Opened a jar of pickled sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) yesterday. They
were very nice, very crisp, tangy, and tasty. We had scrubbed the chokes
well, cut them into half-inch chunks, combined with chunks of sweet
chiles and sweet onions, and pickled them.

The pickles had sat in the pantry for a few weeks to age properly and we
were pleased with the results. Finally found a use for the volunteer
sunchokes that have been coming up in a flower bed for at least fifteen
years.

Cold this morning here in the sunny south, 38F at 0600, still at 38F at
0823 CST. Supposed to have gone down to 25F last night but, thankfully,
it didn't. All the patio plants are in the garage with an electric
heater running and the garden plants are covered with old sheets and
blankets. Will uncover them later this morning so they can get some
sunshine.

We've been eating fresh broccoli from the garden, the cauliflower hasn't
headed up yet, the winter green beans are finished, the last of the
tomato plants bit the dust as did the sweet chiles. The sugar snap peas
haven't bloomed yet but the leaf lettuce is doing well.

Our daughter came over from Houston Saturday afternoon. I made a double
of Wayne Boatwright's 13 cracker meatloaf and it was, as usual, a hit.
Had fresh broccoli with it along with mashed potatoes and mushroom
gravy. Daughter and I went through all the thousands of photographs we
have on hand as she is developing a Power Point program for our fiftieth
wedding anniversary dinner. Pictures of Miz Anne and I when we were
courting, wedding photos, pictures of our extended family when we were
all young, etc. Should be interesting once it is put together. Son is
providing the music for the affair, based on the music we danced to in
1958-1960 when we married. We will be surrounded by our descendants at
the dinner, to be held in Huffman, Texas on the nineteenth. We were
actually married on December 26, 1960 but no restaurants in that area
are open at Christmas time.

Daughter went home with pickled chokes, luncheon spears, kumquat
marmalade, and peach jam. Her stepson will, literally, eat anything so
we proceeded to clean out the pantry of items that are approaching their
eat by date. I guess most eighteen year old young men eat about the same
way, I know I did when I was that age.

I hope those of you in the northern tier of states and in Canada are
staying dry and warm. I'm sitting here in a heated house, kept at 68F,
wearing sweats and a hoodie. Miss Tilly Dawg is on the couch in my
office under her blanket with just a little black nose sticking out.
She's snoring peacefully, making a counterpoint to my typing sounds.

George

On Dec 13, 9:33*am, George Shirley > wrote:
> Opened a jar of pickled sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) yesterday. They
> were very nice, very crisp, tangy, and tasty. We had scrubbed the chokes
> well, cut them into half-inch chunks, combined with chunks of sweet
> chiles and sweet onions, and pickled them.
>
> The pickles had sat in the pantry for a few weeks to age properly and we
> were pleased with the results. Finally found a use for the volunteer
> sunchokes that have been coming up in a flower bed for at least fifteen
> years.
>
> Cold this morning here in the sunny south, 38F at 0600, still at 38F at
> 0823 CST. Supposed to have gone down to 25F last night but, thankfully,
> it didn't. All the patio plants are in the garage with an electric
> heater running and the garden plants are covered with old sheets and
> blankets. Will uncover them later this morning so they can get some
> sunshine.
>
> We've been eating fresh broccoli from the garden, the cauliflower hasn't
> headed up yet, the winter green beans are finished, the last of the
> tomato plants bit the dust as did the sweet chiles. The sugar snap peas
> haven't bloomed yet but the leaf lettuce is doing well.
>
> Our daughter came over from Houston Saturday afternoon. I made a double
> of Wayne Boatwright's 13 cracker meatloaf and it was, as usual, a hit.
> Had fresh broccoli with it along with mashed potatoes and mushroom
> gravy. Daughter and I went through all the thousands of photographs we
> have on hand as she is developing a Power Point program for our fiftieth
> wedding anniversary dinner. Pictures of Miz Anne and I when we were
> courting, wedding photos, pictures of our extended family when we were
> all young, etc. Should be interesting once it is put together. Son is
> providing the music for the affair, based on the music we danced to in
> 1958-1960 when we married. We will be surrounded by our descendants at
> the dinner, to be held in Huffman, Texas on the nineteenth. We were
> actually married on December 26, 1960 but no restaurants in that area
> are open at Christmas time.
>
> Daughter went home with pickled chokes, luncheon spears, kumquat
> marmalade, and peach jam. Her stepson will, literally, eat anything so
> we proceeded to clean out the pantry of items that are approaching their
> eat by date. I guess most eighteen year old young men eat about the same
> way, I know I did when I was that age.
>
> I hope those of you in the northern tier of states and in Canada are
> staying dry and warm. I'm sitting here in a heated house, kept at 68F,
> wearing sweats and a hoodie. Miss Tilly Dawg is on the couch in my
> office under her blanket with just a little black nose sticking out.
> She's snoring peacefully, making a counterpoint to my typing sounds.
>
> George

you are a very lucky man, George, but then we already knew that.

Kathi, using fricken google groups to read this group now that my isp
no longer has a news provider...grr

On 12/13/2010 6:27 PM, Kathi wrote:
> On Dec 13, 9:33 am, George > wrote:
>> Opened a jar of pickled sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) yesterday. They
>> were very nice, very crisp, tangy, and tasty. We had scrubbed the chokes
>> well, cut them into half-inch chunks, combined with chunks of sweet
>> chiles and sweet onions, and pickled them.
>>
>> The pickles had sat in the pantry for a few weeks to age properly and we
>> were pleased with the results. Finally found a use for the volunteer
>> sunchokes that have been coming up in a flower bed for at least fifteen
>> years.
>>
>> Cold this morning here in the sunny south, 38F at 0600, still at 38F at
>> 0823 CST. Supposed to have gone down to 25F last night but, thankfully,
>> it didn't. All the patio plants are in the garage with an electric
>> heater running and the garden plants are covered with old sheets and
>> blankets. Will uncover them later this morning so they can get some
>> sunshine.
>>
>> We've been eating fresh broccoli from the garden, the cauliflower hasn't
>> headed up yet, the winter green beans are finished, the last of the
>> tomato plants bit the dust as did the sweet chiles. The sugar snap peas
>> haven't bloomed yet but the leaf lettuce is doing well.
>>
>> Our daughter came over from Houston Saturday afternoon. I made a double
>> of Wayne Boatwright's 13 cracker meatloaf and it was, as usual, a hit.
>> Had fresh broccoli with it along with mashed potatoes and mushroom
>> gravy. Daughter and I went through all the thousands of photographs we
>> have on hand as she is developing a Power Point program for our fiftieth
>> wedding anniversary dinner. Pictures of Miz Anne and I when we were
>> courting, wedding photos, pictures of our extended family when we were
>> all young, etc. Should be interesting once it is put together. Son is
>> providing the music for the affair, based on the music we danced to in
>> 1958-1960 when we married. We will be surrounded by our descendants at
>> the dinner, to be held in Huffman, Texas on the nineteenth. We were
>> actually married on December 26, 1960 but no restaurants in that area
>> are open at Christmas time.
>>
>> Daughter went home with pickled chokes, luncheon spears, kumquat
>> marmalade, and peach jam. Her stepson will, literally, eat anything so
>> we proceeded to clean out the pantry of items that are approaching their
>> eat by date. I guess most eighteen year old young men eat about the same
>> way, I know I did when I was that age.
>>
>> I hope those of you in the northern tier of states and in Canada are
>> staying dry and warm. I'm sitting here in a heated house, kept at 68F,
>> wearing sweats and a hoodie. Miss Tilly Dawg is on the couch in my
>> office under her blanket with just a little black nose sticking out.
>> She's snoring peacefully, making a counterpoint to my typing sounds.
>>
>> George
>
> you are a very lucky man, George, but then we already knew that.
>
> Kathi, using fricken google groups to read this group now that my isp
> no longer has a news provider...grr

Check out Eternal September for a news server Kathi. I'm currently using
Giganews at $2.99 a month and it takes care of the few newsgroups I
actually read but am leaning toward Eternal September more and more.
Seems most ISP's are dumping newsgroups nowadays, AT&T did that to us
but I no longer use them, our cable company doesn't have newsgroups either.

In article >,
George Shirley > wrote:

> Opened a jar of pickled sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) yesterday. They
> were very nice, very crisp, tangy, and tasty. We had scrubbed the chokes
> well, cut them into half-inch chunks, combined with chunks of sweet
> chiles and sweet onions, and pickled them.
> George

Yeay! That means I can open them!!



--
Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
Holy Order of the Sacred Sisters of St. Pectina of Jella
"Always in a jam, never in a stew; sometimes in a pickle."
Pepparkakor particulars posted 11-29-2010;
http://web.me.com/barbschaller

In article
>,
Kathi > wrote:

> Kathi, using fricken google groups to read this group now that my isp
> no longer has a news provider...grr

Kathi, look into news.individual.net. Very reasonably priced and
reliable. It's the German server that used to be free.

--
Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
Holy Order of the Sacred Sisters of St. Pectina of Jella
"Always in a jam, never in a stew; sometimes in a pickle."
Pepparkakor particulars posted 11-29-2010;
http://web.me.com/barbschaller

In article
>,
Kathi > wrote:

> Thanks everyone for the tips. Using Google to read this group might
> be a PITA, but it's free.
>
> Kathi

A dollar a month isn't much for the news.individual.net service.

--
Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
Holy Order of the Sacred Sisters of St. Pectina of Jella
"Always in a jam, never in a stew; sometimes in a pickle."
Pepparkakor particulars posted 11-29-2010;
http://web.me.com/barbschaller

Ophelia wrote:
>
> news.eternal-september.org is free too, Kathi. I use it as my back up

These days I use eternal-september.org as my primary NSP and google as
my backup. Even on the first day the superior spam filtering done by
eternal-september made it a better experience than google. Then I
learned how to filter based on cross posts, how to kill based on the
names of newgroups and authors. The experience continues to improve.

"Doug Freyburger" > wrote in message
...
> Ophelia wrote:
>>
>> news.eternal-september.org is free too, Kathi. I use it as my back up
>
> These days I use eternal-september.org as my primary NSP and google as
> my backup. Even on the first day the superior spam filtering done by
> eternal-september made it a better experience than google. Then I
> learned how to filter based on cross posts, how to kill based on the
> names of newgroups and authors. The experience continues to improve.

I use nin because I pay for it, but you have impressed me to look at
eternal-september more closely Thanks Doug!

--
--
https://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

Ophelia wrote:
> "Doug Freyburger" > wrote:
>> Ophelia wrote:
>>>
>>> news.eternal-september.org is free too, Kathi. I use it as my back up
>>
>> These days I use eternal-september.org as my primary NSP and google as
>> my backup. Even on the first day the superior spam filtering done by
>> eternal-september made it a better experience than google. Then I
>> learned how to filter based on cross posts, how to kill based on the
>> names of newgroups and authors. The experience continues to improve.
>
> I use nin because I pay for it, but you have impressed me to look at
> eternal-september more closely Thanks Doug!

news.individual.net also has an excellent reputation for filtering out
spam and having good maintenance on their list of newsgroups. If they
took dollars instead of euros I would be using them now. It's a small
difference in a matter of convenience but it was enough for me to try a
couple of free servers.

"Doug Freyburger" > wrote in message
...
> Ophelia wrote:
>> "Doug Freyburger" > wrote:
>>> Ophelia wrote:
>>>>
>>>> news.eternal-september.org is free too, Kathi. I use it as my back up
>>>
>>> These days I use eternal-september.org as my primary NSP and google as
>>> my backup. Even on the first day the superior spam filtering done by
>>> eternal-september made it a better experience than google. Then I
>>> learned how to filter based on cross posts, how to kill based on the
>>> names of newgroups and authors. The experience continues to improve.
>>
>> I use nin because I pay for it, but you have impressed me to look at
>> eternal-september more closely Thanks Doug!
>
> news.individual.net also has an excellent reputation for filtering out
> spam and having good maintenance on their list of newsgroups. If they
> took dollars instead of euros I would be using them now. It's a small
> difference in a matter of convenience but it was enough for me to try a
> couple of free servers.

Ok.. we don't use euros but it is easy enough to pay them.

--
--
https://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

>> Kathi, using fricken google groups to read this group now that my isp
>> no longer has a news provider...grr

>Check out Eternal September for a news server Kathi. I'm currently using
>Giganews at $2.99 a month and it takes care of the few newsgroups I
>actually read but am leaning toward Eternal September more and more.

http://www.eternal-september.org/ A twelve second long check has me thinking
it sounds good, but that same 12 secs has me thinking they can SAY buh-by! at
any time they want to.

Vis 2.99/month for giganews: I forgot that some servers offer a text only service
at a much better per month price (and a horribly worse per megabyte / gigabyte
price)

http://news.individual.net Huh. 10 euros per year. Some or all of my credit cards
charge me a conversion fee for $ (dollars US) to any other currency.
Note I'm talking about US of $ credit cards, not about UK bank cards, and not about
US of $ debit cards:
Now:
I saw a problem where the UK bank charged more for the conversion fee from UK
money to USA $ than the charge was, and this was a monthly charge.



I suppose I could look up how much I got charged when I bought "the dark side of
the sun" by pratchett, terry and "ready teddy death" the dvd from a couple of amazon
dot uk sellers.

In article >,
Doug Freyburger > wrote:

> Ophelia wrote:
> > "Doug Freyburger" > wrote:
> >> Ophelia wrote:
> >>>
> >>> news.eternal-september.org is free too, Kathi. I use it as my back up
> >>
> >> These days I use eternal-september.org as my primary NSP and google as
> >> my backup. Even on the first day the superior spam filtering done by
> >> eternal-september made it a better experience than google. Then I
> >> learned how to filter based on cross posts, how to kill based on the
> >> names of newgroups and authors. The experience continues to improve.
> >
> > I use nin because I pay for it, but you have impressed me to look at
> > eternal-september more closely Thanks Doug!
>
> news.individual.net also has an excellent reputation for filtering out
> spam and having good maintenance on their list of newsgroups. If they
> took dollars instead of euros I would be using them now. It's a small
> difference in a matter of convenience but it was enough for me to try a
> couple of free servers.

I've always paid in dollars. About $12 per year, last time I used them.
(My ISP carries Usenet groups as part of my monthly fee to them.)

--
Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
Holy Order of the Sacred Sisters of St. Pectina of Jella
"Always in a jam, never in a stew; sometimes in a pickle."
Pepparkakor particulars posted 11-29-2010;
http://web.me.com/barbschaller

Melba's Jammin' wrote:
> Doug Freyburger > wrote:
>
>> news.individual.net also has an excellent reputation for filtering out
>> spam and having good maintenance on their list of newsgroups. If they
>> took dollars instead of euros I would be using them now. It's a small
>> difference in a matter of convenience but it was enough for me to try a
>> couple of free servers.
>
> I've always paid in dollars. About $12 per year, last time I used them.
> (My ISP carries Usenet groups as part of my monthly fee to them.)

They have started taking dollars? Hmmm. I'll consider a switch to them.

On Dec 21, 9:28*am, Melba's Jammin' >
wrote:
> In article >,
> *Doug Freyburger > wrote:
>
>
>
> > Ophelia wrote:
> > > "Doug Freyburger" > wrote:
> > >> Ophelia wrote:
>
> > >>> news.eternal-september.org is free too, Kathi. *I use it as my back up
>
> > >> These days I use eternal-september.org as my primary NSP and google as
> > >> my backup. *Even on the first day the superior spam filtering done by
> > >> eternal-september made it a better experience than google. *Then I
> > >> learned how to filter based on cross posts, how to kill based on the
> > >> names of newgroups and authors. *The experience continues to improve.
>
> > > I use nin because I pay for it, but you have impressed me to look at
> > > eternal-september more closely Thanks Doug!
>
> > news.individual.net also has an excellent reputation for filtering out
> > spam and having good maintenance on their list of newsgroups. *If they
> > took dollars instead of euros I would be using them now. *It's a small
> > difference in a matter of convenience but it was enough for me to try a
> > couple of free servers.
>
> I've always paid in dollars. *About $12 per year, last time I used them.. *
> (My ISP carries Usenet groups as part of my monthly fee to them.)
>
> --
> Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
> Holy Order of the Sacred Sisters of St. Pectina of Jella
> "Always in a jam, never in a stew; sometimes in a pickle."
> Pepparkakor particulars posted 11-29-2010;http://web.me.com/barbschaller

so did mine Barb, up until recently (switched providers)

I'm still using Google - at no extra charge. I get a mini digest by
email and click on the threads I'm interested in. So far no spam.

And no extra cost.

Kathi

SDT wrote:
....
> http://news.individual.net Huh. 10 euros per year.
> Some or all of my credit cards
> charge me a conversion fee for $ (dollars US) to
> any other currency.
> Note I'm talking about US of $ credit cards, not
> about UK bank cards, and not about
> US of $ debit cards:
> Now:
> I saw a problem where the UK bank charged more for
> the conversion fee from UK
> money to USA $ than the charge was, and this was a
> monthly charge.

i use Click and Buy to transfer money from a
checking acct, then Click and Buy will transfer
to news.individual.net each year when the
subscription comes due. if they charge a
conversion fee it isn't much at all. i'm
sure they make most of their money from the
interest off the float and the odd amounts
that people leave in their accts.


songbird

In article >,
Doug Freyburger > wrote:

> Melba's Jammin' wrote:

> > I've always paid in dollars. About $12 per year, last time I used them.
> > (My ISP carries Usenet groups as part of my monthly fee to them.)
>
> They have started taking dollars? Hmmm. I'll consider a switch to them.

From the time they started charging for their service they have accepted
USD. It's the only currency I have to work with. :-o)

--
Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
Holy Order of the Sacred Sisters of St. Pectina of Jella
"Always in a jam, never in a stew; sometimes in a pickle."
Pepparkakor particulars posted 11-29-2010;
http://web.me.com/barbschaller

On 2/28/2011 7:54 PM, Melba's Jammin' wrote:
> In >,
> Doug > wrote:
>
>> Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>
>>> I've always paid in dollars. About $12 per year, last time I used them.
>>> (My ISP carries Usenet groups as part of my monthly fee to them.)
>>
>> They have started taking dollars? Hmmm. I'll consider a switch to them.
>
> From the time they started charging for their service they have accepted
> USD. It's the only currency I have to work with. :-o)
>

What! Minnesoda doesn't have their own currency? How about trading jelly
and jam for air time?

George, tired of looking at pictures of houses in Texas

"George Shirley" > wrote in message
om...
> On 2/28/2011 7:54 PM, Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>> In >,
>> Doug > wrote:
>>
>>> Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>>
>>>> I've always paid in dollars. About $12 per year, last time I used
>>>> them.
>>>> (My ISP carries Usenet groups as part of my monthly fee to them.)
>>>
>>> They have started taking dollars? Hmmm. I'll consider a switch to
>>> them.
>>
>> From the time they started charging for their service they have accepted
>> USD. It's the only currency I have to work with. :-o)
>>
>
> What! Minnesoda doesn't have their own currency? How about trading jelly
> and jam for air time?
>
> George, tired of looking at pictures of houses in Texas

Poor lamb! Go and pickle something, that will cheer you up

--
--

https://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

On 3/1/2011 2:56 AM, Ophelia wrote:
>
>
> "George Shirley" > wrote in message
> om...
>> On 2/28/2011 7:54 PM, Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>>> In >,
>>> Doug > wrote:
>>>
>>>> Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>>>
>>>>> I've always paid in dollars. About $12 per year, last time I used
>>>>> them.
>>>>> (My ISP carries Usenet groups as part of my monthly fee to them.)
>>>>
>>>> They have started taking dollars? Hmmm. I'll consider a switch to them.
>>>
>>> From the time they started charging for their service they have accepted
>>> USD. It's the only currency I have to work with. :-o)
>>>
>>
>> What! Minnesoda doesn't have their own currency? How about trading
>> jelly and jam for air time?
>>
>> George, tired of looking at pictures of houses in Texas
>
> Poor lamb! Go and pickle something, that will cheer you up
>
Got nothing left to pickle, all the cauliflower is gone, all that is
left in the garden is a couple of heads of cabbage and some lettuce.
Cabbage goes to the kids this weekend, lettuce gets eaten daily. And
let's not forget the carrots. Thank you O for reminding me, I need to
make some more dilly carrots, the great grands love the things and it's
a way to get them to eat vegetables.

>> Poor lamb! Go and pickle something, that will cheer you up
>>
>Got nothing left to pickle

When I'm desperate I'll pickle the insides of broccoli stems.
A quarter of drop of lime oil (optional and a tad difficult), a drop
of dill oil and stuff (which includes pickle crisp).

For days 0.5 to 2 quite a crisp and tasty sandwich/salad ingredient.
I don't know about day 3 (burp).
SDT