SPAM. You either love it or you don’t. Either way, this little can of pork has a much bigger story than most people give it credit for.

SPAM enthusiast Veronica Barman of Hip Grandma Life joins us on this episode to talk about SPAM’s surprising history, its role in global and Hawaiian cuisine, and her family SPAM recipe.

Veronica’s SPAM and macaroni bake actually started as an AWANA recipe assignment when she was a kid, and it became what she calls a family legend. It was the first meal she ever cooked completely on her own, and years later, it became the first meal she cooked for her four-year-old stepson, a meal he still talks about today. She walks us through the recipe and shares memories of her dad's "Christmas eggs," a scramble of SPAM, eggs, and cheese that showed up on the table every Christmas morning. And she took us back to her very first solo road trip, which included a stop at the SPAM Museum in Minnesota, a quirky little detour that ended up planting the seed for what's now her project, Quirky Roadside USA, a Facebook community quickly approaching 200,000 members.

Hip Grandma Life: hipgrandmalife.com or www.facebook.com/HipGrandmaLife

Quirky Roadside Attractions Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/1270482290602713/

Production: Benjy Jeffords, SIU School of Journalism and Advertising

Marketing: Salukis AdLab

Music: MisunderStudios www.misunderstudios.com

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