Sweet Potato Fries

A lot of excellent Lindy-friendly songs talk about food. Maybe this is why I like jazz so much—because I love food as much as I love to dance. The songs get stuck in my head, and then I have to go home and make the food. This week’s food song is “Sweet Potato Fries,” By Gordon Webster, off of their Live in Rochester CD.

Sweet Potato Fries
with Montreal Steak seasoning
and ketchup

We saw Gordon Webster perform at the International Lindy HopChampionships last year, and bought three of his CDs. I love almost every song on these CDs. There is so much excellent instrumentation, and they all just seem to beg for improv while dancing.

I have included the “Sweet Potato Fries” lyrics below, and you can give the band a listen here. After listening to this song, you may want to make your own sweet potato fries, which is an excellent idea, because they are very healthy if you make them yourself. Not so much if you buy them in a restaurant, deep fried and smothered in fat, and not as tasty if you buy the big frozen bag at the store.

Tips for making sweet potato fries:

Use one sweet potato per person. Scrub and peel the outside of the potato. Cut the potato in fry-sized strips. (Sweet potatoes are very hard, so use a large, heavy, sharp knife) Place the cut potatoes in a mixing bowl and drizzle olive oil or melted coconut oil over them. Add one of the following seasoning combinations (or improvise your own):

• Salt and pepper
• McCormick’s Montreal steak seasoning
• Crushed rosemary, salt & pepper
• Crushed mint and salt
• Cinnamon and pepper

Stir to combine. Pour the seasoned spuds in a shallow baking pan (like a jelly roll pan) and arrange so they are in  one flat layer. Bake in a 400-degree oven for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the taters are brown and crispy.

Serve hot, with ketchup.

Sweet Potato Fries

By Gordon Webster

Live in Rochester

When men come and dine, they get to feelin’ full just fine

The dining’s in the timing with my sweet potato fries

When men try my spuds, they claim the other gals are duds

Does wonders for the hunger, o my sweet potato fries

When they come and meet, looking for a treat, they get taters

You can take a seat, then you’re bound to eat

A dish that’s just delish if it’s for now or for later

Take your appetite, down to the table, grab a bite

You’ll never have no better than my sweet potato fries

Well, I ain’t got much to show, but I can peel ‘em fast or slow

My sweetie loves to eatie all my sweet potato fries

Don’t got time, don’t got money, but I got a dish to try

Cause I’m a yammy mammy with my sweet potato fries

I can hardly wait, looking for a date with my honey

He knows where to look, when he needs a cook

I’ll fix him up a dish and never charge him no money

Dinner is served tonight, come get your fill and feel just right

You’ll never have no better than my sweet potato fries

Get the salt, pepper too

That’s all the flavor that I’ll add for you

You’ll never have no better than my sweet potato fries

5 Swingin' Ways to Eat Spinach, in honor of Julia Lee

In 1949, Julia Lee did a song with her band, the Boyfriends, called "The Spinach Song," or "I didn't like it the first time." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax4tVzuN52U)

Not only is this song fun to dance to, but it is a cunning extended metaphor for either marijuana or sex, depending on how you interpret the lyrics:

Spinach has vitamin A, B and D, but spinach never appealed to me

But one day while having dinner with a guy, I decided to give it a try

I didn’t like it the first time, it was so new to me

I didn’t like it the first time, I was so young, you see


I used to run away from the stuff, but now somehow I can’t get enough


I didn’t like it the first time, oh, how it grew on me!

I didn’t like it the first time, I had it on a date 


Although the first was the worst time, right now I think it’s great


Somehow, it’s always hittin’ the spot, especially when they bring it in hot


I didn’t like it the first time, but oh, how it grew on me 

I didn't like it the first time, I thought it was so strange

I wasn't getting much younger, so I just made the change

No longer is the stuff on the shelf, ‘cause now I make a pig of myself

I didn't like it the first time, but oh how it grew on me 

I didn't like it the first time, when I was just sixteen

I didn't like it the first time, guess I was mighty green

But I stocked up, cause I've gotten wise, I've got enough for two dozen guys

I didn't like it the first time, but oh how it grew on me

I didn't like it the first time, but oh how it grew on me!

In honor of the clever Miss Lee, I have put together a few of my favorite ways to eat actual, garden-variety spinach. I hope you will enjoy them while dancing to this song in your kitchen.

• Spinach salad: Best with baby spinach leaves slightly chopped up. I like mine with some kind of fruit, like dried cranberries and/or sectioned oranges and pecans.
• Wilted, with bacon: Don’t tell my fitness friends about this one, but when I am feeling rather naughty, I chop up a few slices of real, authentic pig bacon, cook it until crispy, then dump an entire bag of spinach into the skillet right on top of all that bacon fat. I wilt the leaves, tossing them carelessly around in the pan for about a minute, then add a half-teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and a sprinkling of black pepper.
• Wilted, healthier-style: This is the recipe I do tell my fitness friends about. In a nonstick skillet, I heat up about a tablespoon of low-sodium, gluten-free tamari mixed with about ¼ cup of water. Then, over medium heat, I stir-boil one clove of crushed garlic, and then add a bag of spinach and a dusting of red pepper flakes, stirring until wilted, about one minute.
• Spinach omelet: First, I chop up about a half an onion and sautee that in a nonstick skillet until it is translucent. Then I add some chopped sun-dried tomatoes and a handful of chopped fresh spinach, stir long enough to wilt, and then pour in two scrambled eggs (or egg whites if you are being very virtuous). After a minute or two, I stir the eggs to break up the curds and add about a tablespoon of crumbled feta cheese, then allow the omelet to finish cooking.
• Spinach in tacos. I wouldn’t really want an all-spinach taco/burrito, but we do use spinach instead of lettuce sometimes. It adds that extra boost of dark green leafies.

You can sautee a little spinach right along with your eggs for breakfast.

Beginner-friendly swing dance music

About halfway through our eight-week beginner swing dance lessons, students usually start asking me for recommendations of practice music. You might think, like many people do in the beginning, that you can only swing dance to jazz standards like “Tuxedo Junction” or “Pennsylvania 6-5000.”

Although these are great swing dance songs, you don’t have to limit yourself to the top hits of the 1930s and '40s. As you begin to attend swing dances, you’ll start hearing songs that are a good tempo for you, or that make your feet start moving. These songs might come from every decade from 1920 to today. The best way to find what works is by going to dances and attempting to work with all the music.

Tempos

Once I became a fairly proficient swing dancer, all I wanted to do was dance at the speed of sound. I cared nothing for footwork; I just wanted to kick step and Charleston—basically throw myself into a centrifuge and hold on for dear life.

However, once I started going to more weekend workshops, traveling and teaching, I eventually began to appreciate the slower tempos. I realized that there was something so smooth and sexy about the relaxed, jazzy/bluesy tunes. You can do swivels at a slower speed. You can milk a swing-out for everything it’s worth. You can actually keep your arms attached to your shoulders. You can last an entire night without experiencing heart palpitations.

Your hair’s on fire

As a swing dance DJ, I have noticed that the songs that absolutely pack the floor are between 170 and 200 beats per minute. These are songs like “Americano,” “Jump, Jive and Wail,” “Flip, Flop and Fly” and “Rock Around the Clock.” I love these songs and dancing to them is often a pure expression of exuberance and love for the song, dance, and life in general.

However, I have also noticed that the technical quality my dancing deteriorates as the energy level of the music increases. Don’t get me wrong—I love the fast stuff—but I like it once every five or six songs. I don’t want to do it all night. For one thing, it would kill me. For another, I actually like doing the footwork.

A walk in the park

A good “cruising speed” for swing dance is around 140-160 beats per minute. In this range, you’ll find “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “All Shook Up,” and “Stompin’ at the Savoy.” These are nice, comfortable tempos with lots of popular songs that will not induce heart attacks.

Smooth, slow and easy

I like to keep our beginner class playlist around 100-140 beats per minute, and I mingle this tempo into the dance playlists. I sometimes hear some experienced dancers complain about these low tempos, because they are very comfortable at the “hold onto your hair” speed. I would encourage experienced high-speed dancers to take advantage of the slower tempos to catch their breath, to really execute their footwork, to connect with their partners, and to have some improvisational fun.

Some of my low-octane favorites

Following are the songs that I would recommend to beginners as they practice their new moves. I would also recommend them for experienced dancers who want to focus on footwork variations. Many of these songs have fun musical elements that make for great improvisation, but you’ll only catch them if you are familiar with the music, so listen to the songs when you aren’t dancing, like when you’re driving around town or singing in the shower. Just don’t start dancing in the shower. You could slip and fall and hurt yourself, and then you won’t be dancing at all.

• Gimme a Pigfoot, La Vern Baker, from LaVern Baker Sings Bessie Smith https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/gimme-a-pigfoot/id342386008?i=342386020
• My Baby Just Cares for Me,  Indigo Swing, from the album Indigo Swing https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/my-baby-just-cares-for-me/id264894648?i=264894823
• Why Don’t You Do Right, Peggy Lee, from the Best of Peggy Lee https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/why-dont-you-do-right/id16507118?i=16506961
• Ain’t That Love, Ray Charles, from Ray Charles https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/aint-that-love/id46592114?i=46592118
• Addicted to Love, Robert Palmer, from Hard Rock Café: Party Rock Classics https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/addicted-to-love/id375224175?i=375224325
• The Wanderer, Dion, from Runaround Sue https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-wanderer/id16559004?i=16558865 
• Knock Me a Kiss, Louis Jordan, from No Moe! Louis Jordan’s Greatest Hits https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/knock-me-a-kiss/id36277?i=36253
• Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby, Louis Jordan, from No Moe! Louis Jordan’s Greatest Hits https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/is-you-is-or-is-you-aint-my-baby/id36277?i=36243
• Mr. Five By Five, Freddie Slack and His Orchestra, from Great Songs of WWII https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/mr.-five-by-five/id473340799?i=473341125

There are countless more songs in the slow and sexy tempo range and I would love to hear your recommendations!