The Kitchen’s Open: Comfort Foods 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.

The future, the figure, the drama, and then, makes no difference what you brought in.

Ah, now everything people, yeah.

Time to start our two-of-the-morning show here at 97-5 FM.

13-20 AM locally grown radio got Laura Seth and James hanging out with you.

Thanks so much for hanging out with us. Got some entertainment news coming up in a little bit.

Plenty more of that came from, good stories of the day, and we'll get into our schedule.

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.

We want to thank the hotel meet for sponsoring our segment.

The hotel meet is the place to go for more than just a good night's stay.

There are two restaurants, our places to gather for a fun night out.

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The weather has turned, and the flakes have been flying.

There is a chill in the air, and it's the time of year that has me wanting to just curl up on the couch, watch some TV,

and enjoy some good comfort food.

Now does that include a roaring fire, mold wine, and fuzzy slippers?

I'm guessing you're talking about something other than just mac and cheese, huh?

Yes, actually I'm talking about something with low effort, but high reward.

It's slow cooker season, and I came across an article that highlights some healthy recipes

that would be perfect for these colder nights.

The first recipe is courtesy of Amy Stevenson from Food Network Kitchen.

It is a slow cooker, cider, chicken, and apples recipe.

Sounds very folly.

Doesn't it?

One of the apples in there, yeah.

I warmed up when you said that.

I know, but using something from the season, it's a great recipe.

Now for this, you will need a six-quart slow cooker.

You'll also need a few ingredients that might be either a little new to you

or don't just have around your pantry.

So one of the ingredients are leeks.

So if you're unfamiliar with that, with their long leaves and cylindrical shape,

leeks look like a giant scallion, aka green onion.

Right.

But they are similar, that's where that similarity ends.

They are not really a green onion.

Scallions are tender and mild when raw and have thin tubular leaves like other onions.

Leeks, however, are thick with flat leaves and dense layers

and have strong flavors.

They're also fibrous, which means they require cooking or very fine chopping

to tame their texture and pungency.

All right.

Not to throw a monkey wrench into this or anything,

but when you sent this over, I read it and then I'm like,

I don't know what that is, so I looked it up and everything.

Is there anything like popular that a lot of us have eaten you think we might have had?

We've tried this before and made me didn't know or something bad.

And not necessarily with leeks.

Yeah.

There are good substitute or they're usually in stews and things like that,

but you very seldom eat a leak just on its own or say,

oh, that was a leak that I just ate.

Right.

Apparently, in gumbo, it can sometimes be thrown in there to help mix it up a little bit,

but I thought it was interesting.

That's a cool one.

It's used in a number of Asian culture.

I know that leeks are used quite a bit in Japan for things.

And there, again, even though they're used more there than here,

it's more still of an acquired taste.

Leeks are one of those things that a lot of people you like and where you don't kind of think.

So one of the things I love about this segment,

learning about that kind of the new ingredients we could possibly use and stuff.

Right, and with the apples in there,

you can balance out the acidity of the apple with the leak

and then you can break down the leak with the acidity of the apples.

So it's a good combination there.

Usually you use leeks with something,

not just kind of as the featured ingredient.

Another thing that you might want to get that you might not have used before

are fennel bulbs and fronds.

Okay.

So fennel is a member of the carrot family,

though it is not a root vegetable.

The base of its long stalks weave together to form thick crisp bulb

and that grows above the ground, above the bulb.

At the tip of the stalks, it has light feathery leaves that resemble dill.

So when it goes to seed, fennel also produces small yellow flowers among the leaves.

Every part is edible from the bulb to the flowers

and it can be eaten raw or cooked.

Wow.

In fact, there are some fast food pizza chains that use fennel seeds in their crusts.

I was going to say I have the only time I've what I've heard is fennel seeds.

I didn't know that you could eat the entire plant.

Oh yes.

Wow, that's really cool.

So, and we'll talk about how to use both the fennel bulb and the fronds

because you need both of them for this recipe.

It sounds great.

It really, it sounds like it's more complicated than it is

and it might take a little bit more time for the prep

but then you throw it in the still cooker.

So if you do all of your prep either the night before or in the morning

by the time you get home, you're going to have a great dinner waiting for you.

So you want to heat two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

and a large skillet over medium heat.

Put two pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs that you've trimmed the excess fat on

and you've cut them into thirds and you're going to place all of those in a large bowl.

Sprinkle it with two tablespoons of all-purpose flour, one teaspoon of dried dill,

one teaspoon paprika.

I can save that this early in the morning.

Half a teaspoon salt and several grinds of pepper and toss well to coat evenly.

So you're flouring basically your chicken to be able to fry it a little bit there.

So when the oil is hot add the chicken in batches to cook,

stirring occasionally until browned all over.

And that's going to take about three minutes per batch.

Then you're going to transfer it when it's done in the skillet

right into that slow cooker.

About, add about one cup low sodium chicken broth,

a half a cup of all-natural apple cider, three leaks,

white and light green parts only.

So with the leak you don't want to have the root part of it in there

and you don't want the actual very end of the tip.

So just the white and the green parts.

You are going to have and slice one inch thick that leak that you have.

You're going to add two golden delicious apples peeled and cut into large chunks,

two dried bay leaves, one medium fennel bulb, quartered,

cord and thickly sliced.

So that's how you're going to use that fennel bulb.

And that's the white part at the bottom.

And then also add one teaspoon salt to the slow cooker.

You're going to add all that into the slow cooker with the chicken.

Cover and cook on low for five hours.

Okay.

After that five hours you're going to turn the slow cooker to high

and stir in a quarter cup heavy cream,

two tablespoons whole grain mustard, two tablespoons freshly chopped parsley,

and a quarter cup chopped fennel fronds.

So those fronds are the feathery dill-like green leaves at the top of the fennel plant.

You've reserved those from before when you've used the fennel bulb.

So you're going to use the whole thing of the fennel.

You're also going to add some apples in there.

The apples are in there and those apples are going to help break down into a sauce

with that heavy cream that you've just added in there.

You're going to stir all of that and stir in two cups extra wide egg noodles.

And then you're going to cover it again, cook on high until those noodles are all dente.

And that's going to take about seven minutes.

You remove the bay leaves.

You don't want to eat bay leaves.

Don't eat bay leaves.

And serve immediately.

Wow, that's a really interesting.

And this is one of the cool things about having a slow cooker, I think,

is that you can have like a tougher vegetable, like a leak,

or like a fennel, that kind of stuff.

Letting it cook over a long period of time, it helps soften it up and make...

It breaks down.

Yeah, breaks down the fibers.

So because I know a lot of people what they've done when they have those tougher vegetables,

they don't cook it right and then they're like,

trying to chew on cardboard or something.

Well, you got to make sure you cook it for long enough.

So it's easier, more palatable for the taste.

There is, I don't know if this happens to people or not,

but there may be no phrase that makes me more nostalgic than El Dente.

But I will go my whole life and love hearing that and be immediately brought back

to being like eight years old and hearing my non-explain what that means.

To the teeth, Jimmy.

To the teeth.

So good phrase.

Very nice.

And slow cooker recipes are good exercises in patience.

You're not going to be able to eat what you're preparing right away.

So it's one of those things to help you understand good things come to those who wait.

In some ways, it just tastes better that way.

It does.

And delayed gratification makes it even better, right?

Absolutely.

You know what's coming and then you just can't wait to have that first date.

Well, did you know that you can also use your slow cooker for more than just soups and main dishes?

I found some great dessert recipes on allrecipes.com that sound delectable.

Okay, now I'm paying it to that.

The first is a warm berry compote.

So you're going to stir six cups of frozen mixed berries, a half a cup white sugar,

quarter cup of orange juice,

and one and a half teaspoons finely graded orange zest together in a slow cooker.

Cover, cook on high until bubbling, which is going to take about an hour and a half.

Okay.

Then you're going to stir in two tablespoons in a separate little mixing cup,

two tablespoons cornstarch and two tablespoons water until that cornstarch is fully dissolved.

And then you're going to stir that into the berry mixture,

cover again and cook until thickened about five to ten minutes.

Serve warm at room temperature.

Believe it or not, it tastes great either over or with ice cream.

Oh, compotes are always excellent with ice cream.

I know what a compote is, Beth.

Seth does much.

So for Seth, if you don't, what is the color?

It's basically a thicker sauce.

So when you make a compote, you don't completely break down the berry that you're using.

There's still evidence and pieces of that berry in there.

And it's a thicker thing.

So I think what you would put over, say, French toast.

You know, you can do the raw berries or you can do a compote on it.

It tastes great with pancakes.

I mean, it's just that great sweetener sauce that you want to put over things.

And then basically the cornstarch is what solidifies it a little bit to make it more usable.

So it's not quite good.

Say what I looked it up, that was almost wordful.

That was incredible.

That was very well done, Beth.

That was right on and I looked up.

Thank you.

Another dessert that I found in here that kind of goes along with a theme that we had last week with pumpkins.

It's a maple pumpkin pudding.

Nice.

So you coat the bowl of a slow cooker with a non-stick cooking spray.

Then you're going to combine one 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree.

Again, that's the pure pumpkin, not the pumpkin pie filling.

One 12 ounce fluid, 12 fluid ounce can of evaporated milk.

Three quarters cup white sugar, a half a cup of baking mix.

Think this quick.

Right.

Something like that.

A half a cup of maple syrup, two eggs beaten, two tablespoons melted butter,

and two and a half teaspoons pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl.

You're going to mix that all together and then you're going to put that into the slow cooker.

Cover and cook on low until an instant read thermometer reads 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's going to take about six to seven hours.

Then you're going to stir in two teaspoons vanilla extract and serve it warm.

This is old school pudding.

This is not like the stuff you mix on the stove top.

It's a stove top.

This is like a dessert, a pudding like the English bread pudding, something like that.

It's a thicker.

It's like a pastry, right?

Yeah.

I've never been big on puddings.

I need that.

I need to try it.

Doesn't it sound delicious?

Oh man, that sounds good.

If you're looking for an alternative for pumpkin pie, if you're not a crust kind of person,

this could be a great alternative.

There's nothing.

One of my favorite things is a bread pudding.

Classic English bread pudding is excellent and this sounds like it's even better with the pumpkin.

Oh my god.

It gives me a chance to mention, especially during this holiday season, if you have pie crusts

that you don't want, I will take them off your hand.

For this quick, that is basically just a pre-mixed baking.

All purpose baking stuff, right?

If you don't want to go out and buy this quick, you can go online and find out what's the ratio

that I need.

It's your flour, it's your baking powder, baking soda, it's all of that already pre-mixed

for you, but you can certainly make your own if you don't want to go out and buy just a

box of Bixquick for one recipe.

Right.

Makes sense.

So, these are just a few of the slow cooker recipes and slow cookers can be your go-to

tool for a great meal or dessert on a cold winter's day.

Yes, absolutely.

I think underutilized tool in our kitchen sometimes.

And it's easy to find some great recipes.

Just go on your favorite search engine, type in slow cooker meals.

You can designate healthy, you can designate if you want dessert, appetizer, whatever.

And you will find a slew of recipes there for you.

Right.

So, once again, we'd like to thank the hotel maid for sponsoring this segment.

They have been a great partner in bringing the culinary world to our audience.

So, we want to, can't encourage you enough to check out all that they have to offer.

For more information, again, head to their website hotelmed.com.

And with that, we'll close the kitchen.

Oh, man.

I feel it all warm.

Warm and fuzzy?

It's warm and fuzzy on the outside.

Yes, warm.

Makes me think of this stuff, yeah.

Warm and hungry.

And hungry, yes.

I really want to try a couple of those there and everything.

Bet before I let you go.

Is our dancing with the stars, a core sponge and everything.

Yes.

Everything just here.

Our guy Tom has come back.

Yes, I did.

I am so excited about tomorrow night's episode because it's the 20th anniversary.

Not only are they bringing back Tom Bergeron.

They're bringing back several of the original pros that have left the season.

Some of the winners are coming back in to do trio dances.

So, it's going to be a good episode.

If you've never watched Dancing with the Stars, go ahead and do it.

They are having record numbers of votes this season.

Oh, really?

Every episode, they are breaking their voting record because more and more people are discovering the show.

Yeah.

Yeah.

My dad is one of them.

I think my dad would be watching them.

See, there you go.

Very nice.

We will take a quick time out.

We'll be listening every Monday in the 10 o'clock hour for another edition of the

Kitchens Open.

Shout out to Beth and our friends at the hotel meet.

Welcome back, everyone.

Morning show here at WFHR.

Locally grown.

Radio got Seth, Laura, James here with you.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Everybody.

Appreciate the time.

Big shout out to Beth and the hotel meet in the Kitchens Open.

Great segment.

Great segment.

That was a lot of fun.

We dive into entertainment news now and we'll begin with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Inductions that happened last night.

Yeah.

Did not get to catch any of this.

I saw a quick snippet of Jack White's acceptance speech.

That was about all I saw.

Cool.

Bad company, The White Stripes, Outcast, Cindy Lopper, Soundgarden, and more were officially inducted

into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last night.

I liked Cindy Lopper held a moment of silence during her performance to honor the LGBTQ community.

I love her.

Very cool.

She was also joined by Avril Lavigne, Salt and Pepper, and Ray, and Shaperone inducted her.

Oh, I love that Shaperone inducted Cindy Lopper into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Man.

Actually, that makes a lot of sense.

That makes me so happy.

I have not seen a ton of Shaperone.

I've seen a handful of interviews with her and stuff, but I don't want to act like I've seen a ton from her.

I've never seen her nervous.

It was very sweet.

It was a very sweet introduction, a little bit that I got to see of it.

Speaking of Salt and Pepper, they went into the Rock and Roll Hall for musical influence,

and actually brought up their lawsuit against Universal Music in their speech.

Good for that.

Good for that.

Quite during that moment, because you could tell there's a bunch of record producers in the studio.

How are them?

Good for them.

Soundgarden was inducted by Jim Carey.

Yeah.

I'm going to look that up.

I know I will be.

He was very good friends with Chris Cornell, so there was a tie-in.

That makes sense, honestly.

The rest of the band performed with Help from Brandy Carlyle, which is pretty cool to see.

Wow.

And Cornell's daughter, Tony, did fell on Black Days.

She's saying it?

Yeah, I have not.

I've got it saved in my bookmarks.

I just haven't been able to watch it yet.

I really look forward to that.

I'm going to have to work myself up to watching that too.

And Jack White accepted the honor for the White Stripes.

Meg was not there.

In the article, they kind of make fun of Meg about this.

I don't think that's fair.

Well, they haven't done their homework.

Meg White has not been in the public eye pretty much for a long time.

For a lot of reasons.

One of them in particular.

She's never been uncomfortable in the public eye.

It only got worse for her when sex tapes and different things came out.

And people tried to basically shred her as a human being.

Like a lot of people do to women in the music industry.

I don't blame her.

I don't blame her.

It's not her.

No.

And it needs to be said because everybody seems to, whenever she comes up and gets brought up,

she's a good drummer.

She is a good drummer.

She is a good drummer.

It makes no sense to people.

Why would Jack White have a bad musician in his...

That is not making sense.

Exactly.

It makes no sense whatsoever.

No sense whatsoever.

And anyone who has listened to anything Jack White has made outside of the White Stripes.

And I'm including even the rock and tours here.

They're all collaborative efforts.

You can hear both Jack White and whoever he's working with.

And that includes the White Stripes.

Meg is part of what made the White Stripes the White Stripes.

And you cannot take that away from her.

Otherwise, it would just been Jack White.

It would have just been another Jack White album.

Yeah.

Which is fine, but it's not the White Stripes.

He paid a lot of tribute to her during the speech.

He always does.

I mentioned her quite a bit and everything.

They're still very close.

And named a ton of artists who influenced him from Loretta Lynn to Richie Blackmore,

to The Misfits, was a really nice referencing of him.

I thought it was well done.

That's right.

What he doesn't like.

He's got a very eclectic taste.

Olivia Rodrigo and Feist performed.

We're going to be friends.

21 pilots did Seven Nation Army.

I will listen to that.

Honestly, yeah.

I don't know that I want to listen to either of those.

They were inducted, Boyd Stripes were inducted by Iggy Pop,

who not only wore a shirt, but a jacket on top of it nonetheless.

How old is he?

He's in his 70s now.

It doesn't matter.

He's Iggy Pop.

It's his timeless.

There's decorum.

His excitement in the way Iggy Pop should probably introduce everybody.

It was fantastic.

It was fantastic.

I just love that, man.

Andre 3,000, a big boy bow showed up for the Outcast Induction.

Andre did not perform, but big boy did.

He was joined by Doja Catten, Child Earth creator, and a couple of others.

They were inducted by Donald Glover.

Oh, perfect.

That's cool.

That's perfect.

Yeah.

Bad Company was inducted by Mick Fleetwood.

Okay.

Paul Rogers wasn't able to attend, so he went with a video message.

Oh, that was pretty nice.

He performed alongside Brian Adams, Nancy Wilson, Joe Perry, Chris Robinson of the Black Crows.

What a line.

That's a nice line.

I'd rather watch that fan than Bad Company.

Yeah, me too.

Right?

That band is way better than Bad Company.

Nancy Wilson is playing guitar.

I'm on board.

David Letterman inducted his friend Warren Zeva.

Oh, no.

Like Song Pepper wasn't trying as a musical influence.

Dave brought along a guitar Warren gave him before he passed.

No, no.

The killers did a performance of Lawyer's Guns in Money.

Nice.

Okay, that one I'm going to have to hear.

I have to hear that.

That one.

I bet you that's a good version of that.

Yeah, that it is.

They were also tributes to Sly Stone and Brian Wilson, who both passed away.

Joe Cocker's a post-humanist induction capped off the night.

So the finale could be a goodbye with a little hope for my friends, maybe.

Fair.

That might have been probably okay.

Which is awesome.

Yeah.

Which is classic.

More powerful.

Yeah, 100%.

It's honestly my favorite thing about the whole rock roll induction is the end.

Sure.

When all the people, all they are to start out and everything.

It's just because it's so much fun.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's cool.

There's some great moments in history with that one.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, that's cool.

And Miss Piggy is finally getting her moment in the spotlight.

Everyone's favorite Muppet Diva will be getting her own solo movie.

Nice.

All right.

It is still in the early stages at Disney, but Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone will be producing it.

Oh, good.

So I mean, what?

Dang.

What?

Good.

Really cow.

I love that.

Yeah.

That's part of the reason it got to this point is because of those two in particular apparently.

Of course.

That sounds right.

They'll probably be, this article says they'll probably be starring in it.

There's no word that they will or they won't.

They may just be attaching their name to it as producers.

If you haven't been paying attention, I don't know as much about Jennifer Lawrence, although I enjoy her as an actor.

I really enjoy her interviews.

Yes.

Jennifer Lawrence has no filter.

It's beautiful.

She's always embarrassed.

But Emma Stone is one of my favorites.

And I've been following her for a long time.

And she has been doing a lot more production where she's just producing something.

She's not in it.

That's cool.

I mean, there's no giving in it.

She's becoming a whole force.

At the same time, the way these two feel about this character would not be shocking if they're in it.

No, not at all.

At least some cameos, if nothing happens.

I'm expecting a couple of cameos.

I'm not expecting any starring roles from either of them.

It's Miss Piggy's movie.

Let Miss Piggy have her movie.

And I hope that that's the attitude they're bringing to their production.

Jennifer Lawrence may slip this out in an interview.

She did it on Bowen Yang's podcast.

And I just mentioned that because that's Jennifer Lawrence.

Yes.

She does it.

Like, there's a reason she's never been in the Marvel movie.

It's just so interiorly.

I don't even let her in the Marvel movie.

Well, no, she did.

Miss, she did technically.

She did.

Well, she was with the X-Men, but not.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then she put her foot in her mouth and wasn't allowed to ever do another one.

I really enjoy her as a person.

Like a judge.

She's a person.

And here is another interesting one.

As we're getting ready to wrap up our entertainment here.

We'll get into the Grammy nominations tomorrow.

Well, we'll need a little time for that.

Okay.

Sure.

We got time.

Johnny Depp has landed his biggest gig since his legal battle.

It's a big note for him.

He'll star in a new version of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol.

That's right.

This one is called Ebenezer, A Christmas Carol.

And it's being directed by Ty West, who did horror trilogies and a couple of others.

But we're very popular and did well in the box office.

This is the second version of a Christmas Carol that's been announced this year.

Robert Eggers is making one, too.

He's the elevated guy who did the witch, the lighthouse, Nosferatu, the Northman.

Oh.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

So Johnny's going to be playing Ebenezer Scrooge in this one movie.

And Robert Eggers movie.

Who else would he have be Ebenezer Scrooge, but William DeFaugh?

Well, I'm the one I'm watching.

Yeah.

Sorry.

I am not watching anything more that Johnny DeF makes.

I'm sorry I can't do it.

Interesting to see these.

Now, we're dealing with, we're in the middle of this right now with the Frankenstein series,

as there's a new Frankenstein movie.

The Geraltoro did on Netflix.

And then there's another Frankenstein movie called The Bride coming out with Christopher Bayl as Frankenstein.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, I forgot about that one.

Wow.

And this all goes back to something Seth brought up years and years ago, IP.

Yep.

Oh, sure, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

The old Frankenstein's monster has to lumber around, you know, every 25 years or so, you know,

because it's while he's free, you know.

It's a painting thing for it.

Right.

You know, it's a, it's used the oldies.

You know, the ones you don't have to pay any royalties for.

Well, and it's nice to do those sometimes because you have a good amount of creative expression.

Yeah.

You can, like it's the same with like Shakespeare, right?

You've got a lot of room for creative expression in it.

I see the urge to take things and make them darker.

That's something that we've been doing a lot of in the last 15 years and everything.

Yeah.

It's a depressing time.

A Christmas Carol is already pretty dark to me.

I don't know that you really need to have really done, like, yeah, but I will also watch anything

with Will and Defoe in it.

Oh, yeah.

Will and Defoe as Ebenezer Scrooge is pretty good at cast.

Yeah, I'm going to watch it.

I'm sorry.

I mean, he's got the, he's got the, just the, his face is perfect for it.

His face is perfect.

If you look at the description of Scrooge in the book and the story, it's, it's right there.

It's perfect.

Yeah, yeah.

That's pretty good.

That might be pretty good.

Probably just a solid face.

I like his face.

Might be a good one.

We will take a quick time out.

We'll come back and when we get back, we're talking about could your city get the title

of America's fourth best city?

Probably not.

Coming up on the morning show.

One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock.

Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock rock.

Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock rock.

We're going to rock.

Around, twelve o'clock tonight.

What do you expect right now?

Welcome back everybody.

Morning show here at WFHR.

Laura, Seth, James, hanging out with you.

Thanks for hanging out with us.

Yeah.

Let's go ahead and take a phone call quick.

Good morning.

You're on the show.

Hey, good morning.

Hey.

You were talking about songs.

You were going to write them.

We wish didn't exist.

Yeah, we sure were.

Which one you got.

The one song I would like to see me move from everybody's library of records is that

Barking Dog song for Jingle Bells.

Oh, good choice.

Yes.

Yes.

I'll give you that one.

I'm with you, sir.

That's a good answer.

I'm with you on this one.

Good choice.

I forgot all about that song.

Good choice.

Is it anyone that likes that?

I'd be shocked.

I doubt that dogs like that.

I was going to say that dogs like that.

Great choice, sir.

Really good choice.

Thank you for the call.

You have a good morning.

Thank you.

Great choice.

That's a good answer.

That's a good answer.

That's a good answer.

Especially with Christmas coming up.

Yeah.

I didn't want to say it because I can't remember who the artist is, but I was trying to

think of modern songs so I didn't sound so old.

And I forgot all about it.

So you had a bad day.

Oh.

Was that Gavin DeGraw?

I don't know.

It wasn't Gavin DeGraw.

It was.

But the name of the song is Bad Day.

Yeah.

Oh, dear God, I can't handle that song.

I could be having the greatest day of my life and that song comes out and it ruins it.

All of a sudden.

Bad day.

Bad day.

Oh, it actually creates bad days.

Oh, my God.

For me, you didn't know that when we recorded it.

That song is a horror movie to me.

Sure.

That is three minutes of torture.

So you had a bad day.

Oh, God.

Okay.

But I also have one since we were doing Christmas.

It could kill me if you want.

But I hate rocking around the clock.

Oh, I miss that.

But I also hate the, what's the Peggy Lee one?

The Christmas song that Peggy Lee did.

All I want for Christmas?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

She did it several.

No, the one.

You know the one.

It'll come.

It'll come.

It'll come.

We're always we're going to keep this.

That was Brenda Lee, by the way.

The Brenda Lee, that's the one.

That's who did rocking around the Christmas tree.

Rocking around the Christmas tree with her.

But hers.

Yes, okay.

Hers.

Also a wonderful Christmas time.

I'm shocked.

That wasn't on the list.

Yeah, I thought that would be a little McCartney there.

Yeah, I can see that.

I love Paul McCartney.

I hate wonderful Christmas time.

You don't have to love Paul McCartney.

You don't have to.

No, but I do.

We will keep this topic going forever.

You guys go ahead.

Any time.

Very random.

I will come up with new songs daily.

Don't doubt me.

Two years from now.

Somebody calls up and they want to give us a song.

They delete.

Go right ahead.

It'll be me.

We will never get rid of this topic.

The general consensus is that America's top three cities are New York City, Los Angeles,

and Chicago.

Okay.

And that's backed up by population.

And it's kind of interesting to think of how long that has been the case.

Those three are the big three and stuff.

The big Metro centers.

Absolutely.

I would even being, you know, for that being my roots and everything, I would say that there

are times in our history that Houston has, you know, competed with Chicago in population,

but it's never really topped it.

I was going to say Dallas.

Yeah.

I'm sure that has gotten close in a list too.

So people online are debating which city should get the title of America's fourth best city.

And I don't think it should be best.

I think it should be biggest.

Biggest city.

I think it's a much better.

Yeah, I think it's a better way to put it best.

That's all.

I would hope that everybody out there has their own answer for that.

Right.

Whatever it might be.

Like this article completely misses the one that should be on this list.

Shaboykin.

Shaboykin is not on this list and that is just heartbreak.

He just needed to say it.

It's because of the names.

I mean, what the best name cities.

We could have them.

That's always nice.

Yeah.

Oh, it's another good choice.

Another good one.

So if you go by population alone, the next four are Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia and San Antonio.

There are other things to consider though.

Washington, Washington DC is the nation's capital in the center of politics and government.

San Francisco is the unofficial capital of technology and a multicultural hub.

And A town in Atlanta is the home of the world's busiest airport.

And it has a thriving cultural scene that's been around our whole lifetimes.

It's a solid argument.

Miami is the second most visited city by overseas travelers in the world.

And America is gateway to Latin America, which has only become more and more important.

And then of course, you got Boston, which is one of the country's oldest cities.

Yeah, that's fun.

And is the home to many universities, museums and an entertainment.

Right.

So real quick, I do want to say any of these are a fine option.

I don't think there's a wrong answer here.

I think that this is kind of, it can be a really fun one.

If you don't take it, you know, personal pride or anything like that.

I'm going to throw one caveat in there because I don't think Washington DC, I mean, it's a city.

But it's at some point and it's going to happen.

It is going to be a state.

Right.

So I'm going to remove it from there just because of that fact.

I know it's similar.

I know that.

I know that.

I'm going to say some similar.

Right, right.

It's its own category.

It is.

It is.

Because of what it is.

The other ones there, I didn't realize how big San Antonio was.

Yes.

That it's on there.

I didn't either.

And if for me, if I had to pick a city, I've never been to the state of Texas.

But if I had to pick a city, you know, I want to see probably, like, top of the list, maybe one, two with Austin, would be San Antonio.

Same Austin's on my list too.

Because it's of all those cities.

I mean, I know they have his, it's the one that feels the most historic.

Maybe it's because the Alamo is there and all these kinds of things.

Well, I've been to San Antonio.

But there's something about that I think San Antonio should get, you know, maybe even more than Houston or Dallas anything.

Because it's got, it's got that feel to it, whatever it is.

And it's a very large city, which again, I didn't know that.

Well, and if you've ever been to the River Walk, you'll remember it.

That's what I've been hearing from people.

It's like it's an amazing thing.

It's beautiful.

So yeah.

But I, so here's what I'm thinking.

I like, so I'm thinking of the map of the United States.

And I'm looking at those three cities and the locations of it.

Right.

And so in my head, Denver happened.

Oh, I see for each time zone.

Right.

Oh, hey, that's a good idea.

Denver is good.

I was thinking something similar with no southern states being represented.

So that's what got me thinking of Houston and Dallas and San Antonio and some of that.

But that's a great, the time reference.

Yeah.

I would say I would say somewhere in Texas should be four.

But I also think Denver would be a solid option.

I don't think any more of the ones on the East Coast are at New York, Chicago or LA level.

If I'm being honest, I really don't.

Maybe I can take a moment to insult all of our Jersey embossed in listeners.

Yeah.

All what to them.

New York covers so much of the East Coast.

Sorry guys.

It really does.

And that's, is it like Connecticut just a part of New York City?

Listen, all the new Jersey and New York listeners just look at us as a flyover state.

So like, you know, yeah.

If you really want to get ambitious, you can just do like the Megalopolis starting up in Boston going down to DC

because that's like almost one continuous metro area.

You build your Megalopolis and that will put it on the list, okay?

It's almost there already.

So there.

They're all connected by train systems on Nashville.

I think Nashville should be on in the running for this.

I'm not saying it should be, but it should be in the running.

You're all wrong and it has to be Fargo, North Dakota.

Fargo, North Dakota.

That's not the final.

That is.

Something I want to say real quick is that anytime you get a city of any size, it's going to have cultural

things that are really cool there, okay?

I mean, the bigger cities have more because, well, they're bigger.

Right.

You know, and that's kind of thing.

But even like I was joking about Fargo, but Fargo has some great cultural stuff there too.

Sure.

And it's like not a big city.

It's not even close to some of the bigger cities.

But it's a large metro area in a specific place where there's not a lot of that stuff around where it's located.

It has all those cultural things that you're coming to expect.

Right.

Something we do have to keep that in mind too.

Population-wise, it may not make the running of this list.

But if you bring up Milwaukee, almost anybody in this country knows Milwaukee was crazy.

Sure, but you're right.

We could also Megalopolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago.

So let's not go crazy.

Let's do all Megalopolis is now.

That's what I was talking about.

The Milwaukee Madison Chicago complex.

It was just a couple of things that go into play that was Chicago did not end up in Wisconsin.

Yeah.

If you look at how the state is very interesting and everything.

It is right there.

A couple of things here and there that made that effect.

There's a book that said how the state's got their shapes.

Well, it's actually a pretty good book.

There's actually a whole series on the history channel and I watched it many times.

Very cool.

One of the greatest books you would ever read everybody how the state's got their shape.

It's a small, fascinating, quick read.

And my god, it's awesome.

Yeah.

Honestly, same with the show.

All the episodes are short.

A great host, too.

What's his name?

Hosted it.

I don't remember.

I don't remember.

It was that guy.

Benjamin something.

Yeah.

I know who you're talking about.

A couple of those episodes are fun.

Yeah.

He's good.

No, it's not the guy that did cash cap.

It was an actor.

He was great.

Anyway, he was great.

Yeah.

I want to find if I can watch those shows again.

Yeah.

I don't know where you can watch history.

Channel actual history shows.

No.

No way to look it up.

No way.

No way.

Any of your answers on this one everybody.

715-424-2600.

Be here.

I think that-

I see some people mentioning Seattle.

Minneapolis, St. Paul, Detroit, San Diego, Las Vegas.

Also makes the list.

Sure.

Of a possible contenders.

But I think the fun thing about this is that it'll always be in our changing.

I think as our populations change and move around and everything.

You're going to see this.

We saw this with the invention and the biggest invention to change all of politics with the air conditioner.

The air conditioner changed politics more than anything else in this country.

Yes.

It made it so that warmer states, people wanted to live in them, which rose up their population,

which rose up their delegates and et cetera, et cetera.

Without air conditioning, there's no Vegas.

It's in the middle of a desert.

It's in the middle of a desert.

The air conditioner.

You can watch how the states got their shapes on Amazon Prime.

And I'm looking at his face and I can't figure out his name.

Oh, yeah.

His name is Brian Unger.

I thought it was Brian Unger.

You said that though, did you?

I thought you said that.

There you go.

That's who he is.

We will take a quick time out.

But before we do want to remind everybody that we've got our WFHR cookbook coming up.

Oh my gosh, that's right.

We are right around the corner for wrapping up, taking in recipes.

That's going to be wrapping up on the 14th, I believe.

Yeah, and I need to get my recipe in that book.

Let's see.

You guys should too.

You can text it using the Civic Media app.

Just take a picture of your recipe and send it on into us.

Or you can email it at infoatwfhr.com.

Or, or you can just stop in.

And Pam will take a copy of it.

Or I'll take a picture and text it using the Civic Media app.

Why not?

Or starting to sound like a seal.

However you got to do it, get it to us.

All you seals out there.

We, especially you lose seals.

Clap your flippers together.

Get them to us.

Get them to us.

Get us those recipes.

You can find out more about going to WFHR.com.

Be sure to bookmark the page, everybody, and keep in mind.

You can also reach us at WiRI through that web page as well.

It's true.

There's a tab.

Right there.

Yep.

We'll take a quick time out.

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

Welcome back to the show, everybody.

Morning show here at WFHR.

We are locally grown radio.

James, Seth, Laura, hanging out with you for a couple of more minutes.

We're going to take a right to the top of the hour.

Nothing but great civic media programming coming up for you throughout the day.

Got some good stories of the day.

It's some great local events going on, but we dive into our schedule first.

And be sure to check out the rapid support today, everybody.

Got a great one lined up for you.

We do.

We have two wonderful episodes.

It'll be premiering on the WFHR.com a little bit later today.

Mm-hmm.

And one of those conversations is going to involve our friends at the South of County YMCA.

It's true.

We're rescheduled with them.

They're going to be coming on.

Big thank you to, of course, Crockett's septic sponsoring the rapid support.

And also Tri-City Services, given us a chance to talk to the South of County YMCA.

Yeah, they sponsor the YMCA episodes.

We'll also be talking to our great friend, Rock Larson, Wood County Veteran Service Officer.

Yeah, everyone knows Rock Larson.

Love talking to Rock.

And what a perfect day to be talking to Rock on the Marines birthday and all that.