Yay for Greens!

During our vacation in Williamsburg, VA we stopped at a resale store/thrift shop one day.  In the parking lot was a pickup truck with a table full of fresh vegetables.  They had many beautiful vegetables.  This included a huge batch of greens.

Having heard about collards and other greens that are popular in the South, I purchased an armful.  I asked the gentleman how to cook them.  He said to just put them in a big pot with water and bacon.  Well...Bob being vegetarian, that was not going to fly so I had to think of something else.  I elected to finely chop the whole bunch, stems and all, and saute them in a little olive oil.  They were very good.  It turns out they were not collards, but kale.  The second time I cooked them I threw in some chopped onions.  Really yummy.

When we got to Myrtle Beach we stopped at a farmers' market and did get collards.  Those I sauteed with onions and some sausage since Bob declined to eat any of them.  These were really really nice!  Jessie and Johnny spent the weekend with us and helped me eat them.  They loved them, too!

So, just wanted you to know that greens are so yummy and so good for you, if you can believe the nutrition people.  Give them a try. 

Since I have not mentioned any quantities this is what I did: chopped one large onion and put it in perhaps 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a very large put.  After stirring the onion around a bit, I threw in the chopped greens...about 1 pound, which just about fills the pot.  They shrink down to almost nothing so DO put a whole potful of them cooking.  Stir every so often so they won't burn.  A little salt and pepper on top is great.  If you need a little more grease in your diet, add a bit of butter.

Early Memory of Educational Opportunities: Kindergarten

The earliest educational opportunity I remember was kindergarten which was in the front left corner of the building which is now (in 2011) a building of the Vermont Law School in South Royalton, Vermont.  Only two things really remain in my mind.  The first thing is that either Jimmy Eaton or Johnny Dumville thought I needed bangs so he cut a part of the front of my long hair to form bangs. I do not know where the teacher was, I just remember it was not popular at home.

The second thing I remember is that sometime in the winter I developed pneumonia and had to spent time in the hospital in Randolph, Vermont, the same hospital in which I was born:  Gifford Memorial Hospital.  One one particular day I was looking out of the window at the hospital and saw my mother drive into the parking lot outside my window in the little red Jeep, and then drive right back out again.  I was so terribly disappointed as I was missing her and my brothers and sister and father.  It turned out that she was just parking somewhere else....probably at "Grammie Neill's" house which was just across from the hospital and down the street a few houses. 

Grammie Neill was the mother of my mother's first husband, Douglas Hinman Neill, who was shot down over Tokyo, Japan just a few days before the end of World War II.  I remember her being a lovely lady who treated us children as if we were really her grandchildren.