Yes, We have no Bananas!

Did you ever have a song come to mind early in the morning, and then end up singing it all day?  It seems to get stuck in your brain.  That happened to me today, and here are the lyrics.  Sing along with me now…

♪ ♫ "Yes, we have no bananas
We have-a no bananas today
We've string beans, and onions
Cabashes, and scallions,
And all sorts of fruit and say
We have an old fashioned tomato
A Long Island potato But yes, we have no bananas
We have no bananas today!”  ♫ ♪

I’m hoping to pass it on to you so I can get past it.  Anybody else remember that song?  Perhaps you’re wondering why this song popped into my brain.  Well, I was thinking of going to the Tamale Festival in Somerton, AZ, today.  Then I got to thinking about it.  I did’t even know if I would like tamales, and it would be a 100+ mile round trip drive.  My frugality won out, and I didn’t go.  That’s when I started singing this song to Emma substituting Tamales for Bananas.  She just gave me the stink eye…

Instead, I stayed home and made a two egg omelet with fresh broccoli, mushrooms, and garlic with some melted Muenster cheese inside.  I have to admit it was delicious.  Never had broccoli in an omelet before.

As long as I’m talking about food, I’ll include the recipe for the cheesy pretzels that I’m making.  Several commenters requested it.  You can see the ingredients above.  Three pounds of pretzels… I use three different shapes just because.  One bottle of Orville Redenbacher’s buttery flavor popping oil, and one 2.7 oz. container of Kernel Season’s popcorn seasoning.  I prefer the Garlic Parmesan flavor, but there are lots of flavors to choose from. 

I think the biggest challenge is finding a bowl big enough to hold three pounds of pretzels.  Take the pretzels out of the bags by hand and put them in the bowl.  Don’t just dump the bags, because you don’t want all that extra salt that’s in the bottom of the bag.  Then I shake on all the seasoning.  Next, pour the oil over.  Get a big spatula and mix it all together.  It’s hard to keep all the pretzels in the bowl while you do this.  For the next three days, mix it up again three to four times a day.  In between stirrings, I keep the bowl in the microwave so nothing gets accidentally dropped into it.  Of course, it’s mandatory to taste one or two of the pretzels that fall out of the bowl during mixing times.    A good chef always tastes their work in progress.  It takes about three days for all the oil and seasonings to be absorbed.  Keep in an air tight container upon completion and enjoy!  If you like salty crunchy snacks, this one is a winner.

This post is getting a bit wordy, but (there’s always a but) I wanted to tell you about something I finally figured out.  For the last two weeks, I have heard a very loud chipping sound outside.  It had to be from some kind of wildlife, but I just couldn’t figure it out.  It was kind of like the alarm call of a yellow-bellied marmot.

I knew there weren’t any of those around here, but gosh it sure was loud.  There was a buzzing sound before the loud chip, and that buzz seemed to always be on my right while the chip came from the left of me.  Very confusing.  I tried to think of an animal that could ‘throw’ it’s voice, but I was stumped. 

The sound also seemed to occur whenever the little female Anna’s hummingbird was at the feeder.  At first I thought maybe she was making the noise, but it was just too loud for a hummingbird.  I even resorted to crawling around under the feeder when I heard the sound looking for some kind of animal or something in the openings of the cement blocks.  That’s where the sound seemed to be coming from.  Ha Ha!  Turns out I was right and wrong.

Today I happened to be gazing up into the sky while sitting outside when I again heard the sound.  There was a male Anna’s zooming straight upwards.  Then he swooped down like a falcon, and at the bottom of his dive the loud noise almost knocked me out of the rocker!  It was a mating display.  The male goes up to 130 feet in the air, and then swoops down.  As it curves back up into the sky, its two outer tail feathers produce a ‘sonic boom’.  The tail feathers produce a sound much louder than a hummer’s voice ever could.  Cool beans!  And a mystery solved!

                                                                               THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy