Join hosts Kristen and Carrie as they discuss the joys of scratch-n-sniff stickers, Young Miss Magazine beauty tip mishaps, and the top new foods of 1981 on this special Valentine’s Day episode.
Click HERE to see the recipe!
Enjoy some Popover Pizza with the lunar landing crust!

17 Magazine February 1981 addition
McDonald's Scratch N Sniff Valentines

Popover Pizza Transcript
did you know that Americans eat an average of 46 slices of pizza a year whoa that is a lot of pizza I know right I wonder how many of those slices have questionable toppings on them what topping do you think is questionable oh for sure anchovies ooh yes but mine is pineapple what I wonder what Mary's favorite pizza topping is let's dig into today's recipe and see if she's a pineapple fan or not [Music] welcome to Mom's Wooden Spoon get your apron on and your fanny flicker ready as we cook up some nostalgia ooh yummy hi this is Carrie and this is Kristen and Welcome to our Valentine's Day episode Happy Valentine's Day so today we're gonna make a recipe from April 6 1981 titled pop over pizza so I'm thinking that it's like pop over have some Valentine Pizza hey Mickey come on over for a party who's Mickey no I'm kidding oh Mickey you're so fine you're so fine you blow my mind Hey Mickey Hey Mickey always a good song always a classic we digress so we're not focused on chocolate no we're not focused on snuggling up with your loved one today although we might do that later focus on that no snuggle up with a loved one yeah the snuggle yeah sure I'm always for a good snuggle yeah but we're gonna do the pizza and we're actually going to talk a little bit about if you don't have someone fun to spend Valentine's Day with other than your fun self that's right what are some things maybe that might work for you because on this Mary's Memo she actually talks about some ideas she did it's called if you eat alone and she had some lovely ideas she did like we went into it thinking that they were going to be janky and hilarious right and we were disappointed in the fact that they were good they're really good ideas although today we probably would just not do any of those and just watch TV right or Netflix and chill yeah I mean maybe not Netflix and chill a different kind of Netflix and chill oh that's still inappropriate let's delete that part please delete delete or just watch a movie on Netflix there you go yeah there you go okay so pop over pizza we're gonna do a ground beef onion and green pepper pizza and so it's obviously has those ingredients tomato sauce cheese and then we're gonna make a little crust for the top that's right you know it's not really like a pop over I think a popovers as being more like a Hot Pocket so I thought too that it was going to be like a calzone yeah no you just put the batter on the top of the pizza ingredients it's a casserole it basically is a casserole it's a pizza casserole you know I was so disappointed it wasn't a Hot Pocket yeah yes I thought because that's a really loud onion it's really loud I'll stop peeling it she's peeling the onion skin and it's really crispy and crunchy and loud okay so I apologize you were disappointed that it was not I know right I used to love Hot Pockets but yeah Hot Pockets diarrhea pockets there's a comedian who sings that we are all about making it awkward today yeah we are but you know Hot Pockets didn't come out until 1983 so it was not a Hot Pocket it was definitely not I thought it was going to be like a Yorkshire pudding kind of thing with pizza ingredients on the inside Yorkshire Pudding because that's what a pop over is that's true it's just like a very eggy it puffs up really high yes and a lot of times has a little well on the inside right perfect for putting all of your little pizza ingredients oh yeah inside that's what I was expecting but alas no well do you know what top foods came out in 1981. oh my gosh can you think of any that anything in 81 yeah no I can't even okay the first one was I Can't Believe It's Not Butter oh really yes that was a big deal it really was a big deal and Lean Cuisines also came out in 1981. really yes I've eaten my fair share of those
I remember being single and surviving on nothing but Lean Cuisines and popcorn and cereal oh yeah yeah well you know it's perfect for our if you eat alone message today because a Lean Cuisine quick and easy if you're eating by yourself you don't want to make a huge meal right you don't want a ton of leftovers that's right now Mary did not mention just grab yourself a Lean Cuisine but they were brand spanking new 1981 wouldn't be a bad idea although something like a popover Pizza wouldn't be bad because I bet that it would be really easy to portion this sucker up after it's cooked freeze it and have some meals for down the road because you know that way you cook once yeah eat multiple times that's a good idea it's a win-win situation right there yeah you know uh two other things that came out in 1981 were chicken McNuggets and the McRib ooh yeah I know the McRib has a cult following yeah and we may get hate mail over this sentence I strongly dislike the McRib oh I like it but you know I wouldn't necessarily go to McDonald's to purposely get one but I've eaten it before and I like it but I just never thought in a million years the McRib came out the same year as McNuggets right you would think that the Nuggets came out earlier they seem like they've been around forever they do but I suppose they've been around whereas the McRib kind of comes and goes that's true they make it a seasonal item yeah special item speaking of seasonal McDonald's items I wonder when the Shamrock Shake came out oh my gosh that is my favorite I know do you know in second grade I wrote down the driveway on my bike and somehow wiped out I do know knocked my two front teeth out and also broke my jaw yes and so my jaw was wired shut for quite a long time and Mom would make me oddly enough eggnogs because they would have protein in it because my teeth were wired shut and the only way I could eat was I could put a straw right right through where the teeth had fallen yeah so even if you were going to have like a milkshake it would have to be super runny yes because you had to be able to suck it up through your broken jaw that's right and so she made uh eggnogs and she put non-alcoholic cream de menthe syrup in it I remember that cream de menthe I love that stuff so it made my little eggy nogs taste just like Shamrock Shakes ooh I remember using that cream de menthe um and adding it on ice cream like as an ice cream topper oh yeah that's what it was for yeah so good now just add half of the green pepper one large onion you could have mentioned that as I was slicing and dicing well you were so busy chit chatting Carrie I didn't want to bother you there I kinda want to just put the whole pepper you know what let's just threw it all in we're going crazy folks we're going crazy we're gonna make this pop over Pizza healthy that's great it's gonna have a whole green pepper instead of half yeah well it looks good I think that'll taste yummy it does all right so we have some ground beef the onions and the green pepper Kristen's gonna head over to the stove and sizzle that up we're actually going to put a pause on the play because we have learned that the sizzling of beef interacts with our microphones so to spare you from that pain uh we'll be right back [Music]
okay we have the ground beef the double amount of green peppers woo hoo and the big onion all cooked up in the skillet yes it's ready to go and I think we have to add a whole bunch of ingredients to this meat mixture while it's hot yes okay we sure do so we have oddly enough a spaghetti sauce packet of dry mix yes you know I've never used that before have you I haven't either no I mentioned it to a couple people and nobody thought I'd be able to find it I didn't think you'd be able to find it at all it was right there you know how you can get like the dry gravy mix the dry chili mix oh right taco seasoning it was all in that section there were multiple choices I of course picked the cheapest one money would buy well you know it's going to be good the first ingredient is sugar oh sweet literally so let me go ahead and pour some water in yeah good idea so this doesn't get all clumpy so we have a half a cup of water the powdered Sauce mix we're going to add in the mushrooms stems and pieces undrained what so we're gonna have some yummy mushroom juice that blows my mind uh in here I'm worried this is going to be too liquidy I don't know all right Carrie's gonna put in some oregano do I add in this entire can yeah 15 ounces ooh of tomato sauce that's tomato soup can size wow so this is interesting after we get everything all mixed up we're going to go ahead and put it in a baking dish um hum we're gonna put some slices of mozzarella cheese on the top of it and then we're going to start on the pop over topping yeah this is just a hot soupy mess right here it is indeed what else do we need to add that's it we're good okay yep ooh exciting let's start making the batter yes so we're gonna make the topping for our pop over pizza yes and while we do that coming back to Valentine's Day yes Mary did have some suggestions and I wanted to read out just a couple she suggested putting your table near a window or someplace beautiful yeah taking a TV tray outside to eat yes that's a clever idea I think that's nice maybe something different than what you would normally do right or using a beautiful place setting yes which I have to say there's something to that yeah yay Mary good choice do you see any that you like Kristen let's see apparently she doesn't I am looking she's a real slow reader leave me alone you're mean
un include brightly colored foods for eye appeal I think that means add all the green pepper I think that's what it means we did it high five Kachonga really I think you all need to celebrate we did a high five and Kristen actually hit my hand I did and that doesn't happen often and everybody says Kachonga when they high five for sure Kachonga Kachonga what is wrong with me it's a lot
it's because she's used to missing the hand and so she wanted to put the noise in verbally so you wouldn't hear the whiff of the the miss so I was inspired by Mary's items and I looked up to see if there were some other ideas out in the interwebs for things to do if you're spending Valentine's Day alone yeah and I found an article that had 36 ideas wow one of my favorites is that you could throw an anti-Valentine's Day party which I thought was perfect because all through my 20s I wore black on Valentine's Day what in a stand against love against Valentine's Day yes I threw my own anti-Valentine's Day party of one well oh yeah Carrie I did not know that about you oh yeah right yeah I am quite the protester how emo of you oh totally yes yeah only on Valentine's Day oh it was just a protest I gotcha so I thought that was genius because obviously I did it myself minus the party that's right yeah another idea they had was to get a head start on spring cleaning oh that seems like a punishment that does seem like a punishment right like oh it's Valentine's Day let me clean the house right let me torture myself so only a good idea if your name is Cinderella that's right otherwise and not a good choice not a good choice but I hope this list of 36 gets better oh it was I like I picked my highlight and I picked the worst oh that was good and then there was you know 34 others oh right that all fell kind of in between but what wasn't on there was to try a new recipe oh yeah which I thought what a great way to celebrate a day you know treating yourself yeah to something new and if you enjoy cooking then there's the fun in that experience right if you hate cooking that would not be something fun to do on Valentine's Day no well I mean then you're eating a Lean Cuisine and then get yourself a beverage that came out in 1981 that I'm sure everybody remembers Bartles and James wine coolers shut your mouth they came out in 1981 do you remember what they said at the end of every Bartles and James commercial let's see we're Bartles and James and we thank you for your patronage no so close really thank you for your support ah I love it
so you get your Lean Cuisine healthy get your wine cooler full of sugar and deliciousness not healthy obviously take the Lean Cuisine out of its packaging put it on some nice plate get yourself a pretty placement that would not be a bad day not too shabby I think I'm into this okay yeah okay but this list that I referenced yeah came from 17 Magazine did you have a subscription to that uh yes oh my gosh I I mean I remember coming home A having mail a kid was so exciting having my 17 Magazine in the mail immediately running taking it back to my bedroom sitting on the floor at the foot of my bed oh my gosh to review all of the secrets to life and love and sure happiness and beauty of course located there in the pages of 17 Magazines yes yes being inundated by ads for Maybelline makeup oh that's right I remember reading an article in 17 Magazine and it had a facial scrub in it and so I made it okay and it was honey and wheat germ and other things like that I scrubbed it on my face and all of a sudden giant hives started popping out oh no that's how I found out that I was allergic to honey and or wheat germ um my face was all misshapen with hives oh hives are the worst yeah so I not only had 17 Magazine yes I also had Young Miss Magazine I think I liked that one better than 17 I think I did too I think Young Miss actually was for a slightly younger audience right which I was so it was a little less focused on dating which I was not doing yeah much to my chagrin let me tell you of course I wanted to be dating yeah no one was interested in dating what was I'm sure zitty you know aww 14 year old socially awkward me but oh my gosh that makes me remember my very first date ever was a Valentine's date I remember I remember your outfit it was a pink jumper
it was it was like pink high-waisted pants yes I think they maybe folded over at the top and had buttons oh I mean they were super 80s oh yeah and tight around the waist super pleated right so that they were kind of balloony in the legs they were and then they had attached like overall straps yes that were super long from the waist yeah oh I completely remember you looked cute I looked so cute and I got ready for the date and I was ready to go and he never showed up and I was heartbroken oh devastated I remember the tears I've been stood up on my first date ever we were going to a Valentine's dance and Valentine's Day was on a Saturday yeah well Dan calls me hey so just wanted to make sure you're ready to go to the dance tomorrow he never told me that the dance was going to be the day after Valentine's Day on a Sunday it was a church Valentine's dance so they did it on a Sunday right and then all of a sudden everything was okay of course he didn't stand you up he's just the worst Communicator in the world that's right I'm so sorry Dan's wife I hope this communication has improved well he was a teenage boy and they are not the best in communication yes well that's very true that's right oh I can't believe I remember that trauma Kristen I apologize I'm looking at you and all your trauma and I'm seeing the cheese in the background we're supposed to put the slices of cheese on top of the meat we are but not until we put it in the 9x13 inch pan oh we didn't do that already no but it says we're just keeping it warm so let's go ahead and get the eggs in all right sorry about that abrupt change man that was rude I was reliving my trauma and you have to talk about mozzarella cheese I know you know what you're like our mother nothing else matters in the world but cheese oh my gosh she got me one of those little plaques that says I love you more than cheese I mean that's a lot of love that is a lot of love yeah uh we also need some oil I have the oil oh good let me grab it all right and then we're gonna whisk till foamy okay we got foam people foam all right so now we just have to uh mix in the flour and salt let's mix that up excellent all right well Carrie yes what movies were out around Valentine's Day 1981 any guesses gosh I mean like I would have been seven oh so you probably wouldn't remember Annie oh good guess we went to see that we had to leave early because you got sick I did I was so mad at you oh I I don't blame you I wanted to see the ending I mean Annie is being chased up that big tower we left right as Punjab took off his turban to save Annie and it was the scariest scene of the entire movie yeah and yeah bad things were happening in my belly we had to go I was so depressed but you could have seen on February 14 1981 okay working nine two five what a way to make a living my daughter was just in that musical that's right oh that's awesome I did not know it was 81 that was an awesome movie and I don't know if I saw it at the time but I did see the movie and it had uh Jane Fonda Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton of course Dolly Parton it was so funny what a great one and yeah the bad guy the bad boss was played by Dabney Coleman who was in so many shows at that time he was so good at being bad yeah and so if you're sitting in the movie theaters watching them string up Dabney Coleman remember how they had them all trussed up oh yeah yeah a candy that most of us love came out in 1981 Goobers most of us don't love goobers they're fine but Milk Duds Raisinets no the candy that came out in 1981 was Skittles ooh yeah Taste the rainbow that's right so you could be sitting in the movie watching Nine to Five eating your Skittles crunching your Skitt les your Skittlesyou could either do this all by yourself as a treat for Valentine's Day or take a loved one I think that sounds fantastic and then head home and have a nice serving of popover pizza ooh or a Lean Cuisine if that's how you roll whatever yep yeah the mixture is ready so it says we put in the pan okay the mozzarella cheese on the top okay we put the batter on the top then we sprinkle that with some Parmesan how many slices do you put on does it say I don't know but I say all of them okay so yeah I actually looked up with the most popular Fashions were in 1981 so what would you have been wearing on your date with Dan the Man oh man parachute pants well no you'd be wearing the pink floofy pants with the overalls like I had I think I would have been wearing something fluorescently colored probably but on your feet you would have been wearing jelly shoes oh I love the jelly shoes those suckers gave you blisters like nobody's business and your feet would sweat and then they'd kind of make like squishy noises in the jelly shoes I had clear jelly shoes oh yeah with sparkles in them I remember those and didn't they have lots of cutouts oh they did all over them oh those were cool every now and then your pinky toe would get caught on the outside of a cutout very uncomfortable oh my gosh acid wash jeans yes crop tops oh yes all it said for men was the preppy look was in remember popping the collar o your Izod do you remember wearing two Izod shirts so you would have two colors to pop you wear one inside the other oh I don't think I ever did but I do remember oh yeah oh yeah my friend Tracy who was a guy wore two oh I saw shirts he was the height of cool I mean and he had a flock of seagulls hair style I mean he was the coolest the coolest I remember having tealish colored corduroy Bermuda shorts oh my with a lovely Argyle sweater oh yeah that had the same kind of teal in it Argyle was so popular so cool with a turtleneck turtlenecks are on the list too oh you were styling yes so let's take a look parmesan oh we have to sprinkle with the parmesan and then it's going to go in the oven for 30 minutes or until puffed all right let's pop this in the oven all right and while you do that do you remember Kristen as a kid Valentine's Day Celebrations at school and decorating your brown paper bag do I that was so much fun it was and then I don't know about you but would you tape it to the front of your desk oh yeah so it would hang down so it was just like this perfect little card receptacle of joy it was one year I think we taped them to the chalkboard ledge all of the front of the room ooh yeah fancy
did anybody ever bring you a full-size Valentine's Day card no but I remember the hullabaloo when one of my classmates brought a full-size Valentine's card for a boy in class oh I mean it was true love oh yeah that was definitely going to last the ages from third grade through all eternity that's right we were all a twitter about that oh I mean yeah that was some serious business the full-size Valentine's card oh yeah do you remember going through each Valentine card very specifically and picking it out for your classmates oh sure I mean you got them in a box yep so you had three of each Valentine's Day card right but you had to make sure they all had different sayings on them and you had to make sure that the boy you liked got a saying that indicated that you liked them but and it didn't indicate that you liked them that's right and so oh for sure your best friend had to get the nicest one of all yes so I looked up what were the Valentine cards that were popular in 1981 okay yep so Garfield excellent some others would have been Strawberry Shortcake ooh I loved her yes yep then I think the best one McDonald's had Valentine cards yeah and I found some online from 1980s that were scratch and sniff wow that's amazing do they smell like french fries that's what I thought too I looked closer no Ronald is holding a nice delicious cup of hot cocoa for you to scratch and sniff smell like chocolate right and then the other one the fry guys were holding a cupcake oh oh so they smelled sweet gosh do you remember scratch and sniff stuff and it was so popular it was and then after a while that little sticker would be all ripped up as you just scratch the everloving life out of it oh I loved those you remember getting those on your papers at school oh the sticker yes great job here you smell like no no no Grape Job and it smelled like grapes oh you're totally right
oh my gosh yes yeah yeah yeah and then I remember specifically that I had pens that looked like lollipops the cap was uh was the top of the the flat round circular lollipop and then the pen was very thin and white like the stick right and the ink smelled like the color so the yellow smelled like lemon the green smelled like lime oh they were so cool oh my you are so cool I know right wow I think I remember those pens and I think I remember thinking they were amazing until you tried to write with them yeah they didn't write very well they didn't write very well and the stick was so skinny they you couldn't you couldn't quite get a hold of it that's true and it was it was very uncomfortable to write with oh but they were cool looking but who cares that's not for comfort this is for looking like the coolest kid in class I know right all right well that's in the oven it's gonna cook for about 30 minutes so we'll see you guys on the flip side [Music]
we have pop over pizza it is out of the oven we have our first slice dished beautifully up yep and man is there a lot of juice in the casserole dish it is pure liquid flowing out of the bottom right you know we let it sit for about 10 minutes and it's still just pure liquid under there it's really liquidy yeah I'm thinking that hindsight I would skip the water and the mushroom juice I would totally skip those I would think you'd want it to be kind of rich and thick well like the topping of a pizza yes which is not juicy liquidy at all no not at all and then the top of it looks like a moonscape or like Mars it does it does there's little volcanoes where you can see the juice pushed up through it yeah some heavy volcanic activity others are just vents of the steam there's craters in it it really looks like a planet landscape doesn't it yes but it did not pop up like a Yorkshire pudding does at all not one bit but it's certainly not flat on the top no but it's not fluffy either like biscuit consistency no it's not it's thin it is you know what it kind of reminds me of the outside of a Hot Pocket oh we're back to the Hot Pockets we are indeed oh speaking of Hot Pockets since this is kind of like one do you know they were not called Hot Pockets at first no really no they had a different name when they came out Chunk Stuffers shut up Chunk Stuffers weird that they thought that that wasn't going to sell well right okay I'm gonna take a bite is that good it is so good really take a bite there's a super cheesy side over here so I'm just digging in there it's so deliciously savory you know I'm underwhelmed really I think it has incredible potential maybe instead of tomato sauce to just put a pizza sauce in there but now that would be tasty now the crust is delicious with all that parmesan cheese toasted I think that's what tastes so good to me with that parmesan baked onto it it is salty and it has a great texture but you're right a couple of things to change no liquid from the mushrooms yep I would not add in the amount of water that it calls for and if you use a jar of pizza sauce that would also be a little bit thicker than regular tomato sauce I think and it would give you some additional flavors yeah but you know this is something we totally would have eaten at home in the 80s oh my gosh Mom would have made this and it would have tasted just like this oh yes and we would have loved it very much it's very reminiscent of those Chef Boyardee pizzas that she would get right we talked about that before how she would press it out on a cookie sheet until it was so thin you could see through it well and the crust would be almost as thin as the top on this the flavor she would always use ground beef onions and green pepper absolutely um it really is very reminiscent of the Chef Boyardee packages they came with Parmesan cheese they did that you could sprinkle on and then do you remember that Mom would often just put on slices of American cheese yes on top of the pizza and you know how American cheese bakes it gets all wrinkly and pulled on the edge and not visually appealing it was not visually appealing this is much more visually appealing yeah it has mozzarella which is delicious I think to 80 standards this is a tasty fantastic dish yes I think in today's foodie standards it needs zhuzhed up agreed yeah thank you all for listening it has been so much fun happy Valentine's Day please check out our website if you enjoyed what you heard we would love to get some positive feedback from you
[Music] 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 check out our blog click on the link to our website in the podcast description if you'd rather you could get to our website through Facebook Twitter or Instagram pick your poison don't say poison we're making food

