Holiday Traditions Around The Table

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, Jen, it's that time of year again. It's the holiday food favorites marathon. [00:00:06] Speaker B: Dude, I don't. It's. I'm so not ready to think about the holiday food. [00:00:11] Speaker A: Well, it is on us. [00:00:12] Speaker B: Okay. I actually have to confess, we were actually holiday meal planning because we all get together, like, as family in October. [00:00:22] Speaker A: Jesus. [00:00:23] Speaker B: I know. It's crazy. [00:00:26] Speaker A: All right, well, let's get into it. Welcome to Modern Mixtape, Navigating parenthood. I'm your host, Jim, along with my wife Jenny. We're just two parents, born in the 70s, raised in the 80s, love music from the 90s, and raising kids in the 2000s. And frankly, just trying to figure it all all out. Let's dive into the mixtape of modern parenting. This is Modern Mixtape. Listen wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on all socials. So that is crazy that you guys start in October. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Okay. We have. It's great because we have a lot of family that gets together and we all kind of contribute. So it's kind of like potluck. [00:01:26] Speaker A: And so to make sure anytime we all get together, they all want to contribute. I know. [00:01:31] Speaker B: And. And I love that. [00:01:32] Speaker A: I do too. [00:01:33] Speaker B: But let's talk about, like, the holiday staples, because that's kind of how we start. So let's. And we're in. We're going to talk about this. [00:01:43] Speaker A: So traditional. [00:01:44] Speaker B: Traditional. [00:01:45] Speaker A: Not just staples. Traditional holidays in the vein of. Okay, so typical Thanksgiving. So typical Thanksgiving spread would be. Typical Thanksgiving spread would be for you. [00:01:58] Speaker B: What I would say for me, a turkey. [00:02:01] Speaker A: Okay. A turkey for sure. And then spiral ham. [00:02:06] Speaker B: No, you do not. Do. You don't do ham on Thanksgiving. You do ham on Christmas. [00:02:12] Speaker A: Okay. [00:02:13] Speaker B: And then I was agree to disagree. [00:02:19] Speaker A: Welcome to my side of the episode. [00:02:22] Speaker B: I would say green bean casserole. [00:02:25] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. Always. [00:02:28] Speaker B: Mashed potatoes. Or in your case, you said pan fried potatoes. [00:02:35] Speaker A: Roasted potatoes. But, you know, again, if you have green beans, you have roast potatoes. You can have. You have all kinds of stuff with roast potatoes. It depends on the family members. [00:02:46] Speaker B: Oh, we forgot a whole class of potatoes stuff. Scallop potatoes. [00:02:54] Speaker A: Scalloped potatoes. Not necessarily a staple at Thanksgiving or Christmas. [00:03:00] Speaker B: I think they go with ham. [00:03:03] Speaker A: Okay. Again. [00:03:04] Speaker B: Okay. [00:03:05] Speaker A: Not really a staple at my house. [00:03:06] Speaker B: Okay, so we'll take them off the staple. [00:03:08] Speaker A: No, no, no, that's fine. No, you. [00:03:09] Speaker B: Okay. [00:03:09] Speaker A: No, no, no. We grew up in two separate houses. It's fine. [00:03:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know if they were my dad, so. My dad actually really hated potatoes, like, vehemently. [00:03:21] Speaker A: No, I know this story. [00:03:23] Speaker B: He put them under the plate of his rim. So I don't. Yeah. [00:03:29] Speaker A: How he got away with it boggles my mind. [00:03:31] Speaker B: I don't know. I think it was because the. And God bless my grandmother, but the potatoes she made were like wallpaper paste. She used the box kind like the flakes, you know? So I think that's how he got away with pasting them under the rim of the plate. [00:03:46] Speaker A: Well, if you let anything sit there long enough, it'll hard. Right. [00:03:50] Speaker B: Okay. Another staple. [00:03:53] Speaker A: Stuffing, obviously. [00:03:55] Speaker B: Okay. One kind of stuffing, like, just like, stovetop. [00:03:59] Speaker A: Listen, until I married you, there was not another version of stuffing. [00:04:03] Speaker B: Okay. Well, I grew up, like, my mom's from the east Coast. We always had multiple kinds of stuffing, like, weird stuffings, like oyster stuffing. [00:04:14] Speaker A: No offense, Mom. [00:04:16] Speaker B: No, there was like, she's going to. [00:04:17] Speaker A: Hear this and go, jen, I didn't think it was that weird. [00:04:20] Speaker B: No, there was, like, oyster stuffing and, like, stuffing with sausage in it, and then there was the stuffing that came out of the turkey. [00:04:26] Speaker A: Your childhood, I swear to God, was so different from mine, and yet it's so similar. [00:04:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:33] Speaker A: When it came to food, yours, total opposite end of the spectrum. How do you have three different stuffings? [00:04:39] Speaker B: Because, like, we have. [00:04:41] Speaker A: Somebody's just an overachiever. I mean. [00:04:42] Speaker B: No, we have, like, the east coast contingent of my family, and that's, like, what they did. And then we have, like, the west coast contingent who's like, dude, stove top. [00:04:51] Speaker A: Well, my contingent was stovetop. [00:04:54] Speaker B: Okay. [00:04:55] Speaker A: Canned green beans, if you were lucky, stuffing category. [00:04:59] Speaker B: Some sort of stuffing. [00:05:00] Speaker A: Yes, some sort of stuffing. [00:05:02] Speaker B: Okay. And then pies. [00:05:04] Speaker A: Yes. God forbid you show up with a cake. [00:05:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think that's like. [00:05:10] Speaker A: A pie is, like, an international staple. [00:05:12] Speaker B: Okay. [00:05:12] Speaker A: I'm sure somebody will comment and be like, no, it's not. [00:05:15] Speaker B: Or someone's gonna be like, how did you forget? Like, yeah, this. [00:05:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Again, comment. Let us know what we forgot. [00:05:21] Speaker B: So I think those are, like, the basic. [00:05:23] Speaker A: Okay. [00:05:24] Speaker B: Staples. [00:05:25] Speaker A: Those typically are pretty basic. [00:05:28] Speaker B: Okay. Of those staples. [00:05:30] Speaker A: Oh, Jesus. [00:05:33] Speaker B: Which ones do we now make for our kids? [00:05:36] Speaker A: Okay, so on top of it being a staple, there are also different versions. Most people have a traditional turkey where they just, you know, they stuff it, whatever, and they throw it in the oven for goodness knows how long. [00:05:53] Speaker B: We. [00:05:53] Speaker A: We don't do that anymore since we have moved here. [00:05:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:59] Speaker A: The condensed version now is you spatchcock it and we smoke it. [00:06:07] Speaker B: I will never. [00:06:08] Speaker A: That was awesome. [00:06:09] Speaker B: I will never do another turkey in the oven. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Traditional. [00:06:13] Speaker B: Yeah, traditional. Since we got our Traeger. And it. Honestly, it has to do with why heat up the damn house. [00:06:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:21] Speaker B: When you can put it out on the smoker. [00:06:23] Speaker A: Well, again, wrong time of year here. It could be second summer. It could be 80. [00:06:29] Speaker B: Yeah. And. And number. Number two of not heating up the house. When you're cooking for a lot of people, you need oven space. And granted, I have, like, I have two ovens, but still. [00:06:42] Speaker A: Like, see, if we had video, you'd have seen me throw up too. [00:06:47] Speaker B: Why turn them all on and just throw it on the smoker? Plus, it tastes so much better. [00:06:53] Speaker A: It does. Okay, so everything's better smoked. [00:06:56] Speaker B: So we make the turkey. [00:06:58] Speaker A: Yes. [00:06:59] Speaker B: The green bean casserole. [00:07:00] Speaker A: I have to say, smoking the turkey, that's. I mean, can we just ponder on this? Let's just take a minute. Have a moment of silence for enjoying a smoked turkey, because it is unbelievable. [00:07:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:13] Speaker A: It's good stuff. I don't think I'll ever eat an oven roasted turkey ever again. [00:07:17] Speaker B: No. [00:07:18] Speaker A: As long as there's a Traeger or a way. [00:07:22] Speaker B: We do do mashed potatoes. [00:07:24] Speaker A: Okay, so you said we do do mashed potatoes. You said green bean casserole. Is that what you said? [00:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:30] Speaker A: You throw that in there? [00:07:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:32] Speaker A: So much to Jenny's chagrin. [00:07:35] Speaker B: So I grew up my mom, as much as I just made fun of her a couple minutes ago for the multiple stuffings, My mom is a fabulous cook. [00:07:44] Speaker A: Oh, you both are. And it's fun to watch you two get together so you don't ever leave the kitchen. It's great. [00:07:51] Speaker B: I try my best to not give my family a lot of, like, sodium. And if you guys listen to the first season, you heard us make fun. No offense, Campbell's soup, but of condensed. [00:08:05] Speaker A: Those things are high in sodium. Okay, let's see. [00:08:08] Speaker B: Products, they are tremendously high in sodium. So if you know how to make green bean casserole, you generally use a can of cream of mushroom soup. Well, I know how to make green bean casserole with fresh green beans. You make a cream of mushroom sauce with fresh mushrooms. [00:08:24] Speaker A: Not everybody's doing that. [00:08:25] Speaker B: Okay, well, I shout out to my. [00:08:28] Speaker A: Wife for doing that. Yay. [00:08:30] Speaker B: I did that a couple Thanksgivings. And generally we'll try and do that all from scratch. [00:08:36] Speaker A: And it's well received. [00:08:37] Speaker B: Okay. Last year, I kind of mailed it in. It was just like a crazy year. I don't know what was going on. I think I even bought canned green beans, like, mailed it in. The kids were all like, this is the most amazing green bean casserole I have ever Had. It was like a fricking sodium bomb. We all should have had a side of blood pressure medicine after they ate it. And I was like, crushed. [00:09:01] Speaker A: Sidebar. What did you put on Jimmy's food the other night that he was like, oh, I'm so glad you put this on. It was crunchy. Was it like, dried onions or something like that? [00:09:09] Speaker B: I don't know. It's probably a side of msg. [00:09:12] Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know. That was a great meal, too. But he was all excited about something. I didn't know this could taste that good. I love it when comments like that come down the table, and I'm just like, what the. Did he get something I didn't get? Is there something going on over there? Is he in an alternate universe? We've had this twice now or three times. [00:09:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't. Green onions. I don't know. [00:09:35] Speaker A: Maybe that's what it was. I don't know. Something was crunchy. [00:09:37] Speaker B: And I think my lesson from that is sometimes elevating the staples is just, like, not a good call. [00:09:44] Speaker A: Like, it's good for you. [00:09:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like when you kind of take the traditional mashed potatoes and put a bunch of stuff in them sometimes just like the classic mashed potatoes are good. Which we also make for our kids. [00:09:55] Speaker A: Okay, so let's revisit the stuffing. [00:10:00] Speaker B: Yes. [00:10:01] Speaker A: So when we first got together, you. This is going to be so great. You told me the first Thanksgiving we had, you were like, oh, does your family do the stuffing where, like, they make it in the turkey? And I said, yeah. And I got all excited, and you turn your face inside out. Was like, ah. And I was like, I think I just offended her. I was like, that is. I don't even know if that's possible to offend somebody about stuffing. But, I mean, in my house, just don't forget the stovetop. You know, it doesn't matter. Just get it in the bird, around the bird, near the bird somewhere, Put it in the same oven as a bird. Just get it in there. But, yeah, I mean, you seem, like, appalled that it was going in this raw bird carcass. And I guess hindsight, I was like, oh, I never even thought of it that way. [00:10:54] Speaker B: Well, if you don't cook a turkey right, the stuffing that can go in the bird, you absolutely can get food poisoning from it, number one. [00:11:02] Speaker A: Not when you cook it all. [00:11:04] Speaker B: And then I have grown to know your family, and there is absolutely zero chance of that happening. [00:11:11] Speaker A: My mother, God bless her for Christmas I got, you know, I gotta get up early and start the. Start the bird. I swear she put it on like, 100 degrees at like 3 in the morning, maybe 150. And she cooked that thing. Literally, by the time people got there, I was like, that thing's gotta be dry. It's gotta be. There's gotta be no moisture in it at all. [00:11:32] Speaker B: Turkey jerky. [00:11:34] Speaker A: Wow. And then the stuffing was in there. [00:11:37] Speaker B: Well. And now, you know, that stuffing in my family was kind of a big deal. And we had. That's why I revisited sometimes four, because I forgot. Actually, the other stuffing alternative was cornbread stuffing. [00:11:49] Speaker A: Oh, I love cornbread stuffing. [00:11:50] Speaker B: So we had. [00:11:51] Speaker A: I didn't know that it was an alternative. I thought Stovetop made a cornbread stuffing. Was I wrong? [00:11:56] Speaker B: Oh, no. Like, we would make the cornbread. Dry it out. [00:12:00] Speaker A: I mean, like, okay, that's extra. That's. You're going. You're doing too much. [00:12:04] Speaker B: Have you met my mother? [00:12:06] Speaker A: What? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. [00:12:12] Speaker B: The original trad wife over here. [00:12:15] Speaker A: God, you too? Yeah. But back then it was just called making dinner. [00:12:19] Speaker B: Yeah. No, it really is. I'm so far from that. [00:12:22] Speaker A: I know. So funny. Oh, my goodness. [00:12:25] Speaker B: So I think we do. And our kids really appreciate all those traditional things. And it's funny because if we venture away from them, like, it's like, wait, why? Why are we not doing that? And it's like this look of concern on their faces when we're not doing traditional. Those traditional. [00:12:47] Speaker A: Like, we've done this. [00:12:48] Speaker B: We've been looking forward to that all year. [00:12:51] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, yeah. We've have a good, long standing run with these kids. [00:12:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:56] Speaker A: Of doing this stuff. I was. I was really hoping to God you weren't gonna gloss over the mashed potatoes. Because over the years, it's become a great thing for me and also the bane of my existence. At one point, I was not living at home and came home for Christmas dinner. And my mom, in all her glory, had two other people in the kitchen. And you know what happens when there's more than one person running everything in the kitchen? There was. What do you call those when you have those long squares of butter? How much of butter is that? [00:13:36] Speaker B: One stick of butter is half a cup. [00:13:39] Speaker A: So one of the ladies that was in there with my mom, one of her roommates, put a stick of butter in and yelled, marilyn, I put in one stick of butter. It still doesn't taste right. I'm gonna add another. To which I got up out of my chair and When I have to go in the kitchen. This is insane. I walked into. I'm gonna go ahead and add a third one. This isn't. It's not there yet. And I went. You put three sticks of butter in that. I mean, it looked like potato soup and butter. [00:14:12] Speaker B: Okay, well. [00:14:13] Speaker A: And I was blown away. [00:14:14] Speaker B: Your mom and my grandmother, very much same generation. But, like, my grandmother made mashed potatoes from the, like, Oreita, like, potato flakes. And I don't even think most people nowadays would know what. [00:14:30] Speaker A: My mom boiled them, peeled them. [00:14:31] Speaker B: Well, so at least your mom started with, like, actual potatoes. My grandmother started with, like, potato flakes. And you poured them. You, like, poured these flakes from a box, and then you rehydrated them. [00:14:44] Speaker A: I bet you we could make something. [00:14:45] Speaker B: Really cool with them, like, with water. And so, like, if you didn't get the consistency right, it could, like, paste. It could be, like, wallpaper paste. But so she'd, like, rehydrate them, and then she would add, like, butter or, like, margarine to it. And so sometimes they'd be a little soupier, sometimes they'd be. But that was kind of her. Her thing. So definitely from the same generation. [00:15:09] Speaker A: So for sure. It's just funny. So that would be. That would fall in the category of staples that went wrong. [00:15:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So sure. It's. And we've talked about, like, things from our childhood. Like, you know, I used to love Kit Kats. We just had Halloween. I used to, like, think Kit Kats were really great. [00:15:27] Speaker A: And now you're like, oh, look, it's a wafer and chocolate. This is. [00:15:30] Speaker B: And it's not even good chocolate. So it's, like, holiday staples from our childhood that we thought would be good, but now I'm just like, I cannot. [00:15:38] Speaker A: You have a more refined palate for junk food. That's what's going on here. [00:15:43] Speaker B: And I think I have a more refined palette for, like, do holiday foods. Because one of the dishes from my childhood that my kids still like, that I'm like, immediately know, oh, no. Is the. [00:15:56] Speaker A: Is it yellow? Is it orange? [00:15:57] Speaker B: It's the. It's the dish with, like. I think it's sweet potatoes, but with the, like, marshmallows on top. [00:16:04] Speaker A: But is it sweet potatoes or is it yams? [00:16:06] Speaker B: No, I think it's the candied yams. [00:16:09] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. Yeah. [00:16:10] Speaker B: And again, I tried to elevate it, because I think it is the candied yams in the can. I don't make it that way, because. [00:16:17] Speaker A: Elevate it. You mean put bigger marshmallows on it. [00:16:20] Speaker B: No, I at least use actual sweet potatoes and, like, roast them and so that maybe there's less sugar because there's already. [00:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it's way less. [00:16:30] Speaker B: There's already all the marshmallows on top. But I. I just. I can't go there. Like, the marshmallows. But the kids love it. [00:16:39] Speaker A: Of course they do. So on this list, I need to know what this corn dish is. Because when you said it, I thought you were gonna hurt yourself. You were laughing so, so hard. [00:16:49] Speaker B: Okay. So my mom, die hard, East Coaster. And her parents lived on the east coast when we were growing up. And every year, like, in the fall. [00:16:59] Speaker A: I swear, we're not just bashing our parents. No, I promise you. [00:17:02] Speaker B: No. But every year in the fall, her parents would send her this box of. Because she couldn't get it out here. Cause it's, like, literally, like, this east. It's like this traditional, like, east coast thing. This, like, box of, like, dehydrated corn. And the only thing. The only thing, I can equate it. [00:17:24] Speaker A: To potato flakes and dehydrated corn. [00:17:26] Speaker B: No, like, here in Texas, like, we sell, like, deer corn. Like, you put out to, like, feed the deer, like, when you're hunting. Yeah, the deer love it, but it kind of looked like that in a box. But then what she would have to do is rehydrate it. Like the day before. Like, she'd soak it in water, and then it would, like, become this, like, corn pudding y type of thing that she would, like, bake in the oven. But here's the funny part. So growing up, we'd put out this, like, buffet down in my grandma's house. Cause I grew up on a ranch. And we'd all go down to the main house, and there'd be this, like, buffet and this, like, dining room. It was super cool. And. But then my mom would put out this corn pudding dish, and the only scoop out of it ever was my mom, so. And we'd walk down with this dish. And so now I think I'd probably like it because I'm older, but as a kid, I'm like, it's this, like, weird, not super sweet, not. And maybe if I added, like, jalapenos to it now I'd probably, like, really. [00:18:28] Speaker A: Like it, because that's, like, adding them to the cornbread. [00:18:31] Speaker B: Yeah. But, like, as a kid, it was just this, like. Dude, I'm not. I'm not touching that. That was so weird. [00:18:37] Speaker A: That's fair. [00:18:38] Speaker B: What about you? [00:18:40] Speaker A: Fruit salad. So to this day, this I don't understand. [00:18:43] Speaker B: Cuz I say fruit salad. I'm like, oh, I love fruit salad. [00:18:45] Speaker A: So to this day, you already know I have a very, very big disdain. [00:18:52] Speaker B: For walnuts, which I don't understand at all. [00:18:55] Speaker A: Again, when you're force fed them as a child, when, when your only request as a small child is, mom, can we have cookies without nuts? And she says, no, it's what makes them good. I'm like, no, no, the chocolate chips make them good. The walnuts can go away because they. And it's not like she diced them up like they were little guys. They were chunky, like they were bigger than some of the. The. They're bigger than some of the chocolate chips. It was bad walnut. [00:19:24] Speaker B: Walnut trauma. [00:19:26] Speaker A: Okay? And, and in all fairness, and you make fun of me now and I tell you that I don't mind walnuts. It's just when you're traumatized, you know. Oh my God, you know, I think. [00:19:36] Speaker B: You need to talk to your therapist. [00:19:37] Speaker A: So, so fruit salad, the first thing I ever asked my mom, the first time I ever watched her make it and like, realize what was going on, I was like, is that mayonnaise? And she goes, no, that's cool. [00:19:48] Speaker B: There was, there was mayonnaise in the salad. [00:19:51] Speaker A: No, I thought because it was white, it was mayonnaise. My dad loved mayonnaise, so I thought everything had mayonnaise in it, so I had to ask. And she was like, no, it's Cool Whip. And I was like, I got suspect after that. I went in the kitchen just to make sure that it was always Cool Whip. And it was. It was always Cool Whip. But I again, mom, you think maybe we could leave the walnuts out? No, that's what makes it good. All right, so, yeah, so fruit salad with walnuts in it, Whip and Cool Whip? [00:20:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. That's now sounding really not great. Okay, well, I don't know because I'm not a Cool Whip fan. [00:20:28] Speaker A: Yeah, well, that's, that's her version of. That's 80s version of whipping cream. Cool Whip. You put Cool Whip on everything? I put that stuff on everything. [00:20:38] Speaker B: So kind of in the same vein of the fruit salad for us was my grandmother and my mom and I think pretty much every family in growing up, like in our generation had some version of like a jello mold. No, your family didn't do jello molds? [00:20:59] Speaker A: No, no, no. My mother made jello and put fruit in it. [00:21:05] Speaker B: Okay. So we always, while it was setting up, so that way we always had some at every holiday meal, like a jello mold. But the problem was it wasn't on like the buffet, so you could like, avoid it because we set the table. You. It was like at your place on like a little. A smaller plate with like a lettuce leaf. And so it was pre served, so you had to, like have it a room temperature. [00:21:33] Speaker A: Jello. [00:21:34] Speaker B: Yeah. So it was like pre. It was like there. So. And it was always had some assortment, depending on who made it. It had some assortment of like maybe chopped apples and celery. [00:21:47] Speaker A: Celery. So you lost me at celery. [00:21:49] Speaker B: No, and if my grandmother made it, maybe a can of chopped up pineapple, maybe some walnuts. Maybe some walnuts for crunch a little bit. But yeah, that was. It was rough. [00:22:04] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:22:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:05] Speaker A: Jello mold, on lettuce. [00:22:07] Speaker B: Yeah, that is. [00:22:08] Speaker A: I don't know what's. What's crazy is the jello mold. I mean, that part I could get. I can wrap my head around that. But the. On lettuce, why I don't understand the. [00:22:16] Speaker B: Lettuce garnish, like, display, like add crunch. [00:22:22] Speaker A: Walnuts, Add crunch. [00:22:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. So. All right, well, okay, hopefully you guys got a few laughs as you guys get ready for the holiday season. And hopefully you guys got all your Christmas stuff because if you didn't, it's going to be gone. Because Valentine's stuff is going to be. [00:22:41] Speaker A: By the way, it's not Valentine's Day. [00:22:44] Speaker B: So as we wrap up another episode of Modern Mixtape, we want to thank you for tuning in and sharing this journey through parenthood with us. And remember, if you like this episode and want to share it on your socials and your podcast platforms and definitely comment. [00:23:02] Speaker A: Yes, definitely comment. There's probably some stuff out there. You guys might have some childhood staples. I mean, most of you that we know that are family that are listening, you know, you have the same experience with, you know, those of you that don't know us, that just listen for fun, you know, throw out some of your family staples that you're like, oh, man, I don't know what they were thinking there. And we can discuss it. We can get on the. Yeah, get on the horn here and talk about it. [00:23:24] Speaker B: We'll catch you on the next episode. Modern Mixtape is produced and recorded by Jenny and Jim Pruden, edited and mixed by Gray Bear Erickson at the sanctuary. Theme song written and performed by Gray Bear Erickson.