Waiter, There's a Groundhog in My Soup!

Ground Hog Soup Transcript

we've already talked about the fact that neither one of us really likes soup that much but I think I may have found a recipe that will help us fight the winter blues oh really yeah in fact I think if we eat this soup on a cloudy day we may be in for an early spring or that might just be a Soup-erstition oh man that is bad but what do we have to lose let's give it a shot [Music] welcome to Mom's wooden spoon get your apron on and your fanny flicker ready as we cook up some Nostalgia ooh yummy

hi this is Kristen and this is Carrie and today we are cooking a recipe from Mary's Memo of course of course October 30th 1978 ooh good year it was a good year it's one day before your what your fifth birthday fifth birthday oh my goodness and the title of the recipe is called groundhog soup ooh I saw a groundhog on my way here to do this today was sitting on the side of the road munching on the grass looking adorps oh my gosh they are so cute they are I watched a video where this man was having his garden just eaten like crazy I've seen this it's the cutest thing ever right it is so his garden is being just destroyed and he can't figure it out so he gets a motion activated camera and he puts it out you guys have probably heard this so cute and so he figures out long story short it's a groundhog oh but I mean it is like right up in the camera oh yes he ends up making a garden just for the groundhog and then he fences off his own garden so the groundhog leaves his alone yeah and lo and behold you know the cutest part of it is that the groundhog comes up right to the camera and just is chomp chomp chomp chomp chomp so cute and brings a friend he actually brings his little wife and then they end up bringing babies so cute it is so so cute he ends up naming them what yes he names uh the the little boy groundhog Chunk Chunk and he had the little wife Nibbles I feel like Pearl would be a good little cutie little groundhog name Chunk and Pearl that is cute yeah yeah no no its Chunk and Nibbles Nibbles is adorable that is I mean because they do and then the babies come and they fight over the food oh my gosh so cute you just want to eat their face off I've heard they're actually tasty I did not mean that by the way grill them up eat their face off now that you mention it I too heard they're kind of like rabbit oh yeah I guess so you know my husband he ate all kinds of wild game his mom would cook up all kinds of things he ate rabbit growing up they had Hasenpfeffer do you remember that from The Bugs Bunny cartoons it was a king and he said cook where's my lunch where's my dinner where's my Hasenpfeffer no you don't remember that no what did they say in the Laverne and Shirley Hasenpfeffer Incorporated oh

schlemiel schlimazel Hasenpfeffer incorporated

its really close that's hilarious apparently they enjoyed along with their beer that they made at the Brewing Company they enjoyed a good rabbit stew yeah well of course what goes better with beer oh rabbit stew okay so let's get started

no groundhogs were harmed in making of this recipe either because I'm such a dummy I read this recipe and I thought this is perfect for Groundhog Day right so this is our Groundhog Day episode right perfect make groundhog soup who doesn't want to celibate celebrate Groundhog's Day without killing poor Punxsutawney Phil and eating em on up in a soup with some tomatoes and diced onions yeah yummo no no no well anyway that was my first thought right we'll eat some groundhog my first thought would have been where am I going to find groundhog um obviously on the road between your house and my house where you saw that one he was very much alive but then I looked at the recipe again and it's two words ground hog and then I looked up the recipe online and I'm like I'm a total idget well they spell it out for you online yeah so the world must be full of more eedgits than just you because they do spell it out unlike Mary who had a level of assumption that you were smarter than apparently you are online they do indicate ground hog haha sausage get it yeah pork sausage it's a ground hog yes well you know you get there I guess so it turns out I'm not the only one to make mistakes all right so this recipe has of course fresh bulk sausage that's our ground hog part and that has lots of veggies it has a whole onion that's chopped and then you saute that with the sausage which I'll get going in a minute the recipe is really weird it says a number two and a half can tomatoes what the heck is that I thought it was a thing it was a thing I looked it up I found a little chart that back in well what year was this 1978 and before that they actually numbered cans rather than just saying the number of ounces that were in them you would just go by a number two can or a number two and a half can or a number one can and basically they were numbered so that it was the typical amount that you would put into something you were making so a traditional amount of corn that would feed a family of four was in a particular size of can right so uh the number two and a half size of can was fairly big and so they would generally put things like diced tomatoes in a number two and a half right right so number two and a half is actually equal to three and a half cups of the product or 27 to 29 ounces all right and so how many ounces in your big old can my big old can has 28 right in the middle oh so it's not that different no it's really not that different they've just stopped kind of numbering them that way right but I thought that was so cool that was cool to find out that that's the way our grandma well our grandma didn't cook but if she did if she did oh when she got out the can of tuna to put it in the middle of the table for us to have some protein with our meal it would have been a number one can of tuna probably or smaller if they had yeah number point two can I don't know here you go folks need some protein that was the worst the worst just dig on into this can of cold tuna it was it was room temp it was tuna and I was a kid I'd only ever had tuna fish in tuna fish salad in Miracle Whip of course oh yeah with other things in there yeah I had no idea how strong and disgusting yeah tuna fish was just plain tuna it's just salty not my favorite so I think we probably had on the plate if I remember correctly we had Kraft mac and cheese we had canned beets that were then oozing their pink juice into the mac and cheese and the mac and cheese was real runny oh because she made it with reconstituted powdered milk always powdered milk yes yes I mean she grew up in the depression you can't afford to let milk go bad right so you buy the powdered milk right right so it was mac and cheese made with powdered milk yeah and then the beets and then she realized there wasn't enough protein because she was a nurse and protein builds your muscles big and strong yes it does so she just opened a can of tuna stuck it in between us help yourselves girls yeah so you mentioned the reconstituted milk yeah and the memories of Grandma's flooded back and so I remember for breakfast I learned very quickly to ask for french toast oh because grandma could make good french toast yep and otherwise she had the cheapest cereal they sold and it was these Puffs like corn Puffs yeah wheat puffs or corn Puffs in the big giant bag right that had been the bag had been open for all eternity they were stale grain Puffs chewy you'd have to make yourself some reconstituted milk which you didn't know how to do right and so she said oh just take a little scoop yeah so it was weak  weak weak terrible tasting yeah and then as soon as that dry stale cereal hit your milk water it would melt milk water

so we learned yeah that if you were gonna drink anything at Grandma's you'd make up some milk water and then you would get Quick Strawberry Quick oh yes we just called pink milk yeah and you would make pink milk at Grandma's that's what made it drinkable I remember that ooh yummy and then we would drink our milk in those Apollo glasses that she had you remember those glasses she had that celebrated the moon landing oh yeah you found some recently put them on our Facebook I did I did they're on Facebook and Insta if you guys want to see those our grandma had that oh and sometimes if we were lucky she had this little creamer like you used for your tea or coffee shaped like a cow and it would pour out of its mouth we could sometimes drink our pink milk out of that um who doesn't want pink milk out of a cow super cool and not it's udder the milk came out of its mouth let me get up on under there and suckle

oh stop

ok it all went south with suckle moving on that word suckle is just creepy in and of itself it is so Kristen's peeling potatoes and I mean actually I'm gonna get started on the onion because we've got to get that in the snausage okee doke and I am going to take care of some green pepper all right so just a half I don't think I finished telling everybody what was in this we got talking about the cans okay so it actually calls for a quart of water but our mom went in and scratched out one quart and put two cups well let's go with Mom you know what we should have gone with Mom on the 24-hour party salad yep because it was way too much mayonnaise in the dressing yep all right so okay one cup diced potatoes a half a green pepper a bay leaf that makes everything delicious and then just salt garlic powder thyme pepper and Carrie's favorite two cans of kidney beans so this is a texture thing for me I think it is for a lot of people the flavor is fine I don't like with red kidney beans in particular the skin is very tough and so you kind of have to pop through it to the mush on the inside yeah I think we've talked about that before how is it like eating a bug right it just creeps me out I have not eaten bugs but if I did I would assume they're a lot like a red kidney bean yeah but worse flavor but I have learned that there are various kinds of kidney beans and I spy with my little eye that you got light red kidney beans my most favorite sister it's because I know you and love you yes you had told me once that the light kidney beans just don't feel as nasty in your mouth it's like the lighter the kidney being color the softer the skin yes I don't quite get it and you're okay with pinto beans too yeah well they are the magical fruit well they really are yeah do you remember this salad that mom used to make she would take it to all kind kinds of functions that you had to take a meal it was quick and easy three bean salad I do I actually really enjoy three bean salad but I can see why you as a child would not enjoy that the three bean salad my mom made they recommended that you get the stuff out of the can so she would dump a can of red kidney beans well that was the point it was so easy yeah and so you dump a can of red kidney beans a can of green beans and a can of wax beans yes which I cannot really think of a much worse name for a kind of bean like who wants to eat waxed beans right I mean I enjoyed those wax lips you got at Halloween I didn't even like those they had a funky flavor but I I enjoyed chewing them oh and how about those wax bottles filled with juice it's

Nik L Nip Nik a Nip Nipple Nip I said nipple oh my gosh my son ended up loving those when he was little yes not my fave no I didn't care for that that wax did not have any good flavor in it was just plain wax as a kid that's probably what I thought like the beans just had this waxy right consistency because they were basically just like green beans they just were yellow and then you'd make this little Tangy sauce apparently this was quite a thing in the 50s in the 50s it was from the 50s this recipe that just went on and on wow great for a picnic you could leave these beans sitting out in your tangies because it wouldn't go bad the vinegar there's no mayo or anything in it right you know I was noticing as we were going through all the Mary's memos there were so many marinated salads the 70s were and and early 80s were so big on that yes okay well I have the onion chopped I'm gonna get this in the pan we're going to get cooking and then basically after you cook the sausage and onions together I think it's just dump it all in the pan yes and start cooking and while you do that I'm going to keep chopping and doing all that kind of stuff and I wanted to talk to you guys about some cool things that came out in 1978. so one of the things I found is that the very first syndicated Garfield comic strip came out in 1978. oh and Odie and John oh yes and lasagna lasagna and Garfield's girlfriend do you remember Garfield had a girlfriend oh yes her name was Arlene and I had an Arlene really stuffed animal and she you know she was small kind of a little bigger than a beanie baby let's say and Arlene was pink and she had this really long neck and she had big red lips I thought she was so cute so here's the most important question of the Arlene doll did we ever lay in bunk beds you on the bottom bunk me on the top bunk and decide to have a fake fight over Arlene where you pulled down and I pulled up accidentally splitting your most beloved stuffed animal of all time in half no that was Blueberry it was I don't know if you remember those dolls that you would buy or your mom would buy fabric that had the doll printed on it front and back and then she cut it out sew it together stuff it and then you'd have this doll yes so Kristen had a blue bear yes named Blueberry I had like a Raggedy Ann type a bootleg Raggedy Ann bootleg Raggedy Ann yeah named Sally that's right that I adored yes I would chew on Sally of gosh gross so we got multiple iterations of Sally yeah she got way too nasty to continue on uh hum she did not taste as good when she was new I'll have you know oh oh oh well Blueberry ripped in half you got his head and I got his bottom or vice versa that sucker has haunted me ending up with Blueberry's head in my hands and the I mean it was I remember we were just having fun there was no malice involved at all no horror it was a moment frozen in time we both were frozen aghast oh I yes I mean just thinking back I mean my stomach is rolling it was horrible that I had participated decimation of Blueberry later on maybe at least a decade ago or more I found the fabric for Blueberry on eBay and I bought it and our mom made me another one oh that's awesome and I love that Mom made it for you I know okay so the meat is looking good it smells really snausagey I can hear it snizzlin yeah so I'm gonna go ahead and measure some spices okay and we're just dumping everything into the pot while the meat is finishing up cooking on the stove so we have the pot in front of us we've added the diced potato we have the green pepper in and Carrie is adding ooh a lot of salt which is it is which is important for soup well you know Carrie yes Kristen hee hee hee Kristan Kristan Groundhog Day is based on a Superstition of course right and so I was really really interested in superstitions and so as I was researching I came across what the largest superstitions from each state in the United States are and so I wrote down Ohio and Georgia's but if you guys are interested we'll include the link on our website how cool okay so I want to hear what you yes okay so the biggest Superstition in Ohio OK is if you spill salt you have to throw some over your left shoulder salt was so highly prized Roman soldiers were given the salt ration and it was called a Solarium and that's where the term salary comes from well Isn't that cool yeah so salt was so important that if you spilled it it was really really bad and so that's how that Superstition came about well that's odd though because you spilled some salt it's really bad so you're going to waste more salt right by throwing ot over your shoulder yeah kind of weird that is all right so that's Ohio so that's Ohio's and then don't put the beans in they go in at the very end on my Lord I almost did something really bad we almost had an emergency here people Kristen was going to be picking beans out of this soup it says add remaining ingredients with the exception of kidney beans yeah whoopy daisy yeah thank you you caught me oh gosh that was so lame she goes thank you you caught me and held her hand up in a stop-like motion I was like oh she wants to high-five me for my amazingness and just as I went to give her a really lame high five because her hand was pretty low she moved her hand away that was pretty harsh we high-five all the time not at all never that's kind of athletic and Kristen steers away oh I don't do that I would miss I would hurt myself oh goodness okay so Georgia's Superstition is really neat I had never heard of this okay if a ladybug lands on you it's good luck oh yes you've heard of that of course wow all right I'm going to put the lid on this pot yes and it has to simmer for two hours Kristen we are going to get to do so much talking oh my gosh guys let me get it on and then do I have stuff to talk about with you all it has to do with tuna and it has to do with ladybugs and eating groundhogs oh yeah all right let me get the lid on this thing while you put that on since I did mention the eating groundhogs yeah I did want to mention so obviously the most famous groundhog in the world Punxsutawney Phil uh yes so in Punxsutawney there is or was I don't know if it still exists a Punxsutawney there is or was I don't know if it still exists a  Punxsutawney Groundhog Lodge oh really and back in the day they would have a groundhog picnic and guess what the main dish was at the groundhog picnic did they eat groundhogs they would go out hunting that's what the lodge did no they would go out hunting and catch themselves some groundhogs and then that's what they would eat while some of the folks were out hunting the groundhogs the people back at the lodge would drink groundhog punch oh oh wait oh no and so the article that I found information about groundhog punch in said it's a questionable sounding blend that's so gross

so let me tell you what is it this questionable sounding blend no groundhog oh thank gosh I was about ready to gag it is a vodka okay orange juice mmm hmm milk and raw egg Kristen would like some right now the orange juice with the egg and  the milk vodka orange juice and milk would make it kind of creamsically it's the egg creamsically creamsically and then I don't know the egg would make it frothy you know what maybe because back when we were first starting to do this Mary's memo great recipe Yes we made a punch called orange apricot flip and our friend Kyle looked up what a flip is okay right and so back a long time ago 1800s maybe earlier a flip would be a punch that had eggs in it and they would stick a really hot poker from the fire in and it would cause the egg in the punch to froth up not turn into scrambled eggs right who doesn't want their punch with a little scrambled egg yum yum yum it would be like like apricot orange egg drop soup oh only cold I don't know they did not call this a flip oh we need to make some right now to eat with our groundhog soon we're not going todo that oh my gosh no well I did read you know talking about eating the groundhogs that they actually are pretty tasty the internet said they're tender and delicious if properly cleaned and prepared oh not quite sure what that meant how do you would not properly clean and prepare it oh no and it gets even better they carry no life-threatening diseases for humans oh great so that's good it is good you know so no salmonella from the groundhog just from the punch from the punch people would be getting sick they'd be like man that groundhog soup made me sick had bad groundhog no it was the punch that's right all right well the soup is not quite simmering yet I have it on high the lid's on so we're gonna let that cook for about two hours yep and then we'll get back with you guys [Music] well the soup is ready it is it's not as watery as I thought it was going to be the broth is actually thickish looking to be perfectly honest it looks way more appetizing than I anticipated it looks way more appetizing than it did when we first put it in the pot that's for sure it was like milk water it was almost tomato water tomato water yeah so let's take a taste all right you've been stirring it maniacally well I've been stirring it because I'm afraid it's going to scald my mouth there is steam just billowing off of it right now it is uh nice and warm I will say that the beans do not look like light red kidney beans they look like plain old Jane old red kidney beans they do but this is yummy and the beans just dissolve in your mouth there's no pop give it a try oh lovely all right now I will say that when measuring out the spices it did call for an eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder wow and I grabbed a little quarter teaspoon and I'm filling it up halfway and I thought what are you doing Carrie it's garlic just go for the whole quarter teaspoon whoa you are wild and crazy and I didn't even tell you I just no oh yeah I went off book and I just went ahead and threw it in there well it's delicious Carrie' scalding the roof of her mouth she's gonna have dangly flesh tomorrow what'd you think Care it was way better than I anticipated it would be the sausage made it it is delicious I mean in picking the recipes that we were going to do um hum we tried to have a nice balance of various types of foods appetizers desserts as well as those we expected to be delicious yes and those we did not expect to be delicious right and this absolutely fell on those we did not expect to be delicious right and my what a pleasant surprise even with the extra garlic yes I would say Mom's change in addition to mine mmm hmm fabulous yes it is just the right amount of liquid it's hearty it's hearty it's more like a Chili than a vegetable soup yes yes and my fear was that it would be a very thin watery soup not my favorite good call Mom yay mom yeah that was a good change and we applaud you for it she might not think that she's the greatest cook in the world but I'll tell you she made some decent decisions yes all right yeah way to go Mom well on that note that's it for today episode thanks so much for joining us please head over to our website for lots of additional goodies and if you are enjoying our podcast please be sure to leave us a good review or some positive feedback every little bit counts

[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 see poison we're making food