Lynn, I'm curious about how you cooked your kale if you've done it yet. I've never cooked greens in a "Southern" style, although I'm sure I would love them done that way. In fact, until very recently, my only experience with kale has been in Italian wedding soup, cooked by my DIL or her family during the last eight years (since their wedding). But after learning that kale is one of the most healthy foods for you I decided to cook it myself as a veggie. I have used curly (Lacinato) kale and the more flat variety. Each time I have cooked the kale fairly quickly, or not at all in the case of the kale salad that has become so popular. I've cut out the ribs when they were large, and with the smaller leaved kale from our Asian supermarket I've left the ribs in, and then cut the leaves in about 1 inch wide strips and sauteed in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and a little lemon for just about 10 minutes. It is tender and fully cooked. More recently I have cooked it with similar seasonings, except for adding a little sherry vinegar after cooking, in the pressure cooker based on a Lorna Sass recipe. A large bunch of kale was cooked in just three minutes under pressure. It came out tender but still a little firm. We enjoyed that too. You can find the videos showing her cooking kale by Googling Lorna Sass kale, I couldn't find the actual recipe online - just the videos and while I have another book she wrote on pressure cooking, I don't have the one that includes that recipe. I've also made the Tuscan kale salad where the shredded leaves, no ribs, are combined with olive oil, allowed to mellow a bit with the oil and then lemon and salt and pepper added. I thought it was good, but not necessarily meriting the rave reviews I have read about this preparation. One thing though, that salad holds up perfectly for days in the fridge - a real plus when you just need something to take out of the fridge and put on a plate. I think I will try to find a variation on that salad that I would find a little more interesting. So the bottom line is you can cook kale long and slow, or fast by sauteing or in a PC or not at all in a salad - it's all really healthy for you! So please tell us what you did. Lee

Sorry, Ginny. That is disappointing, yet I can empathize. I was absolutely "laid low" by food poisoning once, my epiphany as a food safety convert. Here's an excerpt from one website (TheKitchn/Apartment Therapy) I useful linked below: "But of those, only temperature is the real indicator of a fully-cooked chicken. The USDA says that as long as all parts of the chicken have reached a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees, it is safe to eat. Color does not indicate doneness. The USDA further explains that even fully cooked poultry can sometimes show a pinkish tinge in the meat and juices. This is particularly true of young chickens whose bones and skin are still very permeable. Pigment in the bone marrow can color the surrounding tissue and make the bones themselves look very dark. Hemoglobin in the muscles can likewise react with air during cooking to give the meat a pinkish color even after cooking. The chicken's feed and whether it's been frozen can also affect the final color. Even knowing this, it's startling to cut into a chicken and see pink. Reprogramming the automatic association between pink chicken and under-cooked chicken is going to take some work." That last sentence is me. Finally, the USDA FSIS also came up with this poster for those of us who remember pictures better than lists:): IsItDoneYet? Cathy in SWPA Here is a link that might be useful: Pink Chicken

The soup was delicious. It is easy to make too: Sunset's Potato Bisque Soup 1 large onion, diced 1 cup chopped celery 1/4 cup butter 4 medium, potatoes (recommended thin skinned new potatoes, but I had baking potatoes and they are fine) peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes 4 cups chicken broth 1/4 c chopped parsley 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 4 cups whole milk 3 Tablespoons corn starch 1/4 cup water Melt butter in large soup pot. Add onion and celery and saute till the onions are soft, stirring occasionally (15 minutes). Then add the cubed potatoes, chicken broth, parsley, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to a slow simmer. Cover and cook till the potatoes are tender when pierced with a sharp knife (20-30 minutes). Then add the milk and warm it through on low heat. Do not boil. Make a slurry with the cornstarch and cold water and stir it into the soup. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Adjust seasonings to suit your taste. Serve. You can garnish soup bowls with a small dab of butter and more chopped parsley.

did i miss the post about the falling tree story??? Man, you just don't know. You remember that I hired a company to come and cut a bunch of trees from around my house, right? I was originally just focusing on the front side yard, but in March the owner of the company showed me this pine tree that was leaning heavily towards my house. The trees on the back side of it were blocking the light so that all of the limbs were pulling it towards my house, too. So I paid him like $2,000 to remove it. The plan was for him to climb it and take it down in several pieces. He stressed the urgency of the job because of how it was leaning, he acted like it could fall any day! Well, time goes by. May comes, and the tree's still there. So I text him and push it, he comes out and decides that it's too windy and dangerous. June comes by. Now it's too hot. You see the pattern. Well, September comes, and now there's a hurricane in the forecast! So I push a little harder, and tell him that I'll rent a 50' lift for the day so that he can take it down easier. That's going to be delivered on a specific day, just before the hurricane hits, so he HAS to do it that day. Lift is delivered at 8am. He comes and looks at it for a few minutes, then leaves to get some food. 4:30 comes along, he finally shows back up and starts working on it. But he's decided that, instead of taking it down in sections, he's going to use his big truck, jack, and wedges to pull it where he wants it. By 7pm he's still working on it. We're hungry, and he says that it's safe to cook and he'll be awhile longer. So I do. And I tell him to be sure to let us know before he does anything major so that we can leave the house. Just in case! So me, my girlfriend, and her mom are sitting in the dining room, when... pop... pop... WHAMM!!!! Right through the ceiling, not 5' from where I'm sitting. Sure enough, his truck wasn't strong enough to pull it, and it went right through the roof. Worse, he continued cutting it without telling us to leave the house! With her mom with a bad heart sitting there!! He's lucky he didn't kill anybody. So now I've spent the last 2 1/2 months working with insurance companies and contractors. where did the media with the seed in it go??? ... look under the deck.. see if you have any sprouting seed under there ... that would be a hoot wouldnt it?? I had the seed trays sitting EXACTLY where the tree hit the deck, and they were just obliterated. But you're right, there's a chance that it went through the deck boards and planted itself! That would be hilarious, for real. It's not easy to get under the deck there, but I might crawl under there when it dries up a little just to see :-) I only need 6 and planted 24 (I planted enough for her mom and a friend, too, and then some more in case some didn't survive), but if I find 2 of them then I'll be pretty happy! At the very least, I might be able to get more seeds from them for next year.