49 episodes

Welcome to Funeral Potatoes and Wool Mittens, a show for people who embrace the warm and cozy spirit of everyday living in the northern Midwest. Whether you cook, bake, or have food delivery on speed dial, everyone has a comforting recipe or story to share. We bake cookies for our kids’ hockey teams and bring cheesy hash browns to funerals. Lefse and krumkake are in our DNA. Candy bars and apples make a salad. We'll ditch work for a lake day, drive an hour for an old-fashioned bakery, and don wool mittens at 20 below. A food podcast for all. Tune in with Staci from Random Sweets in Minnesota. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/potatoesandmittens/support

Funeral Potatoes & Wool Mittens Staci Perry Mergenthal

    • Arts
    • 4.8 • 21 Ratings

Welcome to Funeral Potatoes and Wool Mittens, a show for people who embrace the warm and cozy spirit of everyday living in the northern Midwest. Whether you cook, bake, or have food delivery on speed dial, everyone has a comforting recipe or story to share. We bake cookies for our kids’ hockey teams and bring cheesy hash browns to funerals. Lefse and krumkake are in our DNA. Candy bars and apples make a salad. We'll ditch work for a lake day, drive an hour for an old-fashioned bakery, and don wool mittens at 20 below. A food podcast for all. Tune in with Staci from Random Sweets in Minnesota. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/potatoesandmittens/support

    From Cabinets to Sculleries and Floating Shelves: The Art of Your Kitchen Design With Carissa Trygstad

    From Cabinets to Sculleries and Floating Shelves: The Art of Your Kitchen Design With Carissa Trygstad

    On today’s show, we’re expanding on last week’s theme of incorporating personality into your kitchen as we sit down with expert designer, Carissa Trygstad, about what she’s seeing in kitchen trends and the classics, plus the revival of the scullery, and how it differs from a butler’s pantry. 

    From cabinets to heated countertops, Carissa covers kitchen work zones, function and organization, floating shelves, appliances, cabinet hardware…everything including the kitchen sink, even a few tips for giving your kitchen a refresh without a remodel. 

    While you listen to this episode, I recommend you visit showplacedesigncenter.com and showplacecabinetry.com for all sorts of ideas for your dream kitchen. Showplace Cabinetry Design Center is where you will find Carissa working with clients, and incorporating brands you love, plus the company’s South Dakota-made cabinets.

    One thing I know for sure, no matter the style or age of our kitchen, the food is just as delicious, and family and friends are what make it the heart of our home. 

    Show Notes & Links

    Carissa Trygstad, Designer

    Carissa.trygstad@showplacecabinetry.com

    Pinterest @carissaleight

    Showplace Cabinetry Design Center

    804 S Minnesota Ave., Sioux Falls, SD

    Instagram @showplacedesigncentersd

    Showplace Cabinetry

    Instagram @showplacecabinets

    Pinterest @showplacecab

    Houzz @ Showplace Cabinetry Design Center

    Bamboo Drawer Knife Block, (affiliate link) Carissa talked about this in the episode, but please note the price has increased since she purchased them.

    Martha Stewart article about sculleries making a comeback

    Staci Mergenthal

    RandomSweets.com

    #ourSweetMidwestLife

    Website randomsweets.com

    Instagram @potatoesandmittens

    Instagram @randomsweets

    Facebook Random Sweets

    Pinterest @staciperry

    Email: staci@randomsweets.com


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    • 55 min
    Painting Personality and Vibes into Your Kitchen with Wendy Doornink

    Painting Personality and Vibes into Your Kitchen with Wendy Doornink

    We're heading into the kitchen with Wendy Doornink, the color services manager at Hirshfield’s, a family-owned paint, wallcoverings and window fashions company headquarted in Minnesota. 

    Wendy has been painting since she could hold a paint brush, so when Jason and I started talking about painting our kitchen and possibly even our cabinets, I knew I needed professional help.

    Maybe you can relate. It's because I have a hard time choosing paint colors, for two main reasons—I’m worried I’ll choose a color that once it’s on the walls, I won’t like it. Second, as soon as I choose a color and like it, I find another I wish I would have used.

    We cover timeless and daring paint colors, how to incorporate personality into our kitchens, painting cabinets, and we even talk about wallpaper and a few fun places to use it.

    Show Notes & Links

    Hirshfields.com

    Blog

    Facebook Hirshfield’s

    Instagram @hirshfieldspaint

    Pinterest @hirshfields

    Hirshfield’s At Home Magazine

    Hirshfield’s Design Resource Showroom

    The Effects of Light on Color

    Color 101

    Staci Mergenthal

    RandomSweets.com

    #ourSweetMidwestLife

    Website randomsweets.com

    Instagram @potatoesandmittens

    Instagram @randomsweets

    Facebook Random Sweets

    Pinterest @staciperry

    Email: staci@randomsweets.com


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    • 57 min
    From Pucks to Potlucks: Hockey Moms Stick Together

    From Pucks to Potlucks: Hockey Moms Stick Together

    It’s hockey season and I live in Minnesota, the State of Hockey. And even though my kids played hockey in South Dakota where’s it’s not school-sanctioned, there’s one thing we have in common across the sport—once a hockey mom, always a hockey mom, even after our kids have shot their last puck as a high school player. We may not wear our player’s photo button on our puffy winter coats anymore, but we’ll always proudly wear the “hockey mom” title. 

    It’s been a few years since my guests, Kathy Lesnar and Julie Pederson and I screamed from the bleachers together, so I thought it would be fun to swap a few stories and share the recipes that our hockey players loved at team breakfasts and potluck dinners—like caramel rolls, biscuits and gravy, crockpot spaghetti at the hotel, egg bake, pancakes and butterscotch muffins, and it wouldn’t be the Midwest if we didn’t include Casey’s breakfast pizza on that menu. 

    From hotel hallway knee hockey, parent bonding over beer in the lobby, and driving to games in blizzards, lifelong friendships were formed on and off the ice—among players, parents, even grandparents.

    So whatever sport or team your kids are, or were, involved in, I think you’ll be able to relate to our amusing and heartwarming recollection of our time as Brookings Ranger Hockey Moms.

    Recipes and photos from this episode are on randomsweets.com.

    breakfast egg bake

    butterscotch muffins

    cake batter pancakes

    Staci Mergenthal:

    Randomsweets.com

    #ourSweetMidwestLife

    Website: randomsweets.com 

    Instagram: @potatoesandmittens

    Instagram: @randomsweets

    Facebook: Random Sweets

    Email: staci@randomsweets.com


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    • 42 min
    Revolutionizing the Cafeteria: Farm to School Impacts Student Well-being and Local Agriculture

    Revolutionizing the Cafeteria: Farm to School Impacts Student Well-being and Local Agriculture

    We’re going back to school—to the school cafeteria, that is. And although I do ask about good ol’ square school lunch pizza, and the pairing of cinnamon rolls & chili, my guests, Karla Sawvell and Amanda Reilly are spilling the beans on how the Huron South Dakota School District is implementing Farm To School.

    In addition to being one of the very few public school nutrition programs that cooks from scratch AND bakes all of their own bread, they are striving to serve fresh and local foods to 2,200 students each day.

    You’ll come to the end of this episode knowing:

    1.     How to champion your school district to cultivate a farm to school initiative if it isn’t already. 

    2.     If you’re a farmer, rancher or producer, you can help revolutionize school lunch in your area.

    3.     How many pounds of cheese, and the secret mixture of cheeses they use, to make 132 commercial-sized sheet pans of pizza in one day.

    So grab your pencil box and sharpener, because it’s time to learn how local agriculture and school nutritionists are positively impacting student well-being and benefiting the community. The seasoned turnip fries with herb dipping sauce is on randomsweets.com.

    National Farm To School Network

    The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program

    Farm to School Planning Toolkit from USDA

    Find the network in your state https://www.farmtoschool.org/our-network

    Facebook: National Farm to School Network

    Contact Amanda Reilly, Nutrition Director or Karla Sawvell, Farm2School Coordinator: Amanda.reilly@k12.sd.us and Karla.Sawvell@k12.sd.us. 

    #agriculture #food #schoolnutrition #farming #FarmToSchool

    Staci Mergenthal:

    Randomsweets.com

    #ourSweetMidwestLife

    Website: randomsweets.com 

    Instagram: @potatoesandmittens

    Instagram: @randomsweets

    Facebook: Random Sweets


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    • 50 min
    Harvesting Hope: Iowa Teen’s 7,000-pound Garden Bounty Feeds Thousands, Aims to Triple Impact by 2025 with Lauren Schroeder

    Harvesting Hope: Iowa Teen’s 7,000-pound Garden Bounty Feeds Thousands, Aims to Triple Impact by 2025 with Lauren Schroeder

    Today we’re heading to rural Dixon, Iowa to meet Lauren Schroeder and her mom Katie on their family farm, and Lauren’s FFA advisor and ag teacher, Jenna Kingsley. 

    Lauren is a junior at Calamus-Wheatland High School. She shows sheep and rabbits at county fairs, plays softball and volleyball, she’s the junior class president, and somehow, Lauren, who is a three-time National FFA grant recipient and a My Impact Challenge Special Award winner, has found time to grow more than $15,300 in retail value of fruits and vegetables over the past two years and donate them to local nonprofits. 

    Having already donated more than 7,000 pounds from her bounty of 25 different crops, Lauren will triple her impact when she meets her goal of expanding to two acres and growing and donating a total of 20,000 pounds of fresh produce to at least 10 organizations by the end of her community service project in the summer 2025.

    We have a lot to talk about like where in the world Lauren came up with this idea, how many green beans she’s donated and how she likes to cook them at home, why she’s watering it all by hand with watering cans, how Jenna sees Lauren’s project inspiring others, and what impact her generous bounties have had on communities. 

    Her mom, Katie shares her recipe for homemade spaghetti sauce, how Lauren gives with the goodness of her heart, and, a heartwarming story about the time she saw firsthand how the fresh produce affected a mom and her children at a domestic violence shelter.

    While you’re listening, go to randomsweets.com to see the photos of Lauren with all her bounties and the recipes for green beans and spaghetti sauce.

    Watch Lauren on ABC News: Teen harvests huge vegetable garden for charity. 

    Lauren in the Washington Post: Iowa teen grew 7,000 pounds of veggies, then gave them all away

    #ourSweetMidwestLife

    Website: randomsweets.com 

    Instagram: @potatoesandmittens

    Instagram: @randomsweets

    Facebook: Random Sweets

    Email: staci@randomsweets.com


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    • 55 min
    Christmas Baking Recipes With My Mom Linda Moe

    Christmas Baking Recipes With My Mom Linda Moe

    Since I can remember, my mom, Linda Moe, has shared dozens and dozens of delicious goodies at our family’s Christmas gatherings.

    Today we’re talking about most of them, like vintage treats from her mom like mashed potato candy, cherry bing bars, and fruit salad with a cooked pineapple dressing, and newer recipes she’s added over the years like Ritz cracker cookies, Corn Pops clusters, puppy chow, taco dip, veggie pizza, caramel corn chips, chex mix, and orange chewins cookies with orange slice candies. 

    Of course, we love our bars in the Midwest so we’re reminiscing about the ones with our take on candy bars like Mounds and Babe Ruth, 9x13 pans that start with a box of cereal like s’mores, caramel rice krispies and peanut butter krispies treats, and our Christmas classics like 7-layer and mud hen bars.

    We each share a funny memory from Christmases past, like what happened to my mom’s forgotten kisses, and why my sisters and I brought large totes with us to Christmas at mom’s one year and headed straight to her spare bedroom.

    Get the recipes on randomsweets.com.

    Staci Mergenthal

    www.randomsweets.com

    #ourSweetMidwestLife

    Website: randomsweets.com 

    Instagram: @potatoesandmittens

    Instagram: @randomsweets

    Facebook: Random Sweets

    Email: staci@randomsweets.com




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    Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/potatoesandmittens/message
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    • 59 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
21 Ratings

21 Ratings

jbuse74 ,

#1 Podcast!!💕

Whether you are a cook or not, tune into this fun, easy listening, sometimes entertaining, full of life Midwestern Soul! Planning to hit the road for a drive, or buckling up in a plane. This is a great podcast to have on your favorites list. Even my nontechy hubby enjoys Random Sweets and Funeral Potatoes and Wool Mittens!!

ShellyB109 ,

Fun podcast!!!

I enjoy listening to Staci’s podcast and usually take away a new recipe idea to try.

Millionth Maddow Fan ,

Two months and no episodes?

You just lost me.

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