Honduran Tortillas: Las Baleadas Hondureñas

Honduras is a country in Central America. It has a population of more than 9 million, with Spanish as its official language, and it was conquered by Spain in the 1500s, but gained independence from Spain in 1821, and Honduras became a truly separate country in the 1830s. The nation's capital is Tegucigalpa (pretty much pronounced like, "tay-goose-see-galpa").  

There is the basic baleadas, "baleadas sencillas" (simple baleadas), but then Hondurans often add other toppings, one of the most common of which is scrambled eggs, but perhaps also avocado and fried or grilled meat. I looked at 20 to 25 recipes and all were very similar in the basic ingredients, but some made the tortillas very thin, while others made them much thicker (see photos, below). This recipe is so you can make your own fresh flour tortillas, but you can certainly just buy some flour tortillas, heat them, and then fill them. Shhh .... I didn't tell you that! Perhaps you could double the tortillas when assembling the finished product to make the thicker type?  

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup warm water
refried beans*
crema or sour cream **
crumbled queso fresco (cotija cheese is good for this)
avocado

Mix together the flour, the salt and the baking powder; then, mix the oil into the dry ingredients. Add the warm water and mix until a dough forms. Knead the dough until it is smooth. Divide the dough and roll the pieces into golf ball size rounds. Coat the rounds very lightly with some oil, cover them and let them sit for about a half hour. Heat a griddle or skillet (a cast iron skillet is good for this) on medium heat. Form the rounds into flattened circular shapes and place on the griddle or into the skillet. Cook for "about" 45 seconds per side. Some brown spots may develop on the tortillas, and that's okay. Spread a layer of refried beans on each tortilla, then add some crema or sour cream and crumbled queso fresco, and other toppings, if you so desire.

* For my article on "refried beans," this is the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/11/refried-beans-frijoles-refritos.html 

** I have not had Honduran sour cream, "mantequilla (blanco)," but just reading about it, I noticed some Hondurans who have moved to the United States say they buy sour cream, add varying amounts of heavy cream and a little salt, and they have "Honduran mantequilla." It is also my understanding that "mantequilla" generally means "butter" in Spanish, but in Honduras (perhaps elsewhere too???), it means butter, but also their style of sour cream. Mexican "crema" is available in many supermarkets in the U.S., but from what I understand, the Mexican variety is not quite like the Honduran. 

The thicker baleadas, left unfolded to show the topping

The thin, folded baleada

WORD HISTORY:
Grill-This word, coming in both noun and verb forms, is related to "griddle," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English. "Grill" "seems" to have originated from Indo European "kert," which meant, "to turn," which gave the idea of "braiding, twisting, weaving, entwining." This gave its Latin offspring the noun "cratis," meaning, "wickerwork;" that is, "products made by weaving twigs or small branches together." This then produced "craticula," meaning, "grill, grating, gridiron." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "graille," meaning, "grill, gridiron, fence railings." This then became "greil," then "gril." It was borrowed by English in the mid 1600s, by which time its main meaning was "gridiron, metal grid for cooking over a fire." The verb developed from the noun immediately thereafter. Old French "gril" later developed an alternative spelling of "grille," which meant, "grid, grating," which seemingly was used more in reference to "gates, fencing." This too was borrowed into English in the mid 1600s, with the distinction, but over time that distinction has become murky, as some restaurants use the spelling "grille" in their names; at least, in the U.S.       

Vanilla Sauce (Vanillesoße)

Apparently vanilla has been around for a long, long time, but it was the development of the New World that sent the flavoring to other parts of the world on an increasingly large scale. Vanilla is derived from the pods of a type of orchid plant... and here I thought they got it from vanilla ice cream. There are many variations to vanilla sauce recipes, but this is from Germans (Germans, broadly speaking, not just from Germany*), and it is called "Vanillesoße," or sometimes, "Vanillesauce," in German, and it is a fairly common accompaniment to desserts from German kitchens, although the English and French have the same or similar, so if Prince Harry and Meghan drop by, tell them it's "Crème Anglaise," but if Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte are your guests, says it's "Crème Française à la Vanille." 
.  
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups canned milk (12 ounce can)
1 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar (for a little sweeter use "heaping" tablespoons)
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place a bowl (I use a stainless steel bowl) over a pan of simmering water. The bowl should not actually touch the water. Mix the eggs and the cornstarch together, set this aside for the moment. In the bowl over the hot water, mix the milk, cream and sugar. Let the liquid heat, but do not let it actually boil. Stir well to completely dissolve the sugar. Add a tablespoon of the heated liquid to the eggs and stir immediately to mix it; repeat a couple of more times. This will help the eggs to mix in with the hot milk and cream easier, as you don't want to end up with scrambled eggs in milk and cream ... Hey! I think I just invented a new dish... scrambled eggs in milk and cream.... Wait a second, I've "fixed" this dish before, unintentionally! Gradually drizzle in small amounts of the egg, whisking constantly, until the egg/cornstarch mixture is fully added. Add the vanilla and whisk further to incorporate it into the sauce. The milk and cream should thicken as you add the egg mixture. You can, of course, adjust the cornstarch amount for a thicker or looser sauce, but the best sauce has a thickness on the order of melted ice cream. The sauce will have a slight "yellowish" tint to it from the egg yolks. This is good served warm on various desserts, but if you let it sit, cover it with plastic wrap to prevent the sauce from developing a "skin" on top. By "cover," I mean the plastic wrap should literally be in contact with the sauce.   

* Not just from Germany, but from Austria, much of Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, much of Alsace, a part of Lorraine and part of northern Italy (South Tirol/South Tyrol, Italian: Alto Adige). 

I had some vanilla sauce on sweet bread pudding...

WORD HISTORY:
Starch -This word is closely related to "stark," a word from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to the Indo European root word "ster," which meant "rigid, stiff." The Old Germanic offshoot was "starkaz," which had much the same meaning, but also with the added notion that if something was rigid, it was "strong." This gave Old English "stearc," which meant, "stiff, rigid, hard;" thus also,  "unyielding," and also, "stern." This provided the verb form, "stearcian," meaning, "to stiffen, to harden, to become hard." This then became "starchen/sterchen" (?), and this verb produced the noun  "starche" in 1400s, before it took on the modern form. Germanic relatives also meaning "starch": German has "Stärke," Icelandic has "sterkja" (?), Swedish "stärkelse." All of the Germanic languages have relatives to the base word "stark." 

Savory Bread Pudding

In the US, when Americans hear the word "pudding," their minds are likely to turn to a sweetened, thickened milk based dessert, most commonly, but not exclusively, in either chocolate or vanilla. Butterscotch was a common flavor when I was a kid, and perhaps it still is? These puddings come as a dry mix in a small bag inside a box. To fix them, you add milk and cook them until the starch in the ingredients thickens the pudding, or there are also similar puddings that need only to be stirred well with cold milk, no cooking needed. Ah... forget all of that! Initially developed in England as a way to use stale bread, circa 1150, bread pudding took a swerve toward sweetness as a dessert recipe as time went on, although the bread-based stuffing and dressing mixtures used for various fowls or other animals are still going strong, and they are really something of a close cousin to bread pudding. These stuffings are often savory, but some recipes call for the addition of various fruit, which combines the savory with the sweet. Bread pudding uses milk and eggs in its preparation, which usually separates it from its various stuffing relatives, even though stuffings often use eggs, but as a binder. I used cheddar cheese to give this recipe a little bit more of an  "English" twist, but I kept the cheese as the orange-colored style, more typical of the United States, and ah, besides, it was on sale. In its English homeland, and in Britain, in general, cheddar is most often "white," but that's not to say they don't produce any orange colored (or should I say, "coloured?") type, but I'm not quite sure. In the US, the white cheddar is also produced, and it is called... "white cheddar." Hey, you can't always have an imaginative name. This is great as a side dish or, add a salad, and it's perfect for lunch. Let's see... meat, bread, cheese, eggs and vegetables... a little bit of everything!

Ingredients:

6 1/2 cups dried cubed bread  
3 large eggs
1 2/3 cups milk (I use canned evaporated milk)
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 pound bulk/loose sage sausage
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil* + more to coat the baking dish
6 cups chopped kale (may seem like a lot, but it isn't; I used lacinato kale, but curly kale is fine**)
1/2 pound Cheddar thinly sliced or shredded

Put the bread cubes into a lightly oiled pan or baking dish of "about" 9" x 13" size (see photo, below). Beat the eggs and mix them with the milk, pour over the bread and let the bread sit and soak up the liquid. Heat the oven to 375 F. In a skillet, add the oil over medium heat. When the oil is heated, put pieces of the sausage into the pan and continue to break up any large pieces of the sausage until there are no especially large chucks left. Cook for about 3 minutes, then add the onion. When the onion starts to soften, add the kale, and you may need to add it in stages, until it cooks down a little, which only takes a short time. Add the pepper. Add the kale/sausage mixture to the soaked bread pieces, folding the kale and other ingredients into the bread (outright stirring will break up the bread pieces, so you want to fold the ingredients together). Smooth the bread mixture out and sprinkle the shredded cheddar over the top, or lay the thin slices of cheddar over the top. Bake for about 1 hour, or, if you like the top a little darker, turn the heat to 400 F and bake about 10 to 15 minutes longer, or you could put it under the broiler for maybe 4 or 5 minutes. Just keep your eyes on it whether you use the broiler or the hotter oven. There will be some bubbling around the edges, but that's normal. The pudding should be "set" in the middle, the same as you'd think of a cake, with no runny middle. I use a serving spoon to scoop the pudding out onto plates.    

* When I was younger, pork and pork sausage was always "fatty." In more recent times hogs are much leaner and so you may need to adjust the amount of oil you use in this dish. I started with 1 tablespoon of olive oil to cook the sausage, but it proved to be inadequate, so I added a second tablespoon of oil. It's certainly possible you may need even a little more, or perhaps, a little less, if you happen to get more fatty sausage; so, the 2 tablespoons of oil are just a guide, not a truly fixed amount.

** Lacinato kale is also known to some as Italian kale. It is very dark green, with an elongated, "somewhat" flat leaf and it has become easier to find in supermarkets and produce stores in more recent times. Curly kale is, and has been, the more common type of kale in the U.S. It is a somewhat lighter green color and its leaves are curly. Hm, do you think that's why they call it "curly kale?"

I put a pound of butter behind the dish to give a comparison for the size of the dish...

WORD HISTORY:
Tuesday-The "Tues" part of the word goes back to Indo European "dyeu," which had the notion of "bright or shining." This general concept gave the further notion of "sky," which then gave the notion of "god/gods," since humans came to believe that deities lived, well.... in the sky. This gave Old Germanic "Tiwaz," the name for their "god of the sky (and also of war)."* (**) This was passed down to Old English as "Tiu"(also spelled "Tiw"). It "seems" that the Germanic tribes, including those who became the "English," took to naming some days after "gods," from the Roman example (there's that influence from contact with other peoples). With "Tiu," to show possession; that is, genitive case, it became "Tiwes," plus "daeg," the old form of "day" in English; thus, we have "Tiu's daeg," with "daeg" eventually losing its "g," and the spelling "Tuesday" coming along a bit later. *** Not all of the Germanic languages use a form of "Tuesday" in modern times, but here are the relatives: Danish has "tirsdag" (the Norse form of "Tiu/Tiw" was "Tyr," which also later went to England with Norse-speaking raiders and settlers), West Frisian "tiisdei," Faroese" has "týsdagur," **** Norwegian "tirsdag," Swedish "tisdag." German once used "Ziesdag," Low German once used "tiuwesdag." 

* This same Indo European base gave other Indo European languages words/names with essentially the same meaning: for example, Latin "deus" meant "god," and of course the famous Greek god, "Zeus." Both Latin and Greek are related to English, but somewhat further down the family tree.

** The Germanic gods can be quite confusing, at least to me, but then again I get confused counting up to ten, but I can get there if you give me a minute or so. From what I know, which is VERY limited, even historians aren't quite sure about some of the "positions of power" held by the various Germanic gods in the Old Germanic period of history. This is just a guess, but it may be that some or all of these gods held different "powers" at various times, and especially as the Germanic tribes dispersed; with one tribe believing a particular god to have certain powers, while another tribe came to hold a slightly different view of that god. To further complicate matters, the Germanic tribes would undoubtedly have been influenced by (and also bestowed influence upon) other peoples they came into contact with regarding such fundamental beliefs.

*** For the history of the word "day," this is the link to the article with that "Word History:" http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/04/german-meatballs-in-caper-sauce.html

**** Faroese is the language of the Faroe Islands. It is from the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. The Faroe Islands are self governing, but they are a possession of the Kingdom of Denmark. 

Mexican Scrambled Eggs: Huevos a la Mexicana

This is a common dish in Mexico and there are some generally minor variations. You can make it as mild or hot as you like: for mild, use one seeded jalapeño pepper; for a bit more kick, use two seeded jalapeños; for more heat, use one jalapeño and one serrano pepper; and, for lots of heat, use two serranos with seeds.


Ingredients:

6 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 jalapeño or serrano chili peppers (can seed them or not), chopped
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped (or you can use canned tomatoes)
2 tablespoon red or green bell pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt 
2 tablespoons oil

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook about 90 seconds. Add the garlic, chili pepper, bell pepper and tomato, cook about another 2 to 3 minutes, until the peppers and tomatoes soften. Add the ground cumin, cilantro and salt, stir to mix everything. Add the eggs and let them just begin to set, then stir and move the eggs to scramble them until done. Serve with refried beans* and warm  corn tortillas.

* To make your own refried beans, this is the link to the article:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/11/refried-beans-frijoles-refritos.html

Huevos a la Mexicana with refried beans and a corn tortilla...

WORD HISTORY:
Mince-This word is distantly related to the word "mite" (small insect), a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to the words "minor" and "minus," both words of Latin derivation, borrowed by English. It goes back to Indo European "mei," which meant, "small." This gave Old Germanic "minniz," which meant, "smaller, less." This produced the verb "minnizan(an)," meaning, "to make smaller, to make (something) less." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "minsian," meaning, "to make smaller, to lessen." The Old Germanic form also gave Frankish, another Germanic dialect/language, and close relative of English, "minn," meaning, "small, less," and the derived Frankish verb "minnson." This "may" have become a part of Old French as the verb, "mincier," meaning, "to cut or make into small parts," as the Frankish spoken in what is much of modern France and Belgium was absorbed into the Latin dialects of that region in an ongoing process over a period of a few hundred years, with some Frankish words disappearing, but other Frankish words surviving in some form for varying periods of time, right up to the present. Likely the English form, which had become "minsen," was influenced, at least in spelling, by the French word, as the spelling became "mincen," circa 1400, before the modern form, and the meaning, "to cut items (usually food) into very small pieces," seems to have also come via French. A secondary meaning developed in the 1500s, "to use polite ways in language to express a thought (usually in disagreement), rather than more direct speech" (example: "I won't mince words. Your behavior is unacceptable and it will not be tolerated!") There are still some other Germanic relatives around: German has "minder" ("less, inferior:" that is, "less in quality," also, the noun, "Minderheit"=minority), Low German "minn" ("little (in amount);" as in, "few, limited, scarce"), West Frisian has "min" ("little;" as in, "few, scarce"), Dutch "min" ("less, small in amount"), Swedish "mindre" ("small/smaller, less/lesser, few/fewer"), Icelandic "minna" (less), Danish/Norwegian "mindre" (less).  

Refried Beans: Frijoles Refritos

The term "refried beans" is used in English for a common Mexican cooked bean dish (see "Word History," below), although in modern times, the beans and other ingredients are most often simply cooked in water, and only sometimes are the beans cooked and then fried with other ingredients. "Refried beans" is also a dish common in other Latino cultures, including in heavily Latino influenced Texas and in all of the American Southwest, stretching to California. You can buy dried beans and then soak them for several hours, rinse them and then cook them for awhile, before proceeding with the recipe, but to be quite honest, it is far easier to buy cans of beans, rinse them and go from there. To be clear, you open the cans of beans and then rinse the beans. It took me some time to figure that out, because I bought cans of beans and I was told to "rinse them," and so I did; I rinsed the cans, but when I opened cans, the damned beans still had all that yucky liquid on them.   

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon regular olive oil
2 cans (14.5 to 16 ounce each) pinto beans, or red kidney beans, rinsed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
good pinch of ancho chili powder
good pinch of salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup water

Heat the oil in a pan or skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about a minute, then add the garlic. Stir in the cumin, ancho chili powder and salt. Add 1/4 cup water and the beans, mix well. When the beans are well heated, use a masher to mash the beans. If the mixture is too thick, add more water, mixed in a tablespoon at a time, until you reach the consistency you desire. I don't mash every bean, as a few whole beans gives the mixture a nice texture.   

WORD HISTORY:
Refried-This word is partially a bad translation of Spanish "refritos," which is used in "frijoles refritos;" translated into English as "refried beans." The second part of the word is, of course, closely related to "fry," a word of Latin derivation, borrowed by English. ^ The "re-" prefix, often denoting, "to repeat, to redo, to do over again," also is used in some Latin derived words to add emphasis, rather than adding a more specific or detailed meaning; thus, in this case, it is more aptly translated as, "thoroughly (fried)," "completely (fried)," or, "well (fried)." Initially, the beans of the dish were likely always "fried," although the ancestor of "fry" once was a broader cooking term that also meant, "to roast." As time passed, even though many people no longer "fried" the beans, the term was too fixed in Mexican culture, and it remained, even when frying was not the method used to cook the beans.

^ For the history of the word "fry," and the base of the word "refried," here is the link to the article with the "Word History:"  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/12/mexican-egg-sandwich-torta.html

Indian/Pakistani Cauliflower Curry: Gobi Masala

Gobi Masala is a north Indian and Pakistani curry dish, which simply means a dish made with a sauce of various spices. Just my opinion, but cauliflower is more to the bland side; thus, it needs some help in the flavor department. When I was a kid, cauliflower with various cheese sauces was a fairly common dish, and then there was breaded and fried cauliflower, which was served with some type of dipping sauce. Whether you agree with me that cauliflower in itself is a bit bland, it IS a healthy vegetable, with lots of nutrients and fiber. This dish is vegetarian, and, as with all good dishes, there are variations. For one thing, it is not uncommon for people of the Indian Subcontinent to make some dishes with a good deal of sauce ("gravy," as they say), but they also make a "drier" dish of the same name; that is, the amount of sauce is limited, with the main ingredients coated with the seasonings, rather than swimming in "gravy." It is great with rice, with which it is often served in India and Pakistan, but it is also commonly served with chapati (roti) bread,* especially if there is a lot of sauce to be sopped up by the bread. If you don't like much "heat," use just one jalapeño pepper; on the other hand, if you like dishes that are very "hot," use 3 serrano chilies. For a little information on the spices and herbs used in the cooking of the Indian Subcontinent, here are two links: 1)   https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/12/great-spices-and-herbs-of-india.html     

2)  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/12/great-spices-and-herbs-of-india_10.html

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 green chili peppers, chopped (serrano or jalapeño chilies are great)
2 inch piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons oil (+ more, if needed, vegetable oil is fine)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
2/3 teaspoon garam masala 
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or Indian red chili powder)
1 cup diced tomato with juice
1/4 to 1/2 cup water

Add the oil to a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, green chilies and ginger, cook an additional 1 to 2 minutes. Add the turmeric, ground coriander, fenugreek, garam masala and cayenne pepper, stir to mix well, then add the tomatoes and stir further. Add the cauliflower and 1/2 cup water. Stir to mix again to make sure all of the cauliflower is coated with the seasonings, then cover the skillet with a lid or foil. Cook until the cauliflower is tender (likely about 10 to 12 minutes), remove the lid or foil, and if necessary, cook a few minutes to allow the sauce to cook down (thicken) a bit.    

* Chapati (roti) bread is an unleavened whole wheat flatbread. It is quite easy to make and this is the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/10/easy-flatbread-of-indian-subcontinent.html 

Click on photo to enlarge...

WORD HISTORY:

Floret-This word is not only closely related to "flower" and "flour" (both of which are really the same word, and of Latin derivation and borrowed by English from Latin-based French), but "floret" was borrowed from Old French "florete" ("little/small flower") in the late 1300s. The Old French form was the diminutive of "flor," which meant "flower." ^

^  For the history of "flour/flower;" and thus, to the base of "floret," this is the link to the article with the "Word History:" http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/10/egg-in-your-beer-eierbier.html

Damn Yankees, Bedeviling Movie with Tab Hunter

I first saw this 1958 film when it aired on television, likely in the 1960s, but I really can't recall the year. It "may" have been first shown on one of the network movie nights, which were popular back in the 1960s and 1970s, as NBC, ABC and CBS all had such movie nights at some point in those days (there were no true cable stations back then). The networks would broadcast movies for their initial television showing that had been main features in movie theaters when they were released. I saw the movie again later a couple of times on local television, which was common after films had been shown once or twice on network television, and then these movies would often be rented out to local television stations.

The movie opens with a man watching a baseball game on television at home, as his wife, Meg, played by American actress Shannon Bolin, sits sewing. After a little while, the wife asks, "Is Washington winning, dear?" The husband answers, "No... Those damn Yankees." This brings the opening credits. Hm, "Those damn Yankees..." I've heard that said a few times in my life... a few thousand times! But I don't believe I ever said it myself, because I always said much worse than that. Hahaha! Actually that's not true, although perhaps in the heat of the moment I may have uttered something about the Yankees or some other opponent, my most scornful and curse filled lines would have been directed at my own Cleveland Indians team, a team that's deservedly had Cleveland fans utter more profanity laced statements ..... well, let me put it this way: if you think the transcripts of the Watergate tapes had a lot of messages of "expletive deleted," think again.

Anyway... we learn the man's name is Joe and Joe is a middle-aged guy, played by American actor Robert Shafer, who loves baseball and the Washington Senators. * Joe walks out onto his porch talking to himself about his team and how he wishes Washington had a power hitter. He wants a power hitter so much, he's willing to sell his soul for a player who can hit the long ball. When Joe turns around, there's a man standing behind him on his porch, a Mr. Applegate, played by American actor Ray Walston (later known for his role on "My Favorite Martian" in the 1960s). Applegate discusses Joe's desire to add a power hitter to the Washington ball club, and he takes up Joe's offer to trade his soul for that power hitter, especially since Joe always wanted to be a baseball player himself. Applegate tells Joe to come along with him, and he'll make him the greatest baseball player ever. Joe is convinced, especially when a couple of neighborhood ladies walk by, but they can't see Applegate, who is in plain view to Joe.** Now Joe knows that Applegate is legit, ah, illegit...oh, whatever the hell it is! Joe does get an escape clause; that is, he has until September 24 to get out of the deal; otherwise, Applegate gets his soul. (NOTE: In those times there were no playoffs, as there were no divisions, only 16 major league teams; 8 in the American League and 8 in the National League. Let me check my math.... let's see... 8 + 8 is ...ah, wait until I take my shoes off to use my toes... yep, 16! There was only the World Series, which was played between the two pennant winners; that is, the teams with the best record in their respective leagues. The World Series typically started within the first few days of October. In 1958, the year the film was released, the World Series actually began October 1.)

Applegate "changes" Joe from a guy of about 50 to a guy in his early 20s and he later tells the Press Joe is from Hannibal, Missouri, actually the hometown of Joe's wife, Meg. They go to the ballpark, where the Senators are practicing, and Applegate is able to get the Washington manager, played by American actor Russ Brown, to give Joe, who uses the name "Joe Hardy," a chance to swing the bat in practice. Joe proceeds to knock several pitches out of the park. The manager can't ignore such power, and he offers Joe a contract. Joe plays superbly and the Washington Senators begin to become a team to be reckoned with. Some wonder how such a great player just appeared from nowhere, but everyone is so happy, the questions are put aside, by most, except by some in the Press, especially a woman reporter, played by American actress Rae Allen.

In the meantime, Joe's wife misses him, and no matter how pessimistic her friends are about his return, Meg believes he'll come back. Joe decides to go and see her (remember, he's totally unrecognizable), and he tells her he heard she has a room for rent. After consulting with her friends, Meg agrees to rent Joe her husband's den. One of the neighbors recognizes Joe as Washington's new baseball savior, but it means nothing to Meg without her husband to tell her about the Senators. Applegate comes by and tells Joe to stay away from Meg and to concentrate on baseball, so the Senators can beat the Yankees, but it is Joe's love for Meg that upsets Applegate; after all, love is not the inspiring emotion in Hades. To pry Joe from his wife, Applegate promises to get Joe "a real sexy baby," but Applegate doesn't understand, and could never understand, Joe's love for Meg. Applegate goes to a phone booth and drops a good many coins into the slot to call Lola. I guess it took so many coins, because any call to the "infernal regions" is a long distance call.*** Applegate tells Lola about Joe and puts her on the case to seduce him to make Joe forget his wife. Applegate is happy that Washington fans are now brimming with hope since Joe's play has inspired the team. With people so hopeful, Applegate wants to pull the rug out from under the team at the last moment, which will bring despair to the fans, and despair, along with some suicides and heart attacks, is what will make the devil... ah, Applegate, happy.

The Press keeps asking questions about Joe, bringing Applegate to portray himself as a newspaper man from Joe's hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, where he says everybody is proud of Joe.

Lola fails in her attempt to seduce Joe, as he proves to be a kind and respectful young man who only wants to get home to his wife. So Applegate feels he'll have to take matters in hand himself. Applegate goes to Joe's neighborhood and tells some stories, since Joe is living in the same house with Meg. He figures the gossip will force Meg to make Joe leave, and it does. The season is near its end, with only two games left, and Washington needs to win just one of the two games to win the American League pennant, but September 24th has come too. In the meantime, Lola joins Joe's fan club and she finds she is more than a little fond of Joe.

The lady reporter goes to Applegate to tell him she just came back from Hannibal, Missouri, where nobody knows Joe Hardy. Applegate deliberately drops a hint that Joe's name might not really be Joe Hardy, and he also drops the name Shifty McCoy, who the reporter finds out was a player who had thrown a game (that is, deliberately lost the game in exchange for some gain, usually money) in the Mexican League, but he'd been caught at it and nobody ever heard of him again. She naturally wonders if Shifty McCoy has resurfaced as Joe Hardy. The reporter digs up the old story and a new story about Joe Hardy hits the headlines. The baseball commissioner calls a hearing and Joe struggles to explain why no one in Hannibal knows him, but Applegate steps in and says he has someone flying in who actually knows Shifty McCoy. Applegate has to keep Joe busy until the escape clause is no longer valid, then Joe's soul is his and he plans to have Joe throw the game, just as he had Shifty McCoy do a few years earlier.

A tribute is held for Joe by various fan organizations, and Lola performs in one of the acts during the tribute. Washington fans are behind Joe and so is the team. Some believe the whole thing was instigated by the New York Yankees to thwart Washington's drive for the pennant. Meg and her neighbors are upset by the allegations against Joe and they decide to testify that they DO remember Joe (they were all originally from Hannibal). Other witnesses brought in from Hannibal by the newspaper say they don't remember Joe Hardy. At Applegate's, Lola tells Applegate she feels sorry for Joe, and Applegate has Lola repeat over and over, "Never feel sorry for anybody." Joe comes to see Applegate to tell him he wants to use the escape clause, that he now realizes that there is something more important than being a hero. Applegate tells Joe he needs to speak up at 5 minutes until midnight, and if other people are present, the two of them will go out of sight and Joe will be changed back to himself. Joe leaves and in order to rehabilitate Lola, whose feelings for Joe have seen her losing her devilishness, Applegate gives her the assignment to think of three dirty tricks, "and they'd better be good," he tells her.

At the hearing, Meg and the two neighbors come in and tell the commissioner they want to testify that they knew Joe in Hannibal. Meg even talks to one of the witnesses who testified against Joe, trying to make him remember Joe. Meanwhile it is nearly midnight and Joe grabs Applegate so he can exercise the escape clause. Meg takes Joe by the arm and the clock begins to strike midnight and Applegate smiles. It's too late, Joe's soul will belong to Applegate. Joe goes out and sits by himself, but Lola comes to him and tells Joe she gave Applegate pills that will knock him out until after the game is over, so Applegate can't cause Joe to lose the game for the Senators. Joe asks Lola what she had been before Applegate took her soul. She says, "I was the ugliest girl in Providence, Rhode Island." Joe calls them "two lost souls," and he gives Lola a kiss and off they go to a club for drinking, singing and dancing (hey, this is a musical).

The game is well underway, but Applegate awakens when the game is in the 7th inning, with Washington leading 1 to 0. Applegate quickly changes and takes Lola with him to go to the game. He tells Lola he knows she doped him, but he wants to know why. She says, "Because I love him," which is enough to make Applegate sick. The two get to the game, where it is the 9th inning, and Lola thinks it's too late for Applegate to use Joe to lose the game for Washington, but he tells her he will change Joe back to his former self, a statement that causes Lola to turn to leave, but Applegate changes her back to her former self, an ugly witch of a woman. The Yankees get a hit and have a runner at first, with two outs, and the very dangerous Mickey Mantle comes to bat. Mantle hits a long drive to center field. Joe runs back, but Applegate now changes him back to his old self, and the now much older man falls to the ground, then struggles enough to put his glove up and to catch the ball for the final out. Washington wins and Applegate is as hot as the Devil... ah, as mad as hell... ah, he's plenty angry. Joe runs through a door in the center field wall and disappears. Everyone wonders what has happened to Joe, and we hear speculation on the radio that a possible answer is about "foul play" by a group of New York gamblers who lost a bundle on the game. Joe goes home to Meg and who appears but Applegate. As Joe and Meg embrace, Applegate rants about how Joe has cheated and robbed him. He then disappears. 

* The Washington Senators were one of the original teams of the American League in Major League Baseball. They were also called the "Nationals," at times. This team has no historical connection to the present Washington Nationals, as the original Washington team moved to Minnesota for the 1961 season, and became the Minnesota Twins, but it was immediately replaced by a brand new Washington Senators team (termed an "expansion team," because the American League then "expanded" to ten teams from eight teams). This team moved to Texas in 1972 to become the Texas Rangers, and it wasn't until 2005 that the Montreal Expos team moved to Washington to become the Washington Nationals that Washington DC again had a major league team, but it was now in the National League. Try not to be too confused, but I'll understand if you have trouble; after all, I lived through all of these changes and I have difficulty keeping track. 

** One of the ladies is played by American actress Jean Stapleton, who later became famous for her portrayal of Edith, the wife of Archie Bunker in the popular CBS television comedy series, "All in the Family."   

*** I guess I need to explain to younger people today, that in the past there were public landline telephones all over the place (no cellphones back then, AT ALL), usually in booths (some with wooden frames, some with metal frames, but both with lots of glass panes) with folding doors. There were standard charges for local calls, a dime when I was a kid, and if you called outside what was considered your local calling area, the cost of the call escalated according to its distance. You had to deposit the amount of the call into the coin slot, and such a call required the assistance of an operator. No credit card slots back then, but they did change that later. I can't quite remember, but I'll guess by 1980, but I don't believe all public phones had even changed by then. Even long distance calls made from home required an operator, and perhaps even more than one, as an operator in your home community might well connect you with an operator in the area you were calling. Understand, these things gradually changed over time, with metro areas seeing changes faster than in rural communities, but it took time for "direct dial" long distance calls to become nationwide. "Direct dial long distance" was when you didn't need an operator to connect you to the number, but you simply dialed it yourself and you were connected.


Photo is of Warner Home Entertainment DVD

WORD HISTORY: 
Seduce-This prefixed word, the main part of which is related to "duke" and "duct," words of Latin derivation borrowed by English, and it is distantly related to "tow" (as in, "tow your car"), a word going back to the Germanic roots of English, but connected to the previously mentioned words through Indo European. The "se-" goes back to Indo European "sed," a pronoun form which meant, "itself," ^ but also prepositionally meaning, "off to itself, by itself;" thus also, "apart." The main part of the word goes back to Indo European "deuk," which meant, "to lead, to guide, to draw or pull along" (that is, "to cause to move along"). This gave Latin "ducere," with the same meanings. These were combined in Latin as "seducere," literally meaning, "to lead off to itself;" thus, "to lead off, to lead away from," thus, "to lead astray." It was borrowed into English in the early 1500s, initially with the meaning, "to lead someone away from allegiance to an authority," its meaning at the time in Latin. Within just a few decades, it also took on the meaning in English, "to lure a woman into giving herself over for sexual purpose," but it wasn't long before the "luring" could be from either gender.  

^ For those familiar with German, the reflexive pronoun "sich" is from the same Indo European form, which gave Old Germanic "sek." Old English, Old Saxon and Old Frisian all changed, however, to use forms of the personal pronouns, in English: "itself," "himself," "herself."  

Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup

You can can top with each serving with some crisp crumbled or chopped bacon. 


Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups white mushrooms, chopped
1 1/2 cups cremini/baby bella mushrooms, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 large garlic clove, mince
3 cups chicken broth (low sodium is fine)
1/4 cup white wine (not a sweet wine)  
3 to 4 tablespoons butter
4 to 5 tablespoons flour
1 can evaporated milk
(optional) 3 or 4 slices of crisp bacon, crumbled  
1/2 teaspoon salt (if your chicken broth has a high salt content, you can leave out this added salt) 
1 teaspoon black pepper

In a heavy duty pan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the chopped onion and celery, saute for a minute or two, then add the garlic, cook another minute, then set the heat to low, add the mushrooms, cook a further 4 to 5 minutes. At first, the mushrooms will look like a mountain, but they will cook down substantially. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture, stirring well to incorporate and to take the raw flour taste out (I used 4 tablespoons of flour, but I like mushroom soup very thick, so I added another tablespoon mixed with some of the canned milk. I put the milk/flour mix through a sieve, just in case there was any flour not mixed in). If you need to add a little more butter, do so, or add a little canola or regular oil. Gradually add the chicken broth, stirring constantly until the mixture simmers and thickens. Stir in the white wine, black pepper and salt (if using). Now stir in the canned milk, a little at a time (if you want the soup to be thicker, do as I noted above at this time. It will need to come to a simmer).  

With some crispy chopped bacon...

WORD HISTORY:
Moss-This word, distantly related to the noun "must" (grape juice, new wine; a Latin-derived word borrowed by many Germanic languages centuries ago), goes back to Indo European "meus," which meant, "wetness, dampness." This gave Old Germanic "musan," which meant, "bog, marsh;" and thus also, "moss" (plant growth in marshy areas). This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "meos," which meant, "moss," and this then became "mosse," before the modern form. Other forms in the Germanic languages: German has "Moos," Low German has "Moss," West Frisian "moas," Dutch "mos," Danish has "mose" (meaning: marsh, bog, moor),^ Norwegian has "mose" (meaning: moss), Icelandic has "mosi" (moss), Swedish has "mossa."

^ The Germanic form also gave Old English "mos," which meant, "bog." 

Piña Colada

Back in the late 1970s, singer and songwriter Rupert Holmes released a song with the lyrics, "If you like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain..." Well, the name of the song upon its original release had nothing to do with "piña coladas," because its was called, "Escape." We in the public knew the song because of its reference to piña coladas, and so the record company and Holmes amended the song title to, "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)." The song and the drink were VERY popular!

The "Piña Colada," which literally means, "strained pineapple" (see Word History, below) was invented in Puerto Rico in the 1950s. As with many a popular invention, there is not total agreement as to this drink's naming, or more precisely, when the drink was given its enduring name. This is a very tough drink to make, as it will require you to be able to pour liquid, add ice cubes and then.... to push a button on a blender to make the blender operate, and then... to push another button to make the blender stop. There are college degrees issued for being able to do these difficult maneuvers, but unfortunately, I flunked out. I kept pushing the wrong buttons and it took me most of a semester to find out the buttons that operate the lights in the room are not the buttons that operate the blender. They have to make things complicated. Damn! And I wondered why the lights kept going off and on. 

Ingredients (per drink):

2 ounces light (white) rum
2 ounces pineapple juice
2 ounces coconut cream
pineapple chunks
maraschino cherries
1 cup ice cubes

Put the rum, the pineapple juice, the coconut cream and the ice cubes into a blender. Blend until smooth. Garnish with pineapple chunks or slices and a maraschino cherry or two. You can adjust the ingredient amounts to suit your own taste. Hey! The lights just went out. Well, habits are hard to break. Cheers!
 
I've seen all kinds of glasses used over the years for Piña Coladas (short, tall, squat, narrow), so use what you have or what you think makes a nice presentation, if you are serving guests.

WORD HISTORY:
Colander-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown, and part of even its later history is a little shaky. It goes back to the Latin noun "colum," a type of "woven wicker basket or fishing net used for fishing." This brought about the additional meaning, "sieve," and produced the verb "colare," "to strain or to put liquid through a sieve." This produced Latin "colatorium." This passed into Latin-based languages of the western Mediterranean in various forms, but while English borrowed a number of words from Latin-based French, this does not seem to be one of them. It was borrowed by English in the 1300s, "perhaps" from Spanish or Catalan "colador," but with an "n" inserted because of either misunderstanding or easier pronunciation in those times? It had several spellings in English originally, all with an "n" ("coloner," "cullender," for example).