Normally Podcast: How to Marry, Meal Prep, and Make It Through College
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Hey guys, we are back on Normally, the show with Normalish takes for when the news gets weird. This week, a special vacation week edition, Independence Day edition, where you guys get to ask us whatever you want. I am Mary Katherine Hamm. And I'm Carol Markowitz. I'm so excited for this. I love hearing what our listeners kind of think of us. Yeah.

Good, bad and ugly. We were saying this before we started rolling, but there are a lot of cooking questions. I feel like people think that we are capable in the kitchen. That's nice of them. Yeah, it is nice of them. I love to cook, actually. But yeah, I love to cook and I love that that comes across to be real. So yeah, let's get into it.

All right. Mary Catherine, what's the meal most requested in your homes and what do you enjoy making for with your family for dinner? Okay. So I would have to say, um, and I know this does not put me solidly in the Maha coalition is that oftentimes because I have four children, I am not so much a cook as an improver of frozen food. Like that's really my, I'm like, Oh, here's some frozen broccoli, but I put like a little bit of spice, um, but,

There is a running list of things that I make that every single person in the house eats and enjoys because that's big. That's really big. I was trying to think of something like that. And I don't know that I have one. You know, yeah, there's only a couple for us. And one is this like

like Middle Eastern chicken shawarma that is chicken thighs in the oven. Very simple, really complicated spice combination, which is why it's wild that everyone eats it.

Every single kid in the family, dad likes it. I like it. So that's one. Found it on Instagram. Thanks, Instagram. And then we had one the other day that was egg roll in a bowl, which is just sauteed cabbage, spices, and ground beef sauteed. And like, you know, you dress it up a little bit. Sure. But like, everyone was eating it. And I was like, am I hallucinating? You're eating peppers, cabbages, and beef. Okay. Yeah.

Amazing. Yeah, in my family, I would have to parse something out for someone and it's super annoying. I think the thing I came up with is I make a roast, just a Korean style roast with like...

Asian spices and people in the family all eat it to varying degrees. My nine-year-old is super complicated. We say that he either is like a $90 dinner dish or like a 90 cent. It's either chicken nuggets or lobster for him. There's really no in between. What regular people eat is not of interest to him at all. So he, a lot of the times we'll have the chicken nuggets or a corn dog as we have the four of us have dinner without him.

We have one of those as well where she's like either very... You know, she eats what we put in front of her because it's basically required in our house for the most part. We try that. To give it a try. Uh-huh. You have to give it a try. Sure. But she definitely prefers like very bland kid foods until you put a...

very expensive steak in front of her. And he's like, absolutely. Same here. Yeah. The nine-year-old is also all kinds of Wagyu everything for sure. Oysters, but not like grilled chicken. Cause that's crazy. Yeah. MK, when will you share your pimento cheese recipe? Oh yeah. I know a lot of people think I'm gatekeeping on this. Yeah. Why are you gatekeeping? I don't mean to gatekeep, but it is my

father's family's recipe. So I should technically ask him before I put it out to everyone. Cause it's sort of like a friend to friend. You are gatekeeping. I know. Well, I have to ask him first. That's all I'm saying. I think he would be like, yeah, that's fine. I just would run it by him and I haven't done that. Um, but it is a five generations old South Georgia recipe. And here's the thing. It's not complicated at all. It is that people get a little too fancy.

with the pimento cheese and they think they have to do a lot of things to it. You don't have to do a lot of things to it. Um, the main thing that we do is that we, uh, grate the cheese in two different sizes. So it changes the texture. Texture, right? Yeah. That is the only thing you send me that recipe right after this. I will. And I will clear it with my dad. And then when I tell you guys, you're going to be like, that's just very easy. Yep. But it's a crowd pleaser.

Yeah, for sure. Another food question, Biscuitville versus Bojangles.

Okay. Here's the thing. Biscuitville, if you're not familiar with it, Carol, which I'm not, I'm not. Yeah. It is another regional chain that serves biscuits. I had one like three and a half blocks from my house growing up. And I swear that establishment was never open. Now this is possibly because it was only open for breakfast and like all the like people who are productive and get up in the morning, go eat there. Like construction workers would go have Biscuitville and then be off. But I found Biscuitville,

that in my teenager experience, which is mostly what I experienced around Biscuitville's, they weren't open when I needed them to be open. Whereas Bojangles... Yeah, you need a reliable... That's like, you know, most of the game with fast food. It has to be reliable. You can't like... But really, really, really good grits, very good biscuits, solid food. Just I was never able to land on a Biscuitville that was there when I needed it. Yeah, and that's really the most important part.

Look, switching from food to politics and dating. At what point in getting to know someone should politics or general philosophy be brought up? I know that it wouldn't work to be with someone that doesn't have matching values, but don't want to come on too strong right away. I'm just going to say it. You should come on strong right away.

It's probably a good filter, yeah. Yeah, just don't waste your time. It's really, it's not about them. It's not about what they think of you. It's about what you think of them. And I think you just...

Get it out really early and see what happens. You know, I was a conservative in Brooklyn and that was an unpopular thing to be. So I would find a way to bring it up very early in conversations with new friends, with anybody, just because I didn't want to trick anybody into spending time with me. And if you don't like that, that's your problem.

Yeah, I think that's, that's probably smart. I'm trying to think, I grew up in a very liberal town, and everyone knew I was the weirdo. So it just, it was kind of out there. Yeah, there were so few conservatives that it was like, oh, well, she's the one who does the weird thing. She's the aberration. Right. But, and so everybody kind of knew it going in. However, in new situations, I do think it's harder now for people. So I'm very, I'm sympathetic to the idea that

You're kind of dancing around it because I get being delicate. I've tried to maintain many a friendship with many liberals, mostly successfully over the years. And it does require a dance. Those are friendships. Right. So in a dating to marriage scenario, I think you want to be pretty careful about what is worth.

the trade-off and what is not. And you also don't want to get in too deep and then find out some values are not a lot. That will go badly for you. You don't have to be a jerk face about it, but you can make clear who you are.

Right. I fully agree. I actually, a friend's daughter is a very traditional girl. She's in her early 20s and she's looking for someone to marry. And I said to her, I think you should put a

like looking to be a trad wife in your bio so that there's no, there's no mistake. There's no like, you know, confusion about who you want to be and what you want. And if you're not in the political world, terms like that, you know, might not mean anything to you, but it just, it signals what you're looking for.

I think I was in college and shortly after I was always very clear about my faith and that that was important to me. And honestly, it was a very good jerk filter. For sure. Right. Because there are like people do the calculation and they're like, hmm.

Yeah. Not what I'm looking for. And if it's not what he's looking for. Yeah. Move along. Yeah. Move along. So, um, I do, I do think that can be helpful for filtering for who you want. We'll be right back on normally.

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Okay. So it says, hi, ladies. Love the podcast. My son just deployed on the USS Gerald IV. He is 27 years old. An F-18 pilot. Woo! Thank you for his service and awesome. This is his first deployment. I live in super liberal Loudoun County, Virginia. I am super sensitive about politics right now and don't want to have any political discussions with any libs. What can I say other than I don't discuss politics because I can't handle anyone else's opinions right now that are not pro-military.

preferably a two to three sentence hack for this. Thanks. Yeah. Let me, let me repeat. Thanks for, to your family and him for his service. Yeah. I can understand this being sensitive because you have a person who's in the line of duty at this moment and willing to put his life on the line for others. And so if you're encountering somebody who thinks that that's NBD or, or worse thinks it's bad, you,

uh, that would, um, very quickly lead to bad, uh, interactions that, and lost friendships, I think. Um, I would advise, I mean, one of the things that I do, cause I live in a very liberal area too, and I'm happy to have liberal friends, but not all of them are liberal, right? Because sometimes you want to be connected with other folks. Um, I think you got to have like your solid group of

gal friends, either online or in person who do share those values, who you can have those conversations with so that you can skip it elsewhere. But Carol, what is your take on a nice way to skip it? Yeah. I, you know, I don't know about a nice way to say it, but I'll just echo what I, what we said to the dating thing is that you don't want anti-military, you know, people in your life, in your life while your son is serving. That's, you know, crazy. Um,

Look, I have topics that I think are touchy. If you want to bring down America, I'm just I can't be friends with you. Like there are some lines like if we have differences on tax policy, fine. But if you're like America shouldn't exist, I mean, we just we can't be friends. So I see that in the same place. I don't think you need to worry about what to say to them. I think you don't need those people. And if they are anti-military, they're ultimately just not for you. Again, I'm big on.

ideological friendships, but there are lines and there are some lines that I just don't think we should be willing to cross. Also, you could sort of speak the language of if you, if you wanted to head something off at the pass and you're just like, you know, it may be somebody who's just like medium lib, but isn't being careful about the way they're going to talk about this. And you can, can you use therapy speak on them and just be like, you know, I'm really, I have a lot of anxiety about my son's death.

And I like turning that around. Yeah. I would just like to, you know, chat about barbecue or football. Like that's, that would be, that would be my take. And if someone's just bent on discussing, I actually don't love that kind of relationship. If you're really, really dedicated to discussing politics with me in a casual setting where we're doing other things, that's actually not a good relationship for me.

Yeah, that's right. That's exactly it. And that goes for conservatives, too. I were like, you know, I mean, you know, yeah, both ways for sure. But yeah, I don't think you need to put up with people who are wishing ill to your child. Really? I think that's pretty clear. Yeah.

Will you be going on tour at some point? Please come to Dallas. I'll just say that if we are going on tour at some point, we will be starting with the Dallas Cowboys game. Yes. I'll dare. Um,

I'm good with Dallas. I would love to come to Dallas, by the way. Have you been to Dallas? Yes, but only a few times for too short a period of time. So I don't get to see a ton of it. I really like it. I love Dallas. I would not mind seeing a Cowboys game as it is an American spectacle. That's right. It's America's team. You could say it. I don't know about all that. MK is shaking her head in disgust. Let's not go too far. But, you know, it is, you know,

big and yeah, you know, also, um, I, we have no plans, uh, but also I do love doing things live and they are so fun audiences. So we would certainly consider it. And we'll wear the, the Florida and Bojangles shirts in real life that we have in the baby pictures.

All right, MK, we all know you attended the University of Georgia. What college university was your second choice and why? So fun story. I did not apply anywhere else. What? Are you serious? Wow.

So she's like, I'm either going here or I'm not going to college. No, actually, it was just that my senioritis extended to applying to college. And I liked the University of Georgia. It had a decent journalism school. It had a decent football team. It had a lot of people, which was something I was looking for because I felt that at a small liberal arts school, I was maybe not going to find my pool that I clicked with.

So I wanted big, I was comfortable with that. Um, and part of it was economic, which was, I knew I was probably going to end up at a state school, uh, in my family, I kept my grades up. So because knowing that the, uh,

My younger brothers were probably not going to get scholarships. And I was trying to keep the overhead low for the whole family. That's so older sibling. Very older sister. So I was always keeping those grades up. And I had the goods to get into UGA. And I didn't have a lot of money to be applying a bunch of places that I wanted.

going to end up being able to go. So there was part of me that for pride's sake wanted to be like, I got into Georgetown. I got into Duke or whatever. It was 60 to 75 bucks. Yeah. I

I was telling this to somebody recently. I'm like, you know how you kids apply to like 50 schools? Like I applied to four and that was expensive. It was like a lot of money to do that. And so, yeah, I wasn't looking to spend all that cash on applying to schools. That's crazy. Same. And so, yeah. Did I lose out on some of those bragging rights? Yes, I did. And I made the best decision, one of the best decisions of my life, which was to go to UGA. They gave me some scholarships, which was great.

I graduated with no debt, did not realize that that basically made me a 22 year old millionaire compared to my peers. Right. And I had a fantastic time. So there really wasn't a second choice. I did get homesick at one point in my first semester at school because everybody was like, aren't you scared to go somewhere where you don't have any friends? I was like, nah, because I don't think about before they happen. Yep. And then I got there and I was like, oh, I don't have any friends. Yeah.

So I did apply for transfer to UNC at one point. I did not take it. And I'm very glad that I didn't. Wow.

Imagine if you went to UNC. I just can't picture it. Neither can I. You were in Georgia all the way. Yeah. That first semester at school is very, very tough on folks. And I didn't find my people until second semester. I played lacrosse with them. Second semester, I landed on that club team and found all my people and loved them.

Loved my life there. But man, that first semester was tough. Yeah, definitely. I had a kind of a flip side of that where my best friend and my high school boyfriend both came to college with me, basically. My best friend went to another school in Boston and my high school boyfriend went to school with me. That also wasn't great because I didn't meet a lot of people and I didn't...

like try at all. And then the next year when both the boyfriend and the best friend decided not to come back to Boston, I was all by myself in my sophomore year where everybody already had solidified groups of friends. It was tough. It's, um, it's the hard way to do it, but I, you know, I feel like I didn't have any advice on how this is supposed to go and when you're supposed to meet friends. And I don't know. I, I,

I say, I always say immigrant parents, they really did not know what they were sending me into. They just throw you into the deep end. Good luck. Right. Yeah. No, I, I, I found the one, the one thing that I did benefit from is that because I had no friends for a semester and I was trying to keep my grades up, I had a very early morning job. I delivered papers. So I would get up at three 30 or four every morning and,

seven days a week and deliver papers. And as a result, my grades did stay up. And the other thing I did was work out. And so I came home

different than my peers. No, that was another way that that first semester was definitely tough. That freshman 15, oof. Yeah. I went the other direction because I just went to the gym for like several hours a day. Smart. Which is its own kind of issue. But yeah, that worked out for me. Somebody else asks, while at UGA, did you take classes with Fink?

Oh, I did. And what's your best Fink story? So Fink is a Conrad Fink was his name. And he was a professor at the University of Georgia of newspaper journalism. And he was at one point the head guy at UPI, which was the main competitor to the AP.

So the Associated Press is like the go-to wire now, but for a long time, UPI was the, I think it's United Press International, was the competitor to AP. So they were almost of equal size and scope back in the day. So he ran one of those. And he was a, I believe, a Vietnam vet,

crusty old Marine guy turned newspaper editor. I would say like kind of, I love people like that, by the way, those are my people. Fantastic. Like had no, would take no guff off of anyone had no hair on his head and eyebrows out to like four inches from his face. A no nonsense guy. I think

He passed away several years ago. We stayed in touch. He passed away several years ago and I had emailed him in between a little bit here and there. I don't know how he would have done in the current era of college students because he was a straight talker. And he was a, he was certainly a left of center guy, but he was such a 1985 to 1995 left of center guy that. Right.

His way of dealing in the world would not have been welcomed by many Gen Z and Gen Alpha students. Gen Z in particular. He sounds like that, right. But I loved him. He actually recommended me for a job that I didn't get one time, but it was very kind of him to think of me. By the way, this is a very sliding doors moment. He recommended me for the Augusta, Georgia program.

uh, newspapers op-ed page as an assistant editor, but I was like 24 years old. Yeah. I probably wasn't really qualified for this, but the op-ed page was, um, the editorial page was conservative and there were so few of those and there were so few of me in the news business.

That he was like, you're not the natural fit, right? He was like, Hey, this is Conrad. Do you think you want to try this out? And so I went and interviewed and it went pretty well. But I think I was just too young for what they were looking for. Didn't get that job ended up coming to DC. So the rest is history. But I always appreciated him thinking of me and knowing this could be a fit and that he wasn't condescending or a jerk about my politics. He just knew that I thought differently.

Love it. All right. We're going to wrap it up with one last question about college related stuff. And I'm going to punt this to you because I really don't know what this means. Does Florida State belong in the SEC? What's funny is when I read it, I was like, are they challenging whether Florida State is in the SEC? And then I Googled it. Okay.

I actually nice. Be nice to my Florida, whatever it is. This is one of those things. I have to be nice because two of my really good friends went to Florida State, including Shannon Brame is a Nolan. So I have to be kind about it.

One, I will, I'll give a disappointing answer, which is that the ever-changing tides of who belongs to what conference is a sports story that does not interest me in the least. I get overwhelmed by it because I'm trying to keep track of Big Ten, which is now Big 17 and everybody's alliances. I'm just going to nod. Like, I know what I'm talking about. Like, oh yeah, of course. I don't.

Here's where Florida State lost me. And this is an action that was taken against the University of Georgia Bulldogs, is that they basically checked out of the postseason game when they had a perfect season and they didn't get awarded a berth to the playoffs. I know you're nodding still. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nodding and like drifting off. This is college football, right? They basically were like...

You know what? I'm not even going to tell this story because I don't know if I'm getting the details right and it's boring you anyway. But they basically said like, eh, not interested in this postseason game because we're too good for this. Wow. And a lot of people didn't play and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, you lost me there. Like it's a moment where you just have to rally.

Sure. Yeah. I, I, you know, I, I'm going to just say, I agree. They should have rallied. That season was 2023. It was the undefeated season, by the way. Amazing. Well, we're going to be back.

With the next episode will also be some Ask Us Anything questions, and we're going to get into some more political topics next time. But thanks for joining us on Normally. Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at normallythepod at gmail.com. Thanks for listening. And when things get weird, act normally.

Hey, it's Rich Davis from Covino & Rich. The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are designed to outlast and outlive, backed by Toyota's legendary reputation for reliability. So get in a Tundra with the available i-Force Max hybrid engine, delivering exceptional torque and towing capacity. Or check out a Tacoma.

with available off-road features like crawl control. It could take you back to the trails. Toyota trucks are built to last, year after year, mile after mile. So don't wait. Get yours today. Visit BuyAToyota.com for deals and more. Toyota, let's go places. This is an iHeart Podcast.