(light music) - This program is brought to you by the members of WCNY.

Thank you.

- Nationwide, Hungry for History markers from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation highlight unique foods and traditions, including salt potatoes and Berry Dairy Days, available through grants for communities and nonprofits.

More at wgpfoundation.org/tv.

- Syracuse sits in the heart of New York State, with access to the Finger Lakes and the Adirondacks, from city vibes and great local eats, to live music and festivals that roll on year-round.

Four seasons for everyone.

- Liberty Tabletop has been crafting flatware in America for over 20 years and is dedicated to supporting our community and preserving the craft of flatware manufacturing.

Liberty Tabletop.

(light music) - "Spatchcock Funk" is in the house, our house and your house, too.

You know where the party's at?

Wherever you're at.

We're gonna teach you how to throw the best parties, the best dinners, the best get togethers.

All you need is the people you love, and we'll take care of the rest.

"Spatchcock Funk", dope food, strong drinks, great stories.

(lively music) Listen up, my dudes, dudettes, and critters of all sorts.

Keep an eye on me now.

I'm trying to keep this thing PG.

We circled up all the homies, including the youngins, because, sometimes, you gotta get everybody up for a party, 'cause this is for the family, fam.

It takes a little finesse and elbow grease to throw a party that both kids and adults can feel, baby, a true blowout for the masses, and we're gonna show you how it's done.

You know the funk does not discriminate.

Race, background, age, it don't matter none.

If you breathe into being good, we gonna be good to y'all.

See, the key is to focus on the squeaky wheel.

In this case, the Yutes.

So we get them squared up real nice, and everything falls in place.

We got more bounce to the ounce, a menu perfect for all ages, and just enough chaos to keep everybody on their toes.

Sometimes, you get yeeted, maybe the floor is lava, or someone's hollering out for Marco.

- The bounce out to daddy.

- I guess the party already started.

This is "Don't Feed the Animals".

(lively music continues) (bright music) As an adult, one thing you never wanna lose is that sense of play.

One of our favorite reasons to throw kids parties is because there's a great sense of awesomeness when you're around kids at play themselves, man.

It's super dope.

Running around, laughing, they get loud.

So sometimes, get a little drink to take the edge off, if you get my drift.

We've got one for you here.

It's basically an aperitif spritz popsicle, light, beautiful for a nice day, good by the pool, good grading homework if you're a teacher.

There's good in general, and it starts out a little bit of an aperitif.

Now, an aperitif is not that high in alcohol percentage, so it'll actually freeze 'em, and then here's a sound, by the way.

Once you've got the kids at home, you've got a babysitter in there, you don't want get in your car, and then you have a babysitter do this.

(item pops) It's a sound I love though.

One shake or so of the aperitif, and then three of Prosecco or champagne, little bit of orange juice, little bit of club soda, and just whisk that up.

Now, here's the thing though, you wanna make two versions.

You're gonna make one for kids.

That's a different color than the one for adults.

So you can keep an eye on kids, not, you know, messing around, and they're gonna do it by accident.

So we've seen jello shot problems happen, and, actually, you could hear my aunt and uncle, may they rest in peace, and my grandmother, may she rest in peace, too, and tell the story.

When I was a kid, 10 years old, my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary, they had this awesome punch, and all of a sudden, I come busting the room, telling stories, laughing.

They said I was life at the party, and five minutes later, I'm gonna sleep on the couch, 'cause someone got into the punch.

They didn't know any better.

So we make two versions of it.

We're gonna use a blue sports drink, and the reason why, this is for the kids, keep them hydrated.

They're gonna be partying, running around, bounce house a minute, doing all the things they do.

So we're gonna use that.

So we also have two different colors of our little popsicle containers.

So in one of 'em, I'm gonna fill for the kids, and that way, too, you can keep an eye on the kids and know if you see 'em drinking blue, that's cool.

If it's pink, not cool.

Now, comes the adult pops.

We usually do this the day before, save time for the party.

I'm gonna pour some of that in.

(sound beeps) (sound pops) (upbeat music) Gonna gonna stick 'em in, slide our stick in there, and then put 'em in the freezer overnight, good to go.

Let's see how we did.

That's for the kids.

All right, let's see what we did here.

Yeah, beautiful.

Great for babysitting, great for watching kids run around.

Keep an eye on Alex and Nick as they're causing trouble.

This is a way to start a party.

(upbeat music) (singer vocalizes) Yo Spatchcock Funk is all about the family, the one you were born into or the one you chose, it don't matter, but treating 'em right.

Now, this dish is one of these things we chose because a big co-star of ours, big part of the family, Queen Amelia, loves having chicken wings fried on her birthday.

At birthday parties, she wants wings.

We pull out this double fryer and do it, and we're doing that today, but kids are fun, right?

But you gotta keep 'em in line.

Sometimes, things can go sideways real fast.

Let's face it, you need some luck and some good planning.

So we know they like wings, and we like wings, too.

Everything we're making are things that kids and adults can eat.

Wing flavors can be a lot of fun to play with.

So we're making one that's a kid favorite that also hits the adults just right.

So these are peanut butter and jelly wings.

The first thing we're gonna do is pat dry our wings and set 'em aside, and, now, we're gonna make our wing sauce, y'all.

First ingredient, creamy peanut butter, not chunky, creamy.

You can debate which one you like better at home.

Our house is a creamy house, but ain't nothing wrong with the crunchy houses, too.

Then jelly, (upbeat music continues) apple cider vinegar.

This gives us a bite and acidity to the sauce, but, also, provides a little bit of the texture we want to lower the viscosity.

Now, we also want some heat, but you know we use a lot of spicy stuff.

It's not because we want spicy food, but the heat of some sriracha here is gonna bring out all the fattiness from the peanut butter, and then really blend together the jelly and the peanut butter flavors themselves.

We're also gonna put in a bunch of ground ginger, or, in this case, we're using ginger paste.

We're gonna mix that up, and the juice of two whole limes.

That acidity brings out a lot of cool flavors, too, but acidity at the end of stuff, like salt in the stuff, can compliment other flavors and make something overall pop, and we're all about making things pop, y'all.

So while we're stirring this, I'll tell you about one of Amelia's parties that we had was awesome.

We had a bunch of people there, kids running around, screaming, having a great time, meanwhile we had like pro sports mascots walking around, which was actually funny, 'cause they were terrorizing the kids.

Like the kids were like afraid of 'em, but, meanwhile, in a stadium, they love these mascots.

So we're running around, and all of a sudden, we're sitting there, and we've got a line of seven-year-olds sitting there giving us advice.

"Can you make a dry wing?"

"Could you put this wing sauce on there?"

So what you wanna do with parties like this is have multiple types of wings.

So you want to have possibly like a dry one with like salt and pepper or Cajun seasoning.

You just take it right outta the container, but those things plus a hot sauce, a buffalo sauce, and then something a little bit spicier, and by spice, I mean variety, baby, something like this.

Now, it's sticking up as we go through, and that's what we want it to get a nice thick consistency.

A little bit will go a long way with these wings.

This sauce is looking good, creamy, but you've got a little teeny bit and tiny specs of that jelly in there.

So you have an even bite all across it.

We've got our fryer hooked up to 375 degrees.

We're gonna go in for 10 to 12 minutes, but we're gonna keep checking 'em and shaking 'em so they don't stick together, and to make sure that they're golden, brown, and crispy.

We like wings extra crispy.

(upbeat music continues) (oil sizzles) Out of the fryer, into a bowl, hit it with some salt, a big metal bowl so we can sauce it as we want to and keep using it over and over again for more batches.

I'm gonna take, not a ton, you don't wanna oversauce wings, because then they get too wet.

We like things wet, but not too wet, enough in there to toss 'em so the heat from the wings and the sauce, we're gonna start to blend itself and start covering each one.

So they're just gonna be lightly coated, and they're gonna look sticky but not soaking wet.

Now, these are accurately sauced.

They have enough to be on there to be sticking at the flavor, but they're not gonna detract from the crispiness of the wings themselves.

I'm gonna put 'em up together so I can serve 'em up, then what we like to do is take some crushed peanuts and, obviously, if you have peanut allergies, don't use this recipe.

You've got other ones you can find online.

Now, for us, we also like some green onions for color and a little bit of the taste, but more so the color, and I'm using a pair of kitchen scissors, but you can use any scissors, safety scissors, whatevs, and, now, we've got that color on there, too.

So now, it looks great to serve.

We also always serve wings with celery and blue cheese.

This is some homemade blue cheese.

Some people like ranch.

We are not ranch people.

Ranch are great for a bunch of things, not wings, but I just gotta get into these guys.

So I'm a flat guy myself, and the reason why we like celery as a serving tool is it's a blue cheese brush, baby.

Put that on there.

Peanut butter jelly goodness, these wings are really gonna fly at the party.

(upbeat music continues) Now, we got two priorities today, making sure everybody's safe and the kids have a great time.

Our next priority, making sure we don't make a horse's (beep) of ourselves.

So we're here for a crash course in horseback riding.

(country music) - I am gonna teach you guys everything you need to know about riding.

First, I'll show you how to get on when we get in there, and you're always gonna get on on the left side and walk on his left side.

- Okay.

- His left side?

- Yes, his left side.

- Okay.

- Which would also be your left side.

- Yeah, well, unless I'm looking at it this way.

- True, true.

- What's his name?

- This is Newman.

- Newman.

- Newman.

- Love it, Newman.

- It's a good name.

(person talks indistinctly) - Yeah.

- He looks ready.

- Yeah, I think he is.

- He is ready.

- Do horses generally like when people ride.. Like they don't... Like new people ride the horse for the first time or they don't know the difference?.

- Oh, no, he'll definitely know the difference, but they don't- - He can tell you- - He'll know the warmth.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Oh, yeah, they also can tell when you're nervous or when you're scared.

- Well, I'm not either or those things.

- So just keep that in mind.

- Yeah, you don't look that.

- Just shaking.

- Yeah, the shaking- - How many times have you ridden a horse?

- Five or six times.

Yeah, like Colorado.

- I don't believe that.

- And Mexico.

Should we wear helmets?

- Oh, yeah.

- You definitely need a helmet.

- I have one right here for you guys.

- Ooh, sparkly, I like it.

- Fits you perfectly.

- Yeah.

- You show us how it's done.

Don't give him any tips.

Let him do it, he's done it six times.

- I'm ready... (laughs) I'm ready to go.

(instructor laughs) Let's go, Newman, you're ready?

- He's not happy.

- Why isn't he happy?

(playful music) - Because I just rode him.

So now, he's not gonna- - Oh, I thought you were breaking him in for us.

- I am, I had to make sure he wasn't gonna kill you.

- You want a little- - Oh, (beeps).

- Oh.

(people laugh) - Oh, sorry, bud.

All right, maybe Newman doesn't wanna go for a ride.

- That was awesome.

- No, he does.

- You're right, you are experienced.

Ah.

- There we go, bud.

- There, don't kick him, but like very lightly push your heels and squeeze him.

(item clicks) (bright music) (instructor laughs) - See you later, dude.

- I thought you were holding onto us.

- You gotta steer him.

- Okay, come on, bud.

No, no.

(instructor laughs) - Okay, let's go this way.

(clicks tongue) - Aw.

- You're gonna put your other foot in.

- Oh, yeah.

It fell out.

- I remember my first horse ride.

I think the rules when you're in New Mexico are slightly different.

That must be the disconnect.

- And, Alex, he has feelings.

You can talk to him, too.

- I was told not to talk while I'm on the horse.

- No, you can still talk to him.

- Yeah.

- You're supposed to talk to him.

- You're making friends, dude.

- Come on, Newman.

- I've never seen such an uncomfortable horse rider before.

(people laugh) You look just like the cowboys you see on TV.

- I feel like one.

- You gotta squeeze.

- Yeah.

- More.

- Yup.

- Trot, honey.

There we go.

- Yeah.

(instructor laughs) - He did it for a second.

- He did, he did, and then all of a sudden, I started panicking.

- Squeeze your feet into him.

- Yup.

- Trot.

(clicks tongue) Pick up.

There we go.

(people laugh) (playful music continues) - How does it feel though?

Like is it... - Yeah.

- When you bounce up and down.

- Yeah, you can feel it, 'cause your body's like- - You're also supposed to be posting, but... - Yeah, right.

- You guys aren't- - Posting on social media?

- You guys aren't that advanced.

- What's a post?

- Yeah.

- What is it?

- That's what it called when you like go up and down.

- Oh, so that's what he was doing.

- No, he was just bouncing.

- Oh, I was just bouncing.

(people laugh) I was trying to post, but I was like... - There we go, bud.

- Sit back.

(people laugh) - Oh, (beeps).

(people laugh) I can't do it.

I'm trying, I'm trying.

- I've never seen something have so much control over you before.

This.

- Yup.

- And what do I grab onto?

- This, hop on.

There you go.

- Where's the other stirrup?

- You're all right, honey, come on.

- Are you talking to me or the horse?

- The horse.

You're definitely fine.

- You're all right, you're all right.

- You're all right, too, honey.

You're all right, too.

- I'm glad he's not feeling it right now.

- No, it's 'cause you're not feeling it.

- I'm feeling it.

- He can sense your fear.

- There we go.

- Oh, yeah.

- There he is.

- Oh, yeah.

- Oh!

Yes!

(laughs) - Do I look more... Oh, you look so natural.

- Yeah, you look... You look super natural, yeah, yeah.

Get him a cowboy hat.

- He's trying to get him... - Get get a cowboy hat.

- He's trying to get... He's trying to get rid of me right now.

- Oh, boy, Newman.

- Drop before you could post.

Oh, okay, I gotcha.

I gotcha, boy.

- There it is.

(instructor laughs) - Okay, stop pushing your feet down.

You have to push your heels down.

- Oh, my God.

(playful music continues) - You can tell he wants to go.

- Wow.

- Okay, it's a wrap.

(people laugh) (upbeat music) (item pops) - Let's face it.

Nothing better at the end of a busy week than a pizza party, y'all, in the office, with the kids, at home, at work, whatevs.

It always works out the right way.

Now, we're gonna do that today especially.

We're making multiple pizzas, but the key is making your own crust.

You can use in the oven or, like we're gonna do, over some charcoal and wood.

Let's start though with making the crust.

Baking can be precise.

Not my greatest area of expertise.

I'm a wild card, unpredictable, dyslexic, everything.

So precision, not my greatest ally.

So we have to do that here.

So also, we're gonna do be doing this in grams, right?

So the first thing we're gonna add is water and yeast, 595 grams of water, (item pops) (water trickles) and then 3.8 grams of yeast.

We're gonna mix that slow, and the grams, it's funny.

It's like I'm a drug dealer, Biggied be proud, but we're gonna mix that on slow for two minutes.

(machine whirs) Last but not least, we're gonna add in 24 grams of salt and 19 grams of sugar, then we're gonna mix it for 10 more minutes, then cover it with plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for at least one hour, but three hours is ideal.

Now, I acknowledge and I know that making dough is a super pain in the big time.

So there's no shame in buying dough at the store or even ordering pizzas for that matter, but we're showing you how we do it.

It's been a combination of a whole bunch of people's different recipes, and that just makes it interesting and fun for us.

So we take a well-floured surface, right, and we're gonna, in the middle of it, using our fingers, work our way out.

So you're building the crust into that, and, occasionally, as we're going through it, we're gonna flip it over and keep doing both sides.

The flour will keep it from sticking.

We're doing it on our pizza peel.

So we gonna slide it right in when the time comes.

So let gravity kind of help you with it, too.

As you're going through that, gravity will pull some stuff down, and you keep going so you have the crust forming.

Now, we want everybody of the party to be able to eat something and enjoy something.

So we're gonna make pepperoni pizza.

It is the most ordered pizza in the world.

We're also gonna make a cheese, too, because some people don't want that meat.

We got vegetarian friends.

You know the deal.

Like when you're going to a party, and there's a kid there, it's their birthday, bring a gift for their sibling, because, that way, that person feels involved.

My father-in-law taught me that, and it's always served me right, and everybody feeling included is important.

We got some homemade sauce, and the homemade sauce, spread that evenly around on a good base, but don't oversauce it.

I'm almost oversauced here.

(item pops) We've also got some thinly-sliced fresh mozzarella.

I'm gonna do three across the center of it, and then fit a couple more here.

We're using spicy cup pepperoni.

Spicy cup pepperoni curls up, and I love that, and holds a little grease in it, and it just looks cool, and they're so fun with a little char on it, too.

A couple pieces of basil, I might break 'em in half.

Put 'em on different parts of the pizza.

The important part, when you're baking it, you can do this in your oven at 385 for like 10 to 12 minutes.

Keep an eye on it.

You can use one of those fancy spaceship-looking pizza ovens.

Those are cool, we like those, too, or you can do it on a charcoal grill with wood with an insert.

That's how we're gonna do it today.

We're gonna put it up around 700 degrees and watch it for six, seven minutes, but keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

(upbeat music continues) Party time, cheese for the vegetarians, pepperoni for the meat eaters.

Man, drizzle a little fresh olive oil on there, we're good to go, baby.

Take a slice of this guy.

(upbeat music continues) I'm just getting right at it 'cause, man, I just gotta eat something right now.

This pizza looks so good.

(upbeat music continues) Let's go kids.

Time to party.

(upbeat music) One of the biggest struggles in my household is my wife and I having this conversation.

What do you want for dinner?

What do you want for dinner?

Same with dessert, right?

So dessert is a big deal, and the struggle is real.

So for a kid's party, you've got a couple options.

Cupcakes, everybody loves cupcakes.

Ice cream cones, everybody loves ice cream cones.

Why not have both?

Why say no when it feels so good to say yes?

So we've got a simple, easy thing to make, and it's a cupcake in an ice cream cone, baby.

That's what's up.

So we got a bunch of ice cream cones, small size, and we got that yellow cake mix.

Dave Chappelle himself will be proud of it.

So just get that store-bought cake mix.

Put that in a bowl, some oil, some water, and then mix it up on low for about 30 seconds.

(mixer whirs) Once it looks like it's starting to form a little battery, put in three large eggs, and then whip it for like two minutes.

Batter up, baby.

Take a muffin tray, a mini muffin tray like this.

Spray it with cooking spray, and you're gonna put all your cones in there.

(item clatters) (item pops) For the cones though, take a serving spoon, and you want to get it so it's about three quarters of the way full, then it goes into the oven for about 18 to 20 minutes.

Keep an eye on it until it starts to get that little muffin top on top, 'cause muffin tops are cute.

Look at this little cupcake and an ice cream cone.

That's what I'm talking about, fun and cute, just like all the kids at our party.

So our buttercream frosting, we took it out of our mixer and put it in the freezer so it'll scoop like ice cream.

We made that by taking two sticks of room temperature butter, throwing up some salt and sugar, whipping it up, then adding in some heavy cream and a whole bunch of vanilla, and then let it go.

After that, we put it in the freezer so it got kind of harder and stiffer.

It'll look like scoop of ice cream.

Get our scoop on there, and like we said, we want choices for everybody.

So chocolate sprinkles, they're for some people, not for me.

Rainbow sprinkles, that's where I'm partying today.

So I'm gonna hit that all romantic and fun like, 'cause we having a party, y'all.

This is a dessert.

(item pops) (upbeat music continues) Now, this is all sugar, so use it sparingly.

For us, we like to get the kids as wild as possible, sugar all day So they go to bed early.

Jk, jk.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat country music) Y'all wanna hear an animal joke?

- Yeah!

- Okay, what was the sleepiest dinosaur ever?

- What?

- The Snore-o-saurus.

Okay, see, all right, we're getting somewhere.

You got an animal joke?

- Why are frogs happy?

- Why?

- 'Cause they eat whatever bugs them.

- Oh, that's good, that's good.

How about you, Kira?

- What do you call an alligator that wears a vest?

- What?

- An investigator.

I have one more.

- Ah, okay, okay.

- I have one more, too.

- Investigator's good.

All right.

- I have one.

- Okay.

- Why did the monkey fall out of the tree?

- Why?

- Because he was dead.

(laughs) - Wow, okay, that's good.

I like a little dark sense of humor.

- What do you call a bear with no teeth?

- A bear with no teeth.

- A gummy bear.

- A gummy bear.

(laughs) So while we're at this great party, I'm thinking about this, and I love petting zoos, right?

I have been to petting zoos for a long, long time.

I once got bit by a snake, and I felt bad.

He broke his fangs off on me, but, you know, it happens when you bite steel sometimes.

I took my nephew and he was five to a petting zoo, and a goat bit him, and he said, "Bad horse," and hit the goat, and both me and the goat were confused.

- A goat pooped on me once.

- What?

A camel pooped on me once, and the camel thought it was funny, too, and then the camel spit on me afterwards, which wasn't that great, but these things happen.

My sister got stung by a scorpion one time.

- Ouch.

- Yeah, she said ouch, too, but I thought that's cool.

I'd love to brag and say, "I got bit by a scorpion," but my favorite one ever though was my friend Carrie, who was at the party here, took me and Stephanie for my birthday to meet the baby tigers.

They were awesome, and baby tigers, by the way, they love to play, but even though they're tiny, they're like huge, and they love peppermint, which is weird, but the mama tiger came out to make sure we were cool, 'cause just like your mom will come out and meet people and make sure that they're okay with you, but the mama tiger peed because she's making it clear that that's her area, and she peed on my foot.

So you know, my cats Pearl and Floyd?

- Were you in her area?

- Well, we were in her area.

So she was making it clear that, you know, we can be in her area, but she's the boss.

So I go home, and I see my cats, and my cats run up, like they always do to say hi, but then they stop, and they smell my foot, and they're like, "What is this strange animal?"

Kind of like how I figure Stephanie would react if I came in smelling like a strange animal, too, you know what I mean?

Man, this party is crazy.

- I know.

- I know.

- Whoo.

(upbeat music) When you're partying with good people, especially like this one, you wanna make sure you know everything that they're into.

If they have dietary restrictions, music styles, things that would be for fun, that's important, because people don't always remember what you said, but they do remember how you made them feel, and that's what's important.

- Boys are so annoying.

- They are.

- Hungry for History markers from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation shares stories behind regional dishes and local food festivals, including Smith Island Cake and Spiedie Fest, available through grants for municipalities and nonprofits.

wgpfoundation.org/tv.

- Syracuse sits in the heart of New York State, with access to the Finger Lakes and the Adirondacks.

From city vibes and great local eats to live music and festivals that roll on year-round.

Four seasons for everyone.

- Liberty Tabletop has been crafting flatware in America for over 20 years, and is dedicated to supporting our community and preserving the craft of flatware manufacturing.

Liberty Tabletop.

(bright music)