm putting in one. Let's see what it says. Yep. One tablespoon. It's optional, Carrie. It's optional. Oh, yeah. But that means put it in. That's right. I'm going to let you stir that up. And when that's finally when the water's mixed in with the soup, we'll add the cheese. When do we add the turkey? I think that's last. Okay. So, we mix this all up and cook over low until the cheese is melted and then add everything else. Okay. Well, this is a lumpy glumpy mess because well, condensed soap. I know. We could use a whisk, but that'll scrape the heck out of the bottom. I know, right? The last thing we need to do is pull up more of the the bottom of this sucker. So, we're good. So, I have to test the spaghetti. Carrie, when you were younger and made spaghetti, how did you test it? So my sister told me that the way you test spaghetti is by throwing it against the wall. That's what I had heard. If it sticks, it's good. Yes. Um, so it was years before I knew that you could test spaghetti and serve it as anything other than mush. I I did not know that such a thing as al dente existed. And let me tell you, when I learned about al dente Yeah. Life altering. Oh my goodness. OMG. The joy of pasta increased tenfold. Okay, our pasta is ready. This is timing wise going to be wonderful. I think I think we're really gifted here. Going to dump in the pimentos. and the turkey we want that turkey heated up cause it's ice cold. One pimento. Oh, here comes the party. Party. All right. Turkey lurky. All righty. Stir that up. I want to get the pasta in here so that we can that it's really nicely cubed. Oh, I thought it was too big, but whatever. I'm just kidding. Carrie did it. Carrie did it. Let's get pasta. Parsed. Oh my gosh. Who made the pasta? It's double the amount we need. Oh, can you imagine? Good lord. What a ding-dong. This is a lot of sauce. It is a lot of sauce. We could make vol au vent with this extra sauce. This is like too much sauce even for the pasta, I think. Really? Let's try that. Calling out for some vol au vent. Or the rest of the pasta. Actually, there's only a teeny tiny little bit left. She made sure to mention that. Yeah, I did. I did. Guess who did it perfectly after all? Kristen did. You think we could put the rest of the pasta in? That's a lot of sauce We can do anything we want okay we're Mom's wooden spoon. Yeah, we we go willy-nilly when Kristen allows us. Just this once cuz Kristen said yes. Yeah. Parsley sprinkled. Yeah. Then we get to eat then that's it. Oh my gosh. Do we have a plate or something? I do. I'll have to go get it. Maybe we'll have to say goodbye for a minute to get prepped because the kitchen counter is a disaster and a half. Yeah. So, we'll go ahead. We'll get everything prepped and we'll be back. [Music]

So, we cleaned up. It looks good. Kristen went for some fancy chef plating at my request. It did not work. It didn't work, but the thought was good. Yeah. And I appreciate it. I tried to get it with tongs and kind of twist it in a spiral and that Well, it's cuz some dumb dumb broke the spaghetti. Who would do something like that? Seriously. Gosh. Oh my god. But she did continually stick her finger in it repeatedly and she said, "Oh, this is pretty good. I think we're going to like this." I was cleaning up the plate. Now, chefs usually clean up the plate with a clean cloth around the edge. I cleaned it up with a finger that I had licked previously and then continued to lick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was great. I said, "I think you're going to like this, Carrie." And I'm glad we added all the sketti that I made the perfect amount because it seems to be sauced perfectly. There's not too much sauce. There's not too many party pimentos. What do you think, Carrie? I think I would way prefer Yeah. If it was parmesan really, I don't really care for the cheddar. Do you want to sprinkle a little parmesan on the top and see if that has an effect? You know how Parmesan has that salty. Yeah, I think it would just have a nicer bite to it. It's almost too sweet. There's nothing in it that's got that bite. I don't know if maybe like some salt. It needs something to kind of balance out. Yes. Let's get some Parmesan cheese on there and some cracked black pepper. Okay. All right. We're going to see if we can doctor this up to our liking, but I'm thinking instead of using the sharp cheddar, I would go with parmesan I would go with parmesan yes. I think I would love it. But let's put some on the top We'll see if we can make do. We got a big pot of this Kristen just dumped half the bottle and the bottle of I mean, this is the fancy parmesan. The sawdust. Yep. And then let me get some cracked pepper in there. She just wants to do this cuz she has an electric Yeah. Let's hear it. Here we go. Oh, did you hear that? That was fine quality peppering right there. Heck Yeah, I think that would be nice. I'm excited to try it with the Parmesan cheese. Yeah, me too. So much better with the Parmesan cheese. Yeah, it makes a totally different dish with that parmesan on top. It just gives it the I don't know, zest that you need. A little bite. It just needed a bite. It did. The pimentos. I am instantly back in the 70s. For some reason, that flavor I was like, "Oh, I'm standing in the kitchen. I think the Monkees are on." I think the Monkees are on. It feels like 70s. Oh, it tastes just like my childhood. Well, thank you for joining this reminiscing party. I love it. Yes. The next episode is going to be a celebration of all things Midwest. and, I for one can't wait. You are not going to want to miss it. So, make sure to mark your calendars for that episode on December 15th. Be there or be square.

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So, what are the words to Oh, Sherry. I think it's Oh, Sherry all alone. Hold on. Hold on. Poor Sherry. Who abandoned that girl? Let me see what the lyrics say. Oh. Oh, Sherry. Our love holds on. [Laughter] Kind of so much more romantic. She's not all alone. Well, Sherry was not abandoned. Maybe she was. Maybe she was. But still she's loved. Yeah. Hold on. Hold on Come on. Let's sing it. Carrie Rock. I'm good. Thanks. Okay. Okay. Bye. Oh, I'm so happy for Sherry.