Food & Drink

K Is For Klondike Bar, Kinda Clever

/ Ally Bean / 49 Comments

Screen Shot 2016-03-21 at 10.54.11 AM“What would you do for a Klondike bar?”

These lyrics are from a TV commercial jingle that is embedded in my brain.  Permanently.

Yours, too?

In fact, when I started musing on the letter “K” for this challenge, the first thing that came to my mind was Klondike Bar, which got me thinking about how I know many TV commercial jingles from memory.

You, too?

It’s annoying, yet hilarious, to realize that instead of keeping track of important adult stuff, my old brain chooses to retain a weird assortment of lyrics and tunes, learned in my childhood while watching the idiot box [aka the TV].

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• I’m sure this realization would upset me more, if I wasn’t so darned happy when singing the Oscar Mayer Bologna Song.

“My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R…”

• OR awkwardly singing and dancing along to the Dr. Pepper commercial.

“Us peppers are an interesting breed, an original taste is what we need… Be a Pepper…”

• OR belting out a soulful rendition of the Enjoli perfume commercial.

“I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never let you forget that you’re a man… ‘Cause I’m a woman…”

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All of which brings me to this very important question:

How many TV commercial jingles do you, my gentle readers, remember by heart?  You may confess in the comments below.

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J Is For Jelly, So Jazzy

/ Ally Bean / 38 Comments

Screen Shot 2016-03-21 at 10.53.39 AM“It must be jelly ’cause jam don’t shake like that.”

These are the lyrics from an old song.  I didn’t know the source of this saying, but that’s what I discovered.  And what a cool discovery it is.

I’m familiar with this saying because Zen-Den says it every so often.  It’s part of his repertoire of sayings intended to describe + amuse anyone who might be listening.

Which is what I think you, my gentle readers, should do now.

Listen and watch Ray McKinley & The New Glenn Miller Orchestra perform a swinging jazzy rendition of this song, and learn about the saying… in context.

It’s fascinating, as you will hear.

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“And lay it on me…”

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I Is For Ice Cream, I Do Believe

/ Ally Bean / 54 Comments

Screen Shot 2016-03-21 at 10.51.53 AM“I scream, You scream, We all scream for ice cream.”

This is what my Dad used to say, kind of like he was casting a spell, when we as a family would get in the car to go get ice cream cones at the local dairy.

This was big deal back then in my small town.

There were no stores open 24/7.  All we had were a few dairies in town, each featuring a rotating list of flavors, that sold ice cream cones, during limited hours of operation.

icecreamcone

I never knew why he said what he said.  But a fast googling tells me that this saying is part of the lyrics to a dreadful 1920s novelty song of the same name.  The stupid lyrics are whacked, making references to Alaska and Eskimos;  the irritating tune is a fox trot.

How he ever came to know this song I couldn’t say.  But like most of the food sayings I’ve talked about so far, they just get into your brain and never leave.

H Is For Hotcakes, Happening Here Now

/ Ally Bean / 51 Comments
 Screen Shot 2016-03-21 at 10.43.51 AMSelling like hotcakes

… refers to brisk sales of a specific item.  It’s one of those charmingly innocent idioms that I use from time-to-time when the situation demands that I be charmingly innocent.

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I cannot make hotcakes, or griddlecakes, or flapjacks, or pancakes as we call them.

It turns out that I lack the patience, coordination, and mathematical aptitude needed to create a flat pancake.  My pancakes get all scrunched up, don’t flip over properly, and then cook unevenly.

It’s tragic.

Zen-Den, however, has a gift for making hotcakes, which, by default, puts him in charge of all pancake projects.  It’s a burden he’s happy to bear, because– pancakes. Yum.

Why am I telling you this?

Here’s why.

I have a theory that every person who likes to cook has one food that he or she just. can. not. make.  It’s one food that everyone else throws together as if it’s nothing.

It’s a food that has the power to aggravate with the mere mention of the word.  And for me that food is hotcakes.

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So, my gentle readers, what food can you absolutely not make no matter how much you try to do so?

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