A Crummy Commercial

Judging by a small sample (my Mom), Japanese people are crazy for convenience foods ! (just search for konbini sometime).  I watched this interesting video showing the canning process for a chicken and rice dish, biryani: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgZer35ZcmU They use a metal detector AND X-rays to prevent non-food stuff inside the can ! Loading two cans with sensors into the pressure cooker along with the batch: Their web site: https://kuroshiocan.co.jp In our house when something new was presented the inevitable question was: Ikura desuka ? - in other words, how much ? At the end of the video they show the price as 980 yen which equates to: That's for a 183 gram can which equates to: In other words, it's not cheap.  But they do use actual chicken and it's made by actual people (although they're all suited up for an operating room).  The facts from their web site: Biryani is an Indian dish, I'm thinking curry but not so saucy ?  I dunno, never ha...

I didn't know about this: https://books.google.com/books?id=N0EEAAAAMBAJ#all_issues_anchor Nice !   I had seen this online: 6 packs of soda in returnable bottles ! But as usual, it's just not quite good enough to read the details.  Fortunately it does give the date of the issue, October 4, 1963.  BTW, it was the 1st ad inside the cover.  Here are the items I wanted to read: And why is Jed totin' his shootin' iron to the store ? I guess Jethro was supposed to eat all that food - certainly Jed, Elly May and Granny weren't gonna ! The ironic thing is that the tradition of cheap food here in the USA may be giving us a bad legacy: bad health from eating too much (of the wrong stuff) and resentment now that food is cheap no more.  I've also seen these 1970's Will Geer ads for cheap eats at Arby's: September 1974 - I remember those glass bottles with the Styrafoam sleeves May 1975   Will Geer died a few years later in 1978, just a coincidence ?  pro...

When I was a kid my Mom did almost all of the cooking.  Sometimes they'd grill stuff in the brief time that the Milwaukee area weather would cooperate - and my Dad would do that.  He also made pancakes on Sunday morning which eventually transitioned to waffles.  But on a Saturday night he would make the yellow box option: He would mix and raise the dough in an aluminum bowl that his Mom used.  All that extra aluminum as a kid from the Mirro products in our home - hope that wasn't bad for us !  Then using a little Crisco as the lubricant he'd spread out the raised dough onto a round pan with his hands.  The canned sauce was then applied - he'd also usually add clumps of raw hamburger.  Finally he'd finish by sprinkling the tin of Parmesan cheese over the pizza and bake.  That was my conception of pizza.  One time our family had a pizza revelation.  We went to see my Mom's friend in Pewaukee and had their pizza.  No Crisco on a round ...

A while back Youtube served up this video: source:  https://youtu.be/mcuEvXeEzFU Stan Freberg was big at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s.  He had a 13 week summer radio show that took Jack Benny's time slot near the end of network radio.  He had many popular comedy records spoofing popular culture of the day including Dragnet.  But I had never seen this roughly 1 hour long "special" (commercial) for Chun King.  It is an entertaining show, anything with Sterling Holloway is worth watching.  BTW the girl in the show, Ginny Tiu, is roughly my age: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginny_Tiu So when canned Chinese food went on sale at Mann's I picked up a couple of items.  It wasn't until later that I realized that these items: I bet they put the beef in the top can with an atomizer :) why did I get sliced ?  can't wrap bacon around slices - I gotta start reading before buying :) aren't Chun King, they are La Choy.  Apparently according to this ...

For some reason I had a memory pop up of the Burny Brothers Bakery outlet store in Northlake IL, here's a video (with Chicagoland media personality of the 20th century, Fahey Flynn): source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBZxwFgWGHc BTW, when I lived in Northlake the Burny Brothers store wasn't quite as nice as it is on the video.  It was more like a convenience store without too much stock.  But the thing I remember was something like this: source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/256334091091 The one at Burny Brothers also had a perforated metal hood around it.  The baked goods at Burny Brothers weren't super fantastic or low priced but they all came in boxes and I thought that machine was really cool because when buying more than one box of goodies the cashier would tie the boxes together. Here's a video of a more recent machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOKgKa3fOEw And another video with a slo-mo of the tying of the knot (this was probably like the one at...

I've mentioned this before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/02/dialing-it-in.html Recently I was watching this video by Big Clive: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGho4TCdtj8 which is quite interesting - this kind of accurate scale used to be REALLY expensive - fancy instrumentation op-amps and calibration.  But now anyone can get these scales (even with the tariff-tax) at reasonable prices.  The cool kids use them for measuring flour for baking - more accurate than dipping a measuring cup. But it occurred to me that I could use a digital scale to measure maple syrup with the result of a more consistent starting point for a boil.  I checked the scale I have: And it can handle 6000 grams maximum which should be more than enough for 4 liters of sap plus a container.  One problem:  I don't have a good container for 4 liters - 4 quarts is no problem but since 4 liters is 7.2 oz. larger, the Rubbermaid pitcher is just a little too small.  I will look at...

I started using my old Kodak Easyshare CX7430 camera more.  It's a lot smaller than the Nikon D40 SLR.  AND the Kodak has an optical viewfinder unlike many other cameras (cellphones et. al.) so you don't have to rely on a dim screen outside held at arms length. But I discovered a flaw today - the date setting won't go above 2025.  I guess Kodak figured that people would ditch a 21 year old camera ?  Not me ! I went to take these two pictures (Mann's had more Paczki on Thursday):   But the camera wouldn't power up, no juice, the last time I changed the Nimh cells was later 2025.  So I had to take out the cells and replace them - I did this quickly hoping that the date might be kept but nope !  I should have gotten an AC adapter (coulda, shoulda, woulda, but dint, Chuck).  So I ended up setting the year to 2025 (and 4 AM rather than 1600) as can be seen from this directory: everything was fine until yesterday afternoon Then I tried an experiment: se...

Judging from a sample of one (my Mom), Japanese people like spicy food.  I was never much for spicy food although it is a little like diving into cold water.  Once you get used to it, it's not that bad.   Anyway I bought some of these snacks on Ebay: It was gonna be a twofer.  A snack that while good is resist-able - I won't finish the entire can in one sitting, that's for sure.  But also, I remembered that the plastic lid from a Hapi Wasabi Peas was perfect for sealing up a partially eaten can of Campbell's Chunky soup.  Negative lesson learned: that is no longer true: The Hapi cans are bigger now, the plastic lid will fit tightly on a can of tuna though.  One other thing:  these peas will last a LONG time past the expiration date.  I found a can years after my Mom had died that I popped open and the peas were fine. The Ebay seller also included these freebies: I learned something positive:  a little chocolate eaten after a hot sna...

It's the day before Fat Tuesday but the truck from the mainland comes up on Monday and Thursday so this is the day to go to Mann's.  I roll up to the store and my next door neighbor is out front and says: "weren't you just here last week ?"  - so I said: "Donuts, man !" I tried them and they were OK.  Boxed donuts are never quite as good as ones right from the fat but these were fine. It was a nice day here in the afternoon, sunny, above 40F.  If my tummy wasn't weighed down by the Paczki (only one) I'd go out and drill some maple trees !  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

IMO the internet stinks for recent history, the boring details like what did this place look like in 1969 - that kind of thing.  However there are a few outposts like Pinterest that do have a little history (along with a LOT of ads). Recently I saw this Red Barn ad in a Pinterest email.   Curiously while I don't think I ever was in a Red Barn restaurant the ad did spark a memory. As I recall there was a Red Barn on Fond du Lac avenue right next to Amateur Electronic Supply.  So I jumped in my internet car and tried to take a "drive" around that area.  Unfortunately Microsoft Bing has killed their streetside part of the maps.  Fortunately Google did a pass through that area for street view fairly recently in November 2025. I *think* this used to be the Red Barn: the barn roof is gone though To the north is where AES used to be: South of the Red Barn was Evans and Kunz pet shop: And finally here is the former Fruit Ranch food store: I tried to verify some of these...

What was the biggest news out of Super Bowl 60 for me ? The perfect weather ?  (yawn, it's California) The ads ? (no, I wasn't able to watch the game) Seahawks 29, Patriots 13   (no, not this either) Bad Bunny halftime show ?   (nope) Coincidentally I saw this on Sunday: https://x.com/WiscoGrant/status/2020553342003318952 source:  https://www.campbells.com/products/chunky/pabst-beer-cheese-with-potatoes-chorizo/ Are you kidding me ?  They also have: source:  https://www.campbells.com/products/chunky/pabst-beef-bacon-beer-chili-with-beans/ BTW in case the combo of Pabst and cheese sounds weird see the bottom of this post: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/12/frizz.html Pabst-ett was a "cheese-food" created and sold by Pabst during prohibition.  Described as: "a pleasing combination of cheese, milk protein, milk sugar, milk minerals"  IOW: Velveeta ? source:  https://www.pabstmansion.com/2022/06/pabstett/ update:  Helpful Househol...

Recently I became aware of Kwik Trip Dunkers due to this guy: https://www.si.com/fannation/college/cfb-hq/news/gennings-dunker-2026-nfl-draft-prospect-profile-grades-rank-measurements Apparently he is a BIG fan of Culver's, the fast food chain that originated in Wisconsin.  Anyway Dunkers are a cake donut in various rotating flavors sold six to a box. But when I saw pictures of a Dunker: I immediately thought of Egekvist donuts in a box.  They were also boxed cake donuts sold at Mann's.  But somewhere along the line either Mann's changed wholesalers or Egekvist went out of business because they stopped being offered.  I tried looking for a picture of Egekvist donuts but this was the only one I found: the Egekvist ones were in the yellow windowed boxes source:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/40150075@N04/44967499092 It's so fuzzy that I'm not sure what brand is what, but you get the idea.  It's not that the Egekvist donuts were super great, it was more t...