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By Mary Braswell

Throughout the calender year there are special days or weeks or months set aside to celebrate this food or that. This week is a look back at a cornucopia of this with a pinch of that.

Did you know?

—Pound cake got its name because the recipe originally called for a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs and a pound of flour.

— Apples belong to the rose family as do plums and pears.

— The “57” on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of pickle types once available from the company.

— To speed up the ripening of a pineapple, stand it upside down.

— It is possible to get a glazed garlic doughnut from Dunkin’ Donuts in South Korea.

— Ounce for ounce, healthy food costs up to 10 times more than junk food.

— A cluster of bananas is called a “hand.” Not surprisingly, an individual banana is a “finger.”

—There are more than 7,000 varieties of apples grown around the world.

— In an emergency, the “milk” inside a coconut can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.

— When cranberries are ripe, they bounce like a rubber ball.

—A sweet green bell pepper has twice as much Vitamin C as an orange. Red and yellow bell peppers have four times as much vitamin C as an orange.

— Lettuce is the second most popular fresh vegetable in the United States, topped only by the potato. The average American eats approximately 30 pounds of lettuce each year.

—A1 Steak Sauce can be used to repair scratches on wooden furniture, shine brown leather shoes and to polish and remove tarnish from copper and brass. It can also be used to ease the sting of an insect bite.

— According to Kraft Foods, more than one million packages of Jell-O brand gelatin are purchased each day.

— Appalachia’s tooth decay problem is often referred to as Mountain Dew Mouth because of the popularity of the sugar-laden drink.

—President Richard Nixon liked ketchup on his cottage cheese.

— Avocados are about 22 percent fat. A medium size avocado contains 300 calories and 30 grams of fat. The avocado is considered an excellent first “real” food for babies.

— An average American will eat 35 tons of food in his or her lifetime.

Oh, so sweet!

The classic American “Pineapple Upside Down Cake” dates to some time after 1903, when Jim Dole first introduced canned pineapple.

The Hawaiian Pineapple Co. (now Dole Pineapple) held a pineapple recipe contest in 1925, with judges from Fannie Farmer’s School, Good Housekeeping and McCall’s magazines.

More than 60,000 recipes were sent in, and 2,500 of them were for Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

The winning recipe:

— Drain the juice from one large can of either crushed or sliced Hawaiian Pineapple

— Sift 2 cups flour

— Sift again with 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt

— Cream 1/2 cup butter or substitute, gradually add 1 cup sugar; cream well

— Beat yolks and whites of two eggs separately. Add yolks to creamed mixture; mix well, then add flour and 1/2 cup milk alternately, mixing well

— Fold the 2 beaten egg whites and 1 teaspoon vanilla

— Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large (cast iron) frying pan

— Spread 1 cup of brown sugar over pan

— Add pineapple (if sliced is used, place slices closely together on the sugar; if crushed, simply pour in the well-drained fruit)

— Pour cake batter over fruit

— Bake 45 minutes

— Turn upside-down on serving dish and garnish with maraschino cherries

— Whipped cream may be spread over top

Note: No oven temperature was given in the original recipe, but 350-degrees works best in a conventional oven.

Lunar Lunch

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. The first meal eaten on the moon consisted of bacon squares, peaches, sugar cookie cubes, pineapple grapefruit drink and coffee.

Final feasts

— John Wayne Gacy was lethally injected on 33 charges of rape and murder. He requested 12 fried shrimp, a bucket of KFC fried chicken, french fries and strawberries as his last meal. Before he was convicted, Gacy had been a manager at three KFC restaurants.

— Charged with 168 counts of murder in the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh’s last wish was for two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

— Ricky Ray Rector was executed in 1992 for the 1981 murder of police officer Robert Martin in Conway, Ark. He requested steak, fried chicken, cherry Kool-Aid and pecan pie. He left the pecan pie on the side of the tray, telling the guards who came to take him to the execution chamber that he was saving it “for later.”

— Marcus Ray Johnson met Angela Sizemore at an Albany nightclub (bar) in 1994. She was found dead shortly after, the result of 41 stab wounds. Johnson was sentenced to death. For his last meal, he asked for a six-pack of beer. His request was denied. Johnson’s last meal was instead standard prison fare of baked fish, cheese grits, coleslaw, beans , cookies and fruit punch.

On a lighter note…

Each set of lyrics below comes from a song with a food or drink item in its title. Can you name that (food) tune?

“Now that we’ve grown up it seems; You just keep ignoring me; I’ll find you anywhere you go; I’m gonna look high and low.”
“Now everybody is doin’ fine; They dance alone or in a big boss line.”
“Girl, to me you’re like a dream come true; I would rather hurt myself than to ever hurt you.”
“Living is easy with eyes closed; Misunderstanding all you see.”
“Never ever leave me, because it would grieve me; My heart told me so.”
“How could they know just what this message means? The end of my hopes, the end of all my dreams.”
“If you call me in the morning, I’ll tell you what to do. Well, if you call me in the morning, I’ll tell you what to do.”
“The wind in the willow played love’s sweet melody; But all of those vows you made were never to be.”
“I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck; With a pink carnation and a pickup truck.”
“I walked on over and asked her to dance; Thinkin’ maybe later of makin’ romance.”

Each week Albany Herald researcher Mary Braswell looks for interesting events, places and people from the past. You can contact her at (229) 888-9371 or [email protected]. Follow @ABH_MBraswell on Twitter

QUIK QUIZ answer: d) cheese

Name that tune answers: