euphrasyne

That looks like a good recipe, Littlesister.  I agree that hot sauce definately makes a difference.   I've been making greens in the following manner without a written recipe for longer than my oldest kid has been alive--its how my Papaw taught me and we always used fresh greens from his garden:

Collard, Mustard, or Turnip greens or any mix thereof:

Dice bacon and onion.   Can use any fatback, ham, or pork product on hand.  Sauté in pot with garlic.  Wash and tear or chop greens depending on level of involvement.  Sauté leaves down a bit.  Add chicken base or bullion, ACV, a good dash of hot sauce, (we like the cayenne based Louisiana or such better), a small spoon of brown or white sugar, and water to top of greens. Season with salt & pepper.  Cook for a couple hours.  Serve with hot pepper vinegar or spiced cane vinegar if you don't make your own hot pepper vinegar.  Green beans can also be done in this method to a good result, but do not need to be cooked as long.  

This flavor is fairly common in Mississippi and Alabama.  Most folks use a very similar variant of the recipe and I saw it at every BBQ, school function, or church potluck ever when living down there.  

Everyone I know is sad that Bennet's Creek closed.  The collards have been mentioned by many.  Even my therapist brought up how sad he couldn't have them for Christmas so I gave him my recipe.  I use onion, bacon, ACV among other things.  Sometimes I do green beans the same way and it is really good.  I think that the only reason I'm less sad about the closing is that I'm a good cook and do most things myself.  They were really good by anyone's standards.   

We use too much sugar and not enough honey.  I'd be more upset, but DH is down over 100 lbs since last year (he is now about 160 and 6' tall) with our current diet and wants to put on more muscle mass.  I'm super proud of him, but a little jealous.   I now outweigh him by about 20lbs.  We both need to make some dietary and exercise changes.  I'm too fat and he needs more muscle.  We are both middle aged with limited mobility so that makes a difference.  

Dh's work has been doing potluck type food since the beginning of the month.  I sent Italian beef to work with DH on Friday and they ate 100% of it; there were no leftovers.  Score.  He is slight on the praise, but says everyone says they liked it.  I told him that women want more details than that, but he is a man and doesn't understand.  I plan to make spinach nuggets for Monday and a few loves of bread for Tuesday.  I explained that praise = more things made and no praise means less things made.  Hopefully that will rouse his memory.  

DH got a quart of honey from a coworker who works with him.  Apparently they do bees.  I now have some local honey.  

I'd be lost without my phone.  It has alarms, reminders, lists, recipes, books, games, websites.  I didn't get a cell until I was in my 30s, but it makes a huge difference.  I can even see what isle of the grocery store the item I want is with store apps.  

Pocketbook, kindle, and Calibre all allow you to highlight and take notes.  I also use onenote to take screenshots and make other notes for various things.  

You can add almost anything to paint to get texture.  Common additives are dirt, salt, sugar, flour, chalk, cat litter.  A dry sponge will have more contrast than a wet one.   Wetting the sponge will make it a thinner layer and more translucent.  Adding water to acrylic paint in general makes it more translucent.  Sponging it gives it a different texture than a brush, but you can achieve the same 'translucency' with either one by diluting the paint enough.  I prefer the brushstroke look of the brush, but many like the texture of the sponge better.  Different sponges give different textures.  

I hate toll roads and tunnels.  The first time I ever had a road toll was when I moved up here.   We use them often now and the roads here in VA are no better than the 'free' ones in MS.  I have no idea where the $ goes.  

https://www.facebook.com/homesteadingfamily/videos/1429541294303708/

I watched this and thought it was worth sharing.  

We have an EZ pass on every vehicle.  MIL does not, and it still bills to this address.  The amount difference is equivalent to 1:5 for us verses her for very pass through the tunnel.  I do not care if they track me that way, but apparently she does and they do it anyway.  She stays broke and unable to afford basic groceries.  That is another difference between us.  I would help her, but she once lived with us and would not communicate basic things other than negative.  So now she lives with her brother and still cannot communicate anything worth knowing her son or granddaughters.    Life lesson:  you reap what you sow.  

I like BJs.  Their store brand is acceptable and they carry the items I need.  The bonus over other membership stores is that BJs takes coupons --store coupons and manufacturers coupons.   I find them slightly cheaper than Sams, way cheaper than costco as far as membership.  If you wait to renew, you can usually get a 2 card membership (1 for DH, 1 for me) for $20 rather than the usual $55.   We just renewed and the 'you let it expire' incentive to renew came in at $20 for the membership with $20 in 'rewards'  applied to the card.  Basically free.  

I drink a lot of green tea, the cheese is inexpensive, and the beef goes on sale for 4.99 or sometimes 3.99 for roast.  They are also much cheaper on bulk junk food like chips, juice pouches, poptarts.  Jerky is the lowest price anywhere but the Commissary.  Diapers and formula are usually cheaper there also.  

As little sister said, they carry bulk amounts of normal sizes for a lot of things.  Instead of 1 giant jar of sauce, you are buying 3 large/normal jars grouped together.   Ceral is in normal boxes, but there will be 2 grouped in a bigger box.  I was completely out of macaroni, had a coupon, kid was begging, so I bought a 16ct box of Kraft.  One big box that opens into 16 grouped normal size boxes.  It is much more convenient sizing for family use.    They also carry books, seasonal house and toy items, clothing, shoes, and beer.  

River loves you for The Dinosaur who Discovered Hamburgers.  She is all about dump trucks and "dinohums."    

It is DH's RDO so we went to BJs and spent a fortune.  I'm set on things for a few months.  We also stopped in at a second hand children's store then went out to Outback for lunch.  The toddler was fairly good throughout. 

Everyone commented on the matching ponchos we were wearing (I crocheted them around 20 years ago and hers is a hand-me-down through all the kids.)  even 2 male clerks at BJs brought it up.  It made me feel good about making them, but sad because my wrist doesn't allow quick or dexterous work anymore.  

I took a cooler with us so the cold stuff with be ok through lunch and put it away already.  The rest of it is clogging up my dining room and entry way waiting on me to rest a bit before putting it up.  

DD15 came home, saw the pile of chips and cookies that need arranging into the stash (individual packs in bulk boxes for packing lunches) and told me 'that is the most beautiful pile I've ever seen.'  Apparently I know my family and get the right stuff.  That is a good feeling.  Sometimes I divide bulk items into smaller containers, and sometimes the price of buying them already divided is better than dividing them myself.  She then helped me put the rest of it up.  Half of us want to skip dinner, and she is making a specific (easy) meal for her step-father.   I am fortunate in my children.

Yesterday DSD26 called and said she was engaged and wanted to wait until DD3 is travel worthy to set a date.  We are thrilled.  We can travel with DD3 at any time for this and I am excited that she is entering the next phase in her life.   I hope for grandchildren that I can spoil and not raise soon.  

seriously download pocketbook.  you can change the background color and font to reasonable and it is free.  You can transfer anything you own via cable and not worry about minutes used.  You may be able to cable it to your connected device to download the kindle books you want without connecting it directly.  Download the kindle app to try.  Mine does wirelessly though my router, I have not tried the kindle app with the cable.  I know my tablets, laptops, firesticks are only connected by my router and not directly.  Downloading a book to my phone with the kindle app takes roughly 15 seconds.   The head of my bed is out of range of my router, though the foot is in range.  I sit up to download things, then lay back to read once it is downloaded. 

I like galaxy (samsung) devices because of their sturdiness (closer to the old nokia phones) and ease of programmability and hate apple and ereaders because they are the opposite.  That is just my opinion though and it is not necessarily popular.  

I grew up in the Xgen.  I am used to apps and code. It is nowhere near as complicated as it seems.  Things are usually much easier than advertised.  If you feel like you have to  have X to do whatever then you are a victim of commercials.  You can aconitine via apps or other things.   Most things are via code or via code you know.  there are so many apps its is crazy.  

Unglazed lamps done with acrylic paint.   

First, I'd prime the surface with a white acrylic medium or primer of choice.  Dry.  

Paint green. Dry.

Thin the black with varnish or water and brush on with a larger brush so the marks show.  Go back and forth in desired direction with the brush while wet so you get the streaky show through.  Don't dry brush, it will end up very matte and streaky with little show through.  

I like liquitex.  Its what I use when I paint.  

There may be cheaper places, I just looked for the last thing I bought.

Amazon.com: Liquitex Professional High Gloss Varnish, 118ml (4-oz) : Everything Else

You can achieve something similar by using modpodge, but it doesn't look as nice.  

You can read kindle books on any device if you download the app.  I have 4 desktops, 2 tvs with firestick, 3 tablets (generic samsung tablets, not ereaders,) 3 laptops, 3 phones, and I can read books on every single one of those devices. If you want to read kindle on them, you can do it through the kindle website or download the kindle app. You do not need a kindle device to read kindle books.  I have 3 monitors and DH has 2.  I can open the kindle website, open books on multiple tabs, and separate them by monitor so my kid can read something different than what I'm reading.  This is also doable with other applications.   I like to compare translations this way.  

I'd never invest in an ereader because they are too limited for me.  A new galaxy tablet which will run every app my phone will and can often be found on sale for roughly the same cost.  

I can keep books I 'borrow' from kindle as long as I like, but I can only borrow 20 at a time.   I have to return some to borrow more.  Onces I download for free or purchase do not count against those 20.  I have a few other websites that let me borrow books.  The limit is usually 5 or 10 per month and the time limit varies from 2 weeks (local library) to forever for certain websites.  But you cannot go over limit or borrow more until you 'return' what is borrowed.  

DH got 2 new 34" curved monitors for christmas.  He is super excited.  Since he got 2 new ones, I get his old ones and DD15 gets my oldest one.  I now have 3 monitors to pull up books and movies on.  score!  We have bigger TVs, but I also hook up computers to them and split the screen with lots of different things.   

So many programs can read or convert epubs.  Some epubs made for the kindle are 'encoded' and have to be decoded to be read by different programs.  It is not illegal to decode a book you bought.  it is illegal to 'share' that book.  I prefer calibre, pocket book, and cbr reader to read books when not doing the kindle unlimited thing.  On the unlimited, it is like a library card and I just borrow and return the books.   If you want to actually purchase a book to keep forever, you have 2 options:  1) preferred method--buy a non encoded general computer epub.  This will open in any free platform, no other work needed.  2) sub-optimal you can download a converter and strip the encoding off the kindle.  This can involve multiple steps and can be tricky if you are not familiar with computer programs.  Most of the ebooks I read are either fiction or kids so I don't really care if they go away--which is why I have an KU membership.  If I need something for reference or long term, I almost always try to buy it from an unencoded source.  Reiterating here that being ENCODED is what makes it an kindle.  Being an epub does NOT make it a kindle.  Common file types are .epub, .lit, .pdf, .cbr, .mobi and all are opened with free programs if they are not encrypted by something external.  

I don't care for tablets as I find them clunky though we have a few.   Their advantage is that they have bigger screens and text than phone but are still hand sized.  Otherwise most tablets run the same apps your phone does.  I find them easier to do children's activities and read kid's books.   It is easier for the toddlers to swipe than turn pages and you still get all the great graphics and font size while  you read and point out letters, numbers, pictures.  

I prefer to read books either on my desktop or my phone.  If you are reading a kindle unlimited book and want to take a small screen clipping from just a page or two for reference, OneNote is a great way to do that.  Use pocketbook to read books on a tablet or phone.  It is much more user friendly than calibre.  I only use calibre when I have a filetype not supported by pocketbook.  I have had the same free email address since sometime in the mid 90s via yahoo.

I keep a few that I particularly like, kids books, and cookbooks as hardcopies.   I used to collect Harlequin the similar as well as certain authors.  I had almost all of the old white harlequin novels.  I'd buy boxes and boxes at garage sales, etc.  So many of the books were in 'well loved' used condition.   The library was shocked when I showed up with so many boxes.  It took me 5 trips.  I did weed out the ones in worse condition and even tossed a few.  

I actually did have too many books.  When I was still in MS, right before the divorce, I donated 50K books to the local library.  I had a 'beauty and the beast' style library in my sunroom at the time.  These days I keep most of books in digital format for ease of travel.   I use kindle and audible a lot also.  Anything can be done to excess--including things that are mostly good.  

Jam is easy.  Sugar, fruit/veg pectin and spices.  It is truly simple and quick.  Pectin is necessary unless you intend to freeze it or use things like apple peels (which contain pectin)  Pectin is what makes it jell.  sugar makes fudge or taffy.  cornstarch makes lemon pie or gravy.  pectin makes jelly.  It is a texture thing as I discussed with DD 15 yesterday.  

pectin is not especially expensive compared to buying jelly.  You do not need to use it if making apple, lemon, plumb, cranberry, grape anything.  

Common usages of pepper jelly are over a brick of cream cheese as an appetizer or on meat as a condiment while cooking.  

Just processed 3.5 pints of pepper jelly in 1/2 pint and 1/4 pint containers.  2 left to pop.  I was going to add green food coloring, but decided to leave it a natural golden color with bits of green and red peppers floating in it.   It is made of serrano and bell pepper and is very spicy.  I'm happy with how it turned out so far.  DD 15 helped and we talked about jelly, jam, preserves, conserves, marmalade, as well as distilling water and making cordial.  All over all, it was a very productive session.  I love passing along knowledge to a receptive audience.

I used a new recipe, so we will see how it goes 6 months from now.

Pepper Jelly  (I am KNOWN to tamper with recipes--it is my 'thing'.)

2c minced peppers (I used several green serrano peppers, 1 green bell pepper, and 5 mini red bell peppers to make 2 c mince)

1 1/2 c ACV

6c sugar

4T pectin (I used 5 b/c it seemed to need it 3 were from my older bottle and 2 from the new bag)

green food coloring (skipped)

Boil vinegar.  Add sugar, pectin.  Dissolve.  Add peppers.  simmer 12+m  (simmered 25m).  Process 5m. (I did 8 because reasons)  makes 6 1/2 pint or 12 1/4 pint.   ( I got 3. 5 pints out of it exactly to the headspace--five 1/2 pints and four 1/4 pints.)  

It is always sad when our fur babies move on.   

We had a rare date night last night.   DD15 babysat and we went out to the comedy club to see J P Sears.  Afterwards we went to listen to some live music by Steve Forss at the local bar.  It was a good night and a rare one away from the house.    

One of the jokes he did was roughly "does anyone here do prepping?  don't you kinda want something bad to happen after all that work?  Its like you practice a sport your whole life and never play it."  (basically the whole audience was cheering at the prepping bit.  It was that sort of show/audience. )

DH is sick of turkey, and specifically requested hamburger with marinara.   My choices are meatloaf or spaghetti.   I'm not sure which way I'll tip tonight but it will be one of the two with green beans, mashed potatoes if meatloaf.   We still have leftover apple tarts so that is dessert.  They ate all the cherry tarts and claimed 'please please please make more cherry stuff.'  That is new.   I'm mostly stocked for apple and will need to lay in some cherry items.  

River (3) likes shredded mini wheat cereal.  She thinks they are cookies.  She will eat them dry as a snack --she got them out of the pantry and opened it herself.  That is also new.  

Tonight or tomorrow I am going to can some hot pepper jelly with serrano peppers.  I'm trying to decide if I want to use 1/2 c or 1 c jars.  

The spiralizer peels things.  I use a lot when making apple butter or pear sauce. It peels them and chops them into thin spirals that cook down better.  It also makes veggie noodles.  Also great for peeling a lot of potatoes, etc.  

My kitchenaid was a wedding gift back in 2000.  Worth every penny and still going strong.  Make sure any attachments you get match the model you have.  

Kitchen aid attachments in order of most used:

Mixer itself

Meat Grinder

Spiralizer

Shredder/slicer for veggies/cheese/meat

Pasta Cutter

Wheat Grinder used so rarely that I gave it to a friend who uses it regularly.  

I have the shaved ice attachment on my list I really want.  My food processor broke, but I've been used to it so the processing unit is on my list but low priority as I don't cook much blended these days.  Everyone is either too young or old to need it.  (Babies and those with bad teeth)

I'll let you know the next time DH and I plan a trip there.  It is in Norfolk.