TKO: Two Ingredient Baking (Hour 2)

Good morning, Wisconsin.

Morning, world.

It's a new day.

Thanks for kicking it off with us at WFHR.

Got your roast James behind the mic.

I am joined by Melissa.

Good morning.

Seth.

Good morning.

And the best listeners in radio.

Thanks for being here.

Have a great start to your week out there.

Be safe out there.

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Take your time.

Places.

You want to just listen to your radio.

Listen to your radio.

Chill, man.

Listen to your radio.

Watch the snow melt.

Gonna get in some entertainment news and a little bit.

Got a couple of fun topics for us there.

Including the top 20 TV houses Americans want to live in.

Looking forward to diving into that one a little bit.

Later we'll also get into these the best backyard games of all time.

We will get into that as well.

But it is a Monday in the 9 o'clock hour.

Y'all know what that means.

Good morning and welcome to the kitchen's open on WFHR for this Monday March 31st.

How often have you gone into the kitchen for a little something sweet and found nothing?

Hitting a little close to home there James.

If you're not someone who likes to bake that may mean a trip to the store or even if you are it may mean an hour or more before you're able to satisfy that sweet tooth.

Baking can be intimidating.

Yes.

I agree with you.

I used to think the same thing.

However, there are some easy to ingredient recipes that even the most novice of bakers can make.

The first one I came across is one that not only tastes thelectable but also is a bit healthier.

With a little more fiber than what you would think.

They're called Yum Yum Brownie Muffins.

So now I'm trying to remember here Beth, when did you first make these?

Goodness.

Ten years ago?

Was it okay.

Yeah, it was when you were in North Dakota I think as we first started making these.

I came across it when I started Weight Watchers and was looking for an alternative that didn't have as many points to it because it was the point system.

These are made with pumpkin pure pumpkin puree.

So it doesn't use the eggs and the oil.

It's just the baked mix and the pumpkin puree.

I can talk.

Yeah.

That's all you pay me, right?

I can say things like that.

You're articulation.

There you go.

There you go.

And I actually these were so easy I whipped them up yesterday as well.

So I brought in a taste test.

So if you want to try this out the recipe I came across it's called Hungry Girl is the website.

It's hungry-girl.com.

And there really are only two ingredients to this.

It's boxed devil's food cake mix.

And one can of 15 ounce pure canned pumpkin.

Not the pumpkin pie mix that you find in there.

Right.

It's just the pumpkin.

Make sure it's that 100% pure.

To make them all you have to do is preheat an oven to 400 degrees.

Line 12.

Jesus making off with the moment.

Carry on.

Carry on.

Let me distract you.

Sorry.

He grabbed the entire container.

Took one bite once all the rest.

So you preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Line 12 cup muffin pan with foil baking cups or spray it with non-stick cooking spray.

Then in a large bowl all you need to do is mix the cake mix with the pumpkin until it is completely smooth and uniform.

This is an essential step and what I've actually started to do is put the canned puree in first and keep mixing that for a little bit.

You want to try and break down the fibers as much as possible.

Otherwise it creates an interesting little texture in the muffin.

So this blending the batter with the cookie mix, the cake mix, may take a few minutes but it's worth it.

Just let it go for at least that two minutes that they recommend on the box.

But just let it go and get consistency.

It's going to be thicker than if you were making the cake itself.

So just be mindful of that.

So you don't want to stop the mixer too soon.

Then you're going to evenly distribute that batter into the cups of the muffin pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out mostly clean.

That's about 20 minutes.

And then just let them cool off a little bit and when you have them when they're warm, still cooling off from the oven they are phenomenal.

That's really great.

You can just, my boys love these muffins.

And because of the pure pumpkin, it adds fiber into your diet.

You don't want to add any of the other cake mix ingredients.

It's going to be a thick batter.

So don't try to thin it out with water or oil or anything else.

It's literally just those two ingredients.

So no oil, water and eggs.

Nope, nope, just those two ingredients.

I don't think I've ever heard of that before with a muffin.

And the nice thing is you can use the same message with other flavors as well.

You can mix the pure pumpkin with a vanilla cake and make it a pumpkin.

And then I did this last fall, added some pumpkin pie spice to it.

And it comes like a pumpkin pie muffin.

Right.

And it's just the pumpkin and the cake mix.

You can do it.

All recipes has one that is a two ingredient pumpkin cake that is made with just the spice

cake mix and a can of pure pumpkin puree.

And that recipe is made at a 350 degree oven.

You generously grease a nine by 13 inch baking pan with cooking spray, mixed spice cake mix,

and can pumpkin together in a large bowl until well combined.

That's the key, well combined.

And spread evenly into a prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven until the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

This one's about 25 to 30 minutes bake time.

Cool and serve or storing the refrigerator to serve the next day.

And you can serve it with or without the frosting.

Oh, sure it tastes good either way.

I didn't even think about the frosting.

With a spice cake, a good cream cheese frosting.

Oh, it would be so good.

You can make those with less calories if you get the new, I can't remember the name,

Vishal, but it's like a reduced fat cream cheese.

Right.

Alternative to the Philadelphia cream cheese.

As a side note, generously grease is the way my dad used to do his hair.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

This seems like a, it was, it was funny.

You gave me the light of baking is intimidating because it actually kind of is to be somebody.

Right.

But it, this doesn't seem to be.

This doesn't seem like a very intimidating recipe.

This is a very good first step for people that are interested in learning how to bake

and don't really know what to do.

All you have to do, and you can buy a box cake mix for a dollar or less.

Some places find them on sale.

Use that and then buy a can or in the fall, you know, if you have extra pumpkins,

roast it, puree it, and then freeze it.

You've got that pumpkin puree.

These two simple ingredients combined taste delicious.

They have such a fun texture to them.

Yes.

I don't get to say that very often.

And I'm such a texture driven eater and grazer and all this.

And there's something that's so like, it's not, I think that your brain wants to say spongy or something?

Yes.

That's the word I would say.

Yes.

But there's more, it's almost like a bounce to it.

Right.

That is really fun on the mouth and tastes really, really good.

So I thank you for bringing these for me.

Yes, you're welcome.

Thank you for me.

Just for James, just for James.

With my batter, I was able to make 18 muffins, not just 12.

So it depends on the size of muffin that you want to make.

And so I made a half a dozen, you know, a dozen and a half, no.

Three quarters of a dozen.

That would be nine.

I can do math.

Math is good.

I made nine for here and nine for the house.

I'm still counting on my fingers.

You've got it faster than I did.

Well, if canned pumpkin isn't something that you readily have available or you don't want

to pay the higher prices because it is hard, I have been looking.

It is hard to find pure pumpkin puree canned at a discounted price.

I mean, the prices have gone up because there were not as much pumpkins out there.

You can always make what my family refers to as weight watchers cake, which is the same

general idea, but instead of using canned pumpkin, you use a can of diet soda.

So you combine a box of cake mix with a diet or zero sugar 12 ounce can of soda and bake.

And that's all you have to do.

And it's for as long as it says on the box.

Instead of using a like buttercream or cream cheese frosting, you use co-whip to top it.

Because the density is going to be a little bit different.

And you can make some great combinations with this.

Think of vanilla cake with orange soda.

It sounds good, yeah.

Or in chocolate cake mix with a cherry cola to give it a little bit of a cherry taste.

And then you can always chop up cherries and throw those in as well.

So these are great jumping off points to start to get a little bit more creative.

And in general, these are a little bit a little bit more healthy too, because you're not adding sugar.

Exactly.

Like most cakes you make you add sugar, a lot of sugar, and then sugary frosting.

You can always modulate that as you need.

Well, this is with the boxed cake mix.

They already have the pre-amount of sugar in there.

So you're not saving any sugar from the cake mix.

Unless you use your own cake mix base.

Right.

Which if you go to like a Betty Crocker recipe or something like that, do all the dry ingredients.

Because that's what the box cake mix is.

Basically, just to get more dry ingredients.

And instead of using sugar, cane sugar, substitute it with stevia or splendor or something like that.

That will reduce then the amount of sugars and calories that are in there.

Plus, that's a great way to learn how to do the basics of baking a cake as well.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So this is a great way for those that might be intimidated.

And it works beyond just cake.

You can make some great cookies out of two ingredients.

I came across, and I think it was on TikTok or on Facebook at some point,

this trend that was going on again about 15 years ago.

It's one of my boys were really little.

And it's an easy banana oatmeal cookie.

Those are the only two ingredients.

Banana and oatmeal.

You smash the banana and it's a one-to-one ratio.

So one banana with one cup of oats, mix it together.

You will have to kind of use your hands to put it into the cookie shape because of the texture.

And then you just bake it for about 12 to 15 minutes at 350 and let it cool.

If you want to add a little more pizzazz to that two ingredients, add some chocolate chips or raisins or peanut or sun butter.

That's kind of actually how we found out that one of our children had a peanut sensitivity.

I mean, he was only, what, about a year older?

He was, he was 18 months, he was year and a half.

And we gave him a cookie that I had made this cookie and I had added peanut butter

because our oldest son loves peanut butter.

And I thought this will give it a little bit more flavor.

He took one bite, didn't want the rest and then broke out in a rash.

So that was kind of our clue that maybe something was going on.

Yeah, right, right.

So these, and I've made that into bars and things like that.

It really, it becomes an energy booster if you add that nut butter to it as well.

They're great.

And it doesn't take much, you know?

If you have a slightly ripened banana, just snatch it up, mix in, you know, use a wooden spoon, use your hands if you want to.

They're great.

And in 12 minutes, you've got a cookie and those don't take very long to cool down either.

So you can make them in a jiff.

So when you have that cookie desire, here's something that you can do that's healthy for you

and gives you that little bit of sweetness that you're looking for.

Right. Really is hitting on a lot of the things people are looking for right now, indeed.

And there are so many recipes online too.

If you type into your search engine, whatever one you prefer, two ingredient recipes, you will get a plethora of opportunities to look at these things.

And that, if you're really not sure how to mix or bake, this is your great first step because it's going to start to give you some confidence that I can make something and I can make something that tastes good.

Right.

And then you might start to give you some inspiration to move beyond just those two ingredients.

Right, all right.

They also smell amazing.

It smells so good in here right now.

After having said that I did this studio for like another few hours of the week, smells a lot better in here right now.

Yeah, right.

So, well, two things combined to make a great deal is your business and our segment when you choose to sponsor us.

In addition to being highlighted in our episodes, we can arrange an interview or even broadcast live from your business.

And I actually am going to be doing that this week.

I'm going out for an interview at a business that is going to sponsor our show in the coming weeks.

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So, it is possible.

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That's right. The number again is 715-424-1300.

And with that, we'll close the kitchen.

All right.

That was fantastic.

Nicely done.

Yes.

Beth was here for half a second and just jumped on and was able to do a great job.

Thank you.

Appreciate the recording so much.

But as always, the food.

Thank you so much for the food.

I can't wait to devour.

See how fast I can eat one of these.

There's two bites.

Two bites.

Be on a lookout for the next kitchen so open everybody every Monday at 9 o'clock.

And we're looking forward to it.

We'll be back with more show coming up on the morning show at WFHR.

Welcome back everybody.

Morning show at WFHR.

Locally grown radio, Melissa, Seth and James here with you.

Big shout out to Beth for joining us.

That was fun.

Bringing food. That's always good.

Appreciate that.

Appreciate the breakfast.

We'll be looking next at 9 o'clock and Monday for another edition of the kitchen so open.

We're looking forward to that.

And a little bit later we're going to get into the best backyard games of all time.

Love it.

Looking forward to that.

Lots of greats.

Yes.

We start off with a little bit of entertainment news for y'all.

And I want to get into a couple of different things here.

But one of them I want to get into.

And I'm coming at this from the idea of something that the three of us really champion and are very about.

Artists supporting artists.

And the act of that.

Yes.

And while there are plenty of actors and entertainers that may get a break, not doing this,

I cannot think of any examples of people who have had a very long career or a good career that basically weren't good people.

I think that it's very, and I'm not saying that these are amazingly good people that they're all mother Teresa.

But more times than not, the people that survive in the industry, whatever industry, music, acting, photography, I don't care what it is,

they treat others well and the rising tide raises all boats.

I don't need to be underhanded to get this role.

I'm good enough for it already.

And in that I'm going to bring up not only in the audition process, let alone when you get to the actual getting the role or whatever.

And that's something that has existed since dawn of acting.

And something that's important about it.

Now, Corey Feldman, who I don't think a lot of people have thought of in a very long time.

I have not.

That is not an insult to Mr. Feldman.

No.

Just being honest about it, I think that's pretty cool.

Well, Billy Corgan, somebody who has been thought of former lead singer for the Smashing Pumpkins, singer songwriter for the Smashing Pumpkins, has gone into the podcast world.

Right.

And he has a podcast that's very, very successful.

He's brought on Bill Burr and a number of other people on recent months.

And they've had some actually very famous interviews that have gone, you know, a lot of people have been talking about.

Well, Billy Corgan's podcast, Corey Feldman was on recently.

And he claimed he was up for two of Leonardo DiCaprio's biggest roles that Leo ended up getting nefariously, basically.

Oh, first he said he was actually cast as Arnie in 93's What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

But then Johnny Depp joined the cast and got him fired.

He told producers that I was basically I wasn't doing well.

He wasn't doing well when he really was.

And then there was Titanic, which he claimed he was, quote, contention for and added, quote, that was okay because that one I wasn't as close.

But he also got pretty close to winning the role of Sam Wise, Gamji in Lord of the Rings movies.

And a part that went to his goonies co star Sean Aston.

Right.

Corey also said, quote, I couldn't have gained the weight.

So I'll have to admit that.

He did a great job and aesthetically being able to add the weight.

It's something I cannot physically do.

And that's just basically a slam on Sean Aston.

Yeah.

It's really got a gain in weight.

Yeah.

You know, and it's just a shame to me.

Like, if this any of this is true, let's even give him a percentage of a doubt that this is true.

Sure.

What good does this do?

Yeah.

It's a good, great point.

If you are the biggest Corey Feldman fan in the world, what does even this information do for that person?

Let alone anybody else literally out there.

And as an actor, one of the things I'm bringing this up for is again, how you have a consistent career, how you keep working.

Because you could be the greatest actor of all time.

And you ain't going to find work if you are not liked.

I bring up Russell Crowe all the time.

Russell Crowe, nobody's going to tell you, was a bad actor.

That man can act.

That man is good at what he does.

You don't see him as much anymore because he's a jerk.

And I'm saying that because I've seen it in front of me.

Like, literally in person, I've seen this man act that way.

And I'm not alone.

There's a lot of others and that stuff spreads.

I've mentioned this about Kevin Koster.

How many times have you seen Kevin Koster and work with the same actor?

Or work with the same director?

Yeah.

Good point.

There's a reason why these actors fade away.

And it has very little to do with what they tell you it is.

Oh, I got older, so the industry didn't want me anymore.

Oh, I said this controversial thing.

No, it's because you're a jerk.

And Corey Feldman, since the very dawn of his career has had a lot of fun.

The director has had a lot said about him off the field.

Yeah.

And the way he treats people and the diva mentality had at a very young age.

In almost every role he had.

Now, I'm not talking about Stan by me, Corey Feldman.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm not talking about that actor.

That's a kid actor.

It's that actor that came into this one to grow into this actor right now and stuff.

And the idea that Johnny Depp had any kind of like power.

Even right now, let alone when he's just starting out and playing a young guy too.

Yeah.

What director or producer is going to listen to him?

Well, Johnny Depp said he wasn't any good, so I guess we're going to have to get rid of him.

Plus, let me tell you how difficult it is to get somebody fired when they've already been cast on a movie.

Every single attorney in your crew is telling you not to do it because you're sending yourself up for lawsuit.

Contracts have been signed.

Look at what's happened to the movie Rust.

It's just now coming out.

They finished that years ago, but it was held up obviously in courts.

Because of, oh, yeah.

It's an extreme example, but that's what I'm talking.

That's the fear of every attorney on every movie set in the world.

This kind of thing.

So the last thing I'm going to do is look for anything that could slow this process down.

And just being blunt here, Corey Feldman's never been close to the actor that Leonardo DiCaprio is.

If you need an example of this, watch literally anything Corey Feldman has ever done

and watch one scene of Leonardo DiCaprio from What's Eating Gilbert Great.

As a young man, I thought Leo was handicapped.

I thought there was something with him.

I had not seen him act before.

It was the first role I'd seen him in.

I was literally to this day and blown away by his performance in that movie.

It's incredible.

And it is noted by many, many people who do have those inflections and the thankfulness

and the respect he did to that performance leading out of the Caprio,

whether you like them or not, whatever you might think of him,

that's one of the best actors you'll ever see.

And he has been that for a very long time.

Yes.

So I'm not trying to be a jerk here.

But I mean, when you're going to call out other artists,

when you're going to have something to stand on, not just your word.

You're not just playing a victim.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because this all sounds like whiny babies.

It really does.

Well, you know, yeah, I could have done this.

I almost got this.

I could have done this.

Yeah.

Well, go ahead and get a different role then.

Come on.

This is an interesting story.

And it speaks to, I think, not only English humor, but dark humor in a way.

And I think something that is relatable to all of us, the older we get.

And you may not think you have a lot in common,

or you may be able to relate to Roger Daltry, one of the bigger names,

one of the better frontmen in human history.

Right.

Leadsinger of the Who and obviously accomplished actor in several roles.

Yeah.

Well, it was 60 years ago that Roger Daltry is saying,

hope I die before I get old.

Didn't happen.

Nope.

Daltry, and that's his words.

Yeah.

Daltry just turned 81 earlier this month, and he is still performing.

Oh my gosh.

But it sounds like they may be slowing down.

During a show at Royal Albert Hall in London, Daltry said,

quote, the joys of getting old mean you go deaf.

I also now have got the joy of going blind.

Oh, he had a quote, fortunately, I still have my voice,

because then I'll have a full Tommy.

Obviously referring to the rock musical Tommy and everything.

And so he's been playing into the idea that he might be turning into Tommy.

Right.

Deaf, dumb, and blind kid, right?

Right.

Right.

And I just, I don't know, and none of us do unless you've actually,

are there or been through it.

But how we're going to react to those things if the wheels fall off,

you know, in life and everything.

I admire that so much of this man.

I admit I am a fan of dark humor and everything.

But I love when one of the things I love about dark humor is to be able to,

one of the things that it does that I don't think enough people realize,

it creates empathy when it's done right.

And you can laugh while also realizing,

man, Roger Daltry gave a lot to the entertainment industry.

Like, he had a really good career.

I'm going to take a second here and appreciate that.

Yeah.

I'm going to take a second to appreciate who, how it is, what it is getting older.

And maybe I should appreciate what I got right now.

I spend every day, you know, complaining about my aches and pains.

It could be worse.

Maybe I need to appreciate that a little bit more.

Right.

All through dark humor.

I'm not saying it does it every time or every individual feels that.

But that's one of the beauties that dark humor to me.

Is the idea that it can create empathy.

Right.

That it can actually show that we have a connection with Roger Daltry,

that we have a connection with people that we wouldn't think we would.

And dark humor so often addresses fears, right?

Fears of getting old, fears of dying.

That's where some of the best dark humor comes from.

Is the stuff we know is going to happen.

You know, we know we're all going to die.

So how do we address that?

How do we turn that into something?

So it's not as scary as it could be.

Exactly.

That's one of the main reasons we have it.

What TV home would you want to move into?

If you could ditch and move into your favorite TV house, what would it be?

Well, for 13% of Americans, it would be the Tanner House and San Francisco from Full House.

That was the number one answer in the poll of over 200, 2,000 people.

Okay.

We got a list here.

We'll just get, we'll just touch on a little bit.

Okay.

So yes, the Tanner House from San Francisco of Full House.

I don't remember that house that well.

But if it's a house in San Francisco, you're giving me?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

I don't need for free.

I don't need to see it.

I don't care where it is.

Yeah.

Are they talking about the outside establishing shot or like the sound stage?

I'm curious about what people actually are looking at here.

Yes.

That's just me.

The banks mentioned in Belair from the Fresh Prince of Belair.

Again, yes.

You see the other answer.

Yeah.

Blanches Miami home from the Golden Girls.

Oh, okay.

I thought of that one.

It's not a very big one.

No, smaller, yeah.

It always seems small for four.

Well, there's five of them in that house, wasn't it?

Four.

Was there four?

No, there was four.

Yeah, there was four ladies there.

I'm sorry, but Blanche sometimes had a fifth.

I don't know.

Boom, boom.

Monica's purple apartment in New York City from Friends.

I don't know the words I just said.

That's weird.

Okay.

I mean, it's a nice apartment, but it's an apartment.

Again, is it rent controlled?

I mean, it's in New York and maybe.

No, no, no.

The Bridgerton Mansion in London from Bridgerton.

The Brady House in Los Angeles from the Brady Bunch.

Very seventies house there.

Tony Sopranos, New Jersey Mansion from the Sopranos.

Oh my God, yes.

Except you have to live in New Jersey.

You've got to live in New Jersey, though.

Yeah, that's rough.

You've got to live in New Jersey, though, yeah.

The Simpsons Springfield home from the Simpsons.

It's, yeah.

Again, although that.

I've always wanted a cartoon home.

You know, it's, and it's morphs, you know, whatever they need.

The house turns into, which is hilarious.

I love that.

Which version you get?

Yeah, exactly.

There are episodes where they've got like a guest room in the back.

And then there are episodes where it's not there.

Like, yeah, yeah.

You get the giant Olmack head in the basement.

Does it come with that?

Then I'll take it.

Yes.

I'm sure there are a lot of contests that I wish I had won.

They're still, and I don't remember what head to have been almost 20 years ago.

Fox did a contest where they're literally giving away a Simpsons home.

Like everything in it looked like the cartoon.

Yep.

To this day, I met at those people that won.

I wanted this.

You're rational anger, just because I'm already around.

I just, what I really want, honestly, out of the whole Simpsons thing.

And I'm being dead serious here.

Marge has a picture of a sailboat that's right behind them.

Just a little, I want that picture.

I want that sailboat picture.

That's what I want.

As long as it's a cartoon.

It can't be real.

It's got to be cartoon.

How about the White House from Veep?

Wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

The White House is the White House.

Come on now.

You can't do that.

Jerry's New York City apartment from Seinfeld.

Again.

It's just a small apartment.

Yeah.

The Cosmo Cramer does not come with that.

Yeah.

You know, get that.

You know, get that with it.

The buyer's cabin in Hawkins and Indiana from Stranger Things.

Or the Nevermore Academy in Romania from Wednesday.

That's a whole academy.

That's not a home.

Yeah.

That's a school.

It's an institution.

You don't get that, though.

No Hogwarts on there.

Oh, yeah.

I've got a TV show.

Oh, that's true.

Yeah.

Although it is.

It is going to be a TV show.

They are doing something with that.

Oh, no, there's something.

I don't know.

Whatever it is.

Who cares?

We will take a time out.

We'll come back.

And we'll get into them.

Oh, yes.

Melissa.

Please, Melissa, I'm sorry.

No, that's okay.

I was going to say a little house from a little house on the prairie.

It's a cabin, which is just fun.

Yep.

But with an outhouse.

No running water.

Yeah.

That's great.

You know.

And since I pointed out that Harry Potter is a movie, I can't say Green Gables from

Anna Green Gables, because that's also a movie.

But I can say Rose Cottage from Roe to Evan Lee.

Oh.

Okay.

I don't know what that is.

Which is a spin-off of Anna Green Gables, but with a TV show.

Oh, nicely done.

Oh, wow.

Got to figure it out.

Take the quality.

Nice.

Yeah.

Yes.

That was great.

Did you have one set that you have a home?

No.

I never even thought about that.

How about the spaceship?

How about the from mystery science theater?

What the satellite of love?

The satellite of love.

Well, okay.

To be fair.

We don't know what the rest of the satellite looks like.

We only get to see the one thing and the theater.

That's all we get to see.

So who knows?

Maybe it's great.

Maybe it's great.

I could live in a theater.

I could live in.

Take a time out.

We'll come back and we'll have some fun talking about the best backyard games of all time.

And plenty more on the morning show here at WFHR.

Welcome back, everybody.

Morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.

Melissa, Seth and James hanging out with you.

We hope you're having a great, great start to your week out there.

Thanks for hanging out with us.

So we can talk about this as if we're making plans to hang out in the backyard when we can again.

Eventually, we can.

We can.

Whether you're barbecuing or just hanging out, what's your go-to game you like to play in the backyard?

We've got a ranking of the 10 best backyard games of all time.

Based on fun, accessibility and overall popularity.

See if you agree.

Okay.

And you can of course call up or text us through the Civic Media app.

We encourage you to do that.

715-424-2600.

So Cornhole pops up right away.

It's the kind of go-to game now.

Since in any gets credit for coming up with the modern version in the 60s.

But someone also patented a similar game with square holes way back in 1883.

Whoa.

Well, that's older than I thought it was.

Way older than I thought.

Yeah.

That's beanbag toss.

I mean, that's basically.

That's basically.

Is that what we used to call it beanbag toss back in the day, basically?

Yeah.

Batchy.

It's good for multiple people and you can play it anywhere.

You don't need a legit Batchy court or even a nice patch of grass I will do.

Just open space.

You know.

Different terrain is so much fun.

That makes it.

Yeah.

We play it every year at our family camp out.

Yes.

Love Batchy.

One of my favorite lawn games of all time.

Gotta be this little surprising even to me.

I've never played Batchy.

Really?

I've never played.

The Italian lawn game.

You've never played Batchy.

Never played the Italian lawn game.

Batchy.

Yeah.

Well, I have a set, James.

I will have to do a team building in somebody's yard.

It would be fun.

So my dad and his brother and my aunts destroyed the one Batchy like thing we had in the family

and they never bought a new one.

So by the time my cousins and I come around, none of us got a chance to play or learn Batchy.

If I remember correctly, Melissa, you can correct me if I'm wrong, that the actual Batchy set, those are made out of clay.

The Batchy balls are made out of clay, is that right?

They probably are, but I have a cheap set.

Oh, okay.

So that's probably just wood.

It's like the kids' version.

Yeah.

They're lighter weight.

Like my uncle Chuck brings his set and they definitely, you can tell the difference.

Yeah, they're much, actual Batchy balls are heavy.

They're really nice Batchy balls and my own cheapo Batchy balls.

Whiffleball.

A guy in Connecticut made backyard baseball possible when he came up with this back in 53.

Wow.

Man, I have gotten hurt more times playing Whiffleball.

Oh my god, yeah.

Oh god, yeah.

It's more dangerous than like playing an actual baseball game, right?

It feels like a...

Two-hand touch.

Flag football is even better.

Just stuff a rag in your belt and you're good to go.

Did that a lot when I was a kid?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, in school.

So, man, I love doing that one.

I love kickball, kickball.

Fun fact, Brits call it football rounders.

And Canadians call it soccer baseball.

Soccer baseball.

I mean, it makes sense.

All right.

Did you guys ever play this, the variation of kickball called Matt Ball?

So, it was in the gym.

So, this wasn't actually outside, but it was in the gym.

And we had the large mats, but they were in each corner.

And you could kick the ball anyway.

There was no foul territory.

So, you could kick the ball whichever way you can just run to the mat and kind of thing.

It was a little different.

Maybe it was just our school that did that.

Yeah, I don't know.

It was actually kind of fun.

I don't know.

We played four square.

Yeah, I remember there were that.

And Rainy Days in school.

All right.

I'd have been similar to that.

I do remember that one.

Horseshoes.

Ah, the classic.

Yeah.

I like horseshoes.

It's harder for little kids to play than Cornhole, and you have to add permanent standpits to do it right.

Right.

Right.

But still.

But you find them outside a lot of bars.

Yes.

In Wisconsin.

Is there anything more?

In two grounds.

Is there any sound more satisfying than hitting a ringer?

In horseshoes.

That is a great sound.

Is it one of the better sounds in sports?

Yes, it is.

It really is.

And learning how to, when you get the rhythm and the idea of that down, it feels so good to be able to do.

Badman.

Not as popular as it used to be, but still a lot of fun.

It's a little annoying to set up and take down the net.

But most people enjoy it still.

Or you can play without a net.

You can do it without a net.

Yeah.

You just run around.

My sister and I played this a lot when we were kids.

Well, we had a big yard, so we were able to do it.

But yeah.

Love badman.

It's fun.

Ladder toss.

It's gotten pretty popular in the last 20 years.

A mailman in Pennsylvania sold the idea back in 2005.

Then a company called Ladder Golf LLC started selling sets.

I'm not sure I know what this one is.

If you would like to learn, we have one.

Oh, cool.

If you want to learn how to play Ladder Golf, it's actually a lot of fun.

It is.

Yeah, it's not bad.

You have PVC pipe that has multiple bars.

That's a good picture.

Yep.

And then two golf balls tied together on a string.

On a string and you toss that and try to get it around one of the ladder rungs.

And each rung is worth more points.

Some of the harder ones are worth points.

I'd play that.

Yeah, no, it's fun.

It's a fun game.

You can knock off other people's golf balls.

Every game involves tossing.

It's a lot of that really does.

This next one's a little trauma-inducing for me.

And I'm not alone.

No.

Lawn darts.

Lawn darts, yes.

The original versions were lethal.

Yeah, literally lethal.

Pointy-ended things that went into people's feet.

Yeah, I've mentioned before.

One of my favorite people in the world, my cousin Lisa, has a scar right under her eye.

One of my lawn darts that went flying.

Yep.

And I swear to God, I remember this like it happened 20 minutes ago.

We're all being warned.

Hey, watch when somebody's throwing the dart.

Watch when somebody's throwing the dart.

Hey, I mentioned.

Lisa was like four.

It was like four or five.

And just happened to be walking.

She got excited.

Yep.

But I, guys, I can remember seeing it leaving my hand.

As she's walking and not being able to like just grab it and pull it in.

We're thinking slow motion, right?

Yeah.

And the guilt in this moment I'm feeling just talking about it is so palpable.

I wasn't even there.

Wow.

Lisa to her credit has never once made me feel bad about this.

It's her mom and my aunts that have the guilt is still from there.

Can you lawn darts, James?

Yeah, it's lawn darts, man.

That's a croquet.

Oh, my grandparents had a croquet set.

And again, my sister and I played that a lot.

Probably not the actual rules, but we did knock balls around the yard a lot.

Is that the one with the birdie?

It's got the little rubber ball on the end and the plastic net looking thing on the end of the ball?

No, that's badminton.

That is badminton.

Yeah, croquet is played on the ground.

You have mallets.

And you have again with a little wire like Allison Wonderland.

Yeah, you have to knock them through the thing.

There's sticks on each end that you have to hit and then make your way back around.

My parents have one of those sets too.

The word is French, but it originated in England in the mid 1800s.

Okay.

Oh, okay.

That's cool.

Now, they brought up something here that I thought was pretty cool and a good question.

Does playing catch count?

Just playing catch?

Ah, yes.

It doesn't matter what you're playing catch with.

100%.

Yeah, you can have a mitt and a baseball or a football toss it around.

Yeah, I think that's a good backyard thing.

Because I would say that that's probably...

Or a beach ball?

Yes.

Yeah, definitely.

I would say that that's easily my favorite.

By far, in a way, that's my favorite thing to do.

I love playing catch.

My kids, archery.

They're doing a little backyard archery.

Yes.

Again, you have to make sure you're safety first, of course, but just...

Yeah.

That's pretty fun.

That would be...

Those are good ones.

Those are really good.

I like those.

What are your favorite out there, everybody?

Or to you too, if you have a favorite.

715-424-2600.

We'll keep this one going.

All spring.

All spring.

We're going to be talking about this.

Robert, all the ones I did.

I have a newer one that my family's been playing a lot.

It's called Kube.

Kube?

Yep.

It's a Swedish outdoor game with wooden blocks.

Okay.

And it's said to have been played all the way back to the Viking ages.

Wow.

So, yeah.

It's spelled K-U-B-B.

And...

They're version of Kube, I'm guessing.

Yep.

And it's a game involving being strategy and skill.

So the yard, there's like a wooden blocks that you set up.

And then you have to knock them over.

And when you knock them over, they get moved.

And, I mean, it's...

It seems a little involved because I don't remember the rules.

But you toss like round cylinder blocks and try to knock over a few blocks.

It's fun.

I'm intrigued now.

It also is very affordable.

You get a set for, not bad.

Well, you can see a set.

I've seen one for 30.

Oh, okay.

It's not bad.

Well, if you go to the official website.

I'm sure you get the nice version.

Especially, you know, with these things, to me,

I could spend 50 bucks when it's something that I'm probably going to have the rest of my life.

Sure.

I'm going to take care of it and everything like that.

These are made from solid hardwood.

Yeah.

So they're going to last for a long time.

Yeah.

Okay, so I got two new games to try this summer.

I'm excited.

I want to do both of these.

That's awesome.

And a fun list.

And again, we'll keep that list going.

And we want to hear from you in all of yours, everybody.

We'll take a time out.

We'll come back.

We're going to have some fun talking about our local stuff that we got going.

And the local stuff we got going on here in town and plenty more on the morning show.

You say yes.

I say no.

I say it's gone.

And I say go, go, go.

Oh no.

Welcome back, everybody.

You say goodbye and goodbye, say hello.

Time to wrap up the show for a Monday.

Thanks so much for joining us, Melissa and Seth here with us.

Hope you guys are having a great Monday out there.

We're going to take you to the top of the hour.

Let you know about our schedule.

And at the top of the hour, you got Jamie Gregg coming in.

Matt and air on air.

Ready to bring you a great week of shows and get you ready for your new

an hour better than anybody.

That's right.

And it's regarding what they're doing.

They're also going to be having your next word for you to text to us this immediate app.

Yes.

Yeah, I know the chance to win.

You'll have the next break in the spring text to win statewide contest word.

Be listening for that and all the great fun that they bring, of course.

And throughout the day today, we'll have more of that opportunity for you to play.

At the top of the 11, 1 and 4 o'clock hours, be listening for that keyword to

text to us through the civic media app and get in on the winning everybody.

Yes, indeed.

We also want to a quick programming note.

Tomorrow on the morning show, Melissa and I will be hanging out with you.

We're going to welcome in at 9 o'clock.

Jeremy Schmidt.

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

Jeremy just joined us a little while ago talking about one of his businesses.

This time, he'll be in talking about rolling Rome, looking forward to that.

Very cool.

Yeah.

Jeremy's great by the way.

We had a great time with him.

Yeah.

It's going to be a fun interview.

Looking forward to that.

A little bit later today in midday magazine.

We'll kick off the week the right way.

And of course, during an election week, we always welcome in our great friend.

Wood County Clerk, Trent Mine are going to be with us.

Always great information.

Man, he's got good stuff.

Trent is awesome.

Yes, he is.

He's great.

We appreciate him and appreciate him coming in and putting up with my silly questions and

it's good stuff.

Most importantly, informing our community and keeping us in check and helping democracy ring.

Yes.

Actual, real voting information.

Yes.

That you can take to the bank.

Well, and then in part two at 430 today, Jake Adams, assistant GM with your Wisconsin

Rapids Raptor is going to be joining us.

Woo.

We're talking baseball.

Hey, I'm telling you right now, can you get a better American midday today?

We've got voting and baseball.

Come on.

What's more American than those two things?

That's right.

That's all we're missing.

It's all we're missing.

Cannot wait.

A couple of great guests to kick off the week.

A big shot of Pam Hilke and the amazing scheduling she knows weekend and week out with

them.

And then I'll lead you right in the playmakers.

We'll be here from five to six today.

And welcoming in assistant, assistant coach of your lady royals.

Randy, Randy is going to be bringing that in.

We're looking forward to that.

We're going to have a lot of fun this afternoon.

Join us from five to six for playmakers, proudly brought to you by quality plus printing

and family natural foods.

And we'll be here all week with playmakers, everybody.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

We'll be here all week with the show.

And plenty more.

So Seth, we wanted to touch on something else really important in our area.

Yes, indeed.

It's the next blood drive community blood center blood drive happening.

Today, everyone starting at two, going till about seven o'clock this evening at the former

East Junior High School room 111.

That is just off of Lincoln Street in Wisconsin Rapids.

You can still schedule an appointment if you if you can get to a phone 800-280-4102-800-280-4102 appointments are

appreciated, but they will not turn you away if they have an open slot and you walk

in off the street, they will take you because of course we always need blood donated

everybody.

And you know as well as as we do that, this is still very important.

So that's happening today from two to seven over at the former East Junior High School

room 111.

You can be a superhero.

You can do it.

We appreciate you.

Everybody out there who has donated and continues to.

Please do.

And a quick look at some good stories of the day around the world.

A woman in Dallas reached out to, I think, Delta for helping her say goodbye to her mom

who passed away in October.

She was trying to get to Bismarck in North Dakota to see her when they were

flight got delayed so she would have missed her connection, but the pilot heard

about it and got her in touch with the next pilot who agreed to hold the plane

until she got there.

Wow.

That's awesome.

They also bumped into first class so that you can get off the plane faster.

The second flight waited about 30 minutes.

Mom passed away the next day.

She wrote online that Delta's kindness gave her 24 extra hours with her and let her say

I love you one last time.

I apologize.

I understand this story could be triggering a rough for some out there.

I thought we don't get a chance to tip our hat to our airlines at all.

Right.

If ever.

Yeah.

And I just, I was blown away by this story.

So I apologize if I thought it was worth noting.

Right.

And we're worrying about that.

Those pilots, I mean above and beyond, that's an amazing way of doing.

I mean, yes, remarkable.

Really got me.

The story happens a little while ago, but it's just now making the rounds and everything.

That's a really good story.

Yeah.

Very touching.

A 61 year old guy named Ed Romer was out walking his dog in upstate New York last Thursday

when he saw a seven year old boy fall in the river.

It was freezing cold and the kid could not swim.

Oh dear.

He called 911 then tried to pull the kid out but couldn't reach him.

A cop eventually got there and they worked together.

Ed held his legs while the officer reached down and grabbed the kid.

Got checked out at the hospital.

Kids doing okay.

So is Ed.

Wow.

Shout out to him.

Yes.

And he won an 81 year old waitress in Pittsburgh can finally retire thanks to a video posted

by a random customer last week.

Tammy Coatsner took her young son to eat in park, eat in park for lunch last Thursday.

And heard the waitress tell someone she couldn't afford to retire yet.

Tammy posted a clip said and said, if I can make any video go viral, I hope it's this one.

Then she ended with, okay, TikTok, do your thing and people delivered.

She shared a go fund me link and the last we checked, people had donated over $300,000.

Wow.

Wow.

I mean, when you're 80.

That's the 81 years old and you have to waitress.

Waitressing is a hard job.

Physical.

It's physically hard job.

It's hard work.

It's mentally taxing and you have to continue to do it.

It just hmm.

Yeah.

Good on TikTok.

Yes.

Yeah.

And sad that we have to do that.

Yes.

That's not right.

If you ask me anyway.

It's a good story right there with some great notes from you to about it.

And big, big thank you to everybody out there who is sending us good stuff and good articles

and good reporting.

We appreciate that.

We want to cover what you want.

Nobody is covering this area better than us.

And that's why we encourage you to sign up for the WFHR newsletter.

Get on over there right now.

Sign up for it and keep informed in this community.

Tomorrow on the morning show, not only will Melissa and I be talking a little bit about noises

off in the play that's going on right now and how that is developing, but we're also