
Whatever possessed me to use "mix" as the prompt for today’s installment of Just Jot It January, I don’t know, but that’s the word I chose for today, and Linda took it. Besides, I don’t know if anyone would know what to do with potrzebie.
There are all kinds of mixes out there. Cake mixes, for one, which I guess aren’t as popular as they once were because fewer women are staying home and worrying about what to serve for dessert that night to their families. Much easier to just buy a cake from the bakery at the Kroger or Publix or whatever your local supermarket is. If you have enough time to bake a cake, you’ll probably make one from scratch. Still, cake mixes have their place, or at least they did.
Mary had a cookbook called The Cake Mix Doctor by a lady named Anne Byrn, who takes cake mixes and adds stuff to them (extra butter, fruit, pudding mix, chocolate powder etc.) and turns them into baked delights. Anne has a second book, The Cake Mix Doctor Returns!, where she continues the magic.
Mixing is also a key ingredient in producing music. When a band records a song in the studio, the sounds of the different instruments and voices might need to be adjusted, and the producer might want to add in additional voices, instruments, hand claps etc. They get recorded as well, then it’s the job of the producer and the mixing engineer to combine all the different tracks into a two-track finished product. These days, they might use the Auto-Tune audio processor to correct vocals that are slightly out of tune. They might also apply panning between channels, distort the vocals, multitrack instruments and other studio tricks to change the sound and make it "unique." Auto-Tune gets used way too much these days, which makes it hard to duplicate in live concert. In the old days, people would just re-record whatever needed to be fixed.
Now a word from Martini & Rossi dry vermouth. For the "yes" people!
Written for Linda Hill’s Just Jot It January.
That’s interesting that she places more ingredients into the cake mix to make it better. I will use mixes on occasion but I prefer to are them by scratch.
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The benefit of a mix is that almost everything you need is in the box. If you don’t bake frequently, you don’t have to keep all the separate ingredients around where they take up lots of space and get buggy.
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Thanks for the prompt. Mix helped me remember an old friend and introduction to mixing the food on a plate. I have never liked cake. I like icing so I stay away from cakes as it becomes even more unhealthy my way. I did get to make a recording with my recorder/madrigal group of friends and I did appreciate the friend at the studio that helped make our mix of sounds so lovely! Oh, and Linda says to say hi, so HI!
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When I saw your comment, I had a case of mental flatulence and didn’t remember who Linda was…
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LOL! That is, of course, Linda G. Hill! 😀
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I too bake from scratch, but I use the occasional cake mix. There are a few recipes that use a cake mix and they just don’t taste the same if made from scratch.
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Strange, isn’t it?
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Thanks for the prompt! I hardly ever use cake mixes anymore, as I prefer to make the cakes from scratch, but there are still a few recipes I use them for. I have to admit I’ve never had Vermouth like they did in that ad…I usually mix mine with something else. Like gin. And unless I’m actually making a Vesper martini, I do stir them instead of shaking. Lemon twist, no olive 😊
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Vermouth is probably better mixed with something, like gin or whiskey (Mom loved her Manhattans). Haven’t seen you in a while, how’ve you been?
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Pretty good! Just had a break from blogging but I want to come back 😊
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Thanks again for the prompt, John!
I remember having multiple-course meals, mostly on Sundays. My mother wasn’t big on baking, which is probably why I never do it.
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Sundays were always the big meal days. We’d have a roast (beef, pork, or lamb), potatoes, a couple of different vegetables, and some kind of dessert. Mom was big on feeding people: we’d have my grandmother, her sister, and Mom’s aunt out almost every week, and sometimes one of her sisters during the week. Mom was big on cakes from a mix until we got into high school, then we’d buy a Sara Lee cake or something.
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Yep, Sunday was our big meal day, too. Always a roast of something or steaks. You’d have to be rich to afford that now.
I got sooo sick of Sara Lee cakes! Haha!
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I make cake homemade, box, and a mix of both — cause CAKE! is the important part! 😀
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Jackie Mason used to say it’s not a meal unless there’s cake. But you don’t have to wait for mealtime…
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I agree auto tune is overused these days. When these new groups sing live, they sound nothing like the recordings.
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It pretty impossible to duplicate the studio sound in the first place, so tossing Auto-Tune on top of it just makes it worse…
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Nice word, John. The hubby is the cake maker so I always need to make sure we have a cake mix (butter yellow) and frosting (chocolate) in the cabinet.
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Yellow cake with chocolate frosting! My favorite!
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I’m a chocolate, chocolate girl.
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If it’s cake, I generally like it.
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My husband’s favorite as well!
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I try to bake from scratch if I bake. Although that Ghirardelli brownie mix I used during the holidays was well received! Great prompt today, John.
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The Ghirardelli brownies are great. Brownies are good, anyway, but those are especially good.
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I still use cake mixes, brownie mixes, and cookie mixes. I will often fix one on a Sunday when I have the most free time to do some baking. But I do buy from the store, too.
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As with everything else, the mixes have gotten better as time has gone on, and sometimes you can barely tell whether a cake was made from scratch or a mix.
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The ‘mix’ is the perfect word for your prompt! Way to mix it up well, John.
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Thanks!
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I knew there would be a music reference in your post. These days we don’t bother too much with dessert but if we do it’s probably for a special occasion or because we have visitors then I’m more likely to make something from scratch if I have time, or just buy something nice. Haven’t used a cake mix since the kids were little! Oh and yes glad you didn’t stick with your original choice of word lol
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I wouldn’t even know what to do with “potrzebie.”
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Great take on the prompt John 💜
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That’s the advantage of providing the prompt: you get to pick a word you’d like to write about…
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That’s so very true 💜💜💜
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