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Episode Transcript for Texas Taco Casserole

do you think it is possible to make good Tex-Mex food at home without using one of those pre-made packages of spices that you get at the store it might be possible but to be honest I would rather go back in time and have another delicious meal at Chi-Chi's oh yes and have some fried ice cream but only if it's a special occasion that's right [Music] welcome to Mom's Wooden Spoon get your apron on and your fanny flicker ready as we cook up some nostalgia ooh yummy

okay Kristen my taste buds are still tingling from our last episode I cannot stop thinking about that meal and how it transported me back to Northwest Ohio and my childhood it was so good it was but this one it is not going to be a transport recipe no it's just some good old 80s microwave fun oh yeah did our mom love microwaves oh my gosh I mean who didn't they were all the rage yes absolutely now we did a microwave recipe in season one we did indeed it was episode three yep so if you're jonesing for some education about the microwave recipes of the 80s that's the place to go that's right because we talked all about it the history of it and why it really didn't work out well right and now you just get to hear us struggle with another microwave recipe I think it's going to be an epic struggle I agree I have read the recipe I have shaken my head and thought could we just not do it on the stovetop I know there are so many steps you know pop it in stir it after two minutes go back turn it on next time turn it on 70 percent power you know what we need to do what oh my gosh why didn't I think of this before but we need to take an 80s recipe for the microwave and have one of us do the microwave version oh my gosh and one of us do a stove top stove version that's a great idea and see which one comes out easier because in our minds the stove top is going to be so much easier and go faster right but maybe when we're doing it the microwave is done and the stove person is still sauteing beef that's right it might be really fun also to see which one tastes better because in my mind the stovetop and oven one would taste a lot better we could do a blind taste test okay we have some good ideas for later on in the season potentially we should have thought of this sooner I don't know right man yeah so what are we cooking well that's a good idea so it is a 1982 Mary's memo recipe with a very explanatory name of Texas taco casserole oh fancy my favorite part of the whole thing is Mary's disclaimer yes above this recipe first it says this Mexican dish takes only minutes to make in the micro yep but then she goes on to confess that her better half gave it a three and a half on a scale from one to ten he really did not care for that you did not and Mary blames it on the fact that it's on the spicy side spicy ooh la la so let's see what do we have black pepper too spicy for me a dash of Tabasco not even that it's just chili powder Carrie oh spicy ooh yeah so shall we get started I think we shall all right so we've got a pound of ground chuck some onion and then we make this kind of liquidy mixture where you mix together milk eggs and tomato sauce and then the spices perfect yep and then I think we kind of layer let's see the ground beef with this eggy liquidy mixture and then Fritos corn chips it kind of feels like a Bisquick impossible pie without the Bisquick that's right yeah have you ever had walking tacos before I have never heard of walking time oh I wonder if this is a like a small town or a Ohio type of thing walking tacos are where you get the individual bags of Fritos corn chips and then you put the meat and sour cream and whatever else you want in the bag and then you kind of eat it with fork as you're walking I see I I knew about making like a Frito pie in a bag yeah um but I did not know that it was called a walking taco no and this is going to be interesting because there is a lot of liquid that gets poured over these corn chips the whole thing is going to be interesting so let's let's go okay let's go all right so the first thing we're going to do is um ground beef in a jar well ground beef in a let's see we're not going to do ground beef in a jar okay what the heck you could have ground beef in a Frito bag or yum yum walk down with your ball jar full of ground beef what you eating just some ground beef but it's spicy oh good grief okay we're actually gonna put it in a three quart round casserole dish all right but here's the weird part yeah so the recipe tells you to put it in a micro safe colander yes then you put the colander in your quart round dish yeah and then you cook it in the microwave and first you have to crumble the beef because you know as we all know if you took a lump of ground beef put it in the microwave you're gonna have a hard as a rock lump of ground beef like one big hamburger in the bottom of it right but I couldn't find a colander that was microwave safe right I didn't want to have melted plastic it's okay I'm perfectly capable of draining the beef fat but it's odd that that was how this recipe was easy is by putting it in the colander now so what we're going to do is we're going to crumble up that ground beef and then we are going to sprinkle it with one cup of diced onions so I'm dicing the onion right now okay as we know it's my job because I am a quickie dicer yes and I am uh putting beef in a jar um okay so this is a classic Tex-Mex recipe yeah and so Kristen what exactly to you constitutes a Tex-Mex obviously Texas Mexican those are the two combo words right but what what constitutes Tex-Mex to you let's see if uh you can provide me the same as Google right well I have to admit Carrie I looked it up oh shut your face I did because I was interested in what is Tex-Mex as opposed to what's true Mexican food or Texas yeah yeah or just plain Texas food I assume Texas is a lot of like Smoked Meats and beans on the open fire oh beans on the open fire yeah oh yeah okay so from what I read yeah Tex-Mex contains beef rather than pork actually because pork tended to be the meat that they'd use more often in Mexico interesting and beef is very much used in Texas as we just said we got your smoked beef you got your beef beside your beans that are cooked on the fire I also think that Tex-Mex has a lot of yellow cheeses in it and most importantly two ingredients that we're going to have in this recipe are specifically Tex-Mex and that is cumin and chili powder huh yeah alright well that was quite the Google definition that you used there it was did I did I tell you everything you wanted to know did they do good my explanation that I found on Googles okay yeah had a few more things oh tell me it had cheese and beef okay wheat flour oh yes like flour tortillas yes right being common versus the corn yep black beans I had read that as well I that kind of surprises me but again let's have some black beans cooking over the open fire with a side of beef I did say beans over the open fire you did you did its like I knew oh my gosh okay chili powder you already got yeah and then this is kind of the saddest one canned vegetables what like canned tomatoes canned tomato sauce nobody in an original Mexican dish is gonna whip out a can of whatever when you said canned vegetables all I could think of was that can of vegall you know what I'm talking about peas and carrots and little potatoes yes they still sell that they do they do people eat it uh probably well I guess if they sell it you know mom used to make this recipe in the 70s it was super cheap to make and super not flavorful and delicious and she would call it mince and it was basically plain old ground beef chopped up like we're making now yep with a can of vegall in it I don't remember a sauce I don't remember any spices maybe other than Salt and Pepper and that was dinner yeah yum oh boy yeah and then I heard I learned about that they make mincemeat pies yes and I was like well they clearly are going to be disgusting right because I've had quote mince and then I had mince meat pie and surprise surprise it was not disgusting they're pretty good because mince meat pies actually have well nowadays they just have chopped up fruits and nuts and they do not have a can of vegall oh thank goodness so here's what I thought was so cool you know I think this is the slowest onion cutting I've ever seen in my life you know what like you said on our last episode Carrie I'm talking so leave me alone okay so I think I have the onion ready but I found this really interesting okay that you know we said that chili powder was specific to Tex-Mex cooking because in Mexico they don't use a chili powder which is actually a combination of not only ground dried chilies but it also has onion powder and garlic powder and all kinds of other ingredients in it yeah and so the cool thing is in the early 1890s chili powder was created by a German immigrant who lived in New Braunfels Texas which is where our step dad is from yes a German immigrant exactly how interesting yep yep and so his mixture of chilies cumin oregano black pepper was a huge hit in San Antonio huh yeah yeah that's really interesting so cool so thank you to this German immigrant in New Braunfels for delicious chili powder because it is really really easy to just grab oh so easy yeah so we only need a cup so before you yeah I think this is probably a cup okay but uh you know what we don't want to do anything that's too much like we did last time with too many saltine crackers in the chicken yeah but it was pretty good that was pretty good yeah yeah absolutely okay so I'm getting the onion in here okay so um speaking of Texas yes since this recipe happened in the 80s I was trying to think of things that happened in the 80s oh yeah and Texas and the 80s in Texas was famous for a don't Litter campaign well they had signs up on the side of the road give a hoot don't pollute no this is Texas so it was save a steer drink a beer no it was Don't Mess with Texas yes they had signs on it that makes sense I'm very familiar with the Don't Mess with Texas slogan oh I had no idea it was litter related well me either I just thought it was uh we're Texans back off right I would have way preferred save a steer drink a beer what does that have to do with litter nothing but it's fun it's a good statement okay so now let me get this in the micro we have to cook this on high for five to six minutes but you have to stir Midway so I'm gonna pop this sucker in for uh three minutes and then take my chances draining the grease without the uh colander being in there oh it's going to be rough all right so when I was looking up Texas in the 80s yes I found something else now this is not necessarily nostalgic for me but I feel like it is nostalgic for the rest of the world oh okay what could it be um it would be Dallas oh who shot Jr oh my gosh which I don't have any idea oh Carrie I who shot Jr really Kristen shut up yes I'll never forget that all right three more minutes on this actually I think I'll do two because it looks like it's getting cooked really well so five to six minutes we don't want to make it crunchy oh good lord that would be terrible okay so in addition to Dallas yeah then apparently there's a spin-off of Dallas I didn't know that this was a spin-off okay Knots Landing I didn't know that was a spin a Dallas spin off and then on different channels of course to compete with the PowerHouse yeah that was Dallas and Knots Landing you had Dynasty oh yeah Falcon Crest oh I never watched any of those I think it was too young to be allowed to watch yeah I mean they were just nighttime soap operas right that's right I just remember that the women were epically beautiful oh they were and young and the men were old that's right and the women had shoulder pads like mountains oh they did they they were glorious shoulder pads and they the women fought like cats and dogs yes there was a lot of face slapping oh yeah with beautiful red manicured nails gorgeous I have no idea real people got nail manicures oh no no that was exotic that was very exotic and they had big huge beautiful hair they did they lived in these fancy schmancy houses yes yeah but I didn't watch that you know the biggest thrill for me okay was when Mom and Dad would have friends over and they would set up a teeny tiny little black and white television in their bedroom on a stool oh my gosh I remembered that and we were allowed to sit in their bedroom and watch The Love Boat oh my gosh oh my gosh we didn't get to watch the logo any other time no because it was dirty dirty dirty naughty pants people would walk into their suite and close the door and put the do not disturb sign on oh my goodness and you know what always struck me as weird how that doctor got all the ladies he was not attractive he was not a hottie gopher was way cuter than the doctor I think so too so that always shocked me all right so we have our beautiful gray ground beef all right so what's our next step I have to make up the mixture you need eggs and milk and spices yes chili powder and cumin right shall I crack some eggs sure here we go I in the 80s Kristen oh had a chance to go and spend I don't know if it was a week or two in Texas that's exciting all by myself my aunt and uncle lived in Texas and we did all kinds of fun things I got to go to my very first rodeo Oh yes I got to meet a guy named Jim Bob which could not be more Texas if you wanted it to love it love it absolutely and then we went to this adorable Victorian Tea House oh and got tea and I bought this little purple atomizer that I thought was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen I still have it to this very day an atomizer for perfume yes oh my gosh I thought it was gorgeous but you know so I'm just saying I hit up all the normal Texas things tea house oh so Texas right so Carrie yes speaking of atomizers do you know what the most popular scent for men was in 1982. I'm gonna go with like CK oh good guess no Drakkar Noir how 80s girl am I that I still flippin love that smell it's so hilarious my husband just had some as of last year right but let's talk about the girl's perfumes that were very popular in 1982. okay loves baby soft oh I had a friend named Jill and she was moving out of town very sad yes uh around about 1982 and her sister who's older was getting rid of a whole bunch of stuff and she gave me loves baby soft lemon I remember it it was very lemony very very lemony I walked around smelling like Pledge yes yes and I loved it because an older girl gave it to me and it made me feel very cool well if she liked it it was the height of everything I never had the real powdery loves baby soft because I was never smart enough to ask for it well yeah but you are also Queen of the allergies that's true so yeah so I didn't have any really cool perfumes but you did in 1982 do you remember that you had Exclamation I do and it was in this white the bottle looked like an exclamation mark it did and at the top of it was black that looked like the top of the exclamation point and the bottom of the bottle was like the dot yes and it was white I totally remember that that was super popular because I was all things cool obviously so cool

here are the yucky perfumes that I had because basically I got Mom's handoffs ooh ooh Jean Nate that's the one I was gonna say it stunk I didn't like it it was like a body Splash and so you always poured too much and it flowed all over the place and then you're like oh heck I'll just splash it all over my body and then you would go to somebody's house and they'd go oh what's that smell and it was you it was Jean Nate you bathed in a gallon of Jean Nate oh my gosh Jean Nate now we did not have this next one okay but I think you will remember it okay Enjoli I can take home the bacon Enjoli fry it up in a pan Enjoli

and never let you forget you're a man I have no idea what you're talking about you do not remember that ad for Enjoli perfume not a thing oh man but the dance was really cute I was doing a little bump and grind I thought it was a little hippie back and forth but sure okay moving on you're rude hey dang this is confusing so I have put okay the corn chips are in the bottom yeah and then half the meat mixture and then I'm reading this listen to what it says about the cheese okay I I feel like I'm a relatively intelligent person but I'm struggling with this okay so it says reserve half a cup of cheese for topping yeah then add half the remaining cheese yeah and half the tomato mixture yes and then repeat the layers so I'm gonna take what's left of this eight ounce bag half of it yeah and pop it over okay put it in there so when I was buying the cheese the cheese is supposed to be monterey jack with jalapenos yeah shredded so I went to the shredded cheese aisle you cannot find just plain monterey jack no at all and you cannot find monterey jack with Jalapenos in it shredded right purchased just colby jack cheese it's okay I think it'll taste good I think that'll be fine but then it dawned on me we're talking 80s I don't think bagged shredded cheese was a thing I don't think it was but in our 2023 mind when it says on the recipe eight ounce package Monterey Jack cheese with jalapenos shredded yeah we thought that meant we needed to find it already shredded yeah but I think that what it meant I think I needed a block and then we needed to shred it yes which I just recently was having a conversation with a friend of ours he's 25 years old and was telling him that I lived through the advent of shredded cheese becoming available oh my gosh he was mind-blown all right so now we have the the corn chips the beef the cheese and I put half of that tomato milk egg mixture with the spices and then I'm going to go back in with another I believe cup and a half of the Fritos yep she's really struggling through this one y'all guys A it's really tiny writing and I'm blind as a bat and B I'm really curious to see what she's going to do now because the cheese is in the half a cup measuring cup and she's standing there mouth agape kind of eyes big looking back and forth like she's in quite the pickle all I have on the counter is one cup measuring cup and a half cup measuring cup I have to put in a cup and a half of Fritos but the half cup is filled with cheese again I'm not a stupid woman but I'm struggling today man I'm filling half of this one cup of Fritos its the mouth agape and the wild eyes going back and forth wild eyes you're so mean but it was true oh my goodness get your dang hands out of there I'm gonna finish this you're so mean to me oh wow this is gonna really fill this up to the top it is it looks good yeah it'd probably be better if there's more spices but you know at least salt and pepper it'll be interesting to see what we think it needs and maybe it'll be absolutely perfect I thought about getting a tomato sauce you know you can get tomato sauce with green chilies in it yeah I thought about doing that since I didn't get the cheese with the Jalapeno in it yeah I thought maybe the tomato sauce would be better but then I don't know I got nervous changing stuff up Mary says it I want to stay true to Mary we try to stay true to Mary as much as we possibly can but you know what all you can do is what you can do yeah okay so let me put the rest of the cheese and then I think we do the yeah and then I think once it microwaves yeah so yeah we're gonna put the tomato mixture then it goes back into the microwave for quote the baking yes which is 10 to 12 minutes right and then at the very end we're going to add sour cream and the half cup of cheese that I have set aside and it goes back into the micro with the sour cream on the top which concerns me a bit that'll be interesting I hope that that uh sauce goes between the nooks and crannies and doesn't overflow this thing I'm sure it will okay so maybe I should get it to go down because it's really very much just laying on the top or maybe that's the way it's supposed to be I think as it gets hot it'll uh okay float to the bottom better than if it all just immediately went through the nooks and crannies and pooled at the bottom it would be disgusting I think five minutes right since we have to turn it and yes that's right the instructions say to turn halfway through because of course this was in the days before the turntable in microwave and I do not have a turntable on mine no but I'm assuming that they've you know technology has come so that it's unnecessary yeah I remember back in the day you had to turn everything it didn't matter what it was you had to go in there and turn it that's right even those rock hard chicken breasts the mom would make oh yeah yeah super yum speaking of yummy things yeah and returning to my favorite topic of the day what is it Texas okay there is a Pizza Hut in Texas that has kept all of its original decor oh no really I have a picture I am gonna put it online so that you can see it amazing I mean y'all it is like okay so let me just paint a picture here okay all right it's a Friday night in your hometown you're going to a high school football game yeah if you're in northwest Ohio you're going to have one of those hot chicken sandwiches from last episode absolutely if you're not you just wish you could yeah you are getting your hair done you've got your Aqua Net hairspray oh you got your Mall bangs you are teasing that bad boy up within an inch of its life yeah because the higher the better that's right you got your slouch socks on and you have pegged the bottom of your jeans with your fluorescent green sweatshirt oh man are you cool I paired mine with black leggings and some uh leg warmers but slouch socks with some pegged jeans pegged jeans acid wash I was just gonna say acid wash and then I would wear them with my white Keds that when the Keds got dirty you got white shoe polish yes you did and you'd wet the shoe yeah and then shoe polish it yep so you're looking good oh yeah you spray on your Loves Baby Soft powder or lemon ooh lemon depending on your mood that's right you hop in the car you pop in your Cindy Lauper tape oh yeah Girls Just Want to Have Fun blaring as you cruise down to meet your friends at the Pizza Hut for your personal pan pizza in the 800 degree fresh out of the oven oh yeah metal container it came in you can burn yourself and within an inch of your life but the 80s were just a time of danger man it was and then you get your gigantic soda in those Red Cups yes oh yeah and the red gingham was everywhere that's right the red and white check uh tablecloths and then they always had a video game the salad bar would be available to you oh yeah I just read something yesterday that had nothing to do with this that up until like 2012 Pizza Hut was the largest purchaser of kale weird because they decorated their salad bar with it I remember do you remember that you'd have the dishes and then in between all the dishes would be the kale that's funny yeah because it was before people ate that stuff that's right yeah so anyway so get you know get the little visions going this is so fun and then you can pop onto our website momswoodenspoon.com and um check out the picture of this original 80s what good memories yes well 1982 it was a wonderful time for a wonderful TV show 82 yeah I I can't think anything in 1982 the TV show Fame came out OMG I loved that show I loved that show more than life itself who was your favorite I think I loved Bruno who's Bruno we don't talk about Bruno we don't talk about oh we don't want to get uh in big trouble for copyright with uh Disney so we do talk about Bruno and he played the piano he was the like The Pianist he's a cutie he's like curly black hair and he played when Irene Cara sang my all-time favorite song out here on my own I know that it is your all-time favorite song because I know every word to that song and I have never heard it by Irene Cara Cara I have only heard it by Kristen because I would sing it ad nauseaum all the time shall I do it now no oh okay perfect timing saved by the bell people you need to appreciate me you have no idea no idea oh wow it's a little bubbly well the top looks interesting the sauce on the top is kind of a orangish pinkish reddish and it did not soak down through all the meat so I guess it'll just be interesting to see what happens okay so now let's try it again five minutes at 70 percent power oh oh I got it okay so while we were talking about Fame and my favorite character was Leroy oh he was such a good dancer I thought he was the most amazing dancer the world had ever seen he really was he could jump oh gosh yes yeah I had never seen anything like it and I thought he was just the most amazing I wanted to go to that High School more than anything oh yeah I wanted to be those kids oh yeah because so cool yeah and they never had homework did you notice that I know right they rarely had class they had all this free time between classes to run out into the street and dance yes and to sit at the piano with your bestie yeah sing a little tune yeah like out here on my own oh my gosh shall I do it no oh um they also are famous for their song Fame which you should also not sing I do okay but they are also credited for making leg warmers so crazy popular yes well because it's a dancer thing oh you know what what I have an idea what listeners if you feel like I have shorted you the opportunity to hear Kristen belt out a beautiful rendition of out here on your own out here on my own she's on her own yeah send us an email and we will be sure to include it at some point in time that I am yeah not involved with the podcast no I'm joking we will have her yeah sing it just for you we can include it at like the end of the podcast at the very end will be the special treat you know what no you guys don't even have to email us it's okay I know you want to hear it so badly I'll just tack it on to the very end of this so listen stay to The Bitter End and you will get a special special treat I mean if you want to know what it was like being Carrie yeah as a pre-teen yeah this song just play it Ad nauseam for an entire day like every minute that you are home just repeat this and you'll know what pre-teen Carrie lived through it's good oh thank you oh yeah she's good at it I've heard it a lot okay well this is kind of congealed into a casserole look at that it it looks like it would when you pulled it out of the oven it really does it looks kind of yummy it smells pretty good it smells like a Tex-Mex casserole it does it smells really tasty you can smell the Fritos okay and thank goodness it's one cup of sour cream so I do not have the conundrum of what to do with the cheese that is sitting there in the half a cup still in the half a cup I mean because what would I do because the sour cream goes on first I can't imagine what would I do with that cheese I cannot imagine the challenges we face as home Cooks y'all this is tough so I think we just spread it all over let me see spread sour cream over casserole sprinkle with reserved cheese and micro at same setting two to four minutes or until cheese melts and then oh it gets fancy from here I have done a little shopping in the background because Mary suggests to garnish it with the oh so fancy tomato wedges I was wondering why we had these ginormous wedges of tomatoes it does not sound like something we would do today no but it is totally like late 70s decor for sure totally late 70s and it also calls for fresh parsley okay I don't think a half a cup is enough but I mean I would put way more cheese but there's there's an entire package of cheese in this so it should be good all right this has filled the entire container up to the brim all right so it said two to four minutes or until cheese melts and I'll do it on 70. yeah all right Kristen I have a couple foods I'm gonna call out and and I want you to tell me is it going to be Tex-Mex oh or is it going to be like a Mexican food that sounds like fun okay nachos okay so they're corn so that could be traditional Mexican but they probably have yellow cheese so I would say Tex-Mex correct how about queso dip oh now normally when you get queso dip in a restaurant it's white cheese that's correct so is it traditional Mexican Tex-Mex oh I think this one's an easy one okay but I also do adore the food what is it chimichanga oh my gosh well I'm going to assume that is Tex-Mex yes they're all Tex-Mex oh that was my list of Tex-Mex foods do you remember going to Chi Chi's oh yes I do girlfriend and they had I don't know if it was a chimichanga it was a seafood it was a seafood chimichanga and you and Mom used to get it all the time and dad and I thought you guys were so nasty oh it was so good but Chi Chi's doesn't exist anymore no and then do you remember getting fried ice cream and cheese oh that was one of the treats I mean we didn't get it very often I hate it oh really it has just honey on it know it's it's rolled in Crunchies yes and then they put honey on you oh and you hate honey I forgot that was a typical older sister response to that you said there's honey on I went no totally is so we have just about one more minute on the casserole we have some gorgeous tomato wedges Kristen has pulled off some full leaves of parsley I would have gone for like a whole sprig well pull off what you think would be it oh it's 70 style like this early 80s style oh speaking of 80s want to feel old no I don't either but I'm gonna I mean I had to take my glasses off to read the Mary's memo instructions I already feel old no kidding I had to get my nose like right up on it guess who was born some celebrities that were born in 1982. oh Zac Efron ooh good guess that is a potentially correct answer but it's not on my list okay let me tell you some of the ones on my list okay Kelly Clarkson oh my gosh I know right Seth Rogen what yeah yeah Dwyane Wade from basketball yeah I knew that yeah you're the sporty one I had to look up who he was no I'm kidding I knew who he was and then my favorite Adam Lambert oh yeah he seems like he's younger than that to me he does he looks very young he looks awesome have you seen the big thing that's going around on social media where Adam Lambert was on Jimmy Fallon and they do this fun game where you spin a wheel okay and you have to pick the person you have to sing like and then you spin a wheel for the song you have to sing and Adam Lambert spun the wheel and got Cher nice spun it again and got the Muffin Man song okay and so this is an ear worm of all ear worms I cannot stop singing it I'm gonna sing it to you now because you wouldn't let me sing earlier does it surprise me people our listening audience will be singing this for the next three days and you will be cursing my name oh great okay you ready I'm so so ready okay you're gonna think Cher is right in the room with you I I feel like I can I could see the long hair now as you flip it over your shoulder yep here we go do you know the muffin man do you know the muffin man oh do you know the muffin man wow that was yeah wow it was good wasn't it I mean he has to sing that at every one of his concerts because people beg for it now oh that's hilarious seriously he goes I have all these great songs I sing with Queen yeah and you all request the muffin man at my concerts all right we're gonna let this cool and get it all decorated up so you guys can see the lovely lovely picture oh with the Tomato wedge and the large sprig of parsley yep so we'll see in a minute [Music] all right Kristen so I think we let it cool down a little bit uh let's be honest we're ready to go we are ready to taste this because it actually looks okay we decorated up with our tomato slices and parsley so pretty I have to say it is chic it is chic oh my gosh well let's dig into this and see oh it is very solid I could gosh almost like cut a wedge out of it with like a pie server isn't that weird okay but I'm using a big old spoon okay I'm just standing here silently watching her oh look at that look at the side it really is a solid casserole and then I see the grease from the from the meat well it's because we didn't have a colander that's right and I kind of got it all over the placemat okay there we go oh look at that pretty bite let's put a tomato oh yeah garnish all right it's a sprig a healthy sprig oh that's so beautiful it is gorge there's so little cheese on the top it looks like a chef took a sauce in one of those bottles and went zigzag zigzag all over it oh very cheffy all right shall we give it a taste yes do you want to go first sure so I think the first thing is is to get the parsley and the tomato out the way out the way okay all right so she's getting some of the sour cream and some of the cheese he's trying to cut the cheese apart so as to not cut the cheese oh yeah okay and I want some of what used to be the oh look at the sauce chips yeah the chips are mush they are they do not resemble chips at all there's no crunch I'm being greedy with my bite so be careful that you don't scald yourself you know what looks really good I'm wondering if there are enough flavors in it to make the ground beef be tasty nope no the ground beef absolutely needed spiced gotcha salt pepper maybe even some of the chili powder you know maybe even once you cook the ground beef you could add a can of green chilies in with the ground beef and the cooked onion that might add a little flavor let me taste something just a lot of plain ground beef the Fritos add a nice little pop of salt and corn that's nice that's yummy the sour cream and the cheese on the top is good but the layer of beef is just beef tasting you know what you could do if you wanted to just make this super quick you could get a package of taco seasoning at the store oh yeah and just make the meat as you would taco meat yes that would make this whole thing perfect yes exactly what it needs I mean heck you could use half of the package yes it just anything to spice up that meat a little bit really that's what it needs and then I mean the sour cream I am shocked it is delicious on the top it would not be good without the sour cream no no you need that punch of yeah really it's tasty I would not make it in the microwave although it was not horrible no it wasn't and once you know the recipe you have an idea of what you're doing as you guys know we do these just as we're reading the recipe we've never made this before and sometimes you know when you're going back and forth and back and forth things can get confusing yeah I maybe even if you just browned the meat on the stove added the onions added the spices yeah and that's right I finished it off in the microwave that'd be lovely in the summer you don't have to turn the oven on how fast that's right and you know in the oven you'd probably bake it at 350 for at least 20 30 minutes and if you cook the ground beef on the stove top add your taco seasonings put it all in that casserole dish microwave it for what 12 minutes yeah I think that'll be my takeaway yeah just add some spice to the beef do it on the stove layer that sucker up pop it in the microwave you know basically the only trick is you trying to figure out how to set your microwave at 70 percent that's true that was the trickiest part of the whole thing I have a defrost button I wonder if that's 70 percent I don't know like I said I had to look it up online to be able to figure it out these micros they're so confusing they are well I think that was a really tasty dish I think it very much could be yeah a staple really an easy quick meal filling for a family and totally gluten-free if that's how you roll oh true yeah yeah very nice well that is it for this episode thank you so much for joining us do not forget to check out our blog on our website and be sure to set your alarm for next week's episode it's going to be released on October 23rd and it's going to be the first recipe we make in celebration of an obscure holiday do your research to try and figure out which one it is we will see if you're right and stay tuned there's some singing to come run people run

[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 okay Kristen do you want to do it as a duet no Carrie the song is called out here on my own this is my time to shine baby okay sometimes I wonder where I've been who I am will I fit in make believing is hard alone and now I sang it too low so I'm gonna stop here

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