Whatever's-In-Your-Kitchen Ham Sauce Recipe

Recently, I looked for an easy ham glaze recipe for my almost 11-pound fully cooked ham. This ham contrasts with the one I prepared and blogged about early last year—"New Year Ham Day". That ham was not quite 9 pounds, spiral-sliced, and included a packet of ham glaze, which amounted to a pound.

In my quest for a reasonably uncomplicated recipe for a ham glaze, my eyes glazed over so many recipes that called for ingredients that sometimes overlapped. The biggest commonality was sweet stuff—brown sugar, honey, syrup, juice, …. Non-sweet ingredients included soy sauce and mustard. Instead of coming up with a glaze, I wound up with ham sauce. More on that further down.

Just prepping the ham with pineapple slices and cherries was a much bigger hassle than with the spiral ham. I kept breaking toothpicks because so many wouldn't go into the ham gracefully.

I speared all the pineapple slices and cherries, and foil-covered the decorated ham. The foil was not easy to handle. It kept easily breaking between the toothpicks piercing it and my trying to gingerly wrap the open sides. I decided to skip the step of needing to open the foil, pour glaze, and rewrap a half-hour before finish time.

I looked for prospective ingred8ients for making some sort of sauce. It was like a treasure hunt in my fridge. Behold, the following list!

• Honey-flavored sauce from a fast-food place that used to provide real honey (two squeeze packets)
• Pancake syrup from yet another fast-food place (one 2-oz container)
• BBQ sauce from another fast-food place (one double-size squeeze packet)
• Bottled BBQ sauce (yes, about 1 oz, poured into the pan without measuring)
• Bottled yellow mustard (two squirts into the pan without measuring)
• Juice from jar cherries (from the 10-oz jar—labeled as 4.1 drained weight)
• Juice from canned pineapple rings (from the 20-oz can, no info on drained weight)

Note: I skipped using soy sauce, as ham is plenty sodium-loaded as is. I also passed on using additional honey that I had on hand.

I gently boiled the sweet stuff, BBQ sauces, and the mustard together in a small saucepan to reduce the liquid to about half its original volume, occasionally stirring and mixing with a wire whip. In a glass cup, I stirred together about a third cup each of cornstarch and water. With the liquid at a reasonably rolling boil, I wirewhipped in the cornstarch mixture until the sauce thickened. (I tossed the excess cornstarch mixture.)

Mmmm, the sauce came out tasty for pouring onto ham slices. Takeaways from my quest for ham glaze/sauce recipes:

1. Google the topic (ham glaze).
2. Note the kinds of ingredients (sweeteners, mustard, etc.).
3. Gently boil the fluid down to concentrate the flavors.
4. If necessary to attain thickening, mix up some cornstarch-and-water paste, and mix it into the gently boiling liquid.

For would-be ham preparers: Spiral-sliced hams are a lot easier to serve up than unsliced ones. If unfamiliar with ham-and-bone anatomy, it can be a bit of a hassle navigating the knife around fat, bone, and gristle to get the meat. One other difference between this ham and the spiral-sliced ham: This one had the skin, and trimming it off added some unexpected extra time meeded for meal preparation.

LinkedIn Connection Request for Favor--Job Hunt

As a blogger, sometimes a blog article opportunity arrives like a fish that jumps into my boat while I'm fishing, metaphorically speaking.

Someone sent me email through LinkedIn to ask if I knew someone at a particular workplace. Turns out, I do have a first-degree connection there, but I didn't feel I knew the person well enough to ask about positions on my inquirer's behalf. After I wrote back, my emailer took a second look at the original inquiry, with thoughts that maybe initially proofreading before clicking Send might have been reasonable.

Note: As a courtesy to the inquirer, I requested and received permission to quote most of the email.

"Hey [me as email recipient], for the advise about getttig back into looking forwork.soi was wonderingif you kow someboday a [undeterminable name of potential employer]!!"

I replied as factually as I could, and asked confirmation of the company name.

"I'm not sure I can help. What is '[indecipherable company name]'? [industry guess]? I have one first-level connection for [guessed company name], but ... [allusion to barely knowing other connection]".

For others who might not have asked LinkedIn connections about potential employers, the approach is reasonable, but maybe do spellcheck first, and afterwards, re-read for thought before sending the email.

Let's revisit the original text, lightly edited for obscuring some context and ID:

Hey [me as email recipient], for the advise about getttig back into looking forwork.soi was wonderingif you kow someboday a [undeterminable name of potential employer]!!

And now, a suggested inquiry, edited for sendout:

Hi, [me as email recipient]. I'm getting back into the job market. I was wondering if you know someone at [company name] that I should contact. Would it be ok if I mention that you provided me that person's name?

At the time of considering sending such a message, do some LinkedIn research first. If you have a company in mind, do a LinkedIn search for the company name. As you start typing the name, LinkedIn starts suggesting the following categories:

• Jobs at [company name]
• People who work at [company name]
• People who used to work at [company name]
• [company name] (not shown on pixstrip)

My focus is on the first three links and results when you click each of them.

Jobs at [company name] The Jobs page opens. You want to know that a suitable job description is at the company--such as a mutual fit for skills and experience. You might want to filter the results to more manageable numbers, At the Search area on the left part of the results window, filter by adding criteria, then click the Search button. In this search case, maybe enter your occupation title into the keyword field and also make choices for geographical restrictions (Postal Code, followed by Within distance choice).

People who work at [company name] The People page (current workers) opens. Scan the list for 1st-degree connections of prospective people to write to. Also consider 2nd-degree connections. People who actually work at the workplace of interest can fill you in on their current work environment and co-workers.

People who used to work at [company name] The People page (former workers) opens. Try out this webpage for completeness of research, or if you did not find prospective people to reach out to in the current people webpage. Scan the list for 1st-degree connections of prospective people to write to. Also consider 2nd-degree connections. People who used to work at the workplace of interest can tell you about their work environment and co-workers while they were there.

The people who currently and formerly worked at the workplace of interest can be especially helpful if they can help route a resume to hiring types directly. They can also be helpful if they know people you will be interviewing with. Look into interviewers' profiles ahead of time, and ask your connections questions about the interviewers, whatever the profiles prompted you to wonder. Ask about interactions between your connections and interviewers, if any. Ask about connections' perception of interviewers' demeanor and professional expertise.

You can send LinkedIn email directly to 1st-degree connections. Ask them a few crucial questions. Ask if it's ok to call them. Ask them to call you. Look into their profiles and see if they list a phone number, and call them. Call the company phone number and use the corporate directory to call them, leaving them a message if their voicemail picks up. Be courteous and brief. (I myself prefer to contact by email than phone, maybe because I'm a writer and feel I can better articulate in text. YMMV.)

EZ Pineapple Cupcakes

I recently became intrigued at a poked pineapple cake recipe that I saw in a coupon ad. I found the online version, but only after I ran across a no-poke recipe that attracted me for its simplicity.

In the past, I've looked at pineapple upside-down cake recipes, and can't seem to muster the enthusiasm to make one. Holey moley! Both Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines have recipes that, to me, are mind-numbing for numbers of ingredients. As for maraschino cherries inside the pineapple rings, I'll save those ingredients for the ham that I picked up for Easter and still haven't baked yet. (Sell-by date has another 1 1/2 weeks.)

Back to the Dole recipe, I thought the number of ingredients and process looked way more complicated than what I wanted to try. Making a cake with pineapple in it interested me, along with making handy individual smaller sizes instead of using a bundt pan. It took a good while to find the "Pineapple Poke Bundt Cake" recipe on the web. Without Googling the exact title, I was unable to find the exact recipe. Even searching Dole's website didn't yield the recipe.

The upside in expending the effort to find the pineapple poke cake recipe was finding food.com's "Frosted Pineapple Cake". The cake part calls for only five ingredients—flour, sugar, eggs, crushed pineapple, and baking soda. As usual, when I see a recipe, I assess the ingredients and process. As the poke recipe included vanilla bean, I figured the scratch recipe might be ok with adding vanilla extract.

I further deviated from the scratch recipe as follows:

1. Measured the pineapple juice for curiosity's sake (3/4 cup, the same amount for the poke cake recipe).
2. Stirred the dry ingredients in a plastic measuring bowl.
3. Stirred the wet ingredients in a different measuring bowl. (Added 1 teaspoonful of vanilla. As the poke recipe calls for vanilla bean, good enough use vanilla extract in the scratch recipe.)
4. Stirred the wet ingredients into the plastic bowl.
5. Noted the batter measurement (5 cups).
6. Poured the batter into the 24 spray-oiled cupcake pan wells, baking at 350° for about 20 minutes instead of 9 x 13 pan for 40-45 minutes.
7. Skipped the frosting.

My pixstrip shows eight image areas:

1. Implements (Your preferences might vary.)
2. Ingredients
   • Dry, with plastic bowl
   • Wet, with glass bowl, and spray oil
3. Batter in plastic bowl
4. Batter in cupcake pans
5. Baked cupcakes on cooling rack
6. Baked cupcakes detached from pans and flipped onto cooling rack.
   Note: For extracting the cakes, I used a plastic knife to gently cut around the cakes and nudge at the bottoms.
7. Baked cupcakes in cake taker.

Ingredients

• Dry
• 2 C flour
• 2 C granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• Wet
• 1 20-oz can crushed pineapple, all of it
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• spray oil (Next time, I might try also shaking some flour into pans after I spray oil and see if the cakes detach a little more easily.)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Pour the dry ingredients into the plastic bowl, using a wire whip. (I used a flat one.)
3. Mix the wet ingredients in the other bowl.
4. Pour the mixed wet ingredients into the plastic bowl and stir the ingredients until they're moistened.
5. Pour and evenly distribute the batter into the 24 spray-oiled cupcake wells. (I pushed my luck by pouring the batter to almost the top instead of the usual 2/3 to 3/4 full.)
6. Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until the cupcakes are lightly browned. (Use toothpick test for doneness if desired.)
7. Transfer the baked cupcakes onto cooling rack.

Post-Recipe Thoughts

The recipe makes more of a quick bread than typical cake mix cake. Thus, I used a wire whip to gently but thoroughly mix rather than use a hand mixer and beat the ingredients. The cupcakes' texture seemed denser than regular cupcakes—weighing about 2 ounces each, a little less airy than regular cake, only slightly chewier than a muffin, and not crumbly. The cakes were not crumbly. I put them into cupcake papers for neat handling.

The cupcakes are low fat and low sodium, but extremely high in carbs—lots of sugar, pineapple, and flour. Each is about 125 calories, way less than if you add frosting. Yummy taste and texture; seems like adding frosting would be loading even more sugar and also adding more work.

October 31, 2015 (update)
If you want to use a cake mix method for pineapple cupcakes, visit "Simply Simple Pineapple Cupcakes". An update to ingredients: In researching for that blog article, I saw a scratch-ingredients recipe where 1 1/2 cup of sugar is ok to use. Though 400 calorie savings per batch makes sounds impressive, it translates to only about saving 17 calories per cupcake.

Revisiting Tagging Your LinkedIn(r) Connections

Note (5/30/2014): I just now noticed that LinkedIn changed the menu from Network > Contacts to Connections  > Keep in Touch.

My revisit is for providing updated LinkedIn® tagging instructions that differs from my previous blog article from a couple of years ago. A practical use for tagging is grouping your LinkedIn connections by interests—co-workers, former co-workers, professions besides yours, professional organizations, .... Why would groups be practical? How about grouping real estate people, recruiters, special interest groups, people that you want to send a group email, etc.?

My recent revisit to tagging resulted from my wanting to group people that I wanted to send a mass email to. LI had a maximum of 50 LinkedIn connection recipients. I have over 100 recipients of a particular interest, so I needed to break the group up into three separate groups with different names.
The overall process is as follows:

1. Create an overall group theme. (I created one for my profession.)
2. Review your connections, tagging candidates with the group name.
3. Open the group list. Review for completeness.
4. Create another group name, this time tightening criteria for purpose.(For my purpose, I tagged for excluding out-of-area connections and those who were inactive in the profession the previous year. In some cases, I inferred the status from profiles.)
5. Copy the names (as text) to a word processor and sort alphabetically. (After I alphabetically sorted, I inserted column breaks to group logically—A through D, etc, keeping the groups around 45 connections, give or take a few.)
6. Tile your list next to the LinkedIn interface. Create enough tag names that will include all the prospective email recipients. Example: [some tag subgroupname]-1, [some tag subgroupname]-2, etc.
7. Tag the connections with the the appropriate group or subgroup tag name.
8. For each of the group or subgroup, open a tagged-members window by filtering for the appropriate tag name.
9. Click Select All for displaying the Message link.
10. Click the Message link for opening the compose window.
11. Compose your email. If you have a draft already, you can copy and paste the subject line and contents into the email interface.
12. Send the email.

The PDF file of the step-by-step procedure, including screen captures, is downloadable at https://app.box.com/s/ju04h698elb8j5dc0m0.

Soldiering On Military Ranks

A topic that has piqued my interest occasionally has been pronunciations of "soldier". Not sure of why it's not pronounced "sol-di-er", or not spelled "sol-jer". I got to thinking about military ranks that also mystified me because of pronunciation and spelling. My curiosity led me to look up ranks in general, and ranks across branches of the military.

US Military Branches
Military-Ranks.org provided me a bird's eye view—links to the US military branches and pay in the index at the left. At the rank or pay level, you can find out how the ranks vary within each branch. Clicking a branch's rank opens a page with more details of the role. Near the bottom, the Equivalent Ranks section links to the same rank across the branches in the following order: Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines (listed as Marine Corps), Navy.

The US Department of Defense has pages with illustrated tables for all five branches for enlisted members and officers (Coast Guard & Navy combined). Curiously, Warrant Officer is notably absent in Air Force, which the DoD officers page shows as "NO WARRANT". In the Wikipedia page for Warrant Officer, the illustrated table shows insignias and grades for all five branches for warrant officers, with the Air Force column heading "discontinued".

Ranks of Interest—Spelling and Pronunciation

Enlisted
Sergeant [sahr-juhnt], from Latin root meaning "serve"

Officer
Ensign—Navy/Coast Guard [en-sahyn; Military en-suhn], pertinent to flag, insignia
Lieutenant [loo-ten-uhnt], pertinent to "placeholder"
Captain (kap-tuhn, -tin), pertinent to "head"
Colonel [kur-nl], related to "column"

The general topic
Soldier [sohl-jer]

Ranks of Interest—Rank vs. Non-Military Context (E, enlisted; O, officer)

• private (E), the member who has the lowest rank and probably least privacy
• major (O), no major in sea branches, no rank named "minor"
• petty officer (E), rank with "officer" in title, but not in either warrant of officer category
• lance corporal (E), visualizing a Renaissance Fair knight engaged in joust
• general (O), ordinarily meaning ordinary

Commander Bond, Captain, US/British Ranks

During my research, "commander" stuck out as a rank I've heard more in reference to James Bond than American commanders. Commanders rank lower than captains. Captains of the sea rank higher than non-sea captains.

The US Navy and Coast Guard have commander ranks—commander and lieutenant commander—ranks that are just below captain. Captains in sea branches rank higher than captains in the other branches. A Yahoo discussion contrasts naval captain vs. army captain. Visit a Wikipedia page to view a table that compares US and British ranks, including "commander".

Cookie Mix Recipe: Fat Deviating

I've been on a roll lately with deviating from sweets recipes—even easy and convenient ones. This time, I deviated from a Krusteaz Triple Chocolate Chunk cookie mix. (Krusteaz has nothing to do with the Simpsons show clown, Krusty.)

The box calls for only 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter and one egg besides the packaged mix. Simple. But I didn't want to use only all butter for the fat.

Sooo, I used half the butter called for. The other half, I replaced with one tablespoon of sesame oil and enough cooking oil to fill 1/2 cup.

Yes, I realized AFTER I baked the cookies that I put in too much cooking oil. I should have added three tablespoons of cooking oil instead of seven, resulting in 400 extra calories (200 calories x 2 oz. oil).

The results weren't disastrous. The cookies came out crispy, and just a mite oilier than if I'd replaced the correct amounts of fat. The cookie webpage claimed the cookies to be "chewy". They had 400 additional calories spread over 46 cookies, which amounted to less than 10 extra calories per cooky.

According to the Krusteaz box's nutritional table, the dry ingredients total 2160 calories (120 calories x 18 servings of two 2"-diameter cookies). A prepared mix of dry and wet ingredients total 3060 (170 per serving). Anyway, if I had prepared my 46 cookies with the equivalent fat substitutions, each cooky would have been 66 1/2 calories (3060/46). Instead, each cooky came to about 75 calories (3460/46).

The Krusteaz box displayed a table that listed yields as follows:

• 56 2" cookies (2 t dough)
• 24 2-1/2" cookies (1 rounded T dough)
• 2 3" cookies (2 rounded T dough).

The nutritional table estimated a yield of 36 2" cookies. As my yield was 46, I'm guessing my tablespoonfuls were somewhere between level and slightly concave.

Although I increased the number of ingredients from the box's recommendation, it was by only two. The sesame oil, a favorite additive of mine, gave the cookies a nutty flavor. The cooking oil reduced the amount of saturated fat because of butter. Yes, overall fat was higher. Next time, I'll try to remember to substitute the right amounts. :-)

My pixstrip panels show the following images:

1. Implements
2. Ingredients
3. Pan with raw dough/baked cookies
4. Plate of cookies (yum)

To search for other sweets recipes (most of them EZ), use the search feature at the upper left of the webpage, or click keywords in the index at the upper right.

Mini-cupcake Offload: Pan Type & Prep, Batter Amt

In case the blog article title seems oddly abbreviated, my intent is to minimize the number of characters but still convey the topic, related to my previous article about offloading fudge. For that experiment, I contrasted spray oil vs. spray oil and powdered sugar for offloading fudge, using mini-cupcake silicone and aluminum pans. That dessert requires no baking, thus, use of powdered sugar for prepping some of the pan cavities.

Initially, my experimentation idea this time was using liner papers for mini-cupcakes after baking them. The first time I tried a mini-cupcake recipe and used a silicone pan, I poured the batter into paper-lined cavities. The paper boundaries, nearly vertical, were more challenging for avoiding spills at edges. The baked cakes were instantly and easily removable. Unfortunately, some cake tend to stick to the papers, lessening the edible amount.

So, this time around, was going to only contrast spray oil vs. spray oil and flour in baking Choco Cherry Choco Chip mini-cupcakes. But then, I also wanted to see how well mini-cupcake paper liners fit the baked cakes if I varied the amount of batter—underfill (level tablespoonful) and common fill (rounded tablespoonful).

I had intended on using only silicone pans, After prepping and one of them and putting it in the oven, it occurred to me that the baking process was going to take a lot longer if I switch out several pans' worth. So, I pulled out the aluminum pans and prepped and filled them also. The second oven batch took aa bit of arranging and rearranging, with the second silicone pan and three aluminum pans. I balanced one metal pan on an oven rack ledge and another pan's edge.

The original recipe I modified for the mini-cupcakes is Cherry Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cake. Lucky Leaf pushed its canned pie filling.

A more elaborate recipe that uses chocolate cake mix is Chocolate Cherry Cake, but the baker uses the chocolate chips for the frosting and none in the cake itself.

An extremely elaborate recipe is from SugarWinzy—Cherry Chocolate Chip Layer Cake. Her one-off recipe for cupcakes is Chocolate Chip Cherry Cupcakes. My eyes glazed over from the number of ingredients and artistry.

The simplest recipe would have been using only one flavor of cake mix, but I wanted my batch to be more like milk chocolate cake. Ingredients from the Lucky Leaf recipe and my deviations:

1 16.25-ounce box white cake mix (I used 1/2 box *each* of chocolate and white cake mixes.)
3 eggs
1 21-ounce can LUCKY LEAF Regular or Premium Cherry Pie Filling (I used a different brand.)
1 cup mini chocolate chips (I used regular size chips.)

Instead of using either a bundt cake or oblong pan, I used the silicone and aluminum mini-cupcake pans, baking at 350 for only about 16 minutes each batch. I also skipped the icing part of the recipe. I considered the cakes (yield of 84) to be sweet enough naked, with less work, fewer ingredients, fewer calories.

The spray-oil only method of prepping the pans resulted in fewer instances of cakes sticking to pans than using both spray oil and flour. Originally, I wondered if the papers might be undersized with the bigger post-baked cakes. I was happy to see that the papers hugged well. Maybe the pleats of the sides help accommodate mini-cupcakes for perimeter and volume. The baking session yielded 84 mini-cupcakes.

Try the "Lemon Poppyseed Mini-cupcakes" recipe. Besides putting in a pixstrip for step-by-step instructions, I also talked about muffin vs. cupcake. Also visit Square Mini and Whoopie Muffin Experiment, the recipe where I contrast square mini-muffins and whoopie muffins for shape.

Fudge Offload: Silicone Vs. Aluminum Pans

In December, I spotted a post about fudge in The Blog Promoter LinkedIn group called Mama's Fudge Recipe, by Emily Powell. Fudge! Had to visit the site, as I myself make EZ minimal-ingredients fudge, such as "A Convenient Fudge" and "4-ingredient Raspberry Chocolate Fudge". Minimal ingredients are meltable candy, marshmallows, and frosting.

Emily's recipe contrasted with my recipes for list of ingredients and process. One of her pan preparation instructions that caught my eye was her use of Pam and flour, typically for a dessert to be baked. I asked her about it. She confirmed that the flour was raw. I am adverse to eating or serving raw flour, and wondered about dusting with powdered sugar instead of flour.for something that didn't need baking.

For my latest batch of EZ fudge, I tried spray oil and powdered sugar for two kinds of pans—a silicon rubber pan (24 square cavities) and aluminum pan (12 round cavities). Each square holds 5 teaspoons of filling; Each round (cup shape) holds 4 teaspoons. Natch, if you use these pans for cakes or muffins, pour only about a rounded tablespoon of batter to allow for expansion during the baking process. Some baking pans info:

• 24 (square) cavities silicone pan
• 12 (round) cavities aluminum pan (stamped single-piece)
• 24 (round) cavities aluminum pan (constructed w/cups attached to pan)

The pixstrip shows ingredients and pans, fudge mixture squeegeed into pans, ejected fudge pieces, and fudge pieces in paper liners in a box.

After I poured the fudge mixture into the prepared pans and cooling it in the refrigerator, I didn't get around to ejecting them until about four hours later. (Cooling time should have been about an hour or so.) The 3rd-panel pixstrip shows easy-out results with using the silicone pan, not so much with the aluminum pan. The plateful also shows nice shapes from the squares, but lots of misshapes and broken pieces from the rounds. Extraction from the silicone pan was not bad. I turned the pan upside down and pressed from the back. As for the aluminum pan, using the butter knife blade sometimes popped the shapes out ok, but most, not.

In the past, I've poured the fudge mixture into a spray-oiled 8 x 8 glass pan. After a couple of hours, I'd used a paring knife to cut it into 64 pieces. That task took some patience, as the mixture became dense. I'm not great at cutting consistent cubes, either.

I've concluded that using silicone pans for fudge—after prepping with spray oil and powdered sugar—provides good results. BTW, the fudge batch makes about 1 1/2 silicon pans worth (36 squares). The shapes fit very nicely into mini-cupcake paper liners for neatness, as the pixstrip shows in the last pixstrip panel.

Because the fudge squares fit so well in mini-cupcake papers, a future experiment will be baking mini-cupcakes in silicon pans that I prep with only spray oil instead of lining with papers, then seeing how well they fit each other after baking. I might need to underfill the squares with batter so the baked shapes don't bulge and fit the papers badly. (Typical mini-cupcake recipe calls for a rounded teaspoonful of batter.)

Related articles:

• Waits N Measures, Baking Pans N Papers (#87)
• Square Mini and Whoopie Muffin Experiment (#88)
• Lemon Poppyseed Mini-cupcakes (#70)
• Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Mini-muffins (#79)

Anachronistic Songs, Part 2 of 2

One meaning of anachronism—
a person or a thing that seems to belong to the past and not to fit in the present

Common characteristics of an anachronistic song, usually the song having been out at least a few decades ago:

• It includes a term that was popular or a norm in a particular era "long ago".
• It includes a term that the definition has shifted over time.
• It is more likely now to be considered culturally or politically insensitive than in the past.
• It contains reference to a year number.

"Anachronistic Songs, Part 1 of 2" covered blasts from the past WRT another-era terms (example: "groove") and some terminology definition shifts (ex: example: "straight"). This part continues with unPC-ness, dimes and related costs, and years.

UnPC-ness
Culturally or racially loaded examples that might meet with much stronger objection if released now than when released in the past. (I have no intention of addressing hip hop lyrics in this article.)

• "Wooly Bully"—Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs (an unPC group name with outfits to match)
  "Uno, dos, one, two, tres, quatro ...Let's not be L-seven"
  Note the code term for "square", now seldom used as a reference for being out of touch with current trends.
• "Mecca"—Gene Pitney
  "Oh she's my dream goddess and her ruby lips are so div-i-ine
  And though her folks say we're too young to know of love"
  I worship at her shrine"
• Ray Stevens anachronisms for themes and lyrics
  "Ahab the Arab"
  "Please Mr. Custer"
  "The Streak" (capitalizing on that 1975 fad of streaking)
  Ray, along with numerous other artists, also covered "Little Egypt". More on "Little Egypt" farther down as the fitting other anachronisms …
• "Kung Fu Fighting"
  The lyrics from the older, Carl Douglas version contrasts with the newer, Cee Lo version used in Kung Fu Panda.

Phone calls
Phone calls, price of, and reference to dialing are anachronisms because of technology and inflation over time. (Borrowing from my "Technical Communications Means" article.)

• "834-5789"—Picket Wilson
  "All you gotta do is pick up your telephone and dial now"
• "867 5309/Jenny"—Tommy Tutone
  "Jenny, Jenny who can I turn to? (8-6-7-5-3-0-9)
  For the price of a dime I can always turn to you."
• "Happy Together"—Turtles
  "I should call you up, invest the dime"
• "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy"—Rod Stewart
  "Give me a dime so I can phone my mother"
• "Operator"—Jim Croce
  "You can keep the dime."
• "Sylvia's Mother", Dr. Hook
  "And the operator says '40 cents more for the next 3 minutes'"

The dime itself represents a norm for older times besides several of the phone-themed songs I named.

• "On Broadway", Driftwoods
  "One thin dime won't even shine your shoes."
• "Roll Over Beethoven", Chuck Berry
  "Long as she got a dime the music wont never stop." [sic]
• "Little Egypt" has additional two anachronisms besides stereotyping—a reference to a dime for admission to a show, and reference to a very old year—1949.
  "Just one thin dime! One tenth of a dollar! ...
  She had a picture of a cowboy Tattooed on her spine,
  Saying Phoenix, Arizona, Nineteen forty-nine,"
  

"Love Potion Number 9" and "Hotel California" are other song examples that mention specific years as if they were signposts marking time.

• "Love Potion Number 9"—Clovers
  "I told her that I was a flop with chicks
  I've been this way since 1956"
• "Hotel California"—Eagles
  "We haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine"

One song title that might not ever go out of date, at least, for our time, could be "In The Year 2525", Zager And Evans.

Anachronistic Songs, Part 1 of 2

One meaning of anachronism—
a person or a thing that seems to belong to the past and not to fit in the present

Common characteristics of an anachronistic song, usually the song having been out at least a few decades ago:

• It includes a term that was popular or a norm in a particular era "long ago".
• It includes a term that the definition has shifted over time.
• It is more likely now to be considered culturally or politically insensitive than in the past.
• It contains reference to a year number.

Two songs that harken to quaint norms from a few decades ago are "Slow Down" (Beatles) and "Take a Letter Maria" (R. B. Greaves).

• From "Slow Down"
  "Well I used to walk you home baby after school
  Carry your books home, too"
• From "Take a Letter Maria"
  "So take a letter Maria, address it to my wife.
  Send a copy to my lawyer."
  People don't take dictation anymore.

For a blast to past, "groove" to the following songs:

• "Groovin'"—Young Rascals
• "Groovy Kind of Love"—Wayne Fontana and Mindbenders
• "Feeling Groovy"—Simon and Garfunkle
• "Shake Your Groove Thing"—Peaches & Herb

The following songs have titles, lyrics, artists, or mix of these three items that stand out for anachronisms:

• "Uptight Out of Sight", by Stevie Wonder, originally had positive meaning, as the lyrics indicate. At times, however, both "uptight" and "out of sight" were also negative terms. Around the same time, James Brown's "Out of Sight" was clearly a positive expression. Coincidentally, his lyrics also contain "uptight".
• "The Rapper", by The Jaggerz, came out in 1970, long preceding the music form called rap in the 1980s.
  "Rap, rap, rap, they call him the Rapper."
  This song came out in the late 60s. Rapping meant casual conversation at that time. In the 80s, rapping meant spoken rather than sung music—rap music. Sometime later, the term hip-hop seems to have replaced the term "rap".

Straights, Hippies, Gays
Straight used to mean not-hippie.

• "The Straight Life"—Bobby Goldsboro
  "Leaving the straight life behind"
• "Some Velvet Morning"—Sinatra/Hazelwood
  "Some velvet mornin' when I'm straight"
• "Mohair Sam"—Charlie Rich
  "Who is the hippie that's
  Happenin' all over our town …
  Good lookin' Mohair Sam"
  "Hippie" had undergone meaning even while Charlie Rich used the term in "Mohair Sam".
• "Deck the Halls"—numerous artists
  "Don we now our gay apparel"

"Anachronistic Songs, Part 2 of 2" covers other blasts from the past—unPC-ness, dimes and related costs, and years.

Economy in Song Lyrics

How can song lyrics be economical? I write about three types:

1. Songs with expressions repeatedly peppered throughout
2. Instrumentals with the song title in it, frequently with few or no additional words
3. Songs that have one verse, repeated one or more times

The idea for writing about economical lyrics has popped up for a few years, but percolated a bit more when I heard "Deck the Halls" recently, thinking about the "fa la la" part . Another Christmassy song came to mind—"Angels We Have Heard On High Lyrics " with drawn-out "Gloria" ("GLaw-aw-aw-aw-aw ... riah"). Funny that few lyrics websittes spell Gloria as actually sung.

• "Hallelujah" dominates the lyrics in "Hallelujah Chorus".
• In "High Ho High Ho" -OR- "Heigh Ho Heigh Ho", the seven dwarves sing little else besides hi-ho.
• The Fenderman version of "Muleskinner Blues" is good for lots of laughs and guffaws.

Extreme examples of repeated chanting expressions ("n" words!) that pervade a song:

• "Nobody But Me" by the Human Beinz, written by Isley Brothers ("Shout") loads up on "No-no, no, no, no-no-no, no, no-no, no, no-no …". This Songfacts Lyrics webpage includes trivia and comments.
• Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye uses the na-na chant throughout, including fadeout, fadein, and seemingly endless looping. This ST Lyrics webpage states near the end "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye [repeat many times and fade out]". No kidding about many times!
• The ending of "Hey Jude" ("nah nah nah …") is another example of repeat-many-times in a song, although the end is a final "HEY JUDE".

The previous three songs predominantly feature "no" or phonetic variation of "no". In some songs, the spoken or sung lyrics are the same as the titles, maybe to better remind listeners what the song title is. Some examples:

• "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um"—Major Lance, written by Curtis Mayfield ("Superfly")
• "Hustle" (few words besides "hustle")
• "Fly Robin Fly"
• "Tequila"
• "Wipeout"

"Woo Hoo" features one main utterance (ok, maybe two) was obscure enough that the song title initially eluded me—The Rock-A-Teens -- Woo Hoo (lyrics). More recently, "Woo Hoo" was popularized by a group named 5,6,7,8 for "Kill Bill" starring Uma Thurman (lyrics). On a barely related note, Homer Simpson has uttered woo hoo for the past 25 years.

The following five songs repeat their verses—no story here!

• "Oh Carol", Neil Sedaka (sung verse, chorus, spoken verse, chorus—essentially two parts duplicated)
• "For All We Know", Carpenters (seemingly repeated verses, but subtly different)
• "Do You Want to Know a Secret", Beatles (same verse 3 times)
• "Henry the Eighth", Herman's Hermits (same verse 3 times)
• "Love Me Do", Beatles (same verse 4 times)

What songs cross your mind that fit the lyrics economy models I listed?

McCormicky-Libbyish Pumpkin Pie

Last month, I published "Which Pumpkin Pie?" that described ranges of ease and cost—fast and expensive, or laborious and cheap. For this article I'm publishing the method I used. For the ease, I bought frozen pie shells, canned pumpkin, and condensed milk. I already have cinnamon and nutmeg. Deviating from most recipes I ran across, I added vanilla and sesame oil (a favorite flavoring of mine).

Ingredients and Mixing
The table shows ingredients for the recipes from Libby's, McCormick, and me.

	Libby's	McCormick	Me
1 pie shell	✓	✓	✓
15-oz can pumpkin	✓	✓	✓
2 eggs	✓	✓	✓
14-oz can condensed milk		✓	✓
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice		✓
12-oz can evaporated milk	✓
3/4 C sugar	✓
1 t cinnamon	✓		✓
1/2 t ginger	✓
1/4 t cloves	✓
1/2 t salt	✓
1/2 t nutmeg			✓
1 t vanilla			✓
1 t sesame oil			✓

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. In a medium-large bowl, beat eggs. (Both recipes used wire whisks. Have also spotted use of a wooden spoon, a rubber spatula.)
3. Stir spices and fluid flavorings into the eggs mixture, then add the condensed milk and pumpkin.
4. Pour mixture into a pie shell. (I used the Pet Ritz deep-pie, 6-oz shell that already is in its own aluminum pan. Costs the same as the shallow, 5-oz pan.)
5. Place pie into a wider pan in case of filling overflow. (Libby's suggested a foil-lined pan.) Bake at 425° for 15 minutes.
6. Reduce temperature to 350° and bake for 40-50 minutes. Insert a knife to test for filling doneness. Libby's recipe says to insert the knife NEAR the center. (Forty minutes was perfect for my pie.)
7. Cool on wire rack (about 2 hrs).
8. Serve nekkid (~270 calories) or with whipped cream (ooh la la). :-)

Handy Links

• Libby's recipe—online, video
• McCormick recipe—online, video
• McCormick's Pumpkin Pie Spice ingredients: Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg, Allspice, And Sulfiting Agents
• Making your own pumpkin pie spice
• Making your own allspice
• Fresh pumpkin advocacy
• Canned pumpkin advocacy
• Contrasting evaporated and condensed milks
• NYT recipe, graham cracker crust. I listed this link because I stated in my previous article a crumb-crust shell is not suitable, that it doesn't act as a liner during baking like a flour shell does. (By far, the recipes that I ran across used flour shells.)

Which Pumpkin Pie?

Decisions, decisions, decision, varying mostly for labor intensity for getting a pumpkin pie. I wanted to find a pretty pumpkin pie picture that I wouldn't get into copyright problems over. My image is two colored ovals and arced text that I used Microsoft Word's Word Art feature for creating.

The easiest way to get a pumpkin pie is buy it at a bakery or grocery store. Pay your bucks and take it. Might be iffy trying to buy one on Thanksgiving day itself, so buy the day before. The alternative to the easy way depends on the energy you want to expend and time you want to allot for acquiring ingredients and preparing the pie. Two main components of the pie are the pie shell and the filling, with the filling subdividing into canned and scratch pumpkin.

Pie Shell
A pie shell for pumpkin filling should be flour-dough. You can make one from a scratch recipe, which calls for flour, fat (butter or shortening), water, and elbow grease using a rolling pin and pastry blender. Or you can buy a refrigerated shell that you unroll and lay into a pan. Or you can buy a frozen shell that's already preformed into an aluminum pie pan. Either option usually comes in sets of two. A crumb-crust shell is not suitable. A flour shell acts as a liner during baking, not so for a crumb crust. Least work—the frozen pie shell.

Pumpkin Pie Filling
The pumpkin pie filling can be fresh pumpkin that you extract the meat from—cutting the rind off, removing the pulp, and shredding or grating the meat. A jack o'lantern from Halloween works, if it's not moldy. Or you can buy a pumpkin at the store as the BIG EVENT approaches. You can buy canned pumpkin. The fresh-pumpkin approach is very labor intensive, but tends to be less expensive than the very convenient canned pumpkin. YMMV. Least work—the canned pumpkin.

Spices
I pretty much knew about cinnamon and nutmeg, just would need to look up quantities. Saw recipes that also called for allspice. What the heck is allspice? The about.com explanation looks pretty thorough.

Candidate Recipe for Convenience
One recipe I encountered lately was in the Parade Sunday paper insert. Looked convenient to make, but the small, 6-point font bugged me. You McCormick people! Really???? 6-point font? Alienating a lot of older folks who have baked pies and might be turned off at the effort required to READ the ingredients and process? Well, I had torn out the recipe anyway, but decided to look for it online. Voila! Bigger font, and numbered steps at the Signature Pumpkin Pie Recipe. The big conveniences are the pre-formed pie shell, canned pumpkin, condensed milk, and McCormick's Pumpkin Pie spice. (You'll pay for the convenience of having all the spices in one jar.) The only additional ingredient is eggs. Hmm, I might make this pie, but maybe not this Thanksgiving Day.

For the record, over the years, I've made pies with scratch pie shells (cheap to make, but a lot more effort than pre-made shells.) I've used fresh pumpkin only, just because I've liked knowing the filling came from a pumpkin I acquired. I don't recall having used condensed milk, but maybe because I haven't baked a pumpkin pie in a few years and don't remember.

Which Pumpkin Pie?
For me this Thanksgiving Day, none of the above. I'm baking mini-cupcakes that have chocolate chips, chocolate cake mix, cherry pie filling, and three eggs. The recipe will be a variation of the Lucky Leaf recipe for Cherry Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cake. Besides using chocolate cake mix instead of white, I'll also deviate from the recipe by making mini-cupcakes instead of a bundt cake.

November 26, 2014—
Visit "McCormicky-Libbyish Pumpkin Pie" about the hybrid-recipe pie that I DID bake.

Gluten-Free Waffle Grid Tortillas

The waffle grid comes from using a waffle-cone maker, but not the cone shaper. These tortillas, made with rice flour, are thin and pliable, like crepes. They stick to themselves with a mild PostIt stickiness. The stickiness makes for keeping rollup shapes together, making them good for rolling up fillings. The sesame oil provides an aromatic flavor.

My pixstrip shows the following images:

1. Equipment and utensils
2. Ingredients
3. Bowl with mixed ingredients, cooling in fridge, then out of the fridge
4. Tortilla-baking process by using the waffle cone maker
5. Finished gluten-free, no-added-sugar, waffle-grid tortillas

Equipment and utensils (spray oil being a bridge from equipment to baking process)

• Waffle cone maker
• Mixer (I used an electric hand mixer.)
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Rubber spatula(s)
• Plastic spatula
• Mixing bowl(s)
• Cooling rack

Ingredients and mixing

• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 C milk
• 1 C rice flour (available in Asian store or ethnic part of a supermarket(
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Spray oil for appliance surfaces, about every fourth tortilla

1. Beat the egg.
2. Add the salt and beat more.
3. Add the oils and milk and mix more.
4. Carefully add the flour, which has a very fine consistency. (The batter will be very thin.)
5. Cover the mixing bowl with food wrap and let it sit in the refrigerator.
6. After an hour, take out the batter, remove the food wrap, and remix the batter for a few seconds.

Process completion (baking, etc.)
Prepare the iron as instructed with your appliance. Because I've used mine a few times, I've only wiped the cooking surfaces with a clean, warm, damp kitchen rag for cleaning preparation, sprayed the cooking surfaces, and plugged the cord. Heating time is a minute or so.

1. Spray oil onto both waffle cone maker surfaces and heat it.
2. Scoop batter (1-oz cup or 2 tablespoons) onto the horizontal surface. (Pouring slightly towards the back makes for easier clanshell closing.) Close the lid and press down with fingernails for about 15 seconds to ensure the lid stays closed, then time for another 45 seconds. The hold-down instruction might not apply to other appliance brands.
3. Open the clamshell to check for tortilla doneness (light to medium brown color).
4. Use spatula to lift the tortilla onto the cooling rack.
5. Roll the tortilla now or later.
6. Continue the batter dispensing and baking process until you use up the batter. (Use spray oil about every fourth tortilla.)

The recipe makes about 15 tortillas, 5-6 inches wide (~53-58 calories each, depending on nonfat or whole milk). Suggested fillings for microwaving in these disks: cheese, cheese and spinach, cheese and broccoli. Mmmm, cheese.

Century Plant Triplets--16th & Final Week, 3 2 1 0

Gone. Gone. Gone. No Lefty left anymore. From three century plants to none, it's been an interesting mission to photograph the plants weekly and publish weekly articles. The five images illustrate my article's title.

In composing this last article, I decided I'd go take one more set of pix to compare June 17 and publish day of today—October 27. The pixstrip shows a bit of difference in plant looks from then to today, although not so much for the agaves. Weirdly, when I stepped up to the plants yesterday for a look-see, I was surprised to see no evidence of stalks having been cut. The centers were tightly wound, each coming to sharp points.

The only plan I originally had was taking pictures from one spot, all on Mondays around the same time except for one Tuesday session, and coming up with thoughts for that day. Oh, some of the thoughts might have come a day later. Most obvious "tweak" is the one for June 17's shoot.

It didn't take many weeks to consider taking additional pictures at other angles. I took several from across the street. Unfortunately, other nearby foliage tended to obscure the century plants, so I omitted most of them from the series of articles.

I buddied up more with my PaintShopPro tool (very old at version 7.04) over the months:

• Played with shapes for outlines and backgrounds.
• Cropped images by way of canvas size and window selections.
• Placed images on same canvases.
• Resized pixstrips by percentages.
• Made slight image rotations, aligning poles to working grids.

In placing previous and current week images next to each other, it was interesting to see changes for comparisons. I found my own way to format the articles for a certain consistency. If you like the series, please spread the word. Thanks!

My thoughts of the pix for that day:

Over the weekend, the lone century plant was still there. Had fingers crossed that it might still be there today when I made my weekly lunchtime pilgrimage to photograph it, as I had been since early March. Nope. These pix no longer have any majestic stalks. I did decide to attach pix from March 4 (start of spotting the upcomers, published July 14), April 22 (approximately midpoint, published September 1), and today. For the most recent of the last standing plant, look to June 10 (published October 20).

Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

2025 Slide-show version of the triplets saga-"Revisiting Century Plant Triplets, Weekly Shots Over 16 Weeks" (video | article)

Related: Agave articles search results

Century Plant Triplets--15th Week, Lefty and Another Week Still

 Lefty looks nearly identical as in the previous week's pix. One obvious difference is about 1/4 the distance up, to the left of the metal pole. The June 3 pic shows a white object, the June 10 pic doesn't. In looking over past images, that area has had parked cars and a dumpster.

Although Lefty looks about the same for those June 3 and 10, May 27 was the date that showed a change from its former majestic erectness. The October 6 article contrasts three weeks, with the last image showing a definite lean.

The rightside angle pix show Lefty looking nearly identical—only the sky showing contrast. The June 3 sky is about as flat blue as can be; the June 10 sky displays a couple of puffy clouds seeming to align horizontally with Lefty's peak.

My thoughts of the pix for that day:

Amazingly, the lone stalk is still there! The top is starting to look a bit raggedy. If I were to use a human adjective, I'd say the top looked a bit gaunt.

Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

2025 Slide-show version of the triplets saga-"Revisiting Century Plant Triplets, Weekly Shots Over 16 Weeks" (video | article)

Related: Agave articles search results

Century Plant Triplets--14th Week, Lefty and Another Week

On June 3, Lefty still stands, and with bloom clusters, but taking on a darker look than the previous week. Although the May 27 pic looks more bright andvibrant than the one from June 3, it's comparative views that influence perception. View the May 27th pic in my previous
article's pixstrip, and notice how lackluster Lefty looks there. (Click for larger older/newer side-by-side image of May 27 and June 3.)

This is one of the few times I decided I'd post some pix from another angle, although I have been taking front-view and rightside-view pix for a few weeks. I did post some at the bottom of my 11th-week article ("Century Plant Triplets--11th Week, Oh Solo Me Oh!"). The May 27 and June 3 rightside pix below show more contrast between the skies than with Lefty. Love that blueness on June 3! Oddly, the cloudiness in the May 27 pic looks much less ominous than in the "feature" images at the top of the article.

My thoughts of the pix for that day:

The lone stalk still stands, but it's definitely leaning, and the foliage looking less lush. I anticipate this week to be its last week as an upstanding plant in the corner.

Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

2025 Slide-show version of the triplets saga-"Revisiting Century Plant Triplets, Weekly Shots Over 16 Weeks" (video | article)

Related: Agave articles search results

Century Plant Triplets--13th Week, 3 Successive Leftys

I decided to deviate from my recent formats of two weeks' pictures side-by-side. As I started prepping the pix for May 20 and 27, I was struck by how much more vibrant Lefty's May 20th pic looked than May 27th. Yet, the pixstrip for May 13 and May 20th showed Lefty's May 20th condition to be drab, which I remarked in my 12th century plants article.
Comparative pix can affect perception. The pixstrip shows Lefty for May 13, 20, 27. (Click for larger older/newer side-by-side image.) Note that for each of those picture days, the sky conditions seem to correlate with Lefty's bloom clusters condition.

1. May 13—blue sky with Lefty's bright and robust clusters
2. May 20—overcast with Lefty's drabness indicating its decline
3. May 27—cloudiness with Lefty's drabness, seemingly conveying withdrawal from its former glory

Try covering one of three pix and compare visual states. Try looking at #1 and #2 together, #2 and #3 together, and #1 and #3 together.
My thoughts of the pix for that day:

Surprised that the single stalk is still there! Took the set of pix around 10:40 today, about an hour earlier than I'd been shooting in the previous weeks. Worked out really well. A lot less traffic both moving and standing, maybe because of the holiday, might have also helped make picture taking easier than usual. Comparing this week's to last week's pix, can see the "crowns" starting to diminish.

Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

2025 Slide-show version of the triplets saga-"Revisiting Century Plant Triplets, Weekly Shots Over 16 Weeks" (video | article)

Related: Agave articles search results

Century Plant Triplets--12th Week, Lefty's Bloom Clusters Declining

Lefty's bloom clusters display a dramatic dulling of color intensity from the previous week—brightness on May 13, drabness on May 20, as the above pixstrip shows. The pixstrip below shows the larger and zoomed-out older/newer side-by-side image.

My thoughts of the pix for that day:

The single stalk is still there! Unlike the previous few weeks, the stalk counts didn't go three, then two, then one, then none. It is only a matter of time before the property owners cut it down before it falls down. The view is another chance to see the progress, or decline, if you will, of the plant to its eventual end.

Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

2025 Slide-show version of the triplets saga-"Revisiting Century Plant Triplets, Weekly Shots Over 16 Weeks" (video | article)

Related: Agave articles search results