The Kitchen’s Open – Halloween Baking Edition (Hour 2)

Good morning, Wisconsin, morning world, it's a new day.

Sometimes I'm right, and I can be wrong.

My own beliefs are in my song.

Just make it a drama and then make a snow difference what you brought in.

Ah, now everybody, people, yeah.

Welcome back, everyone.

Mornings here at WFHR, locally grown radio, great hour in store for you.

We're going to have some fun.

We got some entertainment news coming up free in a little bit.

We're also going to get into some fun article about good house chemies.

Top 25 Best Toy Awards.

We've got that coming up for you along with some other great stuff.

But it is a Monday in the 10 o'clock hour.

We know what that means.

Good morning and welcome to the kitchen's open on WFHR, sponsored by the hotel maid.

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I don't know if you've heard gentlemen, but Halloween is just around the corner.

Why? Well, yes. Yes, it is indeed.

What's this? What's this?

The spooky time of year celebrates the things that go bump in the night.

But it doesn't have to be scary in the kitchen.

The holiday offers a special opportunity to get creative.

It doesn't have to be a trick to make some treats you and your family can enjoy.

I love this segment.

I have for a very long time.

I appreciate you Beth and I appreciate the effort and the work that you put into this.

And keeping it going and so many things.

I don't know if I've ever been more appreciative of you and this segment for this next recipe

that you're about to give me and my mother to make.

It is great. I found some great recipes that kids will love and are easy for them to help make as well.

And they're fun for adults too.

So the first one's called the Witch's Hat.

And it's basically taking ingredients that you can just buy off the store shelf and putting them together.

It is that simple.

For the recipe, all you're going to need are two 16 ounce packages of Fudge Striped Cookies.

Which by the way, my nut allergy boy absolutely loves because this is a cookie he can enjoy too.

One bag, nine ounces of milk chocolate candy kisses.

Make sure you unwrap them first.

One 4.5 ounce tube of decorating gel you can use orange is a good Halloween color purple.

Anything that you'd like to decorate a hat with.

And a quarter cup of melted chocolate chips.

You could also use some honey but they found that the melted chocolate actually binds it better.

So that's why I put that in there.

And that quarter cup, you can adjust how much that may be a little bit too much and a little too less.

I just kind of guesstimated on that one.

So to make them, it's easy.

You're going to place a Fudge Striped Cookie with a bottom side up.

So that dark, that chocolate Fudge Side is what's going to be up at the top.

And you're going to put that on probably I would say like some parchment paper or something like a paper towel.

Some type of a surface to work on.

You're going to smear just a dab about an eighth of a teaspoon of the melted chocolate onto the bottom of that unwrapped chocolate kiss.

And then you're going to secure that kiss to the center of the cookie to cover that little hole that's in the cookie.

And then it's going to start looking like a hat.

Yes.

And then once that's kind of set a little bit, you're going to decorate it with that decorating gel.

And you're going to put that belt around where the base of the kisses to the cookie.

And then it looks like a little witch's hat.

Yeah.

I love it.

This could be another one like with Christmas cookies or something like that, you know, or Halloween cookies.

You could do something with the family and decorate, you know, the cookies, however you want.

You know, add your own little twist on it, whatever.

And then there are colored chocolate wafers out there that you could always make it into a Santa hat.

Yes.

You know, get a little nela wafer.

Perfect.

Dip that into the melted red wafered chocolate.

Yep.

And then get a red Hershey kiss or dip that into the...

Yep.

You could do a Santa hat and switch it up or a pilgrim's hat even for a Thanksgiving.

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

This is just a great one of those jump off recipes that's so simple.

And it's going to be fun for kids because they get to play a chocolate, right?

And it doesn't like clean chocolate.

Cookies for every holiday.

There you go.

Every holiday.

There you go.

We'll make it happen.

Well, the next one is another cookie.

And it uses the vanilla wafers, but in a different way.

It is acorn candy cookies.

And if you get a chance to see a picture and I'll put a link in the next article in the website,

these look absolutely adorable.

They actually look like acorns, but they are so much better because you can actually eat them.

Yes.

So what you're going to need is one tablespoon of prepared chocolate frosting.

So, you know, just the can that you can get off the store shelf.

24 milk chocolate candy kisses, such as Hershey's kisses.

Make sure again that they're unwrapped.

You're going to want 24 mini vanilla wafer cookies, such as vanilla wafers,

or you can find them also in other grocery stores under a more generic name, a store brand.

And then you're going to want a bag so you can get at least 24 butter scotch chips.

Oh, yeah.

So you're going to want those because those have more of that tan hue to them, rather than the chocolate,

which is a brown or a black kind of color.

So to make these, you're going to smear a small amount of the frosting onto the bottom of one of the candy kisses.

You're going to press that onto the flat bottom of one vanilla wafer cookie.

And then you're going to smear a small amount of the frosting onto the bottom,

flat bottom of the butter scotch chip, and press that onto the rounded top of the same cookie.

And then it literally looks like an acorn.

Oh, my gosh.

That's amazing.

That is the cutest cookie I've ever seen.

Easily.

Easily.

I love vanilla wafer.

Oh, yeah.

You don't see those incorporated with these very often.

No, you don't.

That's really cool.

And again, 100% not free.

So you don't have to worry about that kind of an allergy with these.

You're going to keep repeating that process with the candy kisses wafer cookie on all of that.

You're going to make sure to set them aside to dry for at least 30 minutes,

so that that frosting can get solid and bind everything together.

Yes.

But another great little treat to put out there, you know, if you're having a Halloween party,

especially if it's a kids Halloween party that you don't want to be too scary.

These are some great treats.

It's going to kind of celebrate the season without it being gory.

Next week, here's your little hint and preview.

We're going to go more on the gory side.

All right.

Because I found some great things out there that started to gross me out just looking at that.

That's how creative they are.

But they're going to be easy to make.

So it's great.

Another great one is zombie lips.

Sounds a lot scarier.

Love the name.

Love the name.

Yeah.

And this uses an apple.

So this recipe is great.

So these are not nearly as scary as they sound to make them.

You're going to want a medium apple, a half a cup of peanut butter,

a half a cup, or as needed of miniature fish-shaped crackers, such as goldfish.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

So to make these, you're going to core the apple and cut into eight slices.

If you have one of those pampered chef slicer things, that's great.

It does it just kind of thing.

It does it for you.

Super easy for you.

And then you're going to spread a half of that, one tablespoon of peanut butter

on one side of the apple slice.

And then you're going to press those fish crackers,

tail first, into the peanut butter to form the teeth.

You're going to do the same thing with another one,

and then you're going to put them one on top of the other.

So the rounded part is kind of what you're going to want.

You're going to put them on top of each other,

and once you put them on top, they're going to look like teeth coming out of the lips.

This is cool.

I can see it.

That is so cool.

That's a great idea.

Fantastic.

That's a good one.

So, and I got these recipes from an article on allrecipes.com.

And if you type in easy recipes to easy Halloween recipes to make with kids,

that article is going to pop up for you.

Again, I'll have a link, but they have pictures.

They even have little videos to show how to make it.

Very cool.

So that kind of helps that you can see.

Okay, I kind of understand what you want to do with the apple,

but I'm not quite sure.

If you do the skin side, that's the side that you want to press the teeth into.

Gotcha.

And then you'll get the idea.

And the next one I have, again, super simple magic wands.

Okay.

So you don't need Harry Potter to create some magic in Halloween.

You'll need one 15 ounce package of pretzel rods.

These are the larger thicker rods, not the small little pretzel sticks.

So the large rods, one 16 ounce container prepared vanilla frosting.

Again, pick it right off the shelf, pick your favorite brand.

You can always make your own if you're getting ambitious and want to make some frosting.

And you're going to want a half a cup of sprinkles or colored sugar for decoration.

So something to kind of add that little pizzazz.

It's easy.

But dip the pretzel rod into the frosting, not quite halfway, and pull it back out.

Then you're going to roll it into whatever sprinkles or decoration you want.

Oh my gosh, super easy.

Simple, simple, simple.

And who doesn't like to stick a rod into a tub of something?

Yes, absolutely.

Kids are going to just enjoy this.

Yeah.

And there's already so many other things that are keeping parents busy this time of year.

These treats being cool and simple.

It really helps.

Especially if your kids are having some type of a Halloween party at school.

Yes.

And it's a last minute.

Oh, I want to do something, but I don't want to just go buy something that's already off the shelf.

What can I do?

These are so quick.

They're so simple.

You can do them in no time flat.

Right.

Actually, if you're doing a younger kid's party, you can actually do this at the party.

Because it's that easy to do.

And with the pretzel rods, if you have any leftover, just get some wax paper.

There's some plastic wrap and you wrap it around them and it stays fresh.

You can even send some home with kids in a goody bag.

There you go.

Perfect.

So simple.

The final one takes a little bit more effort, so it's not quite that last minute kind of thing.

But it's a tried and true classic that is definitely worth doing.

It's dirt cake.

Oh, yeah.

You know, who doesn't like dirt cake?

Love dirt cake.

I've gone to many things.

I've never tried it myself.

I don't know why I've been so intimidated.

It really does take a few more steps, but it tastes good and it's worth it.

And especially you can get as gory or not gory as you work with this one.

Right.

So you're going to finally crush a 32 ounce package of chocolate sandwich cookies with cream filling.

Think Oreos, that kind of cookie.

And you're going to do this in a food processor.

And then you're going to set those crumbs aside.

Oh, I was going to put them in a baggie and just like just pound that too.

Absolutely.

So my mom does.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Depends on how much aggression you need to get in it.

Right.

And then you're going to combine one softened eight ounce package of cream cheese, a half a cup of softened butter, and a half a cup of confectioners.

That's powdered sugar and a large bowl.

And you're going to beat that with an electric mixer until smooth.

So this one you really, you can try to do it with your hand, but it's going to be easier to just do it in an electric mixer.

Then in a separate bowl, you're going to whisk together three and a half cups milk, one 12 ounce container of thawed whipped topping.

And two three point five ounce packages of instant vanilla pudding mix.

You're going to fold in the cream cheese mixture until all of that is well combined.

Then you're going to alternatively, I can say that word this early in the morning.

Alternatively, layer crushed cookies, the pudding mixture in a clean, medium-floured pot, horrible.

You know, it's especially a clear bowl.

You can really see those layers in there then starting and ending with the cookies.

So put the layer cookies and the cream cheese mixture, then the cookies, then cream cheese, and do that again until you've got the cookies on top.

And then you're going to chill that dirt cake in the refrigerator until it's ready to serve, garnish it with gummy worms or other gummy creature of your choice.

Oh man, the gummy worms classic, of course, because it is dirt, and that just makes it look that much better.

There's a billion types of gummy things up right now, so you can't have some fun with that one.

Oh, you could, you could do bugs, you could do anything, yeah.

But God, I love dirt cake.

That's really good.

Well, it gets creative with it.

Get the Milano cookies and some black icing piping and put RIP or crosses and stick it in there.

Get some gummy bears and stick them right in front.

Man, you've got a graveyard.

You've got a zombie gum being set.

Those Milano cookies are so amazing.

Oh my God, that was a good one.

And again, you could just do Milano cookies and put RIP or a cross or whatever and put those out as gravestones.

Yeah, there you go.

Perfect.

Perfect ideas.

The only, and I'm not trying to nitpick your mouth, but the only thing I will add to your instructions of these is don't include me.

I will ruin this.

I will be eating the deal.

What happened to half of the, yeah, dirt cake is gone.

Where'd you go?

Where'd you go?

Where'd you go?

Where'd you go?

I said the kids or something.

There's no gummy worms.

Don't invite me.

If you do this, send, text us in some pictures.

Let us know.

Oh, that'd be fun, yeah.

We would love to see you doing this with your kids and see what those turnouts are.

Yeah.

Do want to hear from you with all of these.

The pictures are safe.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, pictures.

So you're safe with that.

It's a good idea.

There you go.

Or if there's another one that you have, is there a go-to Halloween easing kind of theme?

The kind of themed trip that you do with your kids?

Let us know about that.

We would love to be able to share that with our friends.

Toomstone Brownies.

I remember doing that for a party once when I was a kid.

Yeah, I got a Halloween party.

Toomstone Brownies, yeah.

And you can even, I found, I think it was at the Dollar Tree or somewhere,

little silicone baking tin that are graves.

That you could just put cake in there, cupcakes, or brownie nicks,

and make them so that they actually look like gravestones.

So it can be a scary time with you, but it doesn't have to be scary in the kitchen.

So go ahead and have a frighteningly good time with your family as you put these treats together.

If you do have a special Halloween or other holiday recipe,

consider sharing it with us by submitting it to our 85th anniversary cookbook

that we're putting together.

You can find a link on our website at WFHR.com.

You can stop by the station and pick up a submission form or have Pam make a copy of the recipe card

and we'll give it that right back to you so it can be included.

Once again, I'd like to say thank you to the hotel maid for sponsoring our segment.

They're bright and spacious rooms with 9-foot ceilings.

Offer a range of options from cozy king and queen bed rooms

to expansive whirlpool and family suites.

To book your stay, go to www.hotelme.com

And with that, we'll close the kitchen.

All right. Wow.

Mmm, love Halloween treats.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm really hungry.

Great segment.

Nice for you, Beth.

Nice.

Thank you.

You are not done, though.

We're going to make you stick around.

We got another segment coming up with Beth and we'll bring Lauren.

I'll trade Lauren out for Seth.

We'll have that coming up for you right here.

And of course, be listening every Monday for another edition of the kitchen.

It's open brought to us by Beth in the hotel maid, everybody.

Tell me something good.

Welcome back, everybody.

Mark Morning Show here at WFHR.

Locally grown radio.

Got James here along with Laura and Beth.

Hi.

Hello.

Beth sent over an article the other day that I just could not help myself.

I was like, well, we got to get into this one.

And I thought it was a great one.

Thank you for sending it over.

You're welcome.

Good housekeeping put together their 2025 Best Toy Awards.

And they broke this down by ages of like little kids to, you know, me, you know,

little older, little older.

We'll kind of go through those.

Sure.

I do want audience participation.

If you and your little ones out there have come across a new fun toy.

Do you want to tell us about it?

Feel free to 715-424-2600.

The words best toy mean different things to different people.

And more importantly, mean different things to different kids at different ages and stuff.

Absolutely.

This year's good housekeeping best toy awards winners checked all the boxes.

Their team of lab experts and parenting editors vetted every submission and got hands on with the items.

I want this job.

I know.

But also, you know, we'll see.

Baby and toddlers.

We'll look at these.

And there's a lot more than we're going to be able to get to the time of the segment.

You can go to goodhousekeeping.com if you'd like to find the full article.

I'll make sure there's a link in the show notes.

Appreciate that nice work, Laura.

I see a Sesame Street Hoki-Poki Elmo toy.

Yes.

That's awesome.

Lego Duplo balancing and stacking tree.

What?

So I know what those things are.

Oh, okay.

So it's like a Duplo.

But it rocks like a rocking horse.

And so it's teaching balance.

Yeah.

And you can put the different toys.

It's intended for like toddler age.

Yeah.

That's a really cool toy.

You learn all about gravel.

All right.

Okay.

Wacky move.

Wacky move.

Light up.

Wack game.

Okay.

That's what I mean.

It's Wackable for kids.

It's Wackable with lights.

Yes.

So you're welcome parents.

Lots of whacking sense.

Yes.

Well, not just whacking sounds.

I bet when you whack one of those.

Oh, you bet it whistles and stuff.

Oh, yeah.

There's gotta be sounds here.

Yeah.

Don't buy me toys that can noise guys.

Don't do it.

Not for my kids.

Don't do it.

Please.

You got a cute baby pecky puppy animated plush.

That's kind of cool.

Melissa and Doug blockable's farm snap.

I love Melissa.

Yes.

Melissa and Doug toys are always a win for me.

Mm-hmm.

You can take get growing tractor in more ride out.

Oh, that's cool.

Like for real.

Let me see that.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

You can push it.

No, you push it.

Yeah, you push it.

Oh.

So it looks like a lot more.

Yeah.

Like a push lawn more.

Variation on the vacuum cleaner.

Yeah.

Was very happy to see the PlaySchool and spin is still okay.

Yay.

It's a classical.

Classical reason.

I think we should get a couple of those in here.

Yes.

And have a little contest.

Why?

So I can break my face.

Maybe who's going to actually vomit from doing it.

Well, I wouldn't vomit, but I would break my face.

I want all of our interviews for RapidSport now to be done that way.

And I want to interview Senator Testin.

Has it been your conversation with me?

Well, he is going to be here on Monday.

Yep.

Let's just bring a sit and spin.

There you go.

Where we have to.

No, you heard me, Patrick.

No, wait until I come back around, Pat.

I'm going to get you on this one.

Oh, yeah.

I love this.

I love this.

This is fantastic.

So까 or just in general.

You know, I think it's a gather.

How about that?

There is a good year kids car engine repair set.

Oh my goodness.

Oh, my goodness.

A lot of pieces.

That's kind of cool for this school.

I am all for that because we don't really talk about kids going into those kinds of careers anymore.

Everyone is saying go to college.

But we still need trade workers to get kids interested in something like this at such a young age.

I think it's a great idea.

Oh yeah.

Well, and especially, you know, how many parents out there are really into fixing their cars.

And they'd love to have their kid interested in it.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

That's the way.

Gabby's meow-mazing interactive dollhouse.

Okay.

Gabby's dollhouse is a big one.

Well, and it's a movie now.

Yep.

A lot of the big names Disney, Dora, Melissa, Doug again.

Oh my goodness.

The Disney.

It's their Mickey Mouse Clubhouse set.

Oh, that is cool.

Oh, it's like a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse set.

It's like, if you've watched the show, my kids loved it when they were younger.

It is back clubhouse.

You guys would get a crack out of this.

So they both have their laptops up looking at the screens.

And they're just turning them around for me as we get to the items.

Taking turns, it's very lovely.

The Play-Doh Super Slice Cake Play Kitchen set.

Yes.

So it looks like a lot of fun.

Yeah, and Melissa and Doug.

And Melissa, Doug.

Yeah.

Melissa and Doug or any Play-Doh cooking stuff.

Yeah.

And what kid doesn't love playing kitchen?

Every kid I've ever met likes playing.

Oh yeah.

And I'm sorry, but cooks are in every gender of the spectrum.

Absolutely.

So let your kid learn how to cook, please.

I noticed going through these, every age had kind of one that's really stood out to me for different reasons.

This one, the Creola Skribble Skribble's Bluey's Poolside Playset.

And if I got it right here.

Say that five times that.

So the Skribble Skribbles are a thing that I've had before.

We didn't have the Bluey ones, but I know what the Skribble Skribble Skribbles are.

They're like a little, almost like, felty-covered critter.

And they come with washable markers and like a little bathtub.

Right?

So that you can wash the marker off and recolor your Skribble Scrubby.

And so these ones are bluey-shaped?

Yeah.

Yeah, they're the bluey characters.

And again, it's for, well, back time with the kids.

Yeah, it's intended for bath time.

Yeah, I remember having bath crayons and painting myself.

That's yep.

Sisters.

And the walls.

That's the best time for that stuff.

For little kids, we're getting a little bit older with the toys.

We got a Barbie Dream camper playset.

Yeah, all the Barbie accessories are still going to be knocking it out of the park.

Got some squishmallows in there as well.

Those have been big for a while.

Yes.

You know the blueberry cheesecake cow.

I love it.

I love all of that.

I don't know what it looks like, but I want one.

It's adorable.

I believe it.

No, it sounds adorable.

And you have the RC cars, the remote control cars.

Can confirm it's adorable.

A little bit more of that.

I see a DreamWorks dragon.

How to train your dragon.

And like when you can move around.

Yes.

Toothless.

Oh, also like a radio controlled.

Yep.

One.

Okay, so like an RC dragon.

That's cool.

It doesn't have to be how to train your dragon.

It's an RC dragon.

I've seen a lot more of these along with like some Pokemon stuff.

Some more of the interactive animated toys.

But really cool when I saw educational insights.

Campfire chat mollos.

So it's the chat mollos.

It's the squishmallows but a chat.

It's like a game that you can put together the story.

It's Marshmallows.

And then you create a story out of the pictures that you see there.

Oh, so there's like little symbols on the Marshmallows.

And you're stacking them on a stick with a pretend fire.

That's fun.

That could be a bubble game.

That could be a bubble game.

It could really encourage the creativity of the kids.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wonderful.

I really, I really like that.

Some of these are cool.

These are really, really cool.

I want to be a kid again just so you can play with the toys that they've got.

And here I was ready to say they don't know what they're talking about.

They knew.

This is fine.

These are good toys.

Yeah.

They, we talked earlier about their being an adult Halloween.

There needs to be adult, like an adult playtime. O.k.

Playtime.

Absolutely.

Working only because I don't have a better way to word this.

But like, you know, a grown up toy store.

But like for actual toys, not grown up toys.

Right.

Right.

Right.

And we need to have play dates again.

Please, please game nights.

In fact, I believe.

Yes.

Make a campaign.

We're playing Dungeons and Dragons.

All these toys should be tested out by parents first.

Yes, absolutely.

We should get to play with them first.

Then they can have them.

We're done.

But once we've wore them out.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

And finally, there are big kid toys.

And a lot of these again would be where you would think they're going a little bit more educational,

a little bit more interactive, some electronical stuff to, you know, parts to them as well.

But all very interesting.

I think their, boy, is it cool to see where this is all evolved?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it seems like a lot of them are encouraging, create, creative play and just create creativity

in general.

A lot of them are encouraging, you know, like James was saying, a little bit educational,

right?

The one in the big kids one that caught my eyes, the Crunch Lab hack, hack subscription.

Oh.

So that monthly they get something that they have to figure out how to put together that's educational

and it goes with the STEM understanding.

That's cool.

That's cool.

That's cool.

See those are cool.

Yeah, check out this list, guys.

I'll definitely link it.

There is a monopoly app banking one that kind of can help teach that.

A little bit more about the finance and stuff.

Sure.

Oh, that's a brilliant way to teach that.

I like to make your own loom animals, too.

Yes.

I just, you know, I love loom just like having to move a giant one a few times.

And I love the fact that the Rubik's Cube is still in here.

Yeah.

It's a whole cube.

It's a classic.

People love that.

Absolutely.

It's the fidget before fidgets.

There you go.

Like I had a math teacher who would just sit and do the Rubik's Cube and solve it over and over again while teaching lessons.

Like that was a thing he did.

It was a fidget.

Yeah.

That's funny.

I had a professor that did it while not looking at it.

Yeah.

No, he wasn't looking at it.

He did it to mess with them.

He was just teaching his lesson and just doing it.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The other thing that really stood out to me here while there are some really cool innovative toys and everything.

So many that, like, not just we grew up with, but our parents grew up with.

Yeah, right.

You're seeing Legos all over the place, seeing a lot of stuffed animals.

Yeah.

Or like the updated version of the same kind of toy.

Yeah.

There's a Tamagotchi on here.

Bring it.

Listen, I killed several of those back in the old days.

I'll do it again.

There's an electronic spiral graph machine.

Yeah.

An electronic spiral graph?

Yeah.

Even the spiral graph is still around.

Then how was that fidgety for me?

It was the whole thing in a round.

There is also emotional support pickles.

Yeah.

Which I feel like could be for anybody.

Let me see.

Yeah.

Because I have a normal support pickles, but this is a different emotional support pickle.

These have faces on them.

Oh my God.

Those are pretty cool.

Are they, are they, like, squishy?

It's like a stuffed animal, like a plushie jar of a bunch of plushie pickles with different

faces on them.

Give them a squeeze and when they need their little pictures.

They'll leave her.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm gonna get that.

You can see many.

Not for my kids.

Many, many more toys that you will keep for yourself and find out how they did their testing

as well.

Oh, yes.

By go to goodhousekeeping.com and there's Laura Sedg.

She'll put a link in the podcast.

Show them.

Everything.

Beth, keep those articles coming.

Thank you.

We'll do.

You're welcome.

Nice work.

We'll take a quick time out.

We'll get to our news and enter our sports break.

We'll take care of our partners.

We'll come back and have some more fun on the morning show.

Welcome back, everyone.

Morning show here at 9755FM1320A.

I'm WFHR.

Laura Seth James here with you.

Big thank you to all of you for joining us.

I also want to thank Beth for hanging out with us.

First half an hour.

That was fun.

Appreciate it.

The work she brought in.

And of course, appreciate all of you.

I do want to remind everybody of a couple of quick things.

And one of the things that we've been doing here in at least the recent years is a lot

of cross promotion.

We are our sister station 10555WRI and us have tag teamed on many different things.

And want to remind everybody to bookmark the web page WRI.fm.

Head on over there today and get in on the voting for our spookyest country song.

Yes, Seth.

Tell them all about it.

Well, it starts today, everyone.

We've got two songs going head to head for voting.

He's setting up for failure.

I did no such thing.

I did no such thing.

I put two songs today.

You don't even have to turn on WRI.

You can just go to wri.fm like James said.

And you can vote for either the Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks or Dooling Banjos.

My personal pick.

Yes.

Laura is the one that suggested that one.

And you put it up against Garth Brooks in the first round.

Hey, the chips will fall where they may.

Laura, they will follow they may from the deliverance soundtrack.

So make sure you head on over there and vote everyone.

It's going till midnight tonight.

And you don't even, like I said, you don't even have to listen.

Just go and have some fun and vote for the spookyest song.

We'll have two more songs through Thursday every day going head to head.

And then next week we'll be going up to see what is the spookiest country song of all time.

Spookiest country song.

Tell you something else that's scary.

Something that happened to me over the weekend.

I finally got new tires for my Jeep.

And it felt really good.

Yeah.

And I went, I had a lot of time on my hands this weekend.

So I was spending a lot of time with my tires.

And my dad comes out.

Just appreciating them.

My dad.

My dad comes outside.

I go outside and they see my, because I can't find my dad.

He's out there looking at the tires too.

And I realize we're both at that age is where this is like a new toy to us.

This is exciting.

And that's, that got a little sad for me.

They're going to like, I'm excited about tires.

I mean, I did, was it one of those things?

They're safest.

Your dad's sitting there while looking at the tires.

You come up to them and you go.

Yep.

Yeah, exactly.

It's King of the Hill.

And it goes, yep.

And when you're doing it, you got to, you got to kneel down.

You got to kneel down and look at what you're doing.

Yeah.

Closer look, right?

I will say.

Point at it, everyone.

Do you know anything about tires?

No.

Maybe.

You know who knows.

But you're going to say it.

It's scary.

It's scary getting older.

It really is.

Can you imagine Yoda any other color than green?

We dive into a little bit of entertainment news for everybody with this one.

Can you imagine him any other color than green?

Well, answer the, I'll answer that for you.

No, you can't.

But did you know it almost happened?

Yoda was, I just want to know what color he almost was.

Yoda was originally going to be blue or purple.

Okay.

That is right up to the final screenplay of Empire Strikes Back.

Really?

Wow.

I think green makes more sense considering he lived in a bog.

In the original manuscript, it even describes Yoda as, quote, bluish.

Early concept art for the film has him light blue, pink or even colorless.

A novelization that came out in 1980, the same year as the movie, described Yoda as blue skinned.

Yes.

I've read that and I actually do remember that.

Yes.

Any Marvel Comics adaptation of the movie that also came out in 1980 has him looking purple in some scenes

while looking white with long white hair.

Ooh.

Well.

There's, oh, let's, let's look at this one.

Yeah, please.

Oh, wow.

Wow.

He looks, you know, he reminds me of as the dark crystal.

Exactly.

I was going to say that's still like a Henson type thing.

That's very Henson's.

And Jim Henson did not design Yoda.

That was a British puppeteer who made him.

I can't remember off the top of my head, I can't remember his name.

Of course, Frank Oz did the voice in the puppeteer.

Yes.

You know, so maybe that, but that looks very muppety in that comic.

That's right.

It does.

No one seems to know why Yoda was turned green, but it sounds like the decision was made late in the game

and the people who produced these tie-in materials were using outdated descriptions.

Probably.

Probably pictures.

I can tell you exactly what happened.

Was I there?

No.

But I know what happened.

A bunch of producers came in there and told them what to do.

That's exactly what happened.

Any time you hear in Hollywood history or movie history, oh, we don't know why this happened.

That's why.

A billion times a gift.

A bunch of people with money came in the room and told a bunch of creatives what to do.

You're going to do this.

Well, that's definitely an element of it.

Here's what I'm wondering.

I'm wondering about.

So they had to, you know, make, you know, fashion Yoda, you know, his fleshy bits and everything.

What if the material that they used to mold him with, like to make his flesh out of,

just wasn't able to be painted purple or blue?

That's an interesting point.

And they went with green because they thought, well, you know, he lives in a bog.

Earth tones, right?

Right.

Yeah, he's got my kind of frog-ish.

Right, right.

He does kind of look like a frog in that sense.

Yeah.

And there's, there's also, it may be, maybe I'm wrong about the producing thing because

maybe there's also this part of it.

And I appreciate George Lucas.

I think, I appreciate his brain, his creativity so very much.

But I, I've seen him touch on this a little bit in interviews.

George didn't necessarily like map all this out.

No, he didn't.

No.

A lot of the stuff that we see and we, in the original concepts of Star Wars were very like

first thought, write it down.

Yeah.

And that's what he went with.

Very different from the thing.

Years later, oh, this story doesn't really connect to this one.

So I'm going to do this to make it connect.

And then some stuff that just connected organically.

Right.

I wonder if that's part of this story.

Well, and honestly, you look at Yoda the way he is.

He looks natural.

Right.

It looks very real and natural.

So maybe I wonder if taking, making him blue or purple would kind of take you out of that.

Yeah.

Kind of that, that, right.

Now he looks more like a, you know, like a puppet or something like that.

Right.

But the green feels a lot more natural.

Right.

Yeah.

And then we blend it in.

He sure did.

Sort of diving, you know, keeping the entertainment part going.

Candy is entertaining.

And betting is entertaining.

And that's what we're going next.

Okay.

Oh boy.

These sports betting site action network crunch the numbers to find the odds of each type of candy

landing in your kids Halloween bucket.

Okay.

Okay.

These are the same people that are, are waiting, is staying up until three in the morning to watch horse racing and to buy the bed.

Okay.

I say that as, you notice that was very specific and detailed because I have a friend who does that.

I know somebody like this.

They took stats from Instacart door dash and other candy sellers.

They also looked at things like population density to figure out how many houses the average trick or treaters will hit.

Okay.

Here are the top 10 popular Halloween candies and the odds of getting at least one of them on Halloween night.

Oh, this is cool.

All right.

I'm on board.

Okay.

Here in the morning might be excited about this one.

Reese's peanut butter cups came in at number one.

Oh, yeah.

That big sense.

Well, technically the pumpkins or the cups.

Well, see now that's the question is because they come.

How many varieties now?

Oh, they're the same.

They are not, don't, don't give me that.

They're the same.

Come on.

The chocolate is thicker on the cup.

Oh, whatever.

It just is.

Come on, man.

No, no, no, no.

Even if it is, it's still the same ingredients.

There's nothing different.

The texture.

It's in your mind.

It's all in your mind.

Yes, it is in my mind.

I'm neurodivergent.

And it's about texture.

But it tastes the same stuff.

But it crunches different.

67% believe that that is Reese's peanut butter cups.

It's going to show up in your mouth.

Yeah, that much of a chance, right?

And 100% lower is right.

Peanut.

Peanut.

And it runs 65%.

That's actually a lot closer than I thought.

Of the odds of getting the peanut at M's, yeah.

Rinks a little higher than regular M&Ms at 62%.

Okay.

Okay.

And number four, KitKats with 60%.

Really?

KitKat needs to bump up those numbers.

I need to see that more.

I love KitKats.

I need to steal more KitKats from my kids this year.

Is that the only time a year you're seeing more KitKats?

I don't think if you went to like retail places and say, you know, what are the most popular candy bars that you sell?

I don't think KitKats is up that high.

I don't think it's more of a Halloween thing.

It's possible.

Snickers came in at number five with 58%.

I thought that would have been higher.

I honestly thought Snickers would have been higher.

All five, the top five involve chocolate.

They do.

Of course they do.

Yes, they do.

Not so much at number six.

Sour Patch Kids come in at 55%.

Yeah, you've seen a lot of those.

I'm not surprised.

I guess partially because that's like one of the main non peanut ones is that kind of stuff.

The sour patch is the Swedish fish.

Yeah, right.

All made of comeback.

Yep.

Hershey's milk chocolate bars at 50%.

Milky Way is at 45%.

Number eight, number seven and eight there.

Okay.

The classic Hershey bar.

I mean, that's always good.

At number nine, Twix with 33%.

Ooh, the vote.

Okay.

Or 33% likely to show off.

Likely to show off.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And gummy bears for wrap up the top 10.

33% believe that they are.

They say that they will show up in your kids.

Halloween.

Do you guys remember ever getting gummy bears when we were kids?

No.

That was never a thing.

I'm going to be real real with you, Seth.

I have no idea what I got in my Halloween basket every year.

I really don't know.

I don't think it was gummy bears, unless very rarely.

I love gummy bears, so I feel like I'd remember.

That's the only reason I want some with you Laura.

What I can remember because I did trick or treat in the same neighborhood my entire

you know the most part.

Right.

I know which house was giving me full size candy bars.

Oh, I'm sure you knew that.

I'll never forget that.

Every time I drive through Nassita and I pass that house.

Full size candy bar.

Full size candy bar.

Full size candy bar.

Full size candy bar.

It's like the best of hanger, a normal, a normal pack, a regular blanket, a no

baby, a lot of bigger ones.

That's pretty cool.

They also looked at 3 more things our kid might not enjoy getting.

There are 2 percent chance they'll be getting a toothbrush, 4 percent chance, they're

getting a box of raisins, and 23 percent chance of finding some candy corn

in their bag.

There was a house that gave us a not candy corn, what is the deal people.

I went to a house that every year would give a single piece of change.

So like a dime and a quarter.

What are my favorites all time?

Like that.

So we had a, we went to a one house that he had us come into the house.

And he had stacks of coins on his table.

Right.

And it was all, I think a dollar, and he was like, so do you want the stack of dimes,

the stack of nickels, which is the tallest, or a stack of quarters.

You know, he would ask us this, you know, big decision.

We ought to quarters.

Right.

Okay, so it's like we knew that it was still worth, you know, it's the same.

But we ought to quarters.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Listen, if the guy was even giving us like a roll of nickels, I would have felt better

about it.

At least now I'm armed.

You just get one nickel.

Yeah.

One of the presents.

Oh, spend it all in one place.

That's what I tell you.

That's what he did.

Used to, there was, there was a couple of houses next to each other that we always would

hit.

And one of them was, they, they always had like a toothbrush along with an apple, that kind

of house.

Right next to them was the house with a big size candy bar and everything.

Didn't find this out until it was adult.

Did they play on that candy bar?

Was a dentist.

Oh.

The house next to that is was awesome.

And because they were worried living next to a dentist, they're like, oh my God, I can't,

I can't give up.

I have to do the good thing.

I got to do the good thing.

Meanwhile, the dentist.

Nothing wrong with giving out a toothbrush, but give it in addition to something.

Please.

Like a little Hershey kiss or something.

Yeah, it doesn't have to be big.

Yeah.

Or you could even like, you could tie them together.

Exactly.

Get a candy bar or candy that's like long enough to, you know, a tire ribbon on that.

You got it, you got it.

Right on, you're right on.

A pixie stick.

A pixie stick.

Just for you to wrap this up, kids in Mississippi are most likely to end up with candy

corn 46% of the time and Nebraska 45% and Hawaii is at the bottom of the 11%.

That a lot of candy corn in Hawaii.

Mississippi is number one in something.

Yes.

There you go, Mississippi.

Take that.

And I'm happy about it.

We will take a quick time out.

But you can find the complete article at thetropicalfruit.com.

Thetropicalfruit.com.

We'll be back to wrap up the show.

Welcome back, everybody.

Morning show here at WFHR.

Laura sat in James here with you.

Take it in the top of the hour.

Coming up.

Another great civic media programming for you throughout the day.

Stick around for that.

Also got some other great stuff lined up for you.

Be sure to join us on 10555WiRi from four to five first playmakers.

We speak sport.

We'll be there talking sports with you guys.

Call in.

Join the conversation.

Plenty to talk about today.

I'm going to be covering some local stuff as well as some worldwide stuff.

A month involving sports.

Yes.

Going to be a good one there.

And of course the rapids report lined up for you today.

Got a great one in store for you.

We got two new episodes.

It'll be at wfhr.com for you to stream.

We'll talk with our friends from the arts council.

We're going to be talking about the duop special that is coming up.

The top coming to town.

Yeah.

Really looking forward to diving into that with Sally.

She'll be joining us along with a special guest from the band.

All right.

All right.

And the rapids.

Other addition will have our friends with Scott's rapids community theater.

Silver Foxes talk about their new show coming up.

That's right.

That's coming up this week.

Yeah.

It's going to be fun.

Looking forward to it.

Be sure to join us over at wfhr.com for all rapids report episodes.

And Seth, we had a couple of other things.

A couple of other things.

Once again, they're looking for volunteers everyone for helping with raking those yards.

They have carrying us coming up on Saturday.

Everyone.

So make sure you call the United Way.

715-421-0390 between Monday through Friday, between 830 and 4.

That is their normal business hours.

And you can get your group together because I think they're still looking for volunteers to help rake.

And it's always a fun time.

You know, I've done it the last five some years or so.

I can't remember.

It's always something I look forward to.

And it is a fantastic time raking those those those lawns for people.

Especially if it's, you know, perfect fall weather.

Oh man, I hope it is this week or this Saturday.

I hope we have that.

Look at that so far.

Yeah.