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[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, Jen. [00:00:01] Speaker B: Hi. [00:00:02] Speaker A: How's it going? [00:00:03] Speaker B: Good. [00:00:03] Speaker A: So, childhood favorites. What are we talking about? Are we talking about stuff that we grew up on, like, you know, chipped beef on toast or so's. [00:00:11] Speaker B: There's a few I can think of. I mean, you know, you mentioned tuna helper. I was thinking taco casserole. [00:00:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Tomato soup and grilled cheese, but not the good kind. That's out of the Campbell's soup can. And if that offends you, I'm sorry. [00:00:25] Speaker B: I mean, those are definitely some classics. And, I mean, I would be remiss if I did not mention mambalas, which we'll get into later. But I think we also talked about shrimp salad. Some of those are definitely childhood staples, which I think are culinary classics in some. Some spaces. But some of those, I think you mentioned, some of them, they need to. [00:00:55] Speaker A: Stay in the past. Yeah, absolutely. Some of them you can revive and move forward. Yeah. Yeah. [00:01:00] Speaker B: Some of them, you know, have actually made their way to our table. So I think on this episode, we want to dive into some of those childhood favorites and back to the seventies and eighties. [00:01:11] Speaker A: Here we go. [00:01:12] Speaker B: And how they've made their way onto our family table and become some of our family's favorites. [00:01:35] Speaker C: Welcome to modern mixtape navigating parenthood. I'm your host, Jim, along with my wife, Jenny. We're just two parents born in the seventies, raised in the eighties, love music from the nineties, and raising kids in the two thousands. And frankly, just trying to figure it 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. [00:01:57] Speaker B: Let's start off with dinner time as a kid. I'm curious. Cause I obviously did not know you as a kid. [00:02:06] Speaker A: Right. [00:02:07] Speaker B: I've heard many stories from. I got a lot, a lot from family functions. But what did dinner time look like. [00:02:16] Speaker A: For you so daily? It was usually my mom was making something. Always, unless it was summer and my dad would grill. But when I say grill, he made burgers and dogs, and occasionally we'd have steaks, and I mean occasionally, like, maybe twice a year, he'd make steaks, but he wasn't a. He wasn't a big grill guy. [00:02:37] Speaker B: So you grilled, like, year round hot dogs and hamburgers. [00:02:43] Speaker A: Okay, so if it was a quick get together, like, somebody came over, oh, what are we gonna do? We're doing burgers and dogs. Okay. My uncle was famous for. He do burgers, dogs, and chicken, and I gotta say, his chicken was absolutely hands down, the best chicken I've had ever. Like, for back in the day, I. [00:03:02] Speaker B: Was gonna say, should I be, like, be a fan of. [00:03:03] Speaker A: No, no, no. I'm talking back in the day. [00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:07] Speaker A: But, yeah, most of the time, my mom cooked. There was some really good ones we've laughed about some good ones, like, you know, making ambrosia salad and, you know, those real quirky things from seventies and eighties and stuff that, you know, looking back at it now, you go, why? Did I say something like. I mean, granted, you know, I was a kid, and you don't tell your parents, why are we eating this? I did that for liver, and I got hit. So, you know, I stopped, and they never did liver again. I don't know. It's just sometimes it's preparation. I mean, it was the seventies and eighties. I mean, when I said tomato soup in a can, I hope that doesn't offend anybody, but that's literally what we got. I mean, for lunch, I'd have spaghettios. [00:03:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:51] Speaker A: You know, but your mom. [00:03:53] Speaker B: Your mom cooked. And did you guys eat all together? [00:03:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, we sat down every night and had dinner together. [00:03:59] Speaker B: Okay. [00:03:59] Speaker A: Yeah. For a long, long time. [00:04:02] Speaker B: Yeah. So my mom cooked, and my mom's actually a phenomenal cook. I learned my culinary skills from my mom, but I grew up on. On a ranch, and so there was, like, the main house and then my parents house. And so sometimes we all went down to my grandmother's house and we ate all together. So definitely kind of crazy multi generational family situation. But if it was just, like, myself, my brother, and my parents, my mom was always cooking. [00:04:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:38] Speaker B: But even with her being a phenomenal cook, she also could do really simple things, but she was always making something like, we didn't go out a lot. [00:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah, we were talking about that earlier. Yeah, we didn't go out a lot either. If we did, there was two big staples in our house. It was Kentucky fried chicken. And it was usually if we had guests, because you can feed a lot of people on three buckets of chicken from KFC. [00:05:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:05] Speaker A: Or chi cheese pizza. Look it up. If you live in the San Fernando Valley. It used to be a staple. It's right around the corner from where they filmed the ZZ top video. Cool stuff. It was there up until. I think. I think until it was in high school, it remained Chi chi's pizza. But other than that, every once in a while we go to McDonald's. Maybe twice a year we go to Taco Bell. [00:05:30] Speaker B: Yeah. My town was so small there was, like, this mexican restaurant that was great. I still remember it. Manny's. And we would go there, and then there was McDonald's, which was the only, like, fast food place for a long time. [00:05:44] Speaker A: Right? [00:05:44] Speaker B: But I think similar to you, we ate all together, which I loved. [00:05:49] Speaker A: And at home. [00:05:50] Speaker B: And at home, it was never. [00:05:52] Speaker A: I mean, if we were going. I mean, like, on the rare occasion we would go out, there was a place. I don't know if you've heard of it. They used to have one down in Orange county. It's called Pelican's roost. And it was a seafood place. We went there literally once a year. [00:06:07] Speaker B: Okay. So, you know, growing up in my town, it was the valley. So we had to go over the hill to Santa Barbara for, like, seafood. Or if we were doing, like, the big grocery store run, we went up to Santa Maria, and that's where we, like, went to the Costco or food for less. But that was a big treat, because. [00:06:29] Speaker A: Why is that the big treat? Tell me. [00:06:31] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Looking back at this, like, now, I'm like, oh, my God. I can't believe we ate there. But growing up, it was such a big treat. We got to go to Sizzler. [00:06:41] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, we got to go to Sizzler. [00:06:43] Speaker B: And, like, with my mom, when we go on the grocery store runs, I thought going to Sizzler was, like, the biggest deal. Cause number one, we didn't eat out a lot. And number two, Sizzler was, like, all you can eat. And there was, like, the taco salad bar. Bigger than that. It was the. What are those things called? The, like, ice cream machine? The, like, dispenser. And you could like, oh, soft serve. Soft serve. It was like, soft serve. And you put the sprinklers. And my brother and I would, like, freaking, dude, unload on that. Yeah, yeah. [00:07:12] Speaker A: So it's funny that you mentioned Sizzler. We had a brief run with Sizzler. But the biggest thing I remember growing up was. So we lived in the San Fernando Valley. My grandmother lived in Hawthorne, and one of my uncles lived in Carson. So my dad and his brother were really close. So every once in a while, we get together and they'd go, well, brother, should we go out to eat? [00:07:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:35] Speaker A: And they'd look at each other and go, king's chinese food. And we went to this chinese buffet. Oh, my God. We were the most unruly kids. And for some reason, we got our own booth, and we were told, hey, whatever you put on your plate, you gotta finish. If you don't finish your plate, you can't get another one. So we learned real quick how to portion our food and how to not let our eyes be bigger than our stomach. [00:07:57] Speaker B: So, well, I think, like, looking back at our childhoods and both of our moms cooked a lot and made meals, and that's something now that we've, like, carried into our family. We have family dinner. I cook a lot, even with working, but I look at what our moms made, and it wasn't like, as of. [00:08:21] Speaker A: Late, I've actually been pulling some of the cooking through you, which is kind of fun. It's kind of empowering. It's one of those. You make something. The kids are like, man, that was really good. And you're like, okay, but what did I do right? [00:08:31] Speaker B: What our moms made? I mean, both of our moms were working, and it wasn't super fancy stuff. And looking back, we've each had these moments where we're like, man, there was this thing from my childhood, and we're. [00:08:44] Speaker A: Like, dude, I said, if I never had that again. Oh, let's review it. [00:08:49] Speaker B: Yeah. We're like, let's like, let's make this again. And I think for me, it's taco salad. My mom made that all the time. And I think it was one of those easy things after a long work day, it's easy to put together. But looking at it, you're like, this is kind of weird. And I think the first time I made it for us, you were like, dude, you're putting lettuce in the oven. And I'm like, yes. And it's literally layered towards tortilla chips with ground beef that you mix with chili, and then you put lettuce. [00:09:20] Speaker A: I think our moms secretly knew each. [00:09:21] Speaker B: Other and were conspiring tomato and cheese. But really what it was is when you had leftover chili, you would just mix in a little ground beef. But back in the eighties, my mom used a can of Denison's chili, which now I'm like, wow. Oh, good God, no. So. But I think it was a way both of our moms talking through some of the recipes were really good at stretching meals. [00:09:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:48] Speaker B: You know, but the first time I made taco casserole, you're like, the lettuce is going in the oven. I'm like, no, no, no. Just try it. And now our kids love it. [00:09:57] Speaker A: Maybe I have to admit, I kind of like it. [00:09:59] Speaker B: We don't appreciate it, maybe for all of its glory that our kids do. And I think there's things. Like you the other night made this, like, rice and. [00:10:09] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:10:09] Speaker B: That chicken casserole with, like, rice and chicken and zucchini. [00:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And cream of mushroom soup and. [00:10:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:10:16] Speaker A: My mom had a whole written out recipe and I just. So that's. That's another testament to this, is. Growing up, I got the luxury of being in the kitchen with my mom and being told, hey, you wanna come in here and help me? [00:10:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:29] Speaker A: And I would go in. Cause I was generally curious. I mean, genuinely. I mean, I'm sure you were, too. [00:10:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's how I remember a lot of these. So it was like taco casserole you mentioned. I think every person has some version of so's. [00:10:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yeah. For those of you who aren't indoctrinated, it's shit on a shingle or chip beef on toast. [00:10:53] Speaker B: I had one. My former spouse had one in his family. I mean, my grandfather had one. [00:11:00] Speaker A: My dad's favorite. Either a can of sardines as a snack or an egg sandwich. [00:11:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:07] Speaker A: I was like, man, you are eating just eggs and cheese and bread. [00:11:10] Speaker B: So. [00:11:11] Speaker A: But it was good. Don't get me wrong, I loved it. I wouldn't eat it right now, but. [00:11:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's just it. There's some of these that I think we've have these, like, really wonderful memories attached to our childhood. And then we've made it, and we both have been like, hmm, hmm, maybe not so much. And I don't know if it's cause our palates have changed. [00:11:35] Speaker A: Oh, yes. [00:11:36] Speaker B: That we're older, we're a little more sophisticated, or that maybe there's some lipitor and some blood pressure medication involved. [00:11:45] Speaker A: If we're being honest here, you and I are what I consider super foodies. Like, we're. I don't want to say food snobs. That's not it. That's not it. But we will go seek something out. [00:11:56] Speaker B: Or I think part of it is I do consider myself a pretty good cook. [00:12:01] Speaker A: Oh, you're a great cook. [00:12:02] Speaker B: And so, like, let's take the can of cream of mushroom soup. [00:12:06] Speaker A: Oh, God. [00:12:06] Speaker B: Which was a staple in Artie mad. Think about all the different casserole recipes and a Thanksgiving staple. Our kids love the green beans at Thanksgiving. [00:12:21] Speaker A: Yeah. The ones out of the can. [00:12:23] Speaker B: Yes. [00:12:24] Speaker A: That's annoying, isn't it? [00:12:26] Speaker B: This Thanksgiving or this last Thanksgiving? I mailed it in. I was like, dude, I'm mailing it in. I made green beans. Literally, the way that were done in the eighties. Like, the way my grandmothers did it. [00:12:40] Speaker A: Topped with the onions? [00:12:42] Speaker B: Yes. [00:12:43] Speaker A: Whatever that is. What are they? Dried onions? [00:12:45] Speaker B: What is that, the, like, french fried onions? [00:12:47] Speaker A: Oh, that's what it is. French fried. [00:12:51] Speaker B: But I literally mailed it in. I mean, canned green beans. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Okay. According to you, you mailed it in. [00:12:57] Speaker B: Okay. [00:12:58] Speaker A: On a typical day, you're just mom and the hell out of everything. [00:13:00] Speaker B: Well, no. So mailed it in. Cream of mushroom soup, all that. Normally, I would use fresh green beans. I would chop up mushrooms, make the mushroom cream sauce from scratch. I know for two reasons. Number one, I think it tastes better. There's also, like, not a salt block in the pan from all the sodium from all the process. [00:13:24] Speaker A: And you're also making stuff that you would eat yourself. [00:13:26] Speaker B: What did the kids like? They like the freaking sodium gut balm of all the canned things. Yeah. [00:13:33] Speaker A: That thing must have had so much MSG in it. They were like, oh, my God, I need MsG. [00:13:39] Speaker B: But that's where I look at some of these childhood favorites that I think they do create this sense of nostalgia that it is kind of fun sharing with our kids, like, our memories, and be like, oh, man. I was sitting around the table. This is, like, one of my brother. My favorite things. I mentioned it at the beginning of the episode that there's no way in hell I would give to my children. [00:14:03] Speaker A: I can read your mind right now. It's shrimp salad. [00:14:07] Speaker B: Well, I would not give that to my children because I would need an epi pen for. [00:14:10] Speaker A: Well, I know that. I know that. Outside of that part of it also, because shrimp. [00:14:15] Speaker B: The little bay shrimp in a can. [00:14:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:17] Speaker B: Those tiny guys fricking freak me out. [00:14:19] Speaker A: And the mush. Not the mushrooms, the mayonnaise. [00:14:23] Speaker B: Okay. Wow. So you would say no shrimp salad. [00:14:28] Speaker A: No. [00:14:28] Speaker B: To our kids. [00:14:29] Speaker A: I mean, mayonnaise, chopped lettuce, shrimp, and something else. Does that sound good to you right now? Like, I mean, outside of the epi pen and anaphylactic. [00:14:39] Speaker B: No. [00:14:40] Speaker A: I mean, does that sound appealing? [00:14:41] Speaker B: No. And I think when my mom or grandmother made that too, they, like, mixed some ketchup in the mayonnaise. So it was kind of like a yemenite. What's like a russian dressing on the shrimp? [00:14:54] Speaker A: I was gonna say, like a cocktail sauce. I put that in there too. Yeah, that was a tough one. [00:15:00] Speaker B: So, no, the other one, that was a hard pass that I would not give my children was this delicacy my dad made. [00:15:08] Speaker A: Oh, I've heard about this. I have yet. That was to try one of these, and I'm scared of it. [00:15:14] Speaker B: Erickson family staple called a wambalae, which was a tortilla smoked turkey. And we're talking, like, the Oscar mare, Oscar Mayer, like, round smoked turkey. Oh, jack cheese. [00:15:30] Speaker A: Wow. [00:15:31] Speaker B: And grape jelly. And it was, like, rolled up in kind of, like a quesadilla type situation. And, my God, we had those all the time. And now, like, thinking forward to being, like, a cook, I kind of get, like, maybe like, the brie and jelly type situation. Like brie and fig jelly. I kind of get where he was going, but, yeah, that was. There's no way. [00:15:57] Speaker A: Yeah, that sounds like a dare. That sounds exactly like a dare food. [00:16:02] Speaker B: But it is. Like, our kids love that casserole you made the other night, and that was really fun. [00:16:09] Speaker A: I ate that casserole. I ate just a very little bit of that casserole, and I was like, wow, what was I thinking? Some things from the past need to stay in the past, but also, you know, when we have nights where we have leftover chili or leftover taco meat, we'll make nachos or we'll make tostadas. [00:16:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that's what the recipes that our moms did. That's really why some of these things that they seem so simple, that's why they did it, because, number one, this. [00:16:37] Speaker A: Is what we have. [00:16:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:39] Speaker A: We don't have a lot of time. [00:16:41] Speaker B: Those kind of simple things. So, like, opening up the can of tomato soup or keeping things simple, they don't need to be this big production. Allow them to get around their table with their family, and that really was the most important thing, you know, and eating at home allowed you to get in the kitchen with your mom. I got in the kitchen with my mom, and that's now kind of what we're doing with our kids. I've taken some of these simple recipes, including taco salad, and I like to put them in a cookbook for our oldest, which she now has a cookbook. [00:17:11] Speaker A: Which she lives by, and she lives. [00:17:13] Speaker B: By, and, you know, they're super simple. [00:17:17] Speaker A: I always catch you guys having a conversation, and she'll go, well, this is what I have. And you're like, oh, well, you could do this or this or this. You could pivot here and go here. And it's great because she's looking for that feedback, and then you're like, write down what you did, because if it works out, you now have something to add to your cookbook. [00:17:33] Speaker B: Yep. And our oldest, Jimmy, our son, is the middle child. The middle child. [00:17:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:42] Speaker B: Is now starting to get in the kitchen. [00:17:44] Speaker A: With us, who can finally be mentioned, because we're gonna have a podcast with him. [00:17:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Cause he's gonna be 18 this fall, but he now is starting to get in the kitchen, and you realize that those simple recipes that are our childhood favorites, that really are tied to so many memories of our childhood. [00:18:02] Speaker A: Yeah. I gotta admit, every time we make burritos, like, in bulk, I mean, with climbing and all the stuff that he does, I mean, he burns through food. But, man, when we sit down and make burritos, I look at him and go, dude, this would have blown my mind when I was your age. Cause, like, my mom's idea of a burrito was a flour tortilla, refried beans, lettuce, cheese, and la victoria verde salsa. [00:18:28] Speaker B: Okay, that doesn't sound that bad to me. [00:18:31] Speaker A: No, I thought it was fantastic. And then I was like, you mean we could add ground beef with it? We could add rice, too. What are we doing? But, you know, again, I mean, there were times my mother was like. I mean, I'd go in the kitchen with her, and I was like, what are you eating? And she'd either be eating trisket crackers and cheese, or she'd put peanut butter on a tortilla and eat that rolled up, and I was like, what? What is that? [00:18:56] Speaker B: Yeah, we've. We've evolved a bit, but I think those still. Those simple things are there for a reason. [00:19:02] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. [00:19:04] Speaker B: You know, and I'm glad we have those simple things, too. [00:19:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And it created a lot of good memories. [00:19:12] Speaker B: Good memories. And also a foundation with. With our kids. And it does allow you to just get around the table, which is what I value the most, is us getting around the table with our kids. But there are definitely some things. Our children are gonna look at the recipes we've served them and be like, we are leaving those in the past. [00:19:33] Speaker A: Not Jimmy. Jimmy thinks everything is fantastic. The food's amazing. Oh, my God. I mean, our youngest just came back from guard camp and was like, how's the food? Okay. I mean, I ate way better at home. I'm like, yeah, you do. You have, like, a three star chef cooking at home. What are you talking about? You know, and just to hear her, you know, say, you know, oh, it was okay. And, you know, they did this and that, and I don't know, it was all right. You're just like, well, we're doing something right at home. Obviously, everybody's eating well, which is great, but, yeah, that's fun to take a nice little trip down memory lane. And I mean, if you guys want, you guys can respond in the comments and let us know what some of your old favorites were or stuff that you had and maybe decided, hey, I don't want that ever again. [00:20:21] Speaker B: Oh yeah, let us know because it will be fun to see if some of the children of the eighties had some of the family staples. [00:20:30] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:20:31] Speaker B: As we wrap up this episode of modern mixtape, thanks for tuning in and definitely reach out to us in the comments with your family favorites if you enjoyed this episode, like and share it on the socials. [00:20:44] Speaker A: All right, awesome. Bye Jen. [00:20:47] Speaker B: Bye. Modern mixtape is produced and recorded by Jenny and Jim Pruden, edited and mixed by Grey Bear Erickson at the sanctuary theme song written and performed by Greybear Ericsson.