In the first episode of Season 4, Kristen and Carrie party like it’s 1978! While they whip us a super easy appetizer, Carrie regales us with a story about The Great Iceberg Lettuce Debacle from May of that year and Kristen does some mighty fine impressions of cool 70’s stars. It doesn’t get any better than this…or does it?
These things weren't near as nasty as we anticipated! Dare I say, we really liked them? As always (almost) Mary nailed it! Give this recipe a try, click here!
Episode Transcript for Spinach Balls
Recording the first episode of season 4 today kind of feels like a party. I love me some parties, especially the food. Ooh, me too. I'm a big fan of dips. OMG, you're just like Martin Short's character in only murderers in the building. Yes, I am. I could make a whole meal out of just dips. Who couldn't? I know, right? Let's make something today that really gets this party started. But not a dip. Ah, I was totally going to say hummus tzatziki. I can't think of any other dips.
Welcome to Mom's Wooden Spoon, where the recipes are retro and so are your hosts. You can say that again.
Party, party party party party party Welcome to season 4 of Mom's Wooden Spoon. I mean, what? I know. Seriously, did you guys miss us? I I'll answer for them. Yes, we did. Kristen and Carrie we missed you guys a lot. We have actually though had a blast this summer picking out some delightful recipes and some pretty freaking nasty ones for your listening pleasure. You know what's wrong with us? I don't know. You know, to be honest, I basically bullied you into some of these recipes. Yeah. And I did put my foot down on some of them. You did. I'm like, um. However, some of these recipes and episodes might be a crapshoot to see if I make it through unscathed without Carrie beating my butt. You know, I think every season is a crap shoot that's true. Now, I think today's recipe is going to be pretty safe for my butt because you chose this one. I'm excited about it. I know. Me, too. It comes from the May 29th, 1978 Mary's memo. You know, I believe this one at first sound, bleh but I think it's going to be true to Mary and we are going to go, huh, it could use some more spice, but it's really good. But it's really good. And I think it's going to be perfect for two women in their 50s who have prepubescent senses of humor because we are yet again making balls. Thank you 1960 housewives everywhere. That's right. Who made all appetizers in the form of a ball. Today we're making spinach balls. I mean, who doesn't want spinach in ball form, right? And it's hilarious to me because there's a story in my husband's family that's been going on for decades. Okay. Where my mother-in-law, and I think this must have happened in the 60s, made spinach balls. Sure. And her family hated them so much that they harassed her until the day she died about her spinach balls. Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. And she was a great cook. So to harass her for something, they must have been pretty darn nasty. Well, I'm surprised because I obviously looked across the interwebs to see what variations of spinach balls existed and people by and large love them. Really, every recipe I saw out there had five stars, 4.8 stars. People love a good bowl of spinach. And, you know, they've been around for forever. Yeah. Apparently like the first recipe was like in 1919 or something like that. Really? Yes. And they actually took the spinach ball mixture which was flour and eggs and spinach and they boiled the mixture. Ewwww. That sounds kind of well like a British pudding. Maybe that's what she made. Your mother-in-law. We're going to bake these. And these have some yummy deliciousness in it. Right. They do. I think the yummy deliciousness comes from the stove top stuffing that we're going to use. Um, everything is better with stove top. So, it's going to be frozen spinach that we've squeezed the life out of. So, there's no juice. We don't want to make that mistake. Correct. And then it's going to have herb seasoned stuffing mix. And I actually found herb seasoned. Not chicken, not turkey, not I don't know. Do they make beef? Probably not. Pork. Pork. They make I got the savory herb variety. And then it also calls for one large onion. Okay. So, I take the photos of the food before we get started on this. And Kristen had mentioned that the onion was the smallest that they had to offer at the grocery store. Yes. My son went and picked this up for us. I was so thankful he has a job right by the Kroger. And I said, "Could you please pick me up like the smallest large onion that you can?" And he came home that an onion that's the size of my head. It is. But I have a picture of this onion sitting with the other ingredients. Oh my gosh. And it's like the size of the stove top stuffing box. It's huge. So I think we'll use half. What? Yeah. So speaking of half, we're cutting this recipe in half because it makes 70 bowls. Yeah. Although I will say Yeah. that one of the things that they say about this recipe is that you make the bowls. Yes. You can then put them on a like a cookie tray and put them in the freezer and freeze them raw. Freeze them raw. That would be very handy if you're having people over. That's what I'm saying. If you like to entertain on the fly and I really kind of only do things on the fly, of course, to have them in there. Then you pop them in the oven. Bada boom, bada bing. You've got yourself some hot and fresh spinach balls. Speaking of spinach. Yes. I found some unexpected ways to use it. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, is it okay if I tell you about that while I start chopping the onions? Yeah. And what do I need to do? Why don't you You want to melt the butter? I don't know. Cuz that's so hard. Okay. I think I'm going to use the smaller half cuz Wow, that's a lot. That's a lot. Okay. So, the first one was savory spinach cookies. Oh, please. That would be unexpected. That would be Yeah. awful. That would be I mean I think it would be delicious if you called them savory spinach crackers or biscuits, but calling them cookies. That's just wrong. That I think that's all in the name. But then this one is actually not savory. It is spinach brownies. You puree the spinach and add it to brownies. You know, people love to sneak spinach into foods they should not be in. I know, right? Mhm. Like there was one they said, um, no need for food dyes. Use spinach to turn your cake green. Although, according to the article, you do get some of the fresh, earthy flavors of spinach in the vanilla cake. Oh, no thank you. No thanks. So, that would not necessarily be sneaking it. No. Here's another one that uh made me gag a little bit. make spinach soda. Oh, yeah. It brings a stunning green color and a fresh flavor that balances out the more intensely sweet elements of the soda. So, you get like your soda stream and and put spinach in it. And then the last one really made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. Okay. It was drink the spinach cooking water. No. As a spinach tea. No. Seriously. Waste not want not Carrie. No. No thank you. So bad. I found some interesting things about spinach. Yes. And it turns out that they are currently doing research at the American University in Washington DC. Really? Uh-huh. You ready? Yeah. On how spinach can be converted into a natural catalyst for batteries. What? Yeah. The idea is is that they would like to work with spinach so it could create enough energy to power cars in the future. You are kidding me. And then if the hopes of is that it wouldn't utilize all the spinach so then you could eat your car spinach. I don't know about all that. Oh and drink the tea. And drink the tea. Yeah. And have spinach soda. Is that going to end up being like remember those cars? Was it the 80s or the 90s where they would run on the leftover grease from McDonald's French fries, deep fryers? I thought that was just genius. I know, right? Yeah. I wanted that. I think uh Charles, what is he? The king of England. Yeah. I think he converted his car. No way. Mhm. They would do like fry oil or like popcorn oil and so as you drove off your, you know, exhaust would smell like French fries. Oo, that wouldn't be too bad. I know. That would not be bad at all. No, I thought that was kind of nifty. But yeah, so spinach apparently they're looking to power batteries. Who would have thought? I know that was an interesting one. That's a good one, Carrie. Thank you. And then this is not a use of spinach. This is a history lesson on spinach. Oh, I do like a good lesson, Carrie. Okay, so as we know, yes, when you add spinach to something, it's called a Florentine. Yes. Why you ask? I do ask that. I'm going to tell you. I would love it. Okay. After becoming the queen of France in the 16th century, it is rumored that Katherine De'Medici brought spinach to the French from Italy when she married Henry II cuz she loved the healthy green vegetable. And apparently she ate so much of it that they started calling spinach meals Florentine because Catherine was born in Florence, Italy. How cool is that? Yeah. I wonder if she drank spinach tea. I bet she did. I bet she loved it. Probably. And spinach soda. Oh, delicious. I bet she really whipped that soda stream up in a frenzy. That's right. She said, "Cook, where's my lunch? Where's my dinner? Where's my spinach water?" I I am sure she said that. Yep. I bet. I think that's from a movie. That is from a cartoon. Of course. And he says, "Where's my hasenpfeffer?" What cartoon is it? Bugs Bunny. Oh, cuz Bugs Bunny is a rabbit and rabbit's what makes hasenpfeffer. Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh, you had to school me. Oh Carrie on Bugs Bunny. You know what? Speaking of hasenpfeffer, the same mother-in-law who made the much maligned spinach balls. Yeah. Made hasenpfeffer for her family. Really? Yeah. Wow. She really was a cook. She really was. My gosh. She could do anything. Okay, so I found something about spinach that I have to tell you and I'm so flipping excited. I have been excited about it since I found it. Wow. I have referenced it that's a long of time, Carrie. Yes. To you about four times cuz I'm having a hard time keeping my trap shut about it. I have told my family. Oh my, this is special stuff here. It's probably I have oversold it and you're all going to roll your eyes and Kristen's gonna cut it. So, you know, so as we know, this recipe is from May 29th, 1978. 78. On May 6th, yes. 1978. Wow. A mere 23 days prior to this Mary's memo being printed. That's crazy. The New York Times had an article. Yes. The article was titled Iceberg. It may be common, but it's not cheap. Oh. So what the whole article is about the price of iceberg lettuce had gone up oh from 51 cents in May of 1977 the year prior yes to over a dollar in some instances up to $1.49. That's like today's prices practically. That's crazy. That is crazy. So they had had too much water in the land of the iceberg lettuce. I think it was California. Oh, I was thinking it would be like Antarctica iceberg lettuce, right? So, in the land of iceberg lettuce, they had had too much water and so the iceberg lettuce had drowned and wow. So, there wasn't enough. Okay. Okay. Blah blah blah. Sad for iceberg lettuce. I have some quotes from this article. Oh my goodness. That I felt were fantastic. Okay. I'd like to hear them. Okay. So, there were two educators shopping for lettuce that were interviewed. Okay. Miss Goldstock thought that she might make do with tomatoes this weekend cuz she couldn't get the iceberg lettuce. Okay. Miss Zachariah was going to go home and make a green bean salad and take an extra vitamin pill because Well, at these prices, people have got to be creative. Oh my gosh, it's freaking iceberg lettuce. People, there's no nutritional value. I know, right? Take a vitamin pill. That would be our mom eating three bean salad. I swear to you, she eats it with every meal. Proudly eats it with every meal. All the time. Told me, "What would you like as a side?" I have three bean salad. Yes. She doesn't offer it to me because I hate hate three bean salad. Oh, I'm the only one. The lucky one. Oh, hello. A little extra parmesanio here. That is the lumpiest parmesan. It is. It is. Oh, I was going to put that back in. That's not going back in. It's spinach on it the lumps of Parmesan cheese are almost the size of the onion. They really are. Okay, so more quotes from the iceberg lettuce article. I'm not done. I'm not done. Oh, wow. What does this have to do with spinach? Just hold on. Oh, okay. Other creative ideas tossed into the salad bowl by shoppers here and there. Oh, the salad bowl. That's food. Switching to spinach. And I quote, "Spinach has many more nutrients than lettuce," noted Jeff Bernstein, a young vegetarian.
Well, he would know, wouldn't he? I mean, Jeff didn't know squat except that he's a vegetarian. That's right. So, there's the spinach. Okay. And last but not least, I like this one, too. Okay. Dieters are hungry enough without giving up lettuce. Seriously. Which may explain why so many of them were among the weekend iceberg buyers. Dumb old lettuce, muttered Carol Edlund, tossing a cellophane package into her cart. Dumb old lettuce. Bain of my existence. I can't stop dieting and just lettuce. I just have to spend a dollar for it. Now I have to go take my AYDS tablets. No, wait. They weren't tablets. My AYDS pieces of fake chocolate. That's right. I thought that was hilarious. Wow. They were very bitter and angry about that. So, what was Mary doing? Oh, I guess it was fine putting a spinach recipe on here. Perfect. Because there was certainly no iceberg lettuce to be had. None to be had. So, she had thought that through and was like, "Well, I'm going to help." With this iceberg debacle. Very smart. Mary's a thinker. I mean, she was on it. She was. Yeah. In the bowl, I have super lumpy parmesan cheese, quarter of a cup. Yes. I have the one package of It's one of those square frozen packages of spinach that I already squosed. Squosed. Yep. And we have less than a half of that gigantor onion cuz I didn't want to overwhelm the whole thing. Right. And let me see. Now we need to add in a cup of the stove top stuffing mix, which will not use it all up. So, I guess I'm having stove top stuffing this week. Well, hey, good for you. I know, right? That's always a win. And then we have to add the melted butter. And we have to scramble three eggs in a bowl and kind of pop that in there. Scramble, huh? Some people call it whisking. Did you know, Kristen? Nope. That spinach Let me I got to find my quote. Hold on a second cuz this is a fascinating Yeah. I'm fascinated right now. Shut up. Spinach was the first frozen vegetable sold for commercial use. And that's part of why spinach was such a big deal and why they would make spinach balls because they could actually use frozen spinach. That's right. It became real popular in the 60s because it was frozen and available to them. That's cool. I know. One more egg and then we'll do another one. We'll do the three. Let me make sure it is three eggs. Sometimes I'm crazy. Oh yeah. So it's actually it was I had to cut this in half and the eggs were the only one that was the problem. It was five eggs. Oh. So, I'm doing three cuz I figured more binding rather than less binding. I mean, I don't know. Should I try to do a half of an egg? This Mary's Memo. Was printed really small. I can only read like the first word of each paragraph. Mix. Don't Most. Yeah. I'm not very helpful from over here. No. Well, I've done it. It's all done since you've been talking. It's basically done. That's the way I like it. I know. I did bring a little scoop for us to help make the balls. Oh, that's right. And you know what I noticed as I was reading this right before we hit record is that we have to let this chill for a bit. Probably so that the melted butter kind of solidifies so we can turn it into the balls. So, since this was 1978, I, you know, looked up some fun stuff from 78. Okay. I would have been eight and you would have been five. And so, I thought it'd be fun to look up toys. Oh, okay. Yes. And so one of the things that I found was a Kotter's classroom. Oh my gosh. From Welcome Back Kotter. That's right. And it was a This is what it said. Thrilling playset with five realistic figures. Plus, here's all it had. It had a crap ton of stuff. Okay. Chairs, notebooks, desk, blackboard, chalk, globe, coat rack. But they were all little. They were all little. Yeah. I mean, I played school a lot when I was a kid. That would have been fun to be able. I mean, typically it was just us acting as the teacher and the students and everything. That's true. But to be able to make the dolls act like that, but I'll tell you what, I wasn't watching Welcome Back Kotter at 8 years old, you know. Yeah. They did have a Fonzi motorcycle and it had the picture was a Fonzi doll on the motorcycle. Super cool. I would have loved that. And then in the tiny fine print, it said Fonzi doll not included. Shut up. You just got the motorcycle. Yeah. So, how many parents wouldn't have read the fine print? They're hustling around. They're trying to get a birthday gift for their kid. They order the motorcycle from this catalog, wrap it up, their kid opens it, and it's just a freaking fracking motorcycle. And there's no Fonz. No Fonz. Lame. Lameo. Lameo. Yeah. So unless you bought your Fonzi doll separately, right? There was no Oh, I'm disappointed. Yeah. What if all they had was a Richie doll? Then what do you do now? You got to change the whole story line. Oh my gosh. That's just ridiculous. So, speaking of Fonzi. Yes. We went to Ohio. Okay. And my husband was searching through vinyl records and he found a delightful Fonzi Favorites. Look at that. It has Arthur Fonzerelli on the front, his big head, and there is actually a little easel. The way you can bust open the back to make it stand up like you have your own personal picture of Fonzi. I have to say that the first thing that struck me Yes. by looking at the front of the vinyl. Yes. Is you know how people get their teeth capped? It's a huge thing in Hollywood. Oh, yeah. I didn't realize they've been doing it for as long as they have. They look very capped. Those are some seriously capped teeth. Very rounded capped. Yes, indeed. I never noticed that on the show. I didn't either. Well, the picture of his head is the size of the album. So, it's huge. It is huge. You can see every pore on his nose. So, it says on the back, "No, the Fonz is not taken to singing on this album." Thank goodness. Better. He has chosen favorite 50s records to share with you. And oh, it's delightful. It has the Happy Days theme. It has Charlie Brown. He's a clown. It has splish splash. I was taking a bath. Has great ones, right? Are you going to sing them all for us? Are you ready? ba ba ba I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's the longest episode ever. And then it gets to the freaking Fonzerelli Slide. Okay. That's a song. It's a song. Like the Cha Cha Slide but with Fonzie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it also has the Welcome Back Kotter gang in it because the Welcome Back Kotter kids lived in the time of Fonzerelli. Right. Yeah. Of Fonzi. Yeah. And it was basically where Vinnie Barbarino and Fonz were deciding who's cooler and Arnold Horshack comes on first. He's like, "Oh my god, it's the Fonz Right. And uh it's a voice actor. You can totally tell it's not the guy who did Horshack. He sounded as Horshack as you. As Horshack as I did. Yes. And then Vinnie Barbarino comes. Hey everybody, it's me up your nose with a rubber hose. And it sounded just as much as I sound like Vinnie Barbarino as this voice actor did. And then the Fonz comes in. They say, "Hey everybody, it's me, the Fonz I'm the coolest. Do the Fonzie." And it totally wasn't the Fonz. That's awesome. It was so funny that I had to look it up online and I found somebody commenting on it. It said, "This piece of garbage was beyond crap."
You know you're in trouble when the voice actor has to announce who they are because otherwise they don't know that's right. And then on the back it says, "The last section on this album is an impressionist track containing the expressions aay cool nerd and sit on it." It was not the Fonz saying these. And the impressionist had obviously never heard Fonzi in his life because this is how it went. You hear the happy days theme in the background and he goes, Ayyyy "Sit on it.
Ayyyyyy Sit on it." Fonz didn't say it like that. No. Ayyyyy Sit on it. I wish you could see Kristen's facial expressions as she does her Fonzi impersonator impersonation. Yeah. It's really fantastic. It's fun. It's It's great. Yeah. So, I I am disappointed that I'm not getting to hear it. I know. I'll have to play it for you later. I'll play it for y'all later. Oh, stay tuned. I mean, could it be better than Kristen impersonating the impersonator impersonating Fonzi? No, it could not be any. I don't feel like it could. And now this episode's over, guys. And we're done. Sit on it. All right, the mix is mixed. So, I'm going to put this in the fridge for a bit. Let's go have some lunch. We're having spinach salads. Fantastic. No iceberg in our house. No iceberg. We're going to have to take vitamins for sure. For sure. We'll see you guys in a minute.
Okay, we are back. Here we are. Yeah, we had a delicious spinach salad for lunch. I hate spinach. Stupid diets. Iceberg lettuce. And now I think that the stuffing is well saturated and ready to go. Yeah. And kudos to Kristen. She really dried that spinach out real good. I did. I squeezed it hard There's no extra liquid in this at all. So, that's good. All right, we're going to try these cookie makers. Yeah, I thought that they would just make it just make it easy for the right size. Scooping the balls So, maybe that we'll we'll keep them the same size. Oh, it feels very wet, Carrie. It does. Is this going to be bad? I mean, how else would it stick together? I think I don't know. If it was all dry, that would be awful. This is going to make a crap ton of these. But I like this size that the cookie thingy. You know what we're talking about. It looks like a little baby ice cream scoop, right? I don't know what else to call it. A cookie thingy maker. One of the recipes I found actually recommended that you use these, which is why I thought of it. I like it because it makes the perfect bite. You could actually shove that whole thing in your mouth. Yep. Well, I told you that I researched 1978 toys. You did. Yes. Another toy that was on there that I think you might have had this. And I always wanted one. It was one of those little steel safe banks where it had the combination lock on the front of it. I did have one. And you know what's funny? What? My husband had one when he was a little boy and he still has it. No, we have it. Yes. No way. It I don't know. It has some random crap in it. Well, I mean, I'm sure it did when he was a little boy, too. That's fun. Uhhuh. Isn't that hilarious Oh, it's green. Yes. Kelly green. Oh, I thought those would be so fun to have. Yes. You know. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Does he still remember the combo from all those years ago? I I don't know. I don't know. That would be interesting. I just know that we have it. Wow. Uh-huh. Cuz like what a random thing to have maintain. Although he has quite a few toys and stuff from his childhood. That's really neat. I had a friend in high school. Her husband had all of his childhood toys. Yeah. And their boxes. What? Yes. I found this fascinating cuz as a child, who keeps the box right, as a child, our mom would not have let us keep the box. That sucker was going in the trash immediately upon opening. No way. You are absolutely correct. And I would have ripped the box to shreds. Oh, yeah. Getting into it to get to the the toy and Yeah. No, he carefully opened all of his toys boxes. Is he anal retentive as an adult? I don't know. I was I they got married young is when I knew him and I you know I don't know it wasn't anything that I recognized in him. Um but yes because they moved into a new house and she's like oh yeah we've got all this attic space. Look and I'm like what the heck are all these action figures in boxes. She's like ah that's him. He kept them all. I just thought that was fascinating. She clearly was far less fascinated by it than I was. But yeah. Oh that's cool. Wow. I think sometimes, oh, I wish I still had such and such. Yes. You know, well, my husband kept a bunch We have a whole display of the kids. Yeah. A million-dollar man. Oh, neat. Yeah. He was into Transformers. We have a bunch of his childhood Transformers. Now, mind you, they're all beat to crap. Oh, cuz he actually played with them, right? And so, Million-Dollar Man has lost his lost eye. Lost his lost eye. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. So, there were some other things in 78 that I thought would be fun to talk about. Okay. Basically, what I hear you saying is, "Shut up, Carrie. I'm ready to move on." Shut up. Shuttin up. Yes, indeed. They were actually words that were first in print in 1978. What does that have to do with toys? It doesn't. I said it was from 1978. Moving on. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Your story was boring. I am now moving on to things that were first in print in 1978. Things that people might care about, right? Which they don't. I mean, not your stories, mine. Million-dollar man lost his eyes. Blah blah. Okay, moving on. The first time the word bed and breakfast was used was in 78. Really? Yeah. I thought that it was used a lot longer than that. Right. What did they call them before? I don't know. Houses to stay at. I was going to say whore house. I I don't I don't think they're whore houses. They're not. What kind of bed breakfast are you staying at?
Oh my gosh. Another one that was brand new for 78. Eye Candy. Eye Candy came out. Huh. Yes. I mean, there was eye candy before 1978. There was certainly some hello early Tom Selleck. No kidding. Right. But yes, nobody called him. Eye candy. That's right. Tom Selleck wouldn't have been the one in 78. Who would have been the hottie mchotterson? John Travolta would have been the hottie mchotterson in 78. Yeah. When would Magnum have come out? It was 70s. That was 80s. Oh, was it really? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, we'll have to look that up. The last one that was on the list was Bodice Ripper. What? Yes. This is What is that? You don't know what a bodice ripper is? Did you read bodice rippers? Oh, it's it's like cheesy romance. Cheesy romance that takes place during the time when they would have been wearing a bodice. Oh, I had never heard of that. Really? Yeah. Wow. It's been around since 78. Carrie, where have you been? You really have to pack these little suckers together because the onion likes to fall out. It does. They fit perfectly on the Yeah, we made two dozen. I think we may have made these bigger than Mary would have cuz if these make 70 and we halved the recipe and only got 24. Oh yeah, true story. Yeah, these are two bites. She must have made them like single bite. But you know, this is perfect because it fit perfectly on a single cookie sheet. Yes. But it may affect the baking time. Oh, for sure. Yeah, you're probably right. They're probably double the size of what they should be. I mean, that would have been tiny. Tiny. Single bite. Barely. Yeah. A manly man would have been like, "What the heck is this?" Right. Yeah. I had done some research on Are you going to pop them in the oven? I will, but I needed to hear your research first. Oh, on dips. Cuz I thought they might be nice to have like a little dip that you could, you know, my husband mentioned, are you going to make a dip for the spinach balls? He thought a horseradish type of dipping sauce would taste yummy with these. Maybe. Yeah. So, looking in the interwebs for suggestions, one of them suggested tzatziki sauce because they're relatively similar to a spinach Greek fritter. I love that idea. I love tzatziki. Yes, it is. So, I thought tzatziki was a great idea. And then I found a couple spinach ball recipes that came with a hot mustard dip. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. And they use vinegar and powdered mustard and you would like I'm going to call it bloom the powdered mustard in the vinegar and you'd let it sit for like 20 minutes. So it wasn't hot heatwise it was hot because the mustard and the longer you let it sit in the vinegar the spicier Oh my it would become Yeah. It was very interesting and I almost was going to spring it on you and be like do you have powdered mustard? I do. I have powdered mustard and vinegar. I'm kind of tempted if we should look it up and give it a try because it was such a unique sauce. I had it written down and then I was like, nah, she won't have powdered mustard. I do. So, I deleted it. But I bet I could find it again. All right, so we have it in the oven. We do. So, I think Carrie and I are going to go for a few minutes. Well, 20 minutes and make hot mustard sauce. Let's try it. I'm super excited. Let's do it. I love it when we go off script. I know she does. It It concerns me a little bit. She's very smiley about this one. Yeah. I think it's cuz there's mustard involved. I like mustard. I hate it, but we're going to try. Okay. Okay. See you later.
Well, hey everybody. The spinach balls are out of the oven and they look great, don't they? They do. Hello from over at the stove. Carrie's doing the cooking because I was so angry with her for doing nothing. I'm just kidding. She's going to cook the sauce because she can. She's a little nervous about it. Uh oh, don't burn the house down, Carrie. So, the sauce is not going to be exactly like what they said because you were supposed to bloom the dry mustard and vinegar overnight. Obvy, we're not doing that. Right. Right. And I couldn't find the exact recipe that I had found initially. Yeah. Which gave a lot more explanation as to why. So, we're relying on my memory to figure out why this is gonna be bad. Nobody knows. Nobody knows. So, the recipe has a half a cup of dry mustard, a half a cup of white vinegar, and then a half a cup of sugar, and oddly enough, an egg yolk. And so, we bloomed the mustard in the vinegar for I don't know what has it been 20 minutes, maybe. Maybe almost 24 hours. Almost 24 hours. And then Carrie is simmering it on the stove. It didn't have any directions for how long to simmer it. So, I think maybe just until the sugar dissolves and until we dip a finger in it and it tastes delicious, right? Yeah. So, it says simmer on low. So, I started it on low and I figure by the time it's simmering Oh, yeah. It'll have some It should be done. Right. Right. Okay. So, that is going to be fun to try. These spinach balls look gorgeous. And as they were cooking, they smelled like onion and garlic. They really look quite appealing. I cannot wait to try these. I don't know what your mother-in-law did, but I kind of feel like she had a bootleg recipe. Yeah, she might have used the one with the flour because like we said, nothing can be horrible with stove top stuffing in it. Right. Amen. Yeah. And actually, if you guys do go to the website and take a peek at the picture of the spinach balls, I do have them on a little green plate that used to be my mother-in-law Sally's in homage to her and the greenness of spinach. Oh my gosh, Kristen. Oh, yeah. So, you know what we should have done? What? We should have taken extra spinach and dyed a napkin. Oh, you're right. Because you could use spinach dye for so much cakes, cookies, tea, all of these options. What a golden opportunity we missed. Oh my gosh. Do you remember when we were kids at school and we had to do a project on a piece of paper that looked old like parchment paper? You would dip the paper in tea and then let it dry and then burn the corners. Did you ever make parchment paper like that? I vaguely remember. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So fun. Yeah. So, speaking of the 70s, elementary school and stuff, I have a couple other ' 70s facts I want to see if you remember and if our audience remembers. So, maybe you don't remember. I I like the way you said that. I want to see if you remember, Carrie. Or more importantly, not you. Exactly. Okay. Do you remember this song? Okay. Hey, Duso, come on out. No. Oh, I have no idea what that is. It was Duso the Dolphin. He was a puppet. And the school counselors would come into the class and they would do this little puppet show and it was all about self-esteem and all these great things. No. Oh, they did not care if people in my class had self-esteem. Well, apparently not. Success. Exactly. Winner winner chicken dinner. Carrie hates herself. Yep.
I'll just stand by the stove. Stir your dang mustard sauce, Carrie. Great idea, Carrie. So, you don't remember do you saw the Dolphins? I do remember peeking at my friend Tara Able's Yes. grade card because it was the number one on the, you know, in the stack and she always got A's, so I knew she'd have all A's and it would be no big deal. Yeah. And then getting caught by another student who shall remain nameless who ratted me out. What a jerk. I know, right? And then I got in trouble for not respecting other people's privacy. Oh, Carrie. And I'm like, but Tera's my friend. She won't care. She care. She's going to tell me she got all these anyway. Big shocker. I know, right? Yeah. No, apparently it was a big deal. Oh my gosh. The rat. Marcy the rat. So, Carrie, how's the sauce? It's ready to go. Okay, let me get a bowl. Yeah. And maybe something long and flat. I we're going to have to cool it off, I think. All right. Okay. So, as we have mentioned in previous episodes, yes, Carrie does not have a large fondness for mustard, right? So, why did you want to make this then? I don't know. Cuz it's what people made and I thought it was fascinating with the blooming it in the the vinegar. And it smells so good. Smells very mustardy and vinegary. It smells to me like a honey mustard salad dressing. Like the perfect thing to have on a spinach salad. There's no honey. No, but the sugar. Yeah. Okay. So, the question is is do we pop this bowl in the freezer for just a moment to try and touch? Okay. Kristen's just going to go right in. You may be surprised to know I am not putting mustard on my finger and then putting it in.
Okay. You know the hot mustard they have for your egg rolls when you get Chinese food? Yeah. it Like that. But a little bit sweet. Oh, Carrie, that's mustardy. You are not going to like this. The look on her face, her little head like twitched to the right and then everything puckered. Oh my goodness. That mustard is It's not spicy, but it's that punch in the face. Really? It's a punch in the face of mustard. This tastes delicious. Oh, great. So, let's try the spinach balls alone. Yes. And then we'll try I'm way nervous about trying them. It was all your idea. It was. It was. All right. I'm going to go first. Yeah, you should. Absolutely. So, they look a little crispy on the outside, a little soft on the inside. She's given a thumbs up, nodding her head. Yes. Her face has not puckered with a little head twitch like it did with the mustard sauce. This is definitely a two bite. Wow. They are super salty in a good way. Okay. Like Parmesan cheese salty. Like we added salt and garlic salt for Okay. And was it salted butter? Yes. Okay. So, that is quite a bit of salt. They're very salty but very good. Oh my gosh. It seems like a nice little treat to take to a party with. They I I don't know that I would call them healthy, right? But they're not because of the butter, right? But you're I mean they're not not healthy. And the fact that you're getting spinach Well, you wouldn't have to go home and take a vitamin pill, right? They're no iceberg lettuce, but but you know, they'll do in a pinch. Taste one. They're crispy on the outside. They're tender on the inside and that punch of salt. I hate it when little appetizers are not flavorful enough or not salty enough or if you're gonna have a sweet one, not sweet enough. Give me some dang flavor in a my bite-sized food. Right. That's great, isn't it? Yeah. That is really good. All right, I'm going to try just a small amount in this mustard. I I may run out of the room. Um, it's going to zap you. Okay. I mean like Oh, she didn't even take like the head of a pin. You know, when you're a little kid and you're afraid of the spice of the salsa. Yeah. So, you take this giant chip and you dip like one little corner and then you ting to get all the salsa to fall off. That's kind of what I do with the mustard. You know, they say there's two types of salsa eaters. There's people who scoop it on in and there's people who dip it in the liquid part and tap tap tap. Yeah. What do you think, Carrie? She's actually shaking her head. Her eyes didn't go big. Her ears didn't have steam coming out and they didn't go aooga. That is delicious. Really? I can't wait to try it. I would go heavier than I did because you'll like the flavor of it. I got just a little. It was just the right amount of flavor of that mustard without being overpowering for me. That upped the the delightness of those things quite a bit. I don't think I'd make the recipe without the dipping sauce. It's excellent. You know how my husband said horseradish? It kind of gives that idea. It's kind of um a little spicy, a little punchy in the mouth. Mhm. I I like it. I think it would be better than the tzatziki. I agree. Why do you have little half eaten balls sitting? Because I didn't want to double dip. Could you not just dip the part that you didn't eat? Well, it's so small. I was afraid it would all crumble into the bowl. You know what? Moving on. I'm just looking. Nobody needs to know about this. Carrie, why did you bring this up? I'm taking a picture. What the heck? Nothing here. I shoved the balls in my mouth no picture here. So, she has like these little I don't know quarter size chunks of spinach ball just sitting on the counter next to everything. And so, I go to take a picture so I can mock her publicly. She shoved them in her mouth as fast as humanly possible. I am never going to try to be nice and not double dip for you again, Carrie. I'm going to try one more. And I'm dipping it in that stuff. Okay, let's give it a try. Dip it. Dip it. I see like are those clumpies of mustard or something that we didn't get stirred in. Well, yeah, Carrie did this. So, surprise. It could be little chunks of egg. Ewww Yeah. Yeah. Look, I really went for broke. Oh, okay. She really dipped it pretty well. I'm dying to see what she says. A got a lot of mustard. Yeah, but it's not your yellow mustard type of taste to that. That really is like the the mustard you'd put on an egg roll and then mixed with a little vinegar and sugar. So, it's got that type of punch to it. It is far more honey mustard, which I do like. Yeah. Than mustard mustard. But that had just a little too much a little too much for you. A little too much mustard flavor. But my mouth watered. Oh my gosh. I think tzatziki sauce would also be a delicious just a different variety of it. Yeah. They are kind of rich. Yeah. The balls are. And so I wasn't sure if the richness of the tzatziki might be delicious and cool and but you know, who knows? You do whatever you want. You do you, boo. That's right. But these are good. They are good. And I'm dipping them in that mustard sauce. Heck yeah. Yum. Yum. Look at me, Mom. I'm eating mustard. Definitely make these. The balls were easy peasy lemon squeezy. The mustard sauce would be super easy, too. If you actually heard about it the night before, if you have to whip it up in 12 minutes, it works just fine. It really is delicious in 12 minutes. And it's supposed to store for like a month. That's awesome. So, I mean, and then the little balls you can make in advance. Oh, freeze them. Oh my gosh, that's perfect. And I would eat that sauce on chicken nugs. Oh, heck yeah. Happily. Absolutely. I would even dip little steak bites in that. Well, now you've ruined. Now we need to end this episode. All right, that's it for this episode, guys. Seriously, thanks so much for joining us. We are so happy that you joined us back again. You didn't have to. You could have run for the hills and said, "Those girls are crazy. Season four. Heck no." That's right. You could have just said, "I've had enough of Kristen." But you didn't. Aww Oh my gosh. Well, since you did come back, be sure to mark your calendars for our next episode, which will be on October 6th. However, there will be no advertising on social media for this episode, too, because I will be on a cruise to the Greek Isles. I mean, she's got her bikini picked up. Oh lordy no. She got her big sunglasses. She's going to be singing Mama Mia. That's right. Jackie Onassis. That's who I'm going to look like. They're just going to confuse you with her. Absolutely. I mean, she's not alive, is she? No. I don't think they'll confuse me. Oh my gosh. So, seriously, back to episode two. You really won't want to miss it, guys? Because we will be making a Michigan favorite. And the recipe looks amazingly delicious. Oh, it really does. Yeah. really looking forward to it. All right, see you after my cruise.
Thanks for listening to Mom's Wooden Spoon. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe. If you want a copy of this recipe or to see the pictures and other items from this episode, go to our website, momswoodspoon.com. If you'd rather, check us out on Facebook or Instagram. Pick your poison. Don't say poison. We're making food.
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