That’s Impossible, or Incredible, or Maybe Just Inedible?

Episode Transcript Tamale Pie

have you heard the pun it may be chilly today but it will be hot tamale Carrie that weather pun really blew me away oh that was eggsellent oh Thanks A Latte ah you're kiwiing me we need to get this podcast started well then let's go I'm berry excited [Music] welcome to Mom's wooden spoon get your apron on and your fanny flicker ready as we cook up some Nostalgia ooh yummy [Music] this is Carrie and this is Kristen and welcome to Mom's Wooden Spoon today we are going to make a recipe from Mary's Memo dated May 9th 1983 oh what a year that was I mean early enough in the 80s to still have some 7os vibe right but definitely getting into some of the things that you remember as being 80s oh I remember and I have some stuff to share with you all I'm hoping you have the same memories that I do so we shall see okay very good so today's recipe is impossible tamale pie ooh now Kristen I'm assuming you're familiar with the impossible pie concept brand oh heck yeah as a matter of fact impossible pies were hugely popular in the 70s and 80s um yeah in Carrie's cooking repertoire oh me too yeah yeah I mean not just in the 70s and 80s but even to this day oh no I recently was at a used bookstore and they had a book of all Bisquick recipes and you know I snatched that sucker up for  $2.75 because they're really easy but they come out delicious and they're kind of like a casserole which is one of your comfort foods it totally is yeah and you are right I love Bisquick because everything you do with Bisquick is easy and that's that's me I do not cook oh my gosh do you remember when we were kids we would make pancakes some mornings you know some mornings we would make Mom and Dad those graham crackers with the thick frosting and the maraschino cherry which we talked about before right we were just loving loving children oh yes now as we got older we started making Bisquick pancakes do you remember how thick and tall those suckers were so so thick it was like the literal height of a cake yes I mean you really one pancake was it plenty and it didn't have to be huge because that sucker was so tall and then you pour up on it it would disappear and then you'd pour more syrup on and it would disappear the pancake was sucking up all of the syrup it was so thick I have made Bisquick pancakes since then and I have learned to add some extra liquid that's right but we did not know that no no no no as a matter of fact Bisquick was my friend when I was first learning to cook the first Bisquick recipe I ever made was called impossible cheeseburger pie oh I remember the impossible cheeseburger oh yeah it was fantastic delish yes and so I do think and we failed to mention yeah that the impossible pies yes come from Bisquick oh yeah yeah it's a it's a whole Bisquick thing and they're sweet and savory oh yes they have pumpkin impossible pies and all kinds of stuff oh they do they're delicious I was looking up the history of impossible pies where did this come from right Bisquick well actually no what Bisquick stole the idea in two ways okay okay so the first thing I read from this wonderful blogger that I found online Alyssa Rivers okay she's at the recipe critic.com she was telling that impossible pies have been around for a long time prior to Bisquick putting out these recipes they were created by the Amish really yes interesting and it got its name because I think you probably know this too because as it baked it kind of formed a crust yes you'd put in this mixture and then as it baked all the solids would kind of settled to the bottom and form a crust yes well and they're impossibly easy right and impossibly quick yes and it's I mean obviously why they're my favorite yeah supe easy so the impossible stands I think for a lot as well right and so the Amish would mix together basically all the ingredients that are in Bisquick flour and leavening agents and maybe a little salt and a fat there's a fat in Bisquick that's part of what makes it special that makes sense because when I was reading about Bisquick's creation like who created it when did this happen it was actually inspired by a train ride to San Francisco two of my favorite people in the world live in San Francisco that is true yes it is I was gonna say something snarky and I had nothing because I they are my favorites so anyway this guy was a sales executive at General Mills and he saw the trains cook making biscuits okay but in order to make them super fast he had this pre-mixed secret flour ingredients mix but you said Bisquick has fat guess what was in his secret mix lard of course right so he had this kind of on ice and just snippety snap snip mix the liquid in and make biscuits really quickly would he say snippity snap snip as he did it well wouldn't you I think I might scream bada boom bada bing oh that would be even better yeah yeah yeah so then of course this guy's idea was how do we make the shelf stable ah and so then they figured it out and sold Bisquick and I love it I know I know me too good job Mr General Mills sales dude on your long trip back in 1930. I don't think you mentioned that yeah they're slow steam run engine I bet he had to go to the front shovel coal in the engine I highly doubt it he was a business dude that's true he was probably sitting in first class with his glass of champagne that's right getting the biscuits delivered right to him I mean nice I wonder if the train stewardess came through and said sir would you like some butter and she softened it by putting it in her bra  I think it probably was already there and she pulled it out and cut a chunk off yeah that's right and that was offensive in so many ways I said train stewardess and then boob butter but that's okay I don't know 1930 I think that was probably accurate however the name stewardess but not on a train maybe not I don't know what they're called maybe the conductor came down the aisle I don't think so and he pulled the butter out of some other spot to keep it warm I feel like we've gone in a wrong wrong place now this is bad okay we're back to Johnny Depp's necklace oh gosh you want to tell them what's in this recipe Carrie yeah we have the longest intro ever five hours later

which is fine because the impossible pie is gonna go together bada boom bada bing oh snip snap snip right all right so it's a tamale pie obviously so we have meat onions taco seasoning uh tomatoes corn and then all the stuff to make the breading the Bisquick eggs milk and cornmeal cornmeal to make it corny because we've all had so many tamales that have ground beef on the inside and Bisquick that's right and you know the recipe on this Mary's Memo had an additional impossible pie and so you know how we were talking about this impossible tamale pie is not very authentically tamale-ish right yes this one is impossible fettuccine alfredo pie oh yes and Mary says that the amazing part about this pie yeah is that there are absolutely no pasta in it whatsoever I know right so it's a fettuccine alfredo pie with zero pasta just Bisquick that's right so it basically just tastes like the Alfredo sauce so basically we're just offending Foods of various countries left in right here oh yeah yeah we can do your fettuccine better with Bisquick oh yeah no nother I know right who needs a tamale we have Bisquick and ground beef yum okay speaking of ground beef I'm gonna get uh working on sizzling that up we have to brown it and then we have to stir in raw onion and the taco seasoning that is correct well I'm gonna chop this onion as small as I am capable which means you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit exactly all right and then my job I think while the beef is kind of cooking I think I can do two things at once here ooh look at you multitasking I know right we'll wait till that kind of gets up to heat now this is so weird the recipe called for a can of stewed tomatoes yes so Kristen have you cooked with stewed tomatoes since I don't know 1983 no mom used to eat them all the time oh I remembered stewed tomatoes were a staple in our house they were she didn't force us to eat them though thank goodness so I remembered stewed tomatoes as being like the thing you wanted tomatoes you got stewed tomatoes it was predominantly what we had in our cabinet when I was a kid right and so I went to purchase these stewed tomatoes and I will let you know they are not the predominant tomato anymore at all anything that is not stewed is your choice so I found it hilarious then not only do you get stewed tomatoes then you have to chase them yourself I said something to Mom about that the other day and she said Kristen they did not have diced tomatoes well that would make sense then yes and you know what as I'm draining this they have kind of herbs and spices in here they do indeed that was the other thing I noticed I'm looking at the can it actually has sugar dried onion dried celery dried bell pepper as Kristen likes to say it'll add the Flavor Flav the Flavor Flav oh look at them there spices oh that's a pretty picture all right so we're gonna dice our own so I really I probably could have just purchased diced I'm glad you didn't because I always think it's fun to try the recipe as it was originally put down on paper by Miss Mary yes perfect let me check this meat yes that'll be great because our onion is chopped so if you can get the meat done and over I'm gonna move the rest of this onion that is uh making me tear up out of the way yeah I think it's nice and hot and ready so what I'm going to do is I'm going to bring the pan over closer to us I'm going to put it in front of you and you can add the onion and how about the taco seasoning so I was really interested in the impossible concept behind this impossible pie oh yes so interesting and it made me try and think of various impossible things that were occurring in the 80s yes and the first thing I thought of was a TV show called that's impossible oh where they would go over all these amazing impossible activities that different people or animals or things like that could do yeah how I'm like oh this is perfect I am absolutely gonna share this on our podcast so I start looking up for more details about it turns out it's called that's incredible oh my gosh that's right I remember it and guess who was on that oh I know John Davidson yes but even better Peter Billingsley from A Christmas Story really yes what did he do that was so impossibly incredible he was one of the hosts oh it must have been later on then probably okay because I think he's my age and I think he's like 51 now and uh yeah so he was one of the guest hosts on there oh yes so if it's that's impossible then it was Peter Billingsworth that was on there not Peter Billingsley it aired from 80 to 84 I want to say only a year 80 to 84 is four years gosh what is wrong with me she's real good with the math

you know what I was thinking the year this recipe came out I was thinking 83 to 84. you said 80 to 84. I'm busy chopping Tomatoes leave me alone so it was on for four years I found the very first episode yes so I started to watch it it was Peter Billingsworth on it but John Davidson was oh but on that's impossible that's where you'll find Peter Billingsworth that's right yes yeah people are going to be so lost Kristen oh my gosh what okay so that's incredible yeah now was Peter Billingsley on the first episode move on dang okay it was fabulously 80s I mean it was oh so 80s and so the first that's impossible was incredible was this guy who just looked like a normal dude yeah and he worked out and he had a um a challenge for anybody who wanted to challenge him to do his workout oh that he could out-work out them whoa so they videotaped these three beefy dudes yeah who wanted to challenge this guy and if you beat him he'd pay you five thousand dollars oh anyway so he totally kicked these guys butts um they couldn't do it but the workout was like all core oh and so I don't know that they're super bulging biceps were of any value right in this workout that this guy did which looked very unsafe by the way but that's a whole other story

um so I'm watching this video and the whole reason I'm telling you this is I called my husband over I called my daughter over I'm laughing so hard I'm crying they're in the gym they're introducing this talking to the guy and they have people working out behind him they're all in their lovely 80s garb their shorts their leg warmers awesome all looking so cute and right behind the guy interviewing this man is a lady and she's doing tricep dips okay fine yeah but as you look she's standing on a bench

she jumps up and then she stands on the bench and then she jumps up and she stands on the bench so I don't know if they couldn't find an actress who is actually capable of doing tricep dips so she wasn't doing the dips at all she was just hopping up and down off the bench in the background

I could not stop laughing maybe she had already done 300 dips and this was like the 95th take right right and she was done I don't know so anyway maybe it wasn't near as impossible as the show said it was right maybe not it was just incredibly bad TV and that's what it was famous for oh that's delightful oh it was it was fantastic I'd love to go and find some more of those oh gosh I only found the first one I didn't make it through the whole episode I have to tell you it was not that exciting the things were in fact not that incredible but I mean if you can get to that video and just watch that intro of that dip lady it is is it on YouTube I'll link it on our website yeah yeah so you can get to it and I've gotten really good where you can just click on the video on our website so you go like you're going to listen to our podcast on the website and then there's um some notes and stuff underneath that and the video will be there because it's worth the chuckle I tell ya I can't wait to see it of that's impossible don't look that up folks Peter billingsworth oh my goodness so Carrie has added the taco seasoning and the raw onion to the meat yep and it looks really dry oh so dry and so now I'm going to sprinkle on a cup of the frozen corn the diced up stewed tomatoes and then the fun and exciting part is the next step after we mix all this stuff together is in the blender you know that is something specific to impossible pies and I did not remember that I did not know it was all impossible pies right so I remember there being such a thing as a blender pie really which as it turns out is just an impossible pie right um but you can Google for a blender pie there's one specific impossible pie it's a coconut one oh that is like the one that the coconut custard one that the Blogger I told you about Alyssa Rivers she has a recipe on her website I think it's one of the most popular impossible pies so you take all the ingredients and you throw them in the blender including the coconut everything yeah it all goes in the blender you blend it up and then you throw it in your pie pan yeah and then as you had mentioned the bready stuff falls to the bottom and creates you across and the coconut floats to the top so you have a custard in the middle a crust on the bottom and a topping of toasted coconut wow and all you did is zhuzh it in the in the blender in the blender if you guys want that recipe I have the link for it so we'll put that on the web page as well yum I'm not a huge coconut fan but I'm tempted because I love the custardy I love custardy stuff oh so good yeah and people are saying you know they take them potlucks they get all kinds of wow Kudos and literally you dump stuff into a blender throw it in a pie pan and off you go easy peasy mom remember the fact that impossible pies are made with the blender I was telling her what we were cooking oh you were talking with her about yeah and she said oh impossible pie is the one you use the blender and me and my self-righteous chef mode was like well I don't think everyone I can't imagine I don't remember using the blender when I made cheeseburger pie it can't possibly be everywhere you're thinking of a specific one and then I started researching and I was like she's right I texted her I said you were right all right so we are at the point where we need to start whipping up the Bisquick product in the blender all right so let's grab the blender top okay and start pouring things in and while you do that I will get the milk out so that you can put that in there and let's see what does it say so in the container of electric blender put the eggs the milk the baking mix and the cornmeal perfect while you do that I'll get the milk and then I will grease the pie pan well that sounds great and thank you for detailing your each and every step I am walking back to the counter from the fridge now I will crack open the bottle of milk listen everyone ooh

at this point I'm moving it closer to Carrie on the counter at this point my middle finger is I'm kidding she did she flipped me off that is so rude

all right so I'm gonna crack the eggs but I'm gonna go ahead and pour this meat corn tomato mixture into the pie pan and I swear it's almost going to come up to the very top of the pie pan we're gonna be lucky if the liquid doesn't flow over the top I think well you really shoved that meat down in there I did it's gonna be like cement I packed it in so well okay so I am now going to attempt to blend it may or may not go well you may or may not hear screaming so we're gonna talk to you guys in a little bit because you don't want to hear this what screaming plus loudness no thank you we'll see you in a minute 

okay we have blended our liquid together it's gonna fit yes okay all right so pouring it on meat mountain here as I fill this in and Kristen's thinking it's impossible to fit I did want to mention mission impossible was out in the 60s had an 80s remake it was later 80s I want to say it was around 88 but the dude that was in the original Mission Impossible came back for the 1980s version I can't remember his name because that's how I like to tell stories yep bootleg guy's name was Peter Graves I totally remember him yeah lots of white hair and obviously big 80s glasses yes yes yes I remember okay I loved that show did you remember watching it Kristen not one bit oh man but I was the one that remembered that Peter Billingsley was on that's impossible I mean that's incredible I think we should Google it because I'm gonna laugh so hard if he never was okay so you tell your story and then I'm gonna look it up my point is is that I absolutely adored Mission Impossible yeah and I loved the your mission should you choose to accept it I just think is the coolest thing and then how the messages would self-destruct oh that was fun it was awesome it was like Inspector Gadget yes come to real life na na na na na Inspector Gadget na na na na na ooh ooh

oh I did I did love me some Inspector Gadget he was the best oh me too all right so I think Kristen is madly Googling as I'm saying this but since we're gonna put this in the oven and spend the next 30 minutes kicking back and relaxing I'm gonna have her finish her Google then I'm gonna have to because all that popped up was a Wikipedia Peter Billingsley I'm like just give me just give me the answer and since this has become the longest most boring story of any podcast ever I'm gonna put the kibosh on it now okay we're gonna put the pie in the oven let's see a 400 degree oven we'll be back to you when it's cooked that's right and we will let you know about Peter Billingsley being in that's incredible and spoiler alert yeah Kristen is going to mention the most bootleg family photo from 1983 ever so if you thought now was the time to leave us think again folks oh yeah think again you want to find out where to look at this awkward family photo of our family so awkward and we'll do our best to paint you a lovely picture all right so we'll see you guys in uh just a minute 

[Music]

we have tamale pie impossible tamale pie out of the oven Kristen ooh it looks gorgeous it really does it was a little juicier than I expected it to be yes but now that it's sitting here the juice is not pouring out of it it is not and I will say the instructions say to let it sit for longer than we did yeah we just kind of were excited to get to it the top is golden brown it is and that's nice that you want to explain what it looks like but this is the reason that we're excited to get back to it why Kristen was wrong so incredibly wrong I was Peter Billingsley never ever ever had anything to do with that's impossible or that's incredible which is why I couldn't find it when I was trying to quickly look it up because it does not exist Peter Billingsley however was a host of a completely different television show called real people which I have zero recollection of but Kristen has oh I loved it and see it was kind of the same setup really the hosts were sitting in like those directors chairs and then they would talk about something and then you know it would go to the film that oh yes it was kind of like a it's like a reality show interesting yeah okay so he did have a hosting gig yes it had nothing to do with that's incredible that's incredible so I felt like we really needed to hit that point hard thanks thanks Carrie to make it very clear that Kristen was thoroughly incorrect okay well back to how this looks okay so I've cut into it it looks beautiful and to my  surprise even though I packed that meat mountain down pretty tightly yes that batter got down under it a little bit it did I mean we have a really nice looking piece of pie that came out it does I expected it to be like one of those giant pancakes that we used to make on the top really tall really thick really fluffy with a lot of meat just under under it right not it at all it's thin pie crust on the top really the texture of a pie crust it is it's very appetizing looking yeah speaking of the way things look yes let me bring us back to my spoiler and this fabulous photo that Kristen found of our family in 1983 it was taken for the church directory oh yeah it is all kinds of awkward family photos it is incredibly let's go person to person

I think we should and explain it and I think we should start with Dad as frankly he looks the most normal he does indeed out of all of us yep yeah so he's in the top right and we'll just go clockwise starting with Dad okay so Dad looks fine he has a fabulous early 80s stash oh yeah and the giant 80s glasses so if we go down clockwise then there's me oh and Kristen in all her teenage glory oh she worked long and hard on her hair and I say kudos to her oh yeah and as my family looked at the photo amidst their gales of laughter they mentioned that Kristen in her prairie dress oh yes was absolutely the most normal looking of the lot they did they said that oh yeah I worked hard to look normal because I was absolutely not cool my mom gave me a bowl cut I had glasses and braces but because I was mortified to have a bowl cut which my mother lovingly called a Dorothy Hamill cut I looked nothing like Dorothy Hamill I looked like a nerd bucket same lady who said carrots taste like candy we we have set the stage here she is not to be believed apparently she lives in Bizarro world so in Bizarro world with my Dorothy Hamill haircut I felt awful and so I took my curling iron and flipped it all up except for a little patch of bangs oh super curled under and then the lovely feathering and it wasn't feathered it was the actual shape of the curling iron all around my head it was curl and slide and iron out yes it was nice oh it was bad me and my Prairie dress you de-awkwardized the photo if at all possible oh thank you well then tell about what you look like so I too have a bowl cut I had incredibly thick hair that was Curly so this bowl cut is all kinds of puffy and I would say that I got the do you remember Princess Diana in her childhood photos how she had that very kind of sheepish look through her eyelids okay so I am none of those things no was not any of those things as a child I clearly got in trouble right before this photo being taken clearly so I have this meek look with this super puff crazy red bowl cut I also look nothing like Dorothy Hamill I definitely looked a little more uh Princess Diana but not in a good way let's let's not give you that impression and then the last piece of the photo is my mother who's standing behind me she has her hand on my shoulder probably to stop me from my hijinks but they must have caught her at a moment because the face she's making is she has pulled her head way back so you get that little double chin going on and then you stick your teeth onto your lower lip onto your lower lip and smile like like kind of buck teeth and there there it is captured for all time now it reminds me of one of my mom's other best photos of all time yeah her a driver's license oh once again I'm the culprit so she had taken me with her to get her photo and I had done something I'm sure yet again that I had gotten scolded for and while she's like Carrie you blah blah blah they took the photo did they really she's like wait but no and they would not retake the photo

I do not remember this thing wouldn't retake her photo so for four years she has the Carrie is the bane of my existence face on her driver's license and so it turns out I did it again but we kind of look like we are in a cult we totally do guys we're gonna put that picture we're gonna put it on our website and on social media and our apologies Mom we're really sorry Mom we love you but this is the best picture ever you guys zoom in on our mom's face it is the best but what we want you guys to do is to find your awkward family photo of you your family anybody and we're going to make a big post on social media please upload your pictures we can't wait to see them bonus points if you have glasses braces a bowl cut and a prairie dress the height of fashion it does not have to be from 1983 however right whatever year your most awkward photo exists we are happy to take there you go yeah absolutely but back to 1983 there were some things I would have added to my outfit to feel cooler oh now would it have made me cooler no no but I felt cooler I wore in my hair despite the bowl cut I pulled back the sides and wore those barrettes that had woven ribbons going through it uh yes they did and there were beads

at the bottom and the ribbon went all the way down to your shoulder oh it was amazing oh so cool and then you could weave them in different colors you could share them with your friends okay another thing I would have had if I were wearing like my white Keds I loved those um it would be those friendship pins that were made on safety pins yes with the beads yes you put beads on them and you could trade them out with your friends yes and you could use the big beads yes or the little seed beans that's right various looks so cool well I think our tamale pie has cooled down the effective amount of time yeah it may be totally cold cause we've been blabbing yeah okay so you take a bite is it yummy it is you can taste some of the corn it gives the hint of a tamale you get the concept that's true and something is a little bit crunchy in there it might be the onions it's really tasty it is it's relatively bland in its taste yeah but you can put hot sauce you can put sour cream on the top a little chopped cilantro but not for Carrie a little cheese ooh cheese on the top you know what you guys could do oh this would make it so much better top this with a little shredded Mexican cheese put that back in have cheese all over the top of it it is a nice comfort meal it absolutely is and it's quick and quick and easy yes you can't beat it thank you for listening to another episode of Mom's Wooden Spoon if this impossible pie recipe didn't tickle your fancy do not despair there may be another one for you let us know through social media or our website if you'd like us to try another one while you're on our website check out some of the goodies posted there and leave us some positive feedback too bye

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